Does Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II High Res Shot mode work with manual lenses?

Question

I've read that Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II High Res Shot mode has some aperture settings limitations. Does it work with fully manual legacy lenses that don't report aperture to the camera at all?

Answer 1

Beyond is the info I found so far regarding this mode. So far, no definitive conclusion can be made regarding your problem... but I would venture to say that legacy lenses seem to have no aperture limitation.

From the manual, no aperture limitation

The manual of the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II doesn't provide any hint about aperture limitation when using High Res Shot. The dedicated section can be found page 48 and page 99.

The only parts related to High Res Shot's limitation can be found on the following pages:

• Page 91:

Bracketing can not be combined with HDR, interval-timer photography, digital shift, multiple-exposure photography, or high res shots.

• Page 97:

The following is not available while keystone compensation is in effect : [...] High Res Shot

From Internet: no aperture limitation ?!

This website gets more in depth about how the High Res Shot mode works. Aperture is mentioned 13 times, mostly about focus shifting issues when stopping down a lens BUT, in the commentary you can read:

With native lenses you are limited to f8 or wider, legacy lenses can be used at whatever aperture you like of course.

So it seems that legacy lenses can be used!

This website, apparently from on Olympus employee, indicates:

Camera settings limitations: shutter speed not longer than 8 sec, aperture not narrower than F8, ISO not higher than 1600 and flash sync not faster than 1/50sec (previously in E-M5 Mark II or PEN-F, flash sync limit was 1/20sec)

Ok, no precision regarding the type of lens...

This page says, when using High Res Shot mode (lens not mentioned):

No aperture we tried (from f/2.8 to f/8) was able to begin resolving any of dots with the E-M5 II, so diffraction limiting is not to blame.

It only confirms that High Res Shot mode is working at least from f/2.8 to f/8.

Conclusion

No clear indication regarding fully manual legacy lenses that don't report aperture to the camera... but I would venture to say that legacy lenses seem to have no aperture limitation.

Answer 2

I have the OM-D E-M1 II, and as far as I can tell, High Res Shot (HRS) can be used with any lens, provided you use some common sense. I have used HRS with a Samyang 7.5 fisheye lens, an OM 500 f8 mirror lens and an adapted (EF) Sigma 10-20 lens, among others. Because of the way HRS works, I try to keep shutter speeds as high as possible. The longer the exposure, the greater the chance of movement in the scene or camera vibration. I would limit apertures to f8/f11 even with a legacy lens, as diffraction will rob you of image sharpness above this, and sharpness is one of the reasons to use HRS after all.

Answer 3

I discovered today while experimenting with a recently purchased M. Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f2.8 Macro lens and Promaster MR1 focusing rail with OM-D E-M5 Mark II, that when I set the camera to High-Resolution mode, the smallest aperture I could get was f8.0. As soon as I switched away from High Res, I could get a smaller aperture (in my case, I wanted f11 for its depth of field as f16 was too much depth and f8.0 was insufficient). reading this stream of entries confirms that the F8.0 limit is built into the firmware and is not a problem with my camera.