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Photographing the Feb 2013 lunar occultation of Jupiter from southern Australia

Sunday, February 3rd, 2013

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:

see also my wiki page on photographing occultations which also has links to data and maps for this occultation

BONUS: 2 fairly bright comets to photograph!

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;

Maksutov 500mm f/5.6 telescope with Olympus EC-20 2x teleconverter tripod mounted:

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!

Posted in astrophotography, photography | Comments Off
Tags: astrophotography, E-M5, Four Thirds Micro, jupiter, Micro Four Thirds, occultation, Olympus, Panasonic

Metabones Speed Booster focal reducer lens adapters for Sony NEX, Micro Four Thirds and Fuji mirrorless cameras

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

Metabones has just announced 0.71x focal reducer lens adapters which they have named “Speed Booster” for a variety of mirrorless cameras including Sony NEX, Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Thirds, and Fuji-X.
adapter

Although expensive at $US599, these adapters will significantly add to the versatility of these camera systems as they will allow:

high image quality reduction in effective focal length and thus field of view will be closer to that of the native lens field of view – on a 1.5x crop camera such as Sony NEX, the crop factor becomes 1.09x, while on a 2x crop factor Micro Four Thirds camera, the crop factor becomes 1.42x (almost the same as a 1.3x crop APS-H Canon 1D dSLR camera)
effective aperture for exposure becomes 1 stop brighter, as in effect, more light is squeezed onto the sensor, in other words, it gives you 1 stop higher ISO in effect which can also mean 1 stop less noise
the Canon EOS adapter will allow aperture change, optical IS, EXIF data, presumably MF-ring activation of magnified view, and, on the post-2006 EF lenses, slow autofocus – an adapter which can do all this at last given that the long awaited Birger Engineering adapter that was meant to achieve these functions has not eventuated.
and of course, if you use a Olympus camera such as the E-M5, you will get sensor based image stabilisation to any lens – and perhaps you may not even have to dial in the focal length – we shall have to wait and see on this aspect
the white paper promises excellent correction of spherical aberration as well as field curvature, coma, astigmatism, distortion, and chromatic aberration. Intentionally, it has a very small amount of undercorrected spherical aberration at f/0.90 to improve the bokeh when the Speed Booster is used with ultra high speed f/1.2 objectives. Aberrations should be considerably less than with front-mounted wide adapters.
being a focal reducer, it increases resolution and contrast (MTF) compared with using the lens without this adapter as it should compress aberrations
improves telecentricity by moving the exit pupil further away and potentialy could reduce vignetting
improves image quality of wide aperture legacy film lenses due to improved interaction with low pass and IR filters on the camera sensor, although it appears that image quality may be worse in the corners with some lens combinations such as when using cheap 50mm prime lenses
physical length is reduced by 6mm on Micro Four Thirds and by 4mm on Sony NEX compared with using a normal adapter

Thus on a Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera, here are some awesome possibilities:

Sigma 8-16mm DX lens = image stabilised 5.6-11.2mm ultra wide angle zoom lens which is even wider than the Micro Four Thirds 7-14mm lenses but the fixed lens hood may become visible
Canon TS-E 17mm f/4 tilt-shift lens = image stabilised 12mm f/2.8 lens which will give the same field of view and depth of field as a 24mm f/5.6 tilt shift lens on a 35mm full frame camera, but exposure value of an f/2.8 lens image stabilised
Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II lens = image stabilised 17mm f/1.0 lens which will give the same field of view and depth of field as a 34mm f/2.0 lens on a 35mm full frame camera, but exposure value of an f/1.0 lens image stabilised
Canon 50mm f/1.2L lens = image stabilised 36mm f/0.85 lens which will give the same field of view and depth fo field as a 72mm f/1.7 lens on a 35mm full frame camera, but exposure value of an f/0.85 lens image stabilised
Canon 85mm f/1.2 lens = image stabilised 60mm f/0.85 lens which will give the same field of view and depth of field as a 120mm f/1.7 lens on a 35mm full frame camera, but exposure value of an f/0.85 lens image stabilised
Nikon 85mm f/1.4G II lens or Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 lens = image stabilised 60mm f/1.0 lens which will give the same field of view and depth of field as a 120mm f/2.0 lens on a 35mm full frame camera, but exposure value of an f/1.0 lens image stabilised
Canon EF 135mm f/2.0L lens = image stabilised 96mm f/1.4 lens which will give the same field of view and depth of field as a 190mm f/2.8 lens on a 35mm full frame camera, but exposure value of an f/1.4 lens image stabilised

The adapter will open up many exciting possibilities, particularly for those who already have full frame lenses.

Adapters will be available for Canon EF/EF-S, Nikon F/G/DX, Leica R, ALPA, Contarex, Contax C/Y , and Olympus OM lenses.

Note that cropped sensor lenses such as EF-S and DX can be used on Micro Four Thirds with this adapter as long as they do not have fixed lens hoods such as the Nikon DX fisheye, or the Sigma 8-16mm zoom, but the image circle is too small for use on Sony NEX size sensors.

Interestingly, I posted in Feb 2010 about a patent by Olympus for a similar type of adapter which would be a 0.5x reducer (2 f stops) for use with Olympus OM lenses, and it was hoped they would be incorporating SWD or contrast detect AF elements as well which would add fast AF to Olympus OM lenses when used on Micro Four Thirds cameras. Unfortunately, this has not seen the light of day, but perhaps this adapter from Metabones may inspire them to produce such an adapter.

See a review of the Metabones adapter by EOSHD from a video perspective here.

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Tags: adapters, Canon, Four Thirds Micro, Micro Four Thirds, Nikon, Olympus, Olympus OM, Panasonic

My Micro Four Thirds wish list for 2013

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

2012 was an amazing year for Micro Four Thirds.

3 fantastic new cameras (Olympus E-M5, Panasonic GH-3 and Olympus E-PL5) which changed the way the photography world views the image quality and functionality of the Micro Four Thirds system to such an extent that for most people, they are more functional and much more fun with similar image quality to cropped sensor dSLRs.

Very nice range of lenses including the Olympus 12mm f/2.0, Olympus 17mm f/1.8, Olympus 45mm f/1.8, Olympus 60mm f/2.8 1:1 macro, and the awesome Olympus 75mm f/1.8, plus the nice f/2.8 zoom lenses from Panasonic.

Finally an update to the flash system – the Olympus FL-600R allows flash sync of 1/250th sec at last, and the 4 AA batteries gives much improved charge times compared to the FL-36R, and it comes with a LED video light. Furthermore, Panasonic at last have added wireless TTL flash to their latest camera – their brilliant GH-3.

2013 promises to deliver more goodies to value add to this fantastic compact camera system including:

new high end cameras with next generation electronic viewfinders and hopefully with further improved AF for moving subjects
phase contrast AF capable adapter for Four Thirds lenses
Panasonic have indicated they will make a 42mm f/1.2 lens and a 150mm f/2.8 lens in 2013-2014
WiFi connectivity to smartphones via the new WiFi SD cards

In addition to these, I would like to see the following:

new macro flash system – smaller to suit the smaller camera bodies, with flash sync 1/250th sec, ability to mount on almost any lens via filter thread adapter, and capable of being a master for remote TTL flash.
radio TTL flash capability – and preferably, if PocketWizard can add Olympus TTL capability to their existing Canon Flex-TT5 and Mini-TT1 radio system, that would be awesome indeed!
image stabilisation and AF capability in the new cameras in high burst rate mode
improved HD video codecs in the Olympus cameras
update the E-M5 firmware to add pinpoint AF
1/8000th sec shutter speed
new lenses with fast, silent AF:

high image quality, wide aperture pancake lens to replace the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 – it would be great if they could achieve f/1.4 but I would settle for f/1.8, and if they could sneak a leaf shutter in to give flash sync of 1/2000th sec – that would be extra awesome!
high image quality, wide aperture, compact, weatherproof super telephoto lens such as a 200mm f/2.8 or f/3.5 – even better if they can add close up capability and focus limiter switch
high image quality, wide aperture, compact, weatherproof super telephoto zoom lens such as a 100-200mm f/2.8 or f/3.5
high image quality, wide aperture, compact, weatherproof macro lens such as a 100, 135, or 150mm f/2.8
maybe a 25mm f/1.2

a new semi-pro Four Thirds dSLR (“E-7″) with:

sensor and image stabiliser at least as good as that in the E-M5
fast CDAF in Live View
relatively compact but still weatherproof and with E-5-like optical viewfinder
GH-3-like HD video capabilities
perhaps a PEN-compatible accessory slot to enable electronic view finder in Live View mode

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Tags: Four Thirds Micro, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus, Panasonic

Even more exciting news.. Panasonic announces the GH-3 and 2 exciting lenses for the roadmap – 42.5mm f/1.2 and 150mm f/2.8 – wow, now I am excited!!!

Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

Panasonic’s upgrade to the GH-2 will be the GH-3 as leaked, and it will have the best HD video capabilities of any hybrid camera available.

Key features of the new GH-3:

16mp sensor, 6fps burst rate
ISO 125-25,600 extended range
much larger than the GH-2 – more dSLR-like in size
weatherproofed
designed for pro-videographers in particular
fast AF
new EVF with 8x faster data transfer to it for smoother display on panning
three-core Venus 7 FHD engine
swivel, rotate, articulated touch screen
wireless TTL flash for the 1st time in a Panasonic camera – will it be compatible with Olympus – I would hope so!
PC sync socket
iOS and Android app control via WiFi (built-in)
.MOV and AVCHD video formats with Timecode support
60p/50p/30p/25p/24p HD video with 50Mbps in IPB and 72-80Mbps in All-I compression .MOV modes, 28Mbps in AVCHD format and 20Mbps in MP4 format
stereo mic plus 3.5mm mic socket
shutter 60sec – 1/4000th sec, flash sync only 1/160th sec though
HDR mode
electronic shutter
optional vertical grip
550g

More details here.

Awesome stuff which really value adds to the Micro Four Thirds system

But what I am really interested in are the new Panasonic lenses they are teasing us with (on the roadmap for 2013-14):

42.5mm f/1.2
150mm f/2.8 HD

Plus their previously announced 35-100mm f/2.8 OIS high end lens now has a pre-order on Amazon for $1499 – not cheap, but that is the price of quality, in compact size.

What a brilliant system the Micro Four Thirds is turning into!

Meanwhile still waiting on shipment of the stunning Olympus 75mm f/1.8 lens to go with my Olympus 12mm f/2.0 and 45mm f/1.8 lenses.

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Tags: Four Thirds Micro, GH-3, Micro Four Thirds, Panasonic

Awesome video shot on a pre-production Panasonic GH-3 Micro Four Thirds camera due to be announced next week

Sunday, September 16th, 2012

The forth-coming Panasonic GH-3 looks to be the best hybrid video camera one can buy and this video shot with it and promoted on Philip Bloom’s blog is awesome:

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Tags: Four Thirds Micro, GH-3, Micro Four Thirds, Panasonic, video

The Micro Four Thirds juggernaut rolls on… some exciting cameras and lenses on the way.. will the GH3 be the best hybrid camera for video?

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

Micro Four Thirds is on a roll with its momentum increasing each year thanks to the demonstration that, for most people it will deliver the image quality they need, and give the most compact and extensive lens system available at a price that is reasonably affordable.

The autofocus and image stabilisation are world class beaters (except for AF on fast moving subjects – but this may be fixed in the next year or two), while low light performance is excellent with the new cameras, in particular, the brilliant Olympus OM-D E-M5.

For instance, the E-M5 autofocus is faster and more accurate for most situations and covers more of the image frame than top of the range cropped sensor dSLRs such as the Nikon D7000, not to mention the fast touch screen AF mode, the image stabilised magnified view mode for manual focus and the sheer joy of using a smaller camera system.

Their new FL-600R flash finally adds RC commander capability (previously only available from the camera’s built-in flash), video light and a flash sync of 1/250th sec when used with the E-M5.

Meanwhile they do not seem to have any significant competition from Nikon or Canon in the mirrorless market – the Nikon 1 system sensor is too small for enthusiasts wanting shallow DOF, while the Canon EOS-M camera appears to have very slow AF, and of course neither system has the range of dedicated lenses that is available to Micro Four Thirds.

New Micro Four Thirds lenses:

The Olympus 75mm f/1.8 lens is finally reaching the market place as I type and all reviews of this brilliant lens indicate it is one of the best short telephoto lenses ever made in that price range, and combined with the E-M5′s image stabilisation and eye-detect AF, it will make a fantastic portrait and fashion photography lens.

This will soon be followed by the weatherproof Olympus 60mm f/2.8 1:1 macro lens and adapter for the Olympus macro flash system – I hope they make adapters for filter threads as well so it can be attached to the 45mm f/1.8 and 75mm f/1.8 lenses and the ring flash used as a fill-in flash for portraiture. There is also a rumour of an Olympus 17mm f/1.8 lens on the drawing board.

Panasonic have not been lazing around either, their high end 12-35mm f/2.8 lens is becoming more readily available at a hefty price, and they will be releasing a 35-100mm f/2.8 high end lens – perhaps by the end of this year or early in 2013. They are rumoured to be ready to announce details of at least 2 more lenses before end of 2012, although these will not be available until 2013.

The rumour mill suggests Olympus also have a super slim 15mm f/8 almost fixed focus lens which I discussed in my last post, while Panasonic and Olympus both appear to be working on more wide aperture telephoto prime lenses – hopefully a weathersealed 150mm f/2.5 macro or similar.

The NANOHAx5(M) is a 4-5x super macro lens with 11mm working distance and macro light system for when you really want to get close up.

Zeiss will be offering very expensive cine lenses in Micro Four Thirds mount such as the Zeiss Compact Prime CP.2 135mm/T2.1.

Finally, the options for very wide aperture manual focus lenses for even shallower DOF and low light performance is increasing all the time with offerings such as:

New Micro Four Thirds cameras:

Panasonic have already announced 2 new Micro Four Thirds cameras – the Panasonic G5 and the GF5, but perhaps the really exciting news for video fanatics is the rumoured Panasonic GH-3 which is said to have the following features:

weatherproofed pro-styled body
new wide dynamic range 16mp sensor – presumably as with the GH-2 it will be oversized for native uncropped 16:9 aspect ratio images
incredible 50Mbps 1080 30p/25p HD video quality with ALL-I 72Mbit/s video recording (most cameras have less than 30Mb/s image quality) with Timecode which is likely to make it the best video camera of the hybrid cameras – will it also have 60p as with the G5?
interval shooting and slow motion. Slow Movie extension (40%, 50%, 80%) Fast 160/ 200 / 300%
fast AF
electronic shutter
6fps
1740k OLED EVF, Touch Monitor OLED 610k screen
manual focus peaking
physical (including XLR accessory) and wireless connection for pro videographers, including WiFi control via iOS and Android
optional vertical grip
price – perhaps $1200 body only

Meanwhile Olympus are likely to upgrade its PEN system cameras with the very nice 16mp Sony sensor which is in the Olympus OM-D E-M5.

It is thought that there may not be a successor to the Pen E-3 but that only 2 PEN models will continue derived from the E-PL3 and the E-PM1.

I would imagine we will see a E-PM2 with the super slim 15mm f/8 lens for a super compact kit.

Olympus has already indicated that they are working on a pro version of the OM-D E-M5, and are also likely to update their pro Four Thirds dSLR, the E-5, with some of the capabilities of the E-M5 – perhaps this will be called the E-7.

In addition there are rumours of a new, improved external viewfinder VF-3 for the PEN and potentially OM-D cameras.

I would expect that we will see an update of the high end flash (the FL-50R) so it also supports RC commander mode, and flash sync of 1/250th sec.

I would also hope they revamp their macro flash system to better suit Micro Four Thirds, and it would be brilliant if they follow Canon’s example and add radio remote TTL flash capability to their new flashes, but I am not holding much hope for this in the next 2 years at least. However, it may be that Phottix, which has released radio TTL systems for Canon, Nikon and soon, Sony, will also do the same for Micro Four Thirds.

Further news:

Blackmagic have announced they will make a Micro Four Thirds version of their Cinema Camera but with manual focus and manual aperture only. For $2995 for body only you get 13 stops dynamic range 2.5K sensor, 12-bit RAW, ProRes and DNxHD Formats, 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30p Frame Rates, LCD Touchscreen with Metadata Entry, SDI Video Output and Thunderbolt Port, recording to removable SSD Drives, full version of DaVinci Resolve, its premier color correcting software for Mac and Windows – now that is amazing video quality and specs which will suit the pro videographers out there.

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Tags: Four Thirds Micro, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus, Panasonic

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

Panasonic has partnered with video firmware hacker Vitaly – the forthcoming GH-3 is becoming even more promising!

Sunday, April 1st, 2012

And no, this does NOT appear to be an April Fool’s Day joke.

Legendary firmware hacker, Vitaly whose team has made the Panasonic GH-2 one of the best video cameras for a dSLR-like camera, has announced on March 31st 2012, that he has entered into a partnership with Panasonic.

We will need to await the NAB 2012 in 2 weeks time for new features to be revealed given the non-disclosure agreement he has signed, but a few of his comments on his blogs are as follows:

his team will still be able to make hacks for certain cameras – presumably the GH-1 and GH-2 as a minimum.
his next firmware will be “revolutionary”
“Venus Revolution is code name for new LSI, as well as name for the team who works on it’s design and related software libraries. It’ll be used in upcoming cameras.”
“Due to new features, new cameras won’t be in direct competition to GH2″
his team is now “Already working on firmware v2.0 changes. Some companies will be very upset with their $5000 cameras.” – there will be “drastic changes in v2.0″
for “selected Panasonic cameras, they won’t have new “hacks” released, but will have firmware that incorporate much much more.”
“None of new cameras will write in AVCHD container anymore. None will support interlaced modes. And all will support >2Gb files, no spanning”
“After NAB 1080p60 will be considered past tense” – perhaps the new cameras will be 1080p120 for super slo-mo capability?

There has been mixed reactions to this partnership from the hacker community, most welcome the opportunity to have the potential for Panasonic’s cameras to have higher functionality and capabilities thanks to Vitaly’s input, but the cost will be Vitaly’s team will not be able to hack some “selected” cameras and thus in these cameras, although the firmware may be brilliant, it will not have some features currently availability in hacks such as the hacks to get longer than 29min 59sec recording time – a limit to avoid higher tax rates on the cameras in some regions.

Nevertheless, this is great news to Micro Four Thirds users who already have one of the best compact cameras designed for photographers needs – the Olympus OM-D E-M5, and will have access to some of the highest HD video quality available in the sub-$1000 camera bracket thanks to the Vitaly-Panasonic partnership.

I am very much looking foward to the forth-coming Panasonic GH-3 – will we at last get a global electronic shutter for incredibly fast and silent burst rates, as well as fast flash sync?

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Tags: firmware, Four Thirds Micro, Panasonic

DxOMark tests show the Micro Four Thirds PanaLeica DG 25mm f/1.4 compares well with the Canon and Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lenses on a full frame dSLR

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

DxOMark have just tested the Panasonic Leica-DG 25mm f/1.4 lens for Micro Four Thirds and it does well against the Canon and Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lenses, even though this Micro Four Thirds version is not as sharp as the incredibly sharp Four Thirds version (the Panasonic Leica D 25mm f/1.4 lens).

Of course the depth of field wide open will only be similar to that at f/2.8 on these full frame lenses but otherwise performance is not too different, as they have similar light gathering and the local blurring of an f/1.4 lens, indeed the increased DOF wide open can be used to advantage for environmental portraits in low light.

Brief summary of the tests:

sharper wide open and a f/2.0
much less vignetting
more distortion (1.5%) and CA but still well controlled

The full frame kits have the advantage of the benefits of a full frame sensor but when used on the new Olympus OM-D E-M5 the Panasonic lens effectively gains 5EV of 5-axis image stabilisation.

Following the earlier tests on the Olympus 12mm and 45mm lenses, this further supports the iage quality available in Micro Four Thirds without the weight size and expense of dSLR systems.

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Tags: Canon, Four Thirds Micro, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic

A few thoughts on cameras and where most of us may be heading

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Let me state again for clarity, I am not a commercial photographer, I do not shoot weddings, sports, and I don’t print my images any larger than 20″ x 30″ and even then, I do these rarely.

I do however take my photography as very serious fun which has re-shaped the way I view the world.

In 2007, I had the opportunity to acquire two very different and thus complimentary dSLR camera systems with the relatively new Live View technology which I considered critical for digital photography, in particular, for accurate manual focus of tilt shift leneses, etc.

Olympus Four Thirds:

A budget, relatively compact, entry-level Four Thirds Olympus E510 dSLR which from memory gave 10mp images, up from my 7.5mp Olympus E330, and for the 1st time in a SLR of any type, had built-in image stabilisation in the camera which could also be used with legacy manual focus lenses.

This camera became my main camera due to its compact size and weight, and I was lucky enough to have superb Four Thirds lenses to match it – ZD 7-14mm, Leica-D 25mm f/1.4, ZD 50mm f/2.0 macro (perhaps the sharpest mass produced lens to date) and the unique ZD 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 SWD lens with EC-20 2x teleconverter. With these lenses and the kit lenses, I had 35mm equivalent coverage of 14-800mm field of view, plus macro plus portrait lens.

Canon 1D Mark III pro dSLR:

As fantastic as the Olympus kit was, it had some deficiencies which the 10mp Canon 1D Mark III would hopefully address – lower noise at high ISO, fast burst rate to 10fps, continuous AF, weatherproofed body, fast flash sync, and 1.3x crop sensor allowing better ability to blur the background and gain shallower depth of field with the Canon pro lenses.

To maximise the benefits of the Canon system for my needs whilst keeping the size down as much as possible, I decided against the big, heavy but almost mandatory 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens, and instead went for a mix as follows: 17mm, 45mm and 90mm tilt-shift lenses, 24-105mmL IS, 85mm f/1.8, 135mm f/2.0, 1.4x teleconverter.

What did I learn?

The prints from each system at low ISO were close enough to identical in terms of image quality (but obviously not depth of field and background blurring capability), and indeed, these sensors were all I really need in terms of sensor image quality as I rarely need to shoot at high ISO.

For portraits, the Olympus ZD 50mm f/2.0 lens or the Olympus ZD 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 lens gave adequate depth of field to ensure I get all I need in focus – such as ear to tip of nose. Wider aperture lenses are mainly for full length shots, and for this, the cheap manual focus Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 of a Four Thirds or Micro Four Thirds body could give almost identical imagery as the much bigger, heavier, and more expensive Canon 135mm f/2.0 lens on the Canon 1D Mark III.

Having a camera that shoots at 10fps does not mean each of those frames will be in accurate focus, far from it, and worse, the Canon 1D Mark and similar pro cameras really need to be used very frequently for continuous AF so that the user can learn the complexities of the function settings so that the AF system can be optimised for their subject matter. This is not a simple matter, particularly when shooting fast moving subjects with shallow depth of field lenses.

The Olympus flash system is far more intuitive to use than the Canon system but unfortunately there is much less 3rd party support for it t present such as Pocket Wizard radio remote TTL flash which currently is only available for either Canon 0r Nikon.

As long as you are using high quality wide aperture lenses, the potential down sides of a cropped sensor such as Four Thirds or Micro Four Thirds can be minimised, particularly if the body has built-in image stabilisation to help avoid the need for high ISO.

Technology has moved rapidly in the 4 years since 2007, and we can expect even more progression over the next decade, so that investing in a 2x cropped sensor system such as Micro Four Thirds is unlikely to be a risk, as it already gives adequate image quality and this can only get better.

Thus for the past 2 years, 90% of my photos have been taken with a Micro Four Thirds camera, the Panasonic GH-1 because I loved its even more compact size, its ability to take high quality HD video, flip out LCD screen, and the absence of the mirror means magnified live view manual focus with legacy lenses just becomes so much easier. The Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens combined with this camera is a fantastic walk about, indoors and party lens – just combine it with an Olympus FL-36 flash bounced off a wall or ceiling and you are in party photography heaven. No big intimidating dSLR system but fantastic quality easy portraits.

BUT there was one problem:

As good as this and the other early Micro Four Thirds cameras were (and ANY other contrast detect AF camera such as Sony NEX, or Samsung) they all suffered a major issue – relatively slow autofocus.

Panasonic and then Olympus addressed slow AF speed in their 3rd generation of cameras, most now also with touch screens, to the point the Olympus E-P3 was able to AF faster on a stationary subject than any other camera including pro dSLRs from Canon or Nikon when it was released – an amazing feat considering how immature contrast detect AF technology is compared to the old tried and true but inaccurate, phase contrast AF technology in dSLRs.

Enter the Olympus OM-D E-M5:

2011 would be a year Olympus corporate would rather forget, but 2012 was now a time to finally produce a camera worthy of the enthusiasts and semi-pros, and put all these wonderful new technologies together into one weathersealed, metal body for the first time – enter the exciting new Olympus OM-D E-M5.

I have written a post on the announcement and its features, but I will summarise again the features that make this a compelling camera to me over the other options such as dSLRs, Panasonic, Sony, Nikon or Samsung:

image quality of the sensor will be in excess of MY needs – see above – many will argue the fine details of which camera does better high ISO, but it is a mute point for most of us – it doesn’t matter 90% of the time!
designed for the enthusiast photographer who wants FULL control of the camera – customisable function buttons, large control dials, fast flash sync 1/250th sec
weatherproofed, compact, light metal robust body which looks good
superb range of compact, affordable, high quality lenses under $1000 including 12mm f/2.0, 20mm f/1.7, 25mm f/1.4, 45mm f/1.8, 45mm f/2.8 macro, 60mm f/2.8 macro, 75mm f/1.8, 100-300mm compact super telephoto, and many more – this, plus the 5EV 5-axis built-in image stabiliser is why Micro Four Thirds will be better than Sony or Samsung or Fuji for some time yet for most of us – versatility = fun.
9fps burst rate or 4.2fps with AF is adequate for most of us, especially as the 10fps on my Canon 1D Mark III didn’t AF properly anyway.
very nice built-in electronic viewfinder which automatically switches between the lovely touch sensitive OLED tilt screen.
remote TTL flash via the bundled little flash unit (Panasonic do not support remote TTL flash)
Super-FP HSS flash at shutter speeds to 1/4000th sec.
high quality HD video that will be good enough for most of us photographers and for the 1st time, the in-built image stabiliser will be able to be used during movie mode which may help reduce the need for carrying large bulky stabilisers.
image stabiliser can be activated with half-press shutter to make it easier to manually focus a magnified view – now this should be brilliant for those of us who love our legacy lenses.
weatherproofed Four Thirds adapter so you can maintain weatherproof status when using those superb Four Thirds pro lenses.
optional fully functional grips will make it easier for portrait mode, particularly using large lenses, and the extra battery may help your movies ending prematurely.
2x crop factor means the sensor is just large enough to allow adequate blurring of backgrounds and shallow depth of field when using wide aperture lenses
2x crop factor also means lenses can be made smaller and with higher quality edge-to-edge of the frame.
the partnership with Panasonic adds much to the Micro Four Thirds system and significantly reduces risk.
tilt or shift adapters are available to turn legacy lenses such as Nikon lenses into tilt or shift lenses – a far cheaper option than on dSLRs.
it is expected Birger will produce an adapter that will allow aperture control and AF with Canon EF and EF-S lenses – presumably it will work with this camera as well as the Panasonic GH series.
underwater housing option available.

Summary:

The Olympus OM-D series is likely to be THE solution for many of us and makes a fantastic travel companion with just a few small lenses – no longer do we need to lug around heavy, large camera kits to get the shots we want on our travels.

If the OM-D series is too big for your occasion, then you could look at its smaller PEN series cameras such as the Olympus E-PL3 or E-PM1, particularly when used with the more compact pancake lenses.

Some of us will still want the benefits offered by a full frame sensor in pushing the boundaries of dynamic range, high ISO performance, megapixels, or shallow depth of field, and thus will put up with the cost, weight and size of full frame dSLR camera kits.

Professionals will increasingly head towards medium format digital cameras.

With the advent of the OM-D and the iPhone and the like, it seems there is little point in buying cropped sensor dSLRs or low image quality point and shoot cameras unless there was a specific need.

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Tags: Canon, Four Thirds, Four Thirds Micro, Olympus, Panasonic, Sony

Gary Ayton photography

Photography news and tips aimed at the advanced amateur as an adjunct to my extensive photography wikipedia