I remember reading a four year review of the EM1x recently while reinforcing my own feelings on the camera, but also looking for alternatives, other perspectives and learnings.

The user had bought his EM1x off a friend who had not meshed with it. They bought it for a song (about $800au the year it came out). The problem was “the camera had a mind of it’s own”.

On further investigation, the happy, but cautious new owner checked the function buttons and discovered two rarely used ones had strange settings assigned, the very same strange settings that kept activating “without me doing anything”.

My second EM1x (the first second hand one), was also a little twitchy. I remember it seeming being re-set when I got it, everything on base or auto settings, so I assumed that I could set the buttons and dials I use and it would be the same as the first one.

Every now and then, usually when shooting field sports, the shutter speed would lock out at about 1/8th, the view finder get oddly blurry with lag-ghosting and I would discover after some frustration, that it was in ND mode (blocks light to the sensor for long exposures in good light, usually done with a filter and tripod).

I would dive into the menu, fix it and forget it.

The first time I was at a ground with an LED running board around the ground’s fence line that was making everyone’s viewfinders play up (Z9’s the worst, EM1x’s slightly), so I put it down to a quirk of electronic view finders and shutters tricking the cam into an odd mode.

Recently it did it twice in a day and no running board, so I checked the settings and sure enough, the bottom-front button was set to live ND. I don’t use that button on the EM1x’s because basically I don’t need to, but it seems, when shooting rare verticals*, I have a habit of pushing it.

This has settled me in a couple of ways.

That EM1x felt a little problematic with this happening (just this, nothing else) and it made buying the next one a little risky. One button fixed and my mind is settled on two cams.

*Most clients prefer horizontals with the option of cropping verticals themselves.