The Micro Four Thirds juggernaut continues along with Olympus bringing the fantastic image quality and many of the features of the extremely popular Olympus E-M5 to the more compact PEN series.
With the improved image quality, image stabilisation, super fast AF for static subjects, the cool touch AF tiltable LCD screen and the option of adding on one of the best EVF’s available, the E-P5 and it’s lower end “Lite” version, the E-PL5 finally come of age as awesome, fun compact tools for the advanced photographer and beginner alike.
Both these cameras utilise the same excellent 16mp sensor as is in the E-M5 which is widely praised for its wide dynamic range and relatively low noise levels for such a small sensor – so image quality is not an issue for most users.
Both have the fun features of the E-M5 such as the unique Live BULB and Timed BULB modes, the very fast touch a subject on the screen and almost instantaneous AF and shutter release.
The E-P5 deserves more attention and praise for what it brings to the PEN family, and I have gone into much more detail on my wiki page for it here.
Olympus E-P5, Full Hardware Review + WiFi / iPhone Demo by Blunty
It adopts most of the features of the awesome Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera except for weatherproofing, built-in EVF and grip supports
Plus it adds in the newer features of the Olympus E-PL5 PEN Lite camera such as:
ISO LOW of 100
focus peaking
small target AF
new Lens IS priority option which allows you to automatically disable the sensor-based IS if a Panasonic lens with OIS is being used
intervalometer
fully compatible with the new Olympus VF-4 add-on viewfinder which is the BEST EVF currently available for any camera
new ART filter “Watercolour”
then a few new tricks of it’s own such as:
1/8000th sec shutter
new tilting 1037k dots (3:2) LCD touch screen
WiFi Live View remote control and image tethering via smartphone apps
automatic panning detection for the IS
live histogram for the Live BULB mode
fast shutter release mode with a lag of just 44ms
MyMode setting on the exposure mode dial plus user can store specific setups for each of the PASM modes such as changing S mode to a sports mode with AF tracking and burst mode (a welcome addition indeed)
HDR bracketing mode
2×2 settings mode switch – option of user configurable mode 1 or mode 2 dial assignments
Olympus’s Photo Story feature – allows you to generate multi-image composites like the pages of a photo book, in a wide variety of themes
This camera has such amazing versatility, build quality, styling and image quality in such a small camera that it will be a must have for many photographers.
Furthermore, it is now super easy to set up and control via WiFi from a smartphone such as an iPhone and see the live image and even trigger AF and the shutter by pressing on a subject on the phone’s touchscreen – awesome indeed!
Now for Olympus to bring out their much anticipated high end mirrorless camera with fast AF for the Four Thirds lenses and moving subjects – hopefully this will come before the end of 2013.
I recently posted an shot of comet Lemmon as it passed the Tucanae globular cluster and the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy here.
On the 2nd of March 2013, I drove down to one of Melbourne’s bayside beaches to get a shot of Comet C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS comet just after sunset using the Olympus E-M5Micro Four Thirds camera with Olympus 75mm f/1.8 lens mounted on a tripod.
Unfortunately I miscalculated where the comet would set in relation to the beach and highway traffic headlights became problematic, nevertheless I think it is a lovely shot with the Dromana beach on a balmy warm night as a couple enjoyed the romantic ambience oblivious to the comet.
ISO 3200, f/1.8, 1 second exposure:
Tomorrow night (12th March 2013) at sunset for those in Europe, America and Africa, they should get a lovely opportunity to photograph a thin crescent moon next to the comet just after sunset – unfortunately in Australia, the moon is too close to the sun at sunset and will set before the comet becomes visible in the twilight, although we may get a chance the following night on the 13th March if clouds do not obscure the view.
Last week I went on a camping holiday to the remote Croajingalong National Park in far eastern Victoria some 7 hours drive from Melbourne.
The trip was mainly a reconnaissance style trip rather than a photography trip as we wanted to quickly get to as many locations as possible to explore.
This necessitated very light travel without tripods – a perfect scenario for taking Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses.
Most of the lighting for the trip was not conducive to good photographs so I was not too heart broken with not having the time to really do landscape and nature photography they way I would like to.
Nevertheless, the Olympus E-M5 camera with its image stabilisation and fast prime lenses made relatively long hand held shots after sunset in thick storm clouds possible.
For example, the following shots were taken between storms well after sunset on a wonderful beach near Mallacoota using the Olympus 12mm f/2.0 lens without any optical filters:
Beautiful rock formation textures and colours (best seen viewed large by clicking on the image), ISO 200, 1/10th sec, f/3.2:
Capturing some spiky wave action to mimic the spiky leaves on the top of the rock formation, ISO 400, 1/3rd sec at f/2.2 (I was in a bit of a rush with this shot as the waves were coming in at me so the long exposure shot is not as sharp as I would have liked, but better than any other camera could manage hand held at 1/3rd sec):
And if anyone is interested in visiting this wonderful part of the world, here is a shot of the beach area in Mallacoota township adjacent to a very large caravan and camping park – highly recommend it for those who want to get away for some peace and quiet yet still want to explore the wilderness cold temperate rainforests with its large goanna lizards, tall eucalypt and fern forests, go fishing, sunbaking, or even hire a boat on the estuaries – there is something for everyone – but don’t tell anyone it is a paradise as it might become a car park!
On a warm balmy summer night, Melbourne hosted its 2nd “White Night” event of all night long cultural activities which attracted unprecedented crowds surpassing even New Year’s Eve crowds.
In such crowds a tripod is just asking for trouble, and a kit zoom lens is not going to suffice.
Many of the attractions were projected images on Melbourne’s buildings and what better way to capture these in dense crowds than to use the Olympus E-M5Micro Four Thirds camera hand held with a tiny Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens which of course is effectively image stabilised thanks to the E-M5 making it an awesome compact night street photography combination.
These were all taken at ISO 800, mostly at shutter speeds 1/10th-1/50th sec and at f/1.7 (except the last one which was f/2.8).
The night begins:
Birrarung Marr art installation:
The band plays under Flinders St railway station clocks:
These devices possibly have what it takes to replace all your computers and iPads for most people and combine them into one light, compact device which all the family can use but still give you the full power of a desktop computer – well almost.
These devices bring to portable computing what the Olympus OM-D E-M5 bought to the compact camera world – at last all the pieces being in place to reduce compromises to a tolerable level.
I have owned a Toshiba tablet PC for years but the touch interface was clunky due to the software and also because you could not use your fingers like you can on an iPad, plus it was heavy and took ages to boot up.
I own an Apple iPad but although light, fast to boot and nice interface, it is compromise city when it comes to most computing needs for many reasons which I won’t go into here, and it is unlikely these issues will be resolved in the near future – it is unlikely I will ever buy another, although the small size of the iPad Mini may have its niche use.
What do we get with the Samsung Series 7 slate?
Windows 8 Home 64bit
almost full Windows capabilities
fast boot up
backup to Microsoft’s SkyDrive
multiple users as with any Windows machine (yes Apple, unlike your iPad, I can have multiple user accounts)
supports most Windows software that has worked since Windows XP
supports new “Metro” apps designed for touch screen use, and these are quite nice although much more limited in variety when compared with iOS apps and you need to access these from the Microsoft “store”
new search feature is very powerful and fast
new “Charms” functionality is quite useful once you get used to it
can log on using a PIN instead of a Windows password – but unlike iOS, no mechanism to automatically delete the device after 10 failed attempts to log on – something I would like!
a very nice, although a little too wide, touch screen 11.6″ FHD LED Display (1920 x 1080) which is awesome to play videos, display photos, and use “Metro” apps
Intel® i5 3317U (1.70 GHz, 3 MB L3 Cache) processor with Ivy Bridge chipset and Intel® HD Graphics 4000 processor
4Gb DDR3 RAM
128Gb SDD drive with over 90Gb free with Windows 8 64bit Home version pre-installed
USB 3.0 port which is critical as this then allows rapid use of external drives for accessing your 1Tb of photos
microSD card reader – I wish they used SD card for compatibility with cameras, but I bought a USB 3.0 card reader to get around this, and it is very fast indeed
micro HDMI video out port
most importantly, a high quality dockable keyboard with mouse trackpad (this also adds 2 extra USB 2.0 ports – perhaps handy if you need to use a wired network access for work environments – just buy a USB network adapter)
Bluetooth v4.0 so you can add a bluetooth mouse (this is critical for me for serious work as I hate laptop keyboard trackpads)
hardware BIOS support for Absolute Data’s remote device wiping and location services although this requires an annual subscription fee – but probably worth it if you have sensitive details on the device such as your account passwords, family photos, etc
all this an it is only 304 x 189.4 x 11.9mm (11.97″ x 7.46″ x 0.47″) and weighs only 0.888Kg (1.96lbs)
Issues:
does not support hardware encryption technologies and does not come with BitLocker so you may wish to rely upon Truecrypt although this excellent free open source software does not fully support Windows 8 as yet – the main issue with using Truecrypt volumes is that in Windows 8, Microsoft has decided somehow that when you use apps it doesn’t need to really close them down fully and release file access – Truecrypt will then ask you if you wish to force file access to be released when you wish to dismount the Truecrypt drive – this seems to be OK.
probably not powerful enough for the serious gamers out there but for everything else such as full Office use, programming suites, Lightroom, Photoshop, etc it should be fine
Windows 8 metro mail app does not support POP mail accounts – you will need to do a workaround such as use a gmail account to access your POP mail account – see here
metro apps generally only have access to the user’s libraries – documents, pictures, videos but click on the desktop app and immediately you are back into normal Windows 7-like desktop app interface albeit without the Start button, but Samsung do supply an app to simulate this.
desktop apps designed for Windows 7 and earlier generally are not well suited to use without a keyboard and mouse as the font and clickable spaces are too small for your finger but there are several workarounds:
use a keyboard and mouse +/- external screen
use the magnifying option – just press Windows button + volume button to activate and the whole screen is magnified which is very handy (you do need to activate this function in Settings)
use the S pen as a touch device
metro photo app is nice for viewing and sharing photos in your pictures folder but cannot access photos elsewhere on your drive – however the Windows desktop app Photo Gallery is actually very nice to use for this purpose
the 16:9 aspect ratio of the screen is not well suited for most desktop application tasks as there is not much height to play with
in desktop mode, consider moving the taskbar to the left side instead of the bottom to give more room, and set it to autohide – although autohide does not always seem to result in it being hidden which is a problem with maximised apps
the 11″ 16:9 screen is a bit heavy and stressful on your left arm when holding it for long periods
the keyboard docking is a little temperamental and my version seems to need a bit of encouragement to get contact between the device and keyboard contacts
Samsung advise that the device should be turned off when ever docking or undocking the keyboard
128Gb drive is a touch small, but thankfully the microSD card reader and USB 3.0 port allow various mechanisms to provide much more storage which is rapidly accessible, and perhaps more secure as it is not left on the device – sure beats what is possible with the Apple iPad!
no network port – you will need to buy a USB network device if you need this
seems to be issues with app store – updating 31 apps seems to have stalled as still running after 24hrs and it just says “downloading” without obvious progress despite a reboot .. the only way I managed to fix this is to run this app from Microsoft which analyses your system and repairs it – http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/2/4/F24D0C03-4181-4E5B-A23B-5C3A6B5974E3/apps.diagcab
Conclusion thus far:
So far, I have been very impressed with both Windows 8 and the Samsung device, perhaps because I had prepared myself to really hate Windows 8 given all the bad press and how Microsoft is essentially forcing users to change the way they are used to doing things.
I have managed to install all my legacy Windows software I need including MS Office, and Embarcadero’s Delphi XE programming tool.
Fortunately, you can resort to Windows 7 way of doing things for most functions.
Unless Apple radically re-architecture iOS I cannot see much future for the Apple iPad now that devices such as these will service both the desktop user’s needs as well as the traveller’s portable device needs and provide rapid access to external USB drives.
I think there will be a place for a smaller version of this device to allow longer single hand holding capability, preferably in 4:3 format instead of 16:9 to take the leverage strain off your arm.
Last night Jupiter was occulted by the moon as outlined in a previous blog post here and this makes for a nice photographic challenge for astrophotography enthusiasts.
It was only visible from southern areas of Australia, the best sites were in Western Australia where the event would take place at a higher altitude and thus allow better seeing conditions.
Unfortunately for much of South Australia and Victoria cloud due to an upper level trough and incoming cold front combined in some areas with bushfire smoke, made site selection critical to any chance of capturing this event.
The weather forecasts and SkippySky suggested that central Victoria should be reasonable and thus we decided to stay overnight in the historic gold mining town of Maldon and set up near the top of nearby Mt Tarrengower.
Unfortunately the clouds were closing in fast from the south west so we decided to head north-east to a site near Goornong, not far NE of Bendigo.
Even here the clouds and bushfire smoke adversely impacted our viewing and the seeing conditions, particularly for reappearance were poor making it difficult to capture the bands on Jupiter or to gain sharp images of the lunar craters at high magnification.
This is where a mirrorless camera such as a Micro Four ThirdsOlympus OM-D E-M5 with its 9fps burst rate and ability to fire this remotely using the iPhone app called TriggerTrap for which you need to buy the dongle to attach the iPhone to the camera.
A mirrorless camera is critical as a dSLR becomes a nuisance managing the mirror lock up and live view.
The pixel density of the E-M5 combined with its good dynamic range and high ISO capabilities makes it an even better sensor than a Nikon D800 for imaging Jupiter as Jupiter will have ~50% more pixels in size on the final image when using the same telescope systems.
highest quality jpeg only (to maximise burst shooting with minimal owntime as the buffer writes to card)
manual focus
High speed burst
Live Boost OFF (otherwise the display becomes over-exposed for such bright subjects as Jupiter)
manual exposure – ISO 800-1600, 1/80th sec (slower when the clouds came over and the moon was setting lower)
The critical aspect is accurate focus and the Live magnified manual focus function greatly assists this.
Then it was a matter of waiting for the breeze to settle momentarily and fire of bursts of shots hoping that one will be sharp given the microsecond atmospheric changes in seeing conditions – the trick is to take as many shots as you can – as in poor seeing conditions such as we were experiencing perhaps only 5% will be reasonably sharp and detailed.
Initial occultation phase being hidden by the dark limb of the moon taken at ISO 800, 1/80th sec:
Reappearance of Jupiter with significant deterioration in viewing conditions taken at ISO 3200, 1/15th sec :
Finally, a romantic bushfire smoke colored moonset with Jupiter below the moon – taken with the E-M5 using a Canon EF 135mm f/2.0L lens at ISO 3200, 1/10th sec, f/2.0:
It was a beautiful night out with balmy 30degC warm breezes and an absolute pleasure using the E-M5 with the TriggerTrap app – make sure you leave the apps “Focus” to ON even though you have set camera to MF as otherwise it does not seem to trigger. I used the Bulb mode on the app – just hold button down for a series of bursts then release.
It has been an exciting week in the astronomy world with the near miss asteroid this morning following on from the amazing fireball meteorite over Russia which created shockwaves sufficient to break window glass an injure hundres of people.
In my last blog post I explained in detail the forthcoming occultation of Jupiter in southern Australia (mainly Perth and NE Victoria due to the expected cloud conditions elsewhere).
And tonight, I had the pleasure of photographing one of the 2 reasonably bright comets that are in the sky at present – the one I imaged was comet Lemmon which is passing the beautiful globular cluster 47 Tucanae and our neighbouring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud.
This image was taken on 16th Feb 2013 with the Olympus E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera mounted on a equatorial mount unguided for 60secs using a Canon EF 135mm f/2.0L lens at f/2.0 and ISO 3200. The long dimension of the image represents ~7 degrees field of view.
No cropping, just minimal tonal adjustments and some purple defringing:
I initially imaged it with the awesome Olympus 75mm f/1.8 lens at f/1.8 which gave excellent images apart from a touch of aberrations on the far edge. However, the field of view was twice as large as I needed for this shot, so I had to resort to the Canon 135mm lens to get the field of view exactly right.
Those of us who live in the southern parts of Australia may be fortunate enough to photograph this lovely celestial event which will take place about midnight on Monday 18th February 2013 in Victoria, but just after sunset in Perth.
The highest quality images of Jupiter will not be possible in Eastern states due to the event taking place very close to the north-west horizon and thus high resolution imaging will not be anywhere near as detailed as if Jupiter were high in the sky where there is less atmospheric disturbances.
Nevertheless it should be a fun and rewarding event for those who have the equipment and are prepared to do some planning.
As a minimum one would need a super telephoto lens with effective focal length of at least 600mm in 35mm full frame terms – the more the better, plus a sturdy tripod.
Those wishing to taking highly magnified images will need to attach their camera or video cam to a good telescope on a sturdy motor driven equatorial telescope, although with some hard work, a Dobsonian mounted telescope will be possible given the short exposure.
Traditionally, the best images of Jupiter are taken using a video camera attached to a telescope shooting frames at 10-60fps for up to 1 – 2 minutes (longer than 2 minutes causes blurring due to the rotation of Jupiter interfering with images), and then these images are stacked using special sofware such as Registax, then sharpened using wavelet or deconvolution technologies, then contrast is adjusted to get the final image.
The occultation of Jupiter will limit this approach as there is also the confounding movement of our moon.
Interpreting the astronomic data:
the moon phase will be 56% which is a touch after 1st quarter being at an angle of 97deg to the sun in relation to earth
the northern limits of visibility of the occultation (where it will be a grazing occultation) is an almost linear line running from near Canarvon in Western Australia, through just north of Flinders Ranges in Sth Australia, then to just north of Albury in NSW. there is no southern limit in Australia however, Hobart will not be able to witness the reapparance phase as the moon will be setting.
it will not be visible in any other country.
for Melbourne (latitude 37deg 43.7 south)
Jupiter will disappear behind the dark part of the moon at 12h 32:56 UTC (add 11 hours for AEDT daylight saving to give 23:32:56 local time) and will be 11 deg above the horizon at azimuth 307deg (37 deg north of true west)
Jupiter will reappear behind the bright part of the moon at 13h 10:01 UTC (add 11 hours for AEDT daylight saving to give 00:10:01 local time) and will be 5 deg above the horizon at azimuth 301deg (31 deg north of true west)
for Perth (latitude 31deg 56.4 south):
Jupiter will disappear behind the dark part of the moon at 11h 39:43 UTC (add 8 hours for WST to give 19:39:43 local time, ie not long after sunset) and will be 36 deg above the horizon at azimuth 344deg (74 deg north of true west)
Jupiter will reappear behind the bright part of the moon at 12h 45:38 UTC (add 8 hours for WST to give 20:45:38 local time) and will be 30 deg above the horizon at azimuth 327deg (57 deg north of true west)
Choose a camera, preferably a mirrorless one:
If you wish to use a camera instead, the best camera to choose would be one of the latest Micro Four Thirds cameras such as the Olympus E-M5, E-PL5 or the Panasonic GH-3 for the following reasons:
the pixel density is higher than on any dSLR and thus Jupiter, which has a diameter of only 0.01 arc seconds, will cover many more pixels (and thus theoretically capture more detail) on one of these cameras than on a dSLR for a given lens or telescope set up – here is the math:
if using a 5000mm effective focal length telescope, this will cast an image of Jupiter of only 0.9mm on the sensor
if you use a 36mp Nikon D800 full frame camera, Jupiter will cover 150 pixels
if you use an Olympus E-M5 camera, Jupiter will cover 240 pixels – that is 60% more pixels available
you will generally only need ISO 1600 on a 10″ Newtonian telescope to give a shutter speed of 1/600th sec at f/20, although if using a 3″ refractor telescope, you will need to be using closer to f/66 to achieve 5000mm focal length, and thus you may need ISO 6400 and shutter 1/300th sec
there is no mirror so you do not constantly need to be putting the camera in mirror lock up mode (not doing this will destroy your image detail by causing vibrations from the mirror)
they are designed for continous live view and magnified live view to assist manual focus is easier to access
the E-M5 can shoot at 9fps if you did want to select out the sharpest images or stack them – but you will want a remote shutter cable to avoid shaking the camera, and consider just shooting jpegs to avoid having to wait for the buffer to empty after a burst (use a fast SD memory card to optimise this)
hint: use TriggerTrap iPhone app and dongle connected to the E-M5, set E-M5 to Hi Drive mode, set exposure to desired shutter speed (not Bulb as suggested by TriggerTrap), and either use:
TriggerTrap “Cable Release” mode and hold iPhone app shutter release down for duration of burst – perhaps the easiest mode to use!
TriggerTrap “Timelapse” mode to duration (eg. the minimum of 13secs), and number of photos to desired number, press and release the app button and the app will control shutter release, although, as the camera’s cache is saturated, capture rate declines while the app still keeps pretending photos are being taken at the set rate.
works with iPhone 5 as TriggerTrap uses the headphone socket
they are amongst the lightest cameras which is handy when mounting on telescopes
First, the super telephoto approach:
sturdy tripod
super telephoto lens attached to camera of choice, lock the focus and change to manual focus
aim to compose image aesthetically in relation to horizon subjects
if you are lucky enough to have a few small clouds around, time it so the cloud is covering the moon and not Jupiter to better balance the contrast in brightness
consider 2 types of exposures (but bracket these to get the best for your set up and allow for atmospheric extinction if low altitude as they will be this time):
one for Jupiter itself eg. ISO 400, f/8, 1/600th sec
one for the Jovian moons and earthshine on the dark part of the moon: eg. ISO 400, f/8, 1 sec
don’t forget mirror lockup and use the self-timer to reduce camera shake
The telescope approach:
ensure telescope temperature has equilibrated by leaving outside for several hours to reduce poor refractive effects inside the telescope
if the telescope is a reflector, ensure it is accurately collimated
use an equatorial mount where possible and try to get reasonably accurate polar alignment – given the short exposures, precise alignment is not needed unless you are stacking many images
don’t forget to have the battery fully charged to drive the mount
decide between:
prime focus (no eyepieces but lower magnification, although can use teleconverters)
eyepiece projection (use eyepiece and special eyepiece projection adapter for higher magnification)
afocal technique (use eyepiece and camera lens – useful for point and shoot cameras where the lens cannot be removed)
ensure focus is precise
consider 2 types of exposures (but bracket these to get the best for your set up and allow for atmospheric extinction if low altitude as they will be this time):
one for Jupiter itself eg. ISO 1600, f/20, 1/600th sec
one for the Jovian moons and earthshine on the dark part of the moon: eg. ISO 1600, f/22, 1 sec
don’t forget mirror lockup and use the self-timer to reduce camera shake
consider burst shots or video mode to help address issues with poor seeing conditions
Choose a location:
this is particularly a problematic issue with this occultation given it occurs so close to the N-W horizon
in Melbourne, the disappearance phase occurs when it is 11 deg above the horizon and the reappearance phase occurs when it is only 5 deg above the horizon
Perths viewer are much more fortunate here, as it starts at 36 deg above horizon with reappearance at 30 deg above horizon, so they should get far better images that the eastern viewers
so those in Melbourne would do best to find an elevated position with a clear view to the NW (the disappearance occurs at azimuth 307 deg (37 deg north of west) while the reappearance occurs at 301 deg (31 deg north of west) )
the good news is that light pollution is not such an important factor – it could be done in a suburban backyard if you can see the event without trees, buildings or mountains intervening.
determine horizon – given it will be just 5 deg above the horizon for the last phase in Victoria, Victorians may well wish to calculate how far east of a mountain they need to be so it does not hide it:
a top of a mountain will hide the horizon, if the viewer is within a certain range dependent upon the relative height of the object (eg. mountain or trees) above the viewer:
ignoring refraction of light issues, the approximate distance in km = 3.57 x square root (height difference in metres)
thus for a 100m hill, the viewer should be more than 40 kilometres away if they wish to see the horizon without the hill intervening
for a 400m mountain, the viewer should be more than 70km away
the Lerderderg State Park rises to over 500m and is NW of Melbourne and one needs to be 80km away
Mt Macedon at 615m height requires the viewer to be more than 90km away unless they can stand on another mountain
search for a site on Google maps in topography mode (so you can see heights of hills) and use a paper triangle cut out to ensure line of site is clear of hills or mountains:
using A4 sheet of paper, use its width of 21cm as your East-West base, create a triangle with a north-south side of 15.8cm (for 307deg) and mark on it a 2nd hypotenuse line at the 12.6cm mark for the reapparance at 301 deg (assuming you are in Victoria)
hold the triangle with the right angle corner in your left hand, holding the base parallel with your screen, and the right side apex on your location.
the hypotenuse will then be your line of site to the occultation
for other locations with different azimuth readings, use N-S paper measure = E-W paper measure x tan (azimuth-270deg)
your selected site should also be able to be easily accessible with a telescope and on public land, and have no trees to the north west
lastly, the location should preferably be out of the prevailing wind on the night – in Victoria, this is usually south-westerly but may be westerly or north-westerly and occasionally south-easterly or easterly
potential locations near Melbourne include Mt Dandenong, Mt Macedon, south-west of Geelong, north-east of Ballarat, areas north of the Great Dividing Range.
Then you need the weather to be kind:
thick cloud will obliterate your chances, as will any significant cloud on the horizon which does take a long time to move out of your way
strong winds will play havoc with your ability to keep the set up still
as it is summer, a hot day could really affect your telescope’s seeing if it is left in the hot car so give it plenty of time to equilibrate with the night air
seeing is likely to be poor at such low altitudes – unless you are in Western Australia, good details on the planet Jupiter will be hard to capture, you may just have to accept the outline of it’s bands.
If you plan well, practice and are lucky with the weather, you may be able to capture an image similar to this grazing occultation I took using a Canon S30 point and shoot camera through a 10″ Newtonian in 2005:
You may as well tackle 2 fairly bright comets if the conditions are good, you are away from light pollution and can piggyback your camera on a motor-driven equatorial mount telescope:
comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon
comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS)
Appendix – examples of Olympus E-M5 for Jupiter:
Olympus ZD 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 lens with EC-20 2x teleconverter:
Jupiter measures only 25 pixel diameter at effective focal length in 35mm terms of 800mm f/7; tripod exposure for Jovian moons at 20deg altitude: ISO 800, f/7, 1/4sec
Canon FD 500mm f/8 mirror lens:
Jupiter measures 30 pixels; exposure for Jovian moons ISO 800, f/8, 1/4-1/8th sec; For Jupiter’s bands: 1/200th sec;
Jupiter measures 75 pixels; exposure with Jupiter at 30deg altitude: ISO 800, f/11, 1/4sec for the Jovian moons (the longest without substantial star trailing effect at eq. 2000mm focal length and can use IS set at 1000mm focal length)
10″ f/5.6 Newtonian prime focus plus Olympus EC-20 2x teleconverter:
Jupiter measures 145pixel diameter; exposure ISO 1600, 1/200th sec at effective focal length in 35mm terms of 3625mm f/14
10″ f/5.6 Newtonian afocal method using Olympus mZD 45mm f/1.8 lens with 25mm eyepiece:
Jupiter measures ~125pixel diameter; exposure ISO 1600, 1/300th sec at effective focal length in 35mm terms of 3125mm f/12
10″ f/5.6 Newtonian afocal method using Olympus mZD 75mm f/1.8 lens with a 25mm eyepiece:
Jupiter measures ~215pixel diameter; exposure ISO 1600, 1/100th sec at effective focal length in 35mm terms of 5375mm f/21
this is probably the best compromise however resolution is still very highly dependent on timing of the shot in relation to the rapidly changing seeing conditions
sequential shooting highly recommended to allow selection of the sharpest images
10″ f/5.6 Newtonian afocal method using Olympus mZD 75mm f/1.8 lens with a 25mm eyepiece plus 2x Barlow lens:
Jupiter measures 430pixel diameter; exposure ISO 3200, 1/60th sec at effective focal length in 35mm terms of 10750mm f/42
Don’t forget, this event will be at about 5deg from horizon for Eastern states, so you need to adjust your exposure to allow for about 2 stops of atmospheric light extinction!
Today is Australia Day, and in Melbourne, we have an annual vintage heritage car rally and the locals take the opportunity of going for a stroll amongst the cars and snacking on the many options from the temporary food stalls while listening to free music and watching the aerial antics of the Roulettes.
I took the opportunity to have a leisurely stroll and play with my beloved Olympus mZD 75mm f/1.8 lens on the Olympus E-M5Micro Four Thirds camera – an absolutely awesome combination when you want bitingly sharp images with beautiful smooth bokeh – a photographer’s dream!
So here I present a few from today.
and some of the Paparazzi Dogs – a new, larger than life size series of statues in Melbourne’s Federation Square:
seems they are using a Canon dSLR:
If you are taking shots like these, make sure you turn off the E-M5′s face detection AF as this will over-ride your AF selection as in this shot where it automatically sets AF to the nearest person’s closest eye – great for portraiture but stuffs up your vintage car shots!
This week I had the good fortunate to have a day off from work so I could buy a ticket for the HiSense Arena at the Australian Open Tennis and as usual I take opportunities like this to test out my camera gear and hopefully get some shots that portray the ambience of the occasion.
So why am I taking such a camera to a sports event?
There are many great reasons why an E-M5 camera is better than a dSLR for the tennis:
the camera and its lenses are nice and small so carrying it around is not a big issue and it does not become intrusive and obstruct your fellow spectator’s view
the higher sensor pixel density gives it the best telephoto reach for focal length which is important given they do not allow focal length more than 200mm into the event (such lenses are only allowed by accredited pro photographers who pay for that privilege)
the absence of a mirror means that it is much less noisy and this is a major issue during play when the crowd is silent and firing off a barage of shots in burst mode can really annoy those nearby
it can shoot at 9fps (albeit without sensor-based IS or continuous AF)
it gives great image up to ISO 800-1600 as long as your exposure is nearly correct with a wide dynamic range which is often needed at the tennis
it has the best image stabilisation available (just not in 9fps burst mode)
it looks cool – and the tennis is really as much a fashion event as a sports event!
Now for the issues and how I managed them or would like to manage them:
no phase detect AF for moving subjects – you just have to deal with this like all photographers did prior to 1990 or so – pre-focus while they are stationery, half-press shutter to lock focus, wait until the action starts.
no pinpoint AF – this was a substantial problem. Even using only the small centre square place entirely over the tennis players body while relatively stationary, the camera’s AF algorithms somehow decides to ignore the subject if there is a lack of contrast of the clothing or skin and instead AF on more contrasty adjacent backgrounds such as letters on advertising hoardings. PLEASE Mr Olympus, add pinpoint AF! My method to get around this was to AF on their shoes so there is no distant background to confuse the system, keep the shutter half-pressed for AF lock, then recompose, and in 9fps, the focus is deactivated for subsequent shots in that burst.
shutter lag – there is a tiny but noticeable degree of shutter lag, one just needs to anticipate this and start shooting a touch before you want the shot.
long telephoto wide aperture lens selection – the only long telephoto I have for Micro Four Thirds is my very handy Panasonic 14-140mm HD OIS lens which was great when the light was bright but at f/5.8 at 140mm, one has to crank the ISO up too high when heavy clouds come over or they close the roof and use the lights. A better option would be the promised Panasonic 150mm f/2.8 lens which would allow 4 times as much light in and thus allow 2 stops lower ISO to be used. Hopefully someone will also make a 100-200mm f/2.8 lens which would be awesome indeed for the tennis!
image stabilisation in 9fps burst mode – although the E-M5 cannot do IS during 9fps shots, this is generally not a great issue given that you will need to be shooting at 1/500th or faster to freeze the action anyway. However, to get around this, if you have a Panasonic lens with OIS, turn the lens OIS on and turn the E-M5 IS off, and you will get OIS even at 9fps!!! Very cool indeed … here’s hoping the Panasonic 150mm f/2.8 lens has OIS!
camera settings – S-AF, RAW+jpeg, 9fps burst rate, AWB, vivid picture style for faster AF, OIS on, IS off, autoISO with limit at 1600, Shutter priority with shutter at ~1/500th sec.
So let’s look at what can be achieved with the Panasonic 14-140mm lens at 140mm in the stadium – all these have been cropped about 30-50%:
13th seed Serbian player, Ana Ivanovic serving it up to fellow Serbian, Jelena Jankovic:
Ana Ivanovic powering her way through:
The joy of hitting a winning shot, but then Ana looked like she was enjoying the whole game – her wonderful smile was always there!
Ana Ivanovic pumped up after finishing off a winning set:
When you need a break from the stadium, it is time to swap lenses to the awesome Olympus 75mm f/1.8 and go for a walk to the other courts where you can get closer to the action and shoot some iconic shots on the way:
Note, I turned off the burst rate when on these courts close to the action as I didn’t want to distract the players with noise – even though the E-M5 is very quiet it is audible at 9fps – although perhaps the players would not notice it from 5-10m away.
Belgian player, Yanina Wickmayer:
Serbian player, Bojana Jovanovski:
Thought this promo girl was from Skin Cancer Australia stand advising that tanning is not healthy – it gives old guys heart attacks, or at least the poor guy inside this promotional Wilson tennis ball:
But not everyone attending the tennis wore skimpy shorts:
On the way back to the trains at Federation Square, a chap in overalls was chillaxing in the late afternoon sun watching the tennis on the big screen Melbourne style:
