July, 2012

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Where to now for Olympus, Micro Four Thirds and Four Thirds cameras and lenses?

Monday, July 30th, 2012

It certainly has been a roller-coaster 18 months at Olympus.

In 2011, it looked like it may have been all over for them as an independent camera manufacturer with all the now well documented financial upheavals which have apparently been a blight of the profit sheets for some 20 years.

Their innovative Four Thirds camera system was looking like there was zero future.

Their quite successful PEN series of Micro Four Thirds cameras still didn’t have the functionality and image quality to attract enthusiasts like myself who wanted a high end camera with a built-in viewfinder.

Their innovative waterproof, shock-proof, everything proof TOUGH cameras were losing their attractiveness due to better performing competition products which nudged in on this market, while the need for such cameras were diminishing given that most had a camera phone now.

Then all of a sudden, out of no where, they introduce, arguably, one of the best cameras ever made for the non-professional photographer, the brilliant Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera

The E-M5 has lived up to the hype because, for the first time in a mirrorless compact system camera, it combined almost everything most people need and want:

fantastic image quality even at ISO 1600 with incredibly wide dynamic range for a small sensor
sufficiently narrow depth of field for most purposes when using the wide aperture prime lenses
the fastest autofocus in any camera ever made (not to mention that it can be programmed to AF on a subject’s eye)
the best image stabilisation system in any camera ever made
a nice built-in EVF
weatherproofing
a fast flash x-sync of 1/250th second
great build quality
nice tiltable touch screen activation of fast AF and shutter release which is great for street photographers, nature photographers, astrophotographers as well as taking low level shots of your grandchild on the floor
9fps burst rate (without AF or IS), 4fps with AF and IS
extremely customisable buttons and control wheels to allow versatility for many niche uses
unique optional 2 staged battery holder grip to transform the ergonomics for use of larger lenses
ability to use almost any lens ever made and have them image stabilised in still mode
image stabilised magnified view of highly accurate manual focus when you need it
a large number of dedicated autofocus lenses available including some very nice compact wide aperture prime lenses which really make the small sensor sing and along with the IS creates unique opportunities such as hand held half a second exposures without a tripod when using the 12mm lens, or hand held infrared photography without having to modify the camera.
sufficiently high quality movies for most of our needs
innovative new functions such as Live BULB mode

For the first time that I can recall, Olympus Australia at least, has gone all out to promote a great Olympus product, for too long the enthusiast camera world marketing has been dominated by the 2 big players – Canon and Nikon that it would seem Olympus didn’t really exist in this market.

Along with Panasonic, I think the Micro Four Thirds system will continue to dominate the mirrorless world as it gives the perfect combination of lens size and image quality for most people’s needs whilst still allowing shallow depth of field imagery when you want it, while being close to the perfect size for high end movie production.

Nikon has gone the small ladies camera route with its Nikon 1 system but with very limited ability to get narrow depth of field and limited lens range as yet, which will seriously forever limit it’s attraction to the enthusiast photographer and will perhaps struggle to compete with the likes of the Sony RX-100 fixed lens wide aperture zoom 2.7x crop shirt-pocketable compact cameras.

Canon has joined the plethora of APS-C mirrorless cameras and will be stuck with no built-in image stabilisation and larger, heavier lenses, and stragely, they do not seem to have developed super fast AF yet according to current reports of the EOS-M camera.

This leaves a brilliant opportunity for Olympus and Panasonic to really make great strides in their dominance of the compact system camera market and to bring life back into their Four Thirds system which makes a nice complimentary camera system in the interim for those wanting fast AF tracking for fast moving subjects, and this would help placate many patient long-suffering Four Thirds users frustrated by the lack of direction in recent years.

So what would I do if I was running Olympus?

immediately update ALL of their PEN and current Four Thirds cameras (the E-5) with the E-M5 technology – few people want to buy older technology, particularly if it means poorer image quality
update the E-M5 firmware to address the minor niggles:

allow IS to work in movie mode when using legacy lenses
improve the movie mode codec to further improve image quality and add 24p/25p video
add a lower shutter speed limit for autoISO
when LCD is inactive and EVF auto-switching is disabled, or the EVF is active, pressing PLAY should display the photo in the EVF NOT on the LCD screen!

develop a solution to allow fast AF on mirrorless with the wonderful range of Four Thirds lenses – although introducing a E-5 mark II with E-M5 technology would delay the need for this
re-vamp their macro flash system – there are no adapters for the flashes to allow fitting on any of the M43 lenses and they will only fit on a couple of ZD lenses – this is quite a ridiculous scenario that is easily fixed via adapters in the short term until they create a more compact system for mirrorless cameras with remote TTL capabilities
work on a radio wireless TTL flash system
add a few extra features to firmware such as automatic HDR mode, panoramic sweep, manual focus peaking
continue development of high quality compact lenses (preferably with weatherproofing) such as a 20mm f/1.8 pancake with MSC AF and nice bokeh (to address the deficiencies of one of the best loved lenses – the very sharp Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake), and a 150mm f/2.8 weatherproofed macro
add a high end model with the best HD video possible, shutter speeds to 1/8000th second, silent global electronic shutter option, and higher burst rates (eg. 40fps in 4mp of higher to allow scientific applications), perhaps a hybrid optical EVF
work with a 3rd party vendor to develop weatherproofed, AF and aperture control lens adapters to allow full control of Canon EF and Nikon G lenses – now that would make it VERY interesting!

Who would have predicted such a turn around in fortunes for Olympus – it is exciting times, now all they have to do is make the most of the opportunities.

Posted in cameras, lenses, photography | 4 Responses »
Tags: Four Thirds Micro, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus, Panasonic

In search of the most versatile, compact, shallow depth of field short telephoto lens – will this be the new Olympus 75mm f/1.8?

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

For much of my photography, I have been in love with my 1.3x crop pro Canon 1D Mark III dSLR with the Canon EF 135mm f/2L lens which makes a fantastic combination for 3/4 body length fashion shots or general people shots outdoors when shot at f/2.5-3.2 to gain adequate depth of field for this subject while delivering a lovely blurred background.

In 35mm full frame terms, this then equates to 176mm shot at f/3.3-4.1.

On a 35mm full frame camera, this is easily satisfied by the traditional pro 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens ($2,699), or adding a 1.4x teleconverter ($615) to the 135mm f/2.0L lens ($1415).

However, these lenses are expensive, big and heavy, and to upgrade my 10 megapixel Canon 1D Mark III to a Canon 5D Mark III ($3,900) or Canon 1Dx ($7,999) is a very expensive and heavy option.

It is a pity Canon has not introduced an “affordable” full frame compact system camera in the sub $2,000 price point with built-in IS – instead we have more of the same with their EOS-M APS-C format.

A compromise may be a APS-C dSLR such as the Canon 7D combined with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 ($585 = 136mm f/2.9) but this lens has too much purple fringing wide open for my liking, while the 85mm f/1.2 ($2,399) is far too expensive and AF is too slow, while the 100mm f/2.8 IS macro ($1,299 =160mm f/4.5) does not allow as shallow a depth of field as I would like. So on a 7D, the Canon 100mm f/2.0 ($499 = 160mm f/3.2) would be the closest in filling the needs and is a great value for money lens although a touch soft towards the edges wide open on a APS-C dSLR. I suspect Canon will be producing an update of this lens soon which may account for the price drop from $750.

For similar imagery on a 6×6 120 film format (crop factor of 1/1.83) compared to 35mm full frame, the lens needed would be about 300mm lens at f/6-7.5 which would be rather an unusual focal length for traditional pro film shooters (would probably require mirror lock up to reduce vibrations and a fast grainier film if shooting in the shade), although some would have used a 250mm f/5.6 lens (= 135mm f/3.0 on a 35mm full frame). Many would do most 6×6 film portraits using 150mm f/4 (= 82mm f/2.2 in 35mm full frame terms).

On a Leica S2 0.8x crop medium format dSLR, their longest lens is a 180mm f/3.5 which equates to 144mm f/2.8 in 35mm full frame terms when looking at DOF and FOV, but this would set one back over $35,000.

The Micro Four Thirds solution:

The image quality of my Olympus OM-D E-M5 is comparable, for my needs, to full frame dSLRs, and it having the fantastic image stabiliser which becomes very handy at this focal length when having to use fill-in flash at flash-sync speeds, plus the potentially incredibly fast autofocus with ability to focus on your subject’s nearest eye, a nice alternative is to find a lens to fit these requirements, so here is a very short list for Micro Four Thirds users that will give comparable imagery:

Samyang/Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 lens:

value for money, this is a brilliant lens, and on a Micro Four Thirds camera gives almost identical imagery to what I am after, including buttery smooth bokeh and minimal CA
in my tests, it has better optical quality than either the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 or the Nikon 85mm f/1.4D
at under $300 brand new, this is a bargain – BUT it is relatively heavy and it is manual focus
despite this, I have 2 of these lenses in different mounts, and these have been special lenses for me so far, but the manual focus is very limiting, particularly with people photography shot with shallow depth of field

Voigtlander HELIAR CLASSIC 75mm f1.8 – Leica M Mount:

manual focus lens which costs about $740 brand new
introduced in 2010
52mm filter, 423g
nice bokeh, but straight diaphragm blades; sharp and contrasty in the centre wide open?

Canon FD 85mm f/1.2:

high quality manual focus lens from the 1980′s
very narrow DOF, nice bokeh
large, heavy and has straight diaphragm blades but at least it has mechanical manual focus so it can be focussed on Micro Four Thirds unlike its EF 85mm f/1.2L successor
$700-850 on Ebay 2nd hand

Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm f/1.4 lens:

available in Canon EF, Pentax K and Nikon F mounts
manual focus lens with aperture ring, DOF scale and IR marker
9 rounded blades, almost distortion free, 72mm filter, only a touch of vignetting at f/1.4 at 0.6EV
max. sharpness at f/4, a little soft wide open on full frame but you need to stop down a Nikon 85mm 1/1.4D AF Nikkor lens to f/8 to get this sharpness
close focus 1m
heavy at 570-670g depending on mount; 77x62mm;
Photozone test report
~$1300-1600 new

Olympus OM 90mm f/2.0 macro lens:

this is one of the best OM lenses one can get, and many Olympus fans swear by it for the special kind of imagery it produces
relatively compact size, fantastic macro performance (1:2 on full frame)
BUT it will cost about $900 second hand for a excellent version and it is still manual focus
there are also many other manual focus full frame lenses in the 75-90mm f/2.0 range including the cheaper OM 85mm f/2.0 and the ultra-expensive (~$4,900) Leica 90mm f/2 APO Summicron-M – perhaps optically the best full frame lens ever made, although even this has some coma on pinpoint light sources wide open

Olympus ZD 35-100mm f/2.0 lens:

this superb lens designed for Four Thirds is weatherproof and image quality is top notch and only one of a couple of zoom lenses available with a f/2.0 constant aperture throughout the range
BUT it is very expensive, very big and heavy, and although it has AF, AF is slow on Micro Four Thirds cameras

Olympus mZD 75mm f/1.8 lens:

that brings us to this new lens by Olympus which was especially designed for Micro Four Thirds with independent lens testing confirming the superb optical design and build quality
at a 35mm full frame equivalent field of view of a 150mm lens, the depth of field wide open is then similar to a 150mm f/3.6 lens which will be just adequate for the above requirements
this lens has almost no aberrations edge-to-edge even wide open and is incredibly sharp even wide open but sharper still at f/2.8
when combined with the E-M5 camera, it has the fastest auto focus in a telephoto lens currently available – faster than any full frame dSLR for stationary to relatively slow moving subjects
many have baulked at its $900 price tag, but this is one superb lens and by all accounts, well worth the price tag – just pity it isn’t weatherproofed!
hopefully it will be available in the next few weeks as to me, this is the lens-camera combination which will best suit the needs stated above, and will be far cheaper and easier to carry than a full frame kit.

Now all I need is for Olympus to get their act in gear and make an adapter for the Ring flash so I can use it for fill-in flash outdoors (and perhaps create a new Ring Flash with remote TTL flash capability to fire a main flash) – in the interim, I will have to use my Canon Ring Flash in full manual mode, but then, that lets me push the shutter speed up to 1/500th sec if I need to.

Posted in lenses, photography | Comments Off
Tags: 135mm, 75mm, Canon, Four Thirds Micro, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus

The Olympus E-M5 goes searching for some British sun on the south west coast of England

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

My 1st adventures roaming south-west England in my hire car were dominated by an unusually wet and cloudy British summer, and thus when the forecast suggested there would be sun for a day that month – but only in the Swanage region of the south coast, I decided to head down there and get some lovely much needed UV light.

Here are a few of my iPad processed shots taken with the Olympus E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera.

Here I pushed the E-M5 almost to its hand held long exposure limits again to capture the flowing water at Durdle Door using a Hoya R72 infrared filter and hand held 1/6th second exposure with the Olympus 12mm lens which had some vignetting and toning added using Phototoaster on the iPad:

another infrared photo with lots of Phototoaster processing for fun on the iPad, this time of Corfe Castle ruins:

and another one of Corfe Castle but this time with a polariser filter, and no IR filter but processed in Phototoaster to add some atmosphere to this wonderful site – what would have been a great little castle in its day until the Parliamentarians spent 6 months destroying it with gunpowder:

oh… and I promised a little British sun at the beach:

Posted in photography, travel photography | 1 Response »
Tags: E-M5, England, Four Thirds Micro, infrared, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus, travel

Finally…Canon announce their mirrorless system … but it does seem quite under-whelming .. after all this is late 2012 not 2008 and the game has changed

Tuesday, July 24th, 2012

I own a number of excellent Canon pro lenses including the 17mm tilt shift, 45mm tilt-shift, 90mm tilt shift, 24-105mm f/4ISL, 85mm f/1.8, 135mm f/2.0L which are great companions for my now aging Canon 1D Mark III pro dSLR.

I have been waiting several years now for Canon to show their hand and enter the extremely popular compact mirrorless camera system market.

Luckily for me, Panasonic and Olympus have really progressed their Micro Four Thirds system into a lovely high quality and versatile compact camera system led by the brilliant Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera, 12mm f/2.0, 45mm f/1.8 and 75mm f/1.8 lenses all of which I have bought or plan to buy as soon as available (the superb 75mm lens is not on our shores yet).

Yesterday Canon finally showed their hand, and I must say even though it is clearly targeting the entry level consumer market, I felt somewhat under-whelmed by it for the price point being offered and the reportedly slow AF performance.

Their take on mirrorless compact camera system is to go the conservative route with a 1.6x crop APS-C sensor to reduce confusion amongst their users and to potentially give a 1 stop improved capacity for lower image noise at high ISO and shallower depth of field at same field of view and aperture when compared to a 2x crop system such as the Micro Four Thirds.

The massive downside though is that they are now burdened with always having to have larger, heavier lenses which defeats the whole purpose of a compact system – no matter how small you make the camera as Sony discovered, the lenses just look bigger and more awkward to use.

They will also have difficulty matching edge-to-edge optical image quality of the 2x crop sensor with lenses at wide aperture as they will always be fighting the laws of physics on this arena – aberrations increase the further you go from the centre, some at an exponential rate!

Canon perhaps have been wise at least in offering their small well built but mid-level EOS-M camera with a nice small 22mm f/2.0 STM pancake lens with the option of a reasonably compact 3x kit zoom lens as starters to their new system.

Unfortunately, the EOS-M camera seems to have little better functionality than the initial Olympus PEN cameras in 2009 which were plagued by the lack of viewfinder, the lack of built-in flash and slow AF. Most importantly now, the reportedly very slow “Hybrid AF” system Canon has borrowed from the live view function of their 650D dSLR – would seem is so far behind the Micro Four Thirds pack it is just not funny, but in Canon’s favor is that they have until the October release date to try to remedy the slow AF speed and get at least part of the way to the fast AF of Olympus, Panasonic and Nikon.

Canon users with existing EF-S or EF lenses who want to use these on the EOS-M will likely find they will focus slowly as they are not optimised for CD-AF or the “Hybrid-AF” technologies as they do not have STM AF technology built in, and apart from smaller size camera and quieter shutter there are no gains compared to using a Canon 650D dSLR but they would lose:

ergonomics to handle the larger lenses
built-in viewfinder
fast phase detect AF
built-in flash
marginally faster 5fps burst rate (4.3fps on EOS-M although burst rate with pancake lens in AF tracking mode is only 1.2fps!)
articulated, swivel LCD screen
remote control
+/- 5EV exposure compensation (only +/- 3EV on the EOS-M)

Those wishing to use their EF or EF-S lenses on a mirrorless camera would find much justification in choosing an Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera instead, because, even though you lose AF altogether, at the slow AF speeds available on the EOS-M, you may as well use manual focus anyway, and loss of aperture control is usually not a big deal as you tend to want to use these lenses for a specific purpose at a given aperture anyway, and the Olympus gives you some enormous benefits over the 650D or the EOS-M including:

optional battery holder makes ergonomics of using these heavy lenses more practical
“5 stop 5-axis” built-in image stabilisation

allows much easier, faster and more accurate manual focus using magnified view with IS enabled
converts ALL lenses into image stabilised lenses even tilt-shift and prime lenses for still images (this is not yet available for movie mode but I expect this will come sooon)
allows slow shutter speeds hand held using wide angle lenses for flowing water shots without having to lug a tripod around, or from positions where tripods would be impossible
allows hand held infrared photography at low ISO without resorting to costly modification of the camera
allows use of long prime telephoto lenses or the 90mm tilt shift lens hand held with fill-in flash at x-sync – great for fashion shoots

quiet shutter capable of 9fps burst rates (4fps with IS on)
high build quality with weatherproofing of the body
built-in high quality viewfinder means

you hold the camera to your eye to improve stability
you don’t need your reading glasses to operate the camera or review images – try chimping your shots to see if you had accurate focus on an LCD screen without your reading glasses!
you have access to magnified view for manual focus, live histogram, full camera settings control and electronic horizon levels all within the EVF
you can see the image in bright sunlight
you can be more discrete in low light environments such as concerts and weddings without having a distracting bright image show up on your LCD screen

tiltable touch screen for easier high and low angle shots as well as tripod mounted and astrophotography work
Live BULB mode which can change the way you work in low light and open up new options such as iPhone lighting, fire twirling, moving subjects – seeing the image build up in long exposures can make a difference, plus it makes you more efficient for astrophotography – if you made an error just terminate exposure when you notice it on screen.
ability to use the fastest AF currently available on any camera with the lovely 45mm f/1.8 and 75mm f/1.8 lenses
ability to have fast AF on the closest eye of your subject – fantastic for portraits and fashion shoots – no more focus then recompose, and far more accurate and faster focusing (when using the dedicated lenses)
ability to use any of the 30-40 Micro Four Thirds lenses – the biggest range of dedicated AF lenses in the mirrorless market
ability to use the superb quality but slow focusing Four Thirds lenses
high quality jpegs straight from the camera – the best colors and among the best dynamic range jpegs you can get in cameras under $10,000
high quality 30″x 40″ prints almost indistinguishable in image quality to current full frame dSLR cameras (if depth of field is not part of the comparison)
greater hand holdable telephoto reach thanks to the 2x crop factor, complimenting a full frame dSLR very nicely indeed
greater depth of field at low ISO when shooting hand held shots at night for urban landscapes or at dusk for normal landscapes or waterfalls when you really want everything sharp!

Of course, if high quality video is your main thing, and you want a mirrorless camera, then one can’t really go past the Panasonic GH-2 or its forthcoming replacement, the GH-3.

I will await pricing on the newly announced Kipon EOS-Micro Four Thirds lens adapter with full electronic control of aperture as I just can’t see the Canon mirrorless camera system without built-in image stabilisation being the future, but for many it may be a useful tool.

Canon it would seem has been worrying that introducing a mirrorless camera system would consume their profitable dSLR sales – well on this initial offering, I don’t think they have much to fear!

As an entry-level camera for users who ONLY want to use a pancake lens or 3x zoom, and have no interest in adding fast AF wide aperture lenses in the near future, then the EOS-M with pancake lens does offer some reasonable competition to the likes of Olympus E-P3, E-PL3, E-PM1, Panasonic GF3, GF5, GX-1 as it does offer good video, a touch screen, great build quality, hot shoe and perhaps better image quality, and if the pancake lens proves to be sharp with nice bokeh, then the $899 may be very reasonable price point.

It is essentially the same price as an Olympus E-P3 with its 3x zoom kit lens but the E-P3 has fast AF, optional EVF, pop-up flash and built-in IS while the EOS-M has a higher resolution larger sensor and LCD screen, and 24fps HD video.

I would be hoping that Canon follow this up with some real killer cameras with features similar to the Olympus E-M5 and lenses but if history repeats, I would not be too optimistic on the high quality lens front, after all, there is only one reasonably high end EF-S lens to support their cropped sensor dSLRs and they have been around for over 10 years now.

NOTE to Canon – you MUST have fast AF to appeal to almost anyone in 2012 – even if you only have 2 dedicated lenses, no EVF option and no IS built-in.

Seems I am far from alone on my opinion on the EOS-M strategy – just Google the web for a multitude of similar opinions such as Kirk Tuck‘s.

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Tags: Canon, EOS-M, Four Thirds Micro, Micro Four Thirds, mirrorless, Olympus

The Olympus E-M5 wanders through the Roman city of Bath in England

Saturday, July 21st, 2012

My 1st adventures roaming south-west England in my hire car took me by necessity to the wonderful little city of Bath in Somerset – one of the “must see” tourist destinations in England, and I must say, I did enjoy walking its streets.

Here are a few of my iPad processed shots taken with the Olympus E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera.

Here I pushed the E-M5 to its hand held long exposure limits again to capture the flowing water of the River Avon at dusk at the 18th century Pulteney Bridge – 1/3rd second exposure with the Olympus 12mm lens:

a night time hand held shot in the rain with the 12mm lens:

an outdoor public wooden sculpture by Sophie Dickens depicting judo wrestling “Morote seoi nage” to celebrate sport and 2012:

a happy couple in the evening light:

Shepherd’s Hall in one of the back streets:

in celebration of the healing powers of water at the early 16th century Bath Abbey – some nice bokeh using the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens:

and you can’t visit Bath without visiting the reconstruction of the Roman Baths:

While in Bath, there is much to see, including the Holburne Museum of Art which displays some very nice historical artefacts and paintings such as this one taken with the Olympus 45mm lens (without a flash of course!) by Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1565-1638) depicting a busy farmhouse kitchen at the “Visit by the Godfather” (this is essentially straight from camera with the picture frame cropped, contrast increased a touch, and resized for web – custom white balance taken prior to shot):

I managed to find some very nice coffee at a cafe called Same Same But Different, and breakfast at Pulteny Bridge on a “Summer” morning was lovely at the Riverside Cafe.

All the above were taken with the amazing Olympus E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera, more pics on my Flickr set

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Tags: E-M5, England, Four Thirds Micro, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus. E-M5, travel

A first trip to England would not be complete without a drive through the Cotswolds and a walk through Oxford – the Olympus E-M5 shines again

Monday, July 16th, 2012

For an Australian, driving in England is not so bad given we drive on the same side of the road – the only thing that really stressed me out was the ridiculously frequent speed camera warnings on the Tom Tom GPS and worrying if the rental car company was going to send me a massive bill for the speeding fines – fortunately, I seem to have managed to drive 1000km (for those still in the land of dinosaurs – that be about 600 miles) whilst ensuring I was under the speed limit – not so easy for the uninitiated when the speed limit is a circle with a stripe through it and which seems to vary between 60mph and 70mph while the locals do 80mph.

It is even more weird that the roads, once off the motorways, have a 60mph speed limit yet are narrow two way affairs on winding, hilly roads with massive hedges each side making one claustrophobic and preventing any chance of stopping to check any views – at least I presume there may have been some nice views behind the hedges.

Nevertheless, they have done some things well like trying to keep cars out of the busy centers such as Oxford.

Apart from the quaint, lovely medieval villages and lovely English country gardens, the Summer rural countryside reminded me of home … yes central Victoria and Gippsland in Australia … in Winter … well perhaps Spring … when the fields are still green…

If Australia did have a medieval past, none of it would remain anywhere given the propensity for regular bushfires each century to destroy everything in their path and pave the way for nature to renew itself … a bit like nature cleansing itself of the presence of man ….

But I digress … back to the medieval villages, many of which are now detracted by the tourism, but to the new tourists, still quaint and pretty.

Bibury:

Minster Lovell Hall – ruins of a 14th century country manor:

Bourton-on-water … the only time I bothered to get my little 30cm tripod out on my whole trip … and this was to try taking a 10sec exposure of the flowing stream using a 10 stop ND filter on the Olympus 12mm lens and post-processed on the iPad whilst I was travelling:

Castle Combe village:

Oxford is a wonderful little city which I enjoyed immensely, even in the rain, and makes a nice base from which to explore the Cotswolds – I stayed in a lovely hotel near the Ring Road to make access easier, and caught a bus into Oxford as car parking is apparently problematic.

Oxford university exam day when the students must wear suits with flowers to attend the exams:

The tree used in the Harry Potter movie – New Oxford uni campus:

As usual, all the above were taken with the amazing Olympus E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera, more pics on my Flickr set

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Tags: Four Thirds Micro, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus E-M5 England, travel

The amazing British Museum, London

Monday, July 16th, 2012

Those visiting London for the Olympic Games in the apparently atypical very wet “Summer”, should make sure they take the time to visit the wonderful British Museum – it’s free entry, out of the wind and rain, and unlike the London art galleries, you can use your camera – all the better if you can use a wide aperture prime lens with image stabilisation as I did by using the brilliant new Olympus E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera with the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 portrait lens which allows even the darkest areas inside glass enclosures to be photographed without using a flash.

Be aware though that the E-M5 has so much dynamic range that you will probably want to shoot RAW and increase contrast in post-processing as I have done to most of these.

You may wish to set custom white balance in the camera in the variable museum light sources as most subjects do not have a neutral colour to use later on, but if shooting RAW, you can adjust WB to your heart’s content which I did for some of these just for fun.

The British Museum (the only photo in this post taken with the Olympus 12mm f/2.0 lens):

Lion hunting, Assyrian Empire c700BC:

Amazon woman fighting a Greek man:

Parthenon statues – Hestia with Aphrodite lying in her mother’s lap (Dione):

Bust of Zeus in the library, from Roman Emperor Hadrian in Tripoli:

Skeleton in an Egyptian coffin c3000 BC – placing a body in a coffin resulted in decay and loss of soft tissues as the body was no longer in contact with the drying effects of the sand, this practice apparently started around 3,000 BC:

There is also a nice selection of etchings by Pablo Picasso such as this one of 4 nude women with a sculpture made in 1934:

And a very difficult to photograph large Epifania Cartoon made by Michelangelo in 1550-1555 using black chalk:

There is so much more to see at the museum, it was a fascinating day well spent – don’t forget to take a break and get some lunch at one of the many cafe’s in the adjacent district – I found a lovely French one where the waitress actually made some proper coffee – almost unheard of in England!

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Tags: E-M5, Four Thirds Micro, London, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus, travel

More of London – walking the streets with the Olympus E-M5

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

A few more shots as I explored the streets of London.
A side lane in Kensington, and inner suburb:

Here is an indoor shot of a Nando’s restaurant in a renovated wharf storehouse shot hand held without a flash using the brilliant combination of the Olympus E-M5 with the Olympus 12mm f/2.0 lens:

Tower Bridge:

The Gherkin:

War memorial honoring the many British women involved in the war:

No trip to London would be complete without a shot of their red telephone boxes:

A book shop with some interesting titles:

Stalagmites of Westminster:

And finally, for this post, an example of their Jubilee celebrations with even the taxi’s getting a coat of paint:

I will be adding more posts over the next 2 weeks, but for those who wish to cheat, they can check out some photos that I have already uploaded to my Flickr set.

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Tags: Four Thirds Micro, London, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus. E-M5, travel, UK

Walking the streets of London with my Olympus E-M5

Sunday, July 8th, 2012

Having arrived in London a few days after the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations finished, many areas such as Buckingham Palace were off-limits due to workman removing the stages.

Nevertheless, I thought it was my duty as an Australian and descendant of a convict – or two, to document a few iconic images of London despite the overcast conditions and lack on nice sunrises to give the classic Golden Hour (not that London’s public transport starts early enough for you to take a train into London before the 4.30am or so sunrise!).

First up we have the fabulous Westminster Parliament Houses and of course, Big Ben – here I used a Cokin tobacco gradient filter on my Panasonic 14-140mm lens to make it a bit more interesting given the otherwise boring gray skies, and it was cropped in a iPad app and uploaded to the net, although this version has been further down-sized in Lightroom:

And, the once cute black cabs, which have now been taken over by consumerism (sadly Picadilly Circus is now starting to look a bit like New York’s Time Square with it’s super-sized flashing advertising signs – but I guess that is the sign of the times and money trumps aesthetics and culture):

and another waiting at traffic lights at the Black Friar’s pub:

It seems the London youth are fed up with the inequities and injustices created by globalisation exacerbated by the economic adversities resulting from the GFC, although, perhaps unfairly, they are here targeting the Royal family, although a bit of graffiti is nicer than burning down the house:

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Tags: E-M5, England, Four Thirds Micro, London, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus, street photography, travel

Not even a lousy British “Summer” can get in the way of the Olympus E-M5 camera – thank goodness it is weatherproof!

Saturday, July 7th, 2012

I have just returned from 4 weeks in England and Ireland – destinations which have always been high on my list of priorities given that my ancestors decided to or were made to leave there well over 150 years ago to come to sunny, warm Australia – and I guess not un-surprisingly, not a single descendant that I am aware of has wanted to emigrate back there.

To be fair on England, this was apparently their wettest, coldest, cloudiest June in living memory – but I am still not used to wearing a scarf and trenchcoat with umbrella in tow almost every day of a Summer month – although I do remember this happening in Sydney in January just a few years ago – although it was warmer and wetter!

One of the first things I did on arrival was to throw out my good leather shoes and buy some waterproof boots as wet socks are not conducive to a pleasure stroll through the streets of London.

I had done much photographic research on south-west England and had packed a number of reverse graduated and normal neutral gradient filters to assist with my sunrise and sunset shots, particularly along the coasts – I never used them once – mainly because I never actually saw a nice sunrise or sunset because of the perpetual clouds on the horizon which totally blocked the sun’s rays let alone the sun – the golden hour is a rare commodity it would seem!

I had even awoken at 4am every morning just in case there was a golden hour – as sunrise in such northern latitudes occurs at such an ungodly hour, while sunset was closer to 10pm – the rest of the day was generally just the same gray, overcast skies with the occasional day when the sun would peep through between showers.

At least we managed to avoid the many regions with major flooding whilst we were there, and given our recent experiences with major flooding, I could emphasise with the poor people caught in them.

I was tempted to do some storm chasing, but I suspect my hire care insurance would not have fully covered such activities, and certainly my wife would never have allowed it!

Our first 5 nights was spent in a lovely apartment in the inner neighbourhoods of London, and we managed to find a fantastic local pub away from the touristic areas for our evening meals which were the perfect way to warm us up again after all day walking around London.

I was really impressed with the subway train system - although there were the odd line closures and the odd delayed train, we rarely had to wait more than 5 minutes for a train, and travelling off-peak, there was plenty of room on the trains, although the connecting subways were often extremely crowded even then – I am not sure how they will cope with the Olympics.

The Oyster card seemed to work much more responsively and reliably than our troubled but very similar Myki card in Melbourne.

Walking the streets of London was generally very pleasant and safe, as long as you were dressed and prepared for the rain and wind-chill – unfortunately very few areas have verandah protection, and the wind can quickly compromise your umbrella, while the uneven paths and roads quickly fill with puddles which can be difficult to avoid – I now understand why Wellington gum boots are a fashion item for women in the UK – they have never really made it big in Australia!

Despite all the negative sentiments outlined above, we had a great time exploring London for the first time – the architecture is fantastic and it’s history and culture always interesting.

Now let’s get back to some photography – as outlined in my previous post, I did manage to pack quite a lot of gear in such a small bag to bring with me for this trip – but in the end I only used 3 lenses (the Panasonic 14-140mm for general day time strolling around, the Olympus mZD 45mm f/1.8 for when I needed shallower DOF or low light capabilities, and the Olympus mZD 12mm f/2.0 for indoors and night time low light work as one can do hand held shots down to half second exposures using this lens!), the fantastic, weatherproof Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera, a polarising filter to bring out the foliage, a graduated ND filter to bring out the stormy skies (although rarely used in London itself).

In the whole 4 weeks, I used my compact 30cm tripod only once and that was for some 10 second exposures of a stream in the Cotswolds – the rest of the time, the 12mm lens with the image stabilisation of the E-M5 addressed my flowing water and low light needs.

Next time I will be leaving at home my ZD 50-200mm lens, the Sigma 19mm lens, the Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 lens and my lovely but big and heavy, Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 Four Thirds lens.

If anything, I will add the Olympus mZD 75mm f/1.8 if I can convince my wife to let me buy it!

As I was not taking indoor portraits of friends, I never used a flash during the whole 4 week trip, so my FL36R flash will be staying at home too!

Here is a typical day in London in June 2012 – this one was taken in Trafalgar Square using the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 portrait lens, essentially straight from camera other than resizing for web and a touch of vignette:

One of the best things to do in London on a rainy day is explore the fantastic British Museum as it has one of the best collections of cultural artefacts in the world – my apologies in advance as many of my photos in England were post-processed with very limited options on the next to useless iPad (although it is great for checking emails, backing up your photos and uploading them to Facebook or Flickr – but you can’t drag and drop so the Flickr organiser cannot be used on an iPad and the Flickr apps are severely compromised) – some may like the processing, some won’t:

Olympus 12mm f/2.0 lens:

While the art galleries were not the same calibre as those in Paris or New York, they were nevertheless very well worth checking out on a rainy day and were free, but generally photography was banned unlike most other major galleries – here is a view of St Paul’s cathedral and the Millenium Bridge from the Tate Modern gallery:

Panasonic 14-140mm lens with ND gradient filter and a PhotoToaster iPad app effect:

I will be adding more posts over the next 2 weeks, but for those who wish to cheat, they can check out some photos that I have already uploaded to my Flickr set.

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Tags: E-M5, England, Four Thirds Micro, London, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus, travel