Gary Ayton photography

Cine or movie camera lenses on Micro Four Thirds cameras

Written by Gary on July 18th, 2010

One of the main attractions of the Micro Four Thirds camera system is that you can use almost any lens ever made on it, so that your creativity and fun is maximised.

This is possible because the MFT system has a short sensor to lens mount distance which allows adapters to be made which will allow many cine lenses to focus to infinity, and the cropped sensor of the MFT system means many of these lenses will give reasonable coverage across the frame, although most will cause substantial vignetting – this problem is MUCH more pronounced on larger sensors such as the APS-C size Sony NEX camera system.

Cine lenses offer users of Micro Four Thirds an opportunity to experiment with very small lenses (perhaps a 1/4 of the size of 35mm format lenses) with wide apertures and short focal lengths at often very reasonable prices, and thus allow images with a different “look” without breaking your bank, or your back. The most popular focal lengths to use on Micro Four Thirds are 25-75mm.

Cine lenses are often very simple lenses and include newer Closed Circuit CCD TV lenses which are generally not designed for high image sharpness as with photographic lenses, but also include very expensive, high quality lenses such as PL prime lenses.

16mm movie film dimensions are 10.26mm x 7.49mm, while Super-16mm movie film is 12.52mm x 7.41mm – both MUCH smaller than Micro Four Thirds sensor size of 18mm x 13.5mm (hence the possible vignetting and peripheral smearing of details).

Lenses with a 22mm image circle will give full coverage on a 4:3 Micro Four Thirds image, while a 20mm image circle will cover a 16:9 cropped Micro Four Thirds image, and 16mm image circle (for Super 16) and 14mm image circle (for regular 16) will cause vignetting even on 16:9 cropped Micro Four Thirds.

In general, C mount lenses with focal length less than 25mm will generally have substantial vignetting, and the bokeh is often characterised by a circular, swirling appearance, for instance, this image taken with a Tokina 16mm TV lens and posted on the net by Ben Bammens:

Longer focal length C mount lenses give more classical image appearance as in these images by Yu-Lin Chan:

The main mounts for cine lenses are:

D mount – 0.625″diameter thread, 12.29mm flange distance, designed for 8mm movie film – NOT useful for M43 cameras
CS mount – 1″diameter thread, 12.52mm flange distance, designed for 16mm movie film – NOT useful for M43 cameras
C mount – 1″ diameter thread, 17.5mm flange distance, designed for 16mm movie film
Arri PL mount – breech lock mount for 16mm and 35mm movie film
Panavision PV mount – breech lock mount for 16mm and 35mm movie film
Arri Maxi PL mount – mount for 70mm movie film

Issues with C mount to MFT mount adapters:

some lenses, especially TV lenses do not have aperture ring and thus you will not be able to stop them down
some lenses may require a little machining (eg. Sony TV 16/1.8)
Lenses with max. inner diameter of 37.2mm (lenses with max. near-thread diameter of 37.2mm all can fit well without any modification)
Lenses with near-thread diameter larger than 37.2mm but smaller than 49.2mm still can fit, but will not focus to infinity!

Examples of C mount lenses:

Kern-Paillard lenses for Bolex movie cameras
Schneider 10mm f/1.8
Kodak Cine Ektar 15/2.5 – vignetting
Schneider Kreuznach Xenon 16/1.9 – vignetting
Kern Switar 16/1.8 H16 RX – vignetting
Som Berthiot 20mm F1.9
Wollensak Cine Velostigmat 1:/1.9
Kodak Ektar 25mm f/1.4 – corner vignetting
Taylor & Hobson
SOM Berthiot 25mm f/0.95 gives full coverage but requires machining
Angenieux types M1 or M2 25mm f/0.95 give 95% coverage
Angenieux 75mm f2.5
a Micro Four Thirds compatibility table can be found here
a more extensive listing of C-mount lenses can be seen here

To get ideas of what you can achieve with these lenses, surf the net, for example:

Posted in lenses, photography | Comments Off on Cine or movie camera lenses on Micro Four Thirds cameras
Tags: Cine, Four Thirds Micro, lenses

10x zoom lens comparison – Canon, Nikon, Tamron, Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Thirds

Written by Gary on July 3rd, 2010

Many people are looking for a travel or general use / walkabout camera with higher image quality than point and shoots but with a single 10x zoom lens.

So I thought I would amalgamate the lens review results over at the excellent dpreview site as they appear to have relatively good standards for testing which should allow reasonable comparisons of their results. In doing so, I have tried to estimate values from the charts for each lens at their widest aperture, and compared them at approximately equivalent field of view focal lengths – not their native focal lengths.

I have chosen the 5 common zoom lenses likely to be considered for cropped sensor cameras (none of these lenses are applicable to full frame dSLRs):

Olympus M.ZD 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 ED for M43
Panasonic Lumix G 14-140mm f/4.0-5.8 OIS HD for M43
Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Nikon DX 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR
Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 VC macro for EF-S or DX

Clearly from these tests, if you want a light, compact lens with very good image quality and the sharp macro image quality with minimal aberrations, the stand out lens is the new Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 ED, although if HD video is critical to your needs, the heavier, more expensive, and even sharper, Panasonic Lumix HD G HD 14-140mm F4-5.8 OIS may be the better option, particularly if you choose a Panasonic Micro Four Thirds camera instead of an Olympus one.

Note that the Panasonic M43 cameras use in-camera optical corrections and the CA results with the Lumix lens is actually neglible after correction (the figures in the table are uncorrected and would apply if the lens is used on an Olympus camera).

Both Panasonic and Olympus cameras are correcting the barrel distortion of their lenses and the table shows the corrected values.

Compared to the Canon, Nikon and Tamron EF-S/DX lenses, the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 ED lens is:

half the weight
significantly shorter
uses a nice 58mm filter thread instead of more expensive 72mm filters
is MUCH sharper edge-to-edge at practically all focal lengths at wide open apertures
has much nicer macro image quality
nicer bokeh quality
no zoom creep (although the zoom is a little stiffer)
has comparable levels of CA
neglible distortion due to in-camera corrections.
importantly, for the rapidly increasing use of these cameras for video work, the lens has been optimised to reduce AF noise being captured by the camera microphones.

This Olympus lens shows that you can have your cake and eat it too!

Of course, it is not going to give the same results as a pro quality f/2.8 zoom lens, but these lenses are a totally different size, weight and expense category.

Perhaps now you can understand why I am loving the Micro Four Thirds camera system – you can take more lenses and cameras with you for the same size and weight, which means, more fun!

Furthermore, with the new firmware hack for the Panasonic GH-1, this camera will now give the highest quality HD video of all the dSLRs.

When you want really small and light, you have the options of the excellent Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens or the cheaper Olympus 17mm f/2.8 pancake lens.

There are a couple of caveats however:

if your main aim is capturing fast moving subjects, the Micro Four Thirds system does not currently auto-focus fast enough, and thus you will have to resort to pre-focusing, or resorting to a dSLR such as a Four Thirds Olympus E-30 or E-3 (lenses will be relatively compatible with your Micro Four Thirds camera), or a higher end dSLR from Canon, Nikon, etc. However, all of these 10x zoom lenses are a bit sluggish to AF at telephoto end on moving subjects, so you would probably need a lens better designed for sports anyway.
if you also want to use large f/2.0 or f/2.8 zoom lenses, you need a bigger dSLR to make them easier to hold.

If you do decide to go with Canon or Nikon cropped sensor dSLRs, the Tamron lens offers 15x zoom with reasonable image quality.

NB. MTF-50 is an indicator of sharpness, the higher the figure, the better it is.

NB. 10x zoom lenses should not be expected to give nice smooth bokeh quality, and these lenses show this, however, it would appear that the Olympus lens gives the most pleasing bokeh of the five lenses.

	Oly M.ZD	Pan M43	Canon	Nikon	Tamron
focal range	14-150	14-140	18-200	18-200	18-270
aperture	4.0-5.6	4.0-5.8	3.5-5.6	3.5-5.6	3.5-6.3
Price	$US600	$US790	$US699	$US680	$US629
weight (g)	280g	420g	600g	560g	560g
length (mm)	83-142	83-142	102-162	97-162	101-190
Filter (mm)	58mm	62mm	72mm	72mm	72mm
35mm eq. zoom (mm)	28-300	28-280	29-320	27-300	29-432
close focus (m)	0.46m	0.5m	0.35m	0.5m	0.42m
macro mag.	0.25x	0.2x	0.31x	0.26x	0.32x
MTF-50 at max. apertures
28mm centre	1550	1900	1200	1300	1200
28mm corner	700	760	400	725	650
100mm centre	1450	1450	1450	1100	1500
100mm corner	850	1000	750	450	750
200mm centre	1400	1200	1000	750	1125
200mm corner	700	750	400	460	650
300mm centre	1125	1250	1125	1000	1100
300mm corner	650	700	700	650	600
max. CA at corners
28mm	0.13%	0.12%	0.11%	0.14%	0.08%
200mm	0.14%	0.08%	0.09%	0.10%	0.02%
300mm	0.11%	0.16%	0.22%	0.16%	0.16%
distortion 28mm	+1.2%#	+1.6%#	+3.4%	+2.8%	+3.5%
max pincushion	nil#	nil#	-1.9%	-2.3%	-2%
best native focal lenth	25mm	25mm	50mm	24mm	50mm
bokeh	the most pleasing	ok?	ok bokeh	harsh bokeh	ok bokeh
macro IQ	nice macro IQ	nice	soft macro	soft macro	soft macro
zoom creep	nil	nil	?	yes	yes
notes	HD video silent AF IS via camera	HD video silent AF IS Stepless aperture	IS	IS	IS

Other 10x zoom lenses:

Ricoh GXR P10 lens kit 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VC – but only a tiny sensor in this lens
Samsung 18-200mm OIS / F3.5-6.3 for its NX mirror-less cameras – not yet available ? 2011
Sony NEX 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 OIS for the NEX mirror-less cameras – not yet available
Olympus ZD 18-180mm f/3.5-6.3 ED – consumer grade Four Thirds lens gives 36-360mm coverage and weighs only 440g and costs $US499
Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM – cropped sensor lens; less distortion and CA than the Canon, Nikon and Tamron lenses displayed in the table above, but not as sharp as them, and with less effective IS.
Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM – cropped sensor lens; not as sharp as the Tamron but faster AF and better build.
Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 L IS USM – pro grade full frame introduced in 2004 but weighs 1.7kg and costs $US2420
Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 OS HSM full frame – introduced in 2010, available in Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Sony versions but uses a 95mm filter, weighs 2kg and costs $US2400! There is an older non-IS version of this lens. Personally, I would go for a smaller, lighter 4x telephoto zoom with better image quality, but some people may need such a lens.

Another alternative – wide aperture 3-5x zoom lens with 2x teleconverter:

Olympus ZD 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 with EC-20 2x teleconverter
- provides 100-400mm range at f/2.8-3.5 and 200-800mm range at f/5.6-7.0 image stabilised with Olympus camera bodies, pro grade and weighs only 1kg excl. tripod mount and EC-20
- ie. equates to 100-800mm f/2.8-7.0
Olympus ZD 90-250mm f/2.8 with 2x teleconverter
- provides 180-500mm range at f/2.8 and 360-1000mm range at f/5.6, super pro grade and weighs over 3kg but that is much less than anything in the Canon or Nikon line up for similar telephoto reach.
- ie. equates to 180-1000mm f/2.8-5.6
Canon or Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS/VR with 2x teleconverter
- provides 70-200mm range at f/2.8 and 140-400mm range at f/5.6 image stabilised but weighs 1.7kg
- ie. equates to 70-400mm f/2.8-5.6 or 112-640mm on a 1.6x cropped sensor Canon

Since writing this post, Nikon released their full frame Nikkor AF-S 28-300mm f/3.5-5.36 ED VR II G lens for €899 or currently about $US999 which gives a great option for Nikon D700 users in particular:

made in Thailand, it obviously provides 28-300mm coverage in 35mm full frame terms but also 42-450mm when used on a DX crop camera.
close focus to 50cm
zoom lock switch to prevent zoom creep, and 9 rounded aperture blades
it is too noisy for recording video while it focuses, but then you probably wouldn’t use a current Nikon dSLR to do high quality video anyway.
2 ED and 3 aspherical elements but no optical performance reports to date
it is said to be sharp and certainly seems much sharper than the Nikkor 70-300mm and the DX 18-200mm but less sharp than the pro lenses or the primes as would be expected
it has lots of distortion at focal lengths other than 35mm – “Distortion is strong barrel at 28mm, none around 32mm to 35mm, strong pincushion midrange and mid-tele, and moderate pincushion at 300mm”.
bokeh seems reasonable
the lens hood looks a bit dysfunctional and I suspect many will leave it at home
77mm and weighs 800g – less than half the weight of the Canon 28-300mm L lens, but still not a light lens to carry all day – it is still twice as heavy as a Micro Four Thirds Panasonic option and almost 3x heavier than the Olympus option!
Ken Rockwell loves this lens but does state: “If you don’t mind the hefty size, this 28-300mm is perfect. I wouldn’t enjoy traveling with it, and it is perfect for use on a dedicated photo trip”
for a full frame user who can’t afford the faster aperture pro lenses, it will give a lot of versatility with somewhat faster AF and better high ISO performance than a Panasonic GH2 with 14-140mm lens, but at significantly more weight, bulk and without the superb HD video capabilities or automatic distortion correction capabilities of the GH2.
at the end of the day though, a substantial point of having a full frame dSLR is not only for high ISO performance but shallow depth of field work, and full frame users are still likely to want their heavy, large 70-200mm f/2.8, 24mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 lenses with them as well so perhaps the 28-300mm may in fact be redundant for most, and they would be better suited to having a GH2 with 14-140mm lens instead as a 2nd camera for travel and video work.
I suspect this lens is a wonderful marketing ploy by Nikon which entices new users to a full frame dSLR at a reasonable price point with the delusion that this lens will be all they will need or want, only to find it does not have the aperture they need, nor the AF speed, and so they end up having this lens becoming redundant – too big for carry around or travel and not good enough for their needs. But by then they are committed to the Nikon system and spending more money – a very nice marketing ploy indeed!

Posted in lenses, photography | Comments Off on 10x zoom lens comparison – Canon, Nikon, Tamron, Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four Thirds
Tags: Canon, Four Thirds Micro, lens tests, lenses, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, super-zooms, Tamron, zoom lens

Sigma EM-140 DG macro “ring” flash

Written by Gary on June 30th, 2010

I managed to pick up a second hand Sigma EM-140 DG Ring Flash for Canon EOS this week mainly because it was going relatively cheaply and I needed a TTL macro flash for my Canon kit but didn’t want to pay for the Canon macro flash.

Sigma EM-140 DG macro flash

I already own the Olympus Ring Flash which I love but obviously, it doesn’t work in TTL mode on my Canon 1D Mark III, and it doesn’t attach to lenses via a filter thread thus requiring it to be hand held on lenses for which it was not designed.

Unfortunately, Sigma’s website doesn’t explain the realities with this flash, and worse, does not allow a download of its user manual so you can determine if it will suit your needs or be a lemon.

Let’s look at the Sigma flash, firstly the cons:

although it looks like a ring flash, it is NOT really a ring flash but really a twin flash mounted in a flat ring. This is not going to create circular catchlights!
for some strange reason, it cannot be triggered in manual mode on a non-Canon camera, even if you try to manually short the hot shoe contacts to check its trigger voltage, it won’t fire – so forget using it on any camera for which it was not designed – a big disappointment!
it has “wireless TTL” and can act as a Master flash to trigger another flash – as long as that other flash is a Sigma EF530 – wireless TTL is NOT possible with Canon flashes using this flash as a master flash!

Now the good points:

it is relatively cheap (RRP $US480), and light (430g w/o batteries)
you can adjust the ratio between the two flash tubes to give more directional lighting
you can use FP flash mode (high speed sync) on E-TTL compatible cameras
you can use second shutter curtain sync and FE lock
you can use multi-fire mode which allows repeated flashes from 1-199 Hz
flash exposure bracketing mode for 3 shots to give total of up to +/- 3 stops in 1/3EV increments
it does have a modeling lamp which can be activated via the camera’s preview button
it does have a lamp to add more light to the subject to assist composition and focusing
it is relatively simple to use as long as you don’t need to do wireless TTL – you will need to bring the instruction book with you!
it snaps onto supplied lens filter thread adapters – two of which are supplied (55mm and 58mm), and you can buy other adapters – either 52mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm or 77mm which means you can attach this flash to a wide range of lenses.
GN 14m (ISO100) is reasonable for a macro flash

Posted in flash | Comments Off on Sigma EM-140 DG macro “ring” flash
Tags: Canon, macro, ring flash, Sigma

Architecture camera-lens kit for travel to Europe

Written by Gary on June 15th, 2010

I am off for a conference trip to Rome, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Amsterdam in October this year, and am deciding on which cameras and lenses to take with me – after all it s a long way from Australia to change my mind.

I am mainly interested in photography of urban architecture, streetscapes, and cultural activities, and if I can get to more rural settings perhaps some nice landscape work.

I will be wanting to travel as LIGHT as I can but still have high image quality and versatility.

A clear IN for the trip are the following:

Panasonic GH-1 Micro Four Thirds camera
10x zoom lens (the excellent Lumix 14-140mm) for general purpose use
Leica-D 25mm f/1.4 Four Thirds lens with M43 adapter as my main walk around lens and for low light (unfortunately, I do not have the much smaller and lighter Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens)
OM 135mm f/2.8 with OM adapter for indoor conference use / videos from the back of the theatre – its a nice combo – just set MF, WB, manual exposure and you are ready to record all that good information you would otherwise forget.
small tripod
no-name inexpensive backpack

Now what will I do for those tallish buildings in cramped spaces so I don’t have to angle the camera upwards and create convergence distortion?

I thus compared my Canon 1D MIII with the Canon 17mm tilt-shift lens at maximum shift upwards in portrait mode with my GH-1 in 16:9 aspect ratio with Olympus Four Thirds 7-14mm lens – would I miss the tilt shift lens that I love so much?

Interestingly, using both cameras at the same subject distance and parallel to the subject, the 7-14mm lens at 7mm provided almost the same height coverage to the top of the subject, but with much more bottom coverage and a little more width coverage.

Thus, the GH-1 with 7-14mm lens will give me similar angle of view to top of a building but with a lot more crop options – for instance, I could crop the bottom 1/3rd off to match the the same image crop as the Canon on full shift and end up with an 8mp image vs a 10mp image on the Canon – not a great deal of loss.

The other advantages of the 7-14mm lens is that I can choose 4:3, 3;2 or 16:9 image aspect ratios, use it for video work, or use it on my Olympus E510 and gain autofocus and image stabilisation to allow 1/2sec-1/4sec hand held shots for motion effects.

But the obvious main advantage of the GH-1 with 7-14mm lens is that the combination is 1kg lighter, it is smaller, the battery charger is SO much smaller, and the kit is cheaper to replace in the event of a loss or breakage.

Now, my conclusion may well have been different had I owned a Canon 5D MII full frame high resolution body instead of a 1.3x crop 10mp Canon 1D MIII, although the weight and insurance would still be major issues.

So, that settles it very convincingly, my 2nd camera kit will be the Olympus E510 with 7-14mm lens and 50mm f/2.0 macro – these are what I shot with for the far majority of my photos on my Italy holiday in 2007 with and it was an awesome combination – see here.

That leaves me with one last question, can I afford to take my beloved Olympus 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 SWD lens as well for those special shallow DOF, beautiful bokeh shots (although the 25mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/2.0 lens will give some good options for this but without the telephoto reach)?

Note: for an even more compact and lighter, cheaper system, one could use the Panasonic Micro Four Thirds 7-14mm lens instead of the Olympus Four Thirds version but of course, it could not be used on an E510 body – having said that, if had that lens, I would be wanting to buy an Olympus E-P2 to take instead of the E510!

The acid test is – can I fit the kit with a 1.3kg laptop in the 5kg carry-on cabin baggage limit?

This is the beauty of the Micro Four Thirds System – you get to take more equipment within the weight limit, although my ideal system of currently available gear for travel would be:

Panasonic GH-1 with 10x zoom 14-140mm kit lens
Olympus E-P2 with EVF and Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens
Panasonic 7-14mm lens if doing urban work or Olympus 9-18mm lens if doing landscapes
perhaps the Olympus 50mm f/2.0 macro for Four Thirds while we wait for Olympus to make a Micro Four Thirds version
Cokin ND gradient filter with adapter for the 14-140mm and 9-18mm lens

Such a system gives you high quality photos with focal length range in 35mm terms of 14-280mm as well as low light capabilities of an image stabilised 40mm lens (in 35mm terms) at f/1.7 light capturing capability, plus you get the BEST quality HD video available on dSLR systems courtesy of the new firmware hack for the GH-1.

Some would add the Lumix 45-200mm lens, but personally, I wish they would make a compact, high quality, Micro Four Thirds 200mm f/2.8 lens (preferably image stabilised), or if they must do zoom, then a compact 100-200mm f/2.8-4.0 (please, not another f/5.6 lens!).

Posted in travel photography | 11 Responses »
Tags: Canon, Four Thirds, Four Thirds Micro, Olympus, Panasonic GH1, tilt-shift, travel

Firmware hack unleashes Panasonic GH-1 video potential apparently giving it the best looking videos of all the dSLRs

Written by Gary on June 11th, 2010

If you are a Panasonic GH-1 user and wanting the highest quality video – you can now have it courtesy of a free firmware hack by tester13 but please, if you use it, make sure you donate some money to him because this firmware hack is said to be truly amazing – yes – even better image quality than the full frame Canon 5D Mark II.

I must admit, I have not installed it myself yet as I mainly shoot at 720p 50fps motion jpeg as it suits my needs and I am happy to wait a little longer for resolution of a couple of the issues outlined below.

AVCHD may be the latest and greatest HD video compression for consumers but it is not easy to work with, and on the GH-1 without the firmware hack moving subjects or panning tends to result in mud artefacts.

The official GH-1 firmware limits HD video to 17Mbps data rate with options of AVCHD 1080i at 50/60fps derived from native 25fps, or 720p at 50/60fps in either AVCHD or MJPEG.

The firmware hack allows an astounding 50Mbps data rate at 1080/30p MJPEG (detailed scenes with sharp lenses and wide depth of field may deliver up to 70Mbps data from the sensor but then tends to crash the system – they are working on how to limit the data rate to 50Mbps), or 32Mbps AVCHD 1080/native 24p (although currently videos shot in this mode crash the camera on attempting to play them back and you may need to remove the battery to reboot the camera – but seems this has been fixed here). Some users are achieving 80Mbps at 720 30p on Class 10 SD cards.

The GH-1 50Mbps video images are cleaner than the Canon 5D Mark II at 35Mbps partly due to the fact the GH-1 bins the pixels to down- res the 12mp sensor whereas the Canon skips lines to down res its 22mp sensor, and partly as the MJPEG gives less compression artefacts than the Canon’s H.264 codec.

Surprisingly, it seems the GH-1 can write data to the SDHC card at over 8MB/sec which is almost double the Canon 5D Mark II’s rate. The other good news is, you only need a Class 6 SDHC card and not the more expensive Class 10 SDHC cards as one would think.

Be warned though, at 50Mbps 1080p MJPEG, you only get about 2 minutes 39sec of recording until the 2Gb file size limit is reached, and you no longer have the option of shooting in smaller file sized official 17Mbps video without re-installing firmware and incrementing the firmware another integer. Furthermore it seems in 720 mode you can now only get 30fps not 50/60fps but they are working on this.

Finally, Remember…version numbers cannot roll back which may have implications for future official firmware releases.

Post-script: it is possible that the latest production of GH-1 cameras which come with v1.3 firmware pre-installed MAY NOT allow updating the camera with the firmware hack – see here. I am sure if this is the case, there will soon be a way around this.

See:

Posted in video | 1 Response »
Tags: Four Thirds Micro, Panasonic GH1, video

Ultrawide angle zoom lenses for Micro Four Thirds

Written by Gary on May 29th, 2010

Please read my older post on this topic for more details and comparisons with what is available on Canon and Nikon dSLRs as I will try to avoid repeating that content here, but instead highlight the differences, now that dpreview has published their excellent technical reviews on the two MFT lenses.

One of the almost unique characteristics of Micro Four Thirds is that it allows creation of beautifully compact, high image quality ultra-wide angle zoom lenses which are perfect for travel, but like everything, there are compromises – in this case, the compact design results in lower image quality in the corners and more distortion than with a Four Thirds equivalent lens. Fortunately, these issues are corrected in-camera (by Panasonic bodies) or can be easily corrected in supported RAW converter software.

Note: the following image comparing the Four Thirds 9-18mm, MFT 9-18mm and MFT 7-14mm is from the dpreview website:

I have compared 3 ultra-wide zoom lenses but note there is a fourth option shown above – the Olympus ZD 9-18mm Four Thirds lens which is cheaper (~$US475), but bigger (uses a 72mm filter) and heavier than the MFT version.

Olympus ZD 7-14mm f/4 Four Thirds

Panasonic 7-14mm f/4 MFT

Olympus ZD 9-18mm f/4.0-5.6 MFT

dimensions

86.5mm x 119.5mm

70 mm diameter x 83 mm length

56.5 mm diameter x 49.5 mm length (retracted)

weight
price

780g

$US1800

300 g (10.6 oz)

$US1000

155 g (5.5 oz)

$US700

diagonal angle of view on 4:3 ratio

35mm equivalent focal length range to give similar angle of view

114º – 75º

14-28mm

114º – 75º

14-28mm

100º – 62º

18-36mm

filters

not possible

52mm, non-rotating front element

autofocus

no AF on Panasonic MFT, slow AF on Olympus MFT, normal AF on Four Thirds

good AF on all MFT, cannot mount to Four Thirds

construction

18 Elements / 12 Groups, ED Asph, ED, Super ED

weatherproof, dustproof, pro quality

16 elements / 12 groups, 4ED, 2Asph

12 elements / 8 groups, 1 ED, 1HR, 2 dual surface Asph, 1 Asph, collapsible design for compact travel

image stabilisation

in camera (Olympus only)

diaphragm

7 rounded

minimum focus

0.25m

use with teleconverter

yes

no TC available for MFT yet

use with extension tubes

image quality

superb even without post-processing

flare visible if strong light sources hit convex front element

very sharp but some softness in corners wide open at either end of focal range

flare visible if strong light sources hit convex front element

very sharp but some softness in corners

flare is usually not an issue unless light sources string front element obliquely.

geometric distortion

minimal

+3.4% at 7mm, -0.3% at 12mm and -1.2% at 14mm

corrected in-camera when using Panasonic MFT cameras

+4.7% at 9mm, +0.5% at 14mm, -0.1% at 18mm

corrected in-camera (Panasonic) and by supported RAW converters

chromatic aberration

minimal – mainly in corners at extreme contrast situations

particularly visible in corners at wide angles

corrected in-camera when using Panasonic MFT cameras

particularly visible in corners at all focal lengths

light falloff

minimal?

some at f/4 but minimal at f/5.6

minimal

official website

Olympus America

Reviews

my blog post

dpreview

who is it for?

those wanting the highest image quality, professional build quality, weatherproofing primarily for their Four Thirds dSLR

those wanting widest view on their MFT camera for creative use and travel but not needing to use filters

those wanting wide angle on MFT but not needing the ultra-wide angle, and preferring ability to use filters for landscape work

this is perhaps the most practicable lens for most people

Posted in lenses, photography | Comments Off on Ultrawide angle zoom lenses for Micro Four Thirds
Tags: Four Thirds Micro, Olympus, Panasonic, wide angle

Impromptu macrophotography in a forest with Micro Four Thirds without a tripod

Written by Gary on May 23rd, 2010

Last week I went for my usual forest walk and decided that I would only take my Panasonic GH-1 with Olympus 50mm f/2.0 macro for Four Thirds, the Olympus EC-20 2x teleconverter and the Olympus Ring Flash.

Personally, I think the Micro Four Thirds system is a great option for macrophotography as:

the sensor is large enough to give great image quality even at ISO 800 when you need to use a faster shutter to minimise camera shake or use a smaller aperture to give adequate depth of field – this is a problem with the “compact digitals” such as the Canon G11.
manual focus is MUCH easier than on a dSLR as there is no need to move the mirror out of the way to do magnified live view manual focus
you do not need to worry about mirror lockup before you take the shot to minimise camera shake due to mirror vibrations at such high magnifications, because there is no mirror to worry about.
the swivel live preview LCD is just brilliant when doing ground level macro shots, and it allows you to keep your eye out for other nasties which may be nearby. NB. only the Panasonic GH-1, G1, and G2 have a swivel LCD at present.
you can use almost any macro lens ever made, with extension tubes or bellows if need be, and the 2x crop factor will in effect give you more magnification or more working distance.
you can buy a tilt adapter which can convert any legacy macro lens into a tilt macro lens which can be extremely useful to change to focal plane to achieve greater depth of field or to selectively focus on one plane.

First, here is one without the Ring Flash or teleconverter – just hand held close to the ground in low light conditions using the wonderful swivel LCD of the Panasonic GH-1 and manual focus (ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/160th sec, no Photoshop, no cropping):

Remember to click on these to get larger views.

and a European wasp (I presume), using the ring flash hand held off to camera left with the 2x teleconverter and again the camera near ground level using the swivel LCD and manual focus hand held (no PS, no cropping):

and here is a medium sized (~15mm) Australian native bull ant (these can give you a very nasty sting and, along with bees, are the most common cause of human deaths in Australia due to animals – if you are allergic to them!). At such high magnification levels, a moving subject such as this can be very difficult – all the more so when you need to keep an eye out for her and her friends! (no PS, no cropping)

Posted in photography | 1 Response »
Tags: Four Thirds Micro, macro

Macro extension tubes for Micro Four Thirds

Written by Gary on May 15th, 2010

Panasonic and Olympus are yet to produce a macro extension tube for the Micro Four Thirds camera system.

This is somewhat unfortunate given that the Micro Four Thirds system is better suited to macro work than dSLRs as:

accurate manual focus is much easier and faster to use as there is no mirror to move out of the way
lighter cameras means your hands don’t tire as quick when doing hand held nature work
2x crop factor gives you more magnification or working distance
smaller sensor may allow more depth of field which is so critical in macro work
the flip out swivel live LCD of the GH-1 further adds to its versatility in macro work

Of course you can use practically any macro extension tube set ever made – for example you can use an Olympus OM extension tube or bellows with an Olympus OM lens – all you need is an OM-MFT adapter.

But now there is another option which will suit those who have various brand macro lenses – Rong Jin (jinfinance/muh) has just announced availability of a Micro Four Thirds (MFT) extension tube set on Ebay shipped from China for $US38.50 – see here.

As this is a MFT mount tube set, it means you could use any MFT lens with it – but unfortunately, you will not be able to change its aperture or use auto-focus as there is no electrical coupling available.

This means this extension tube set would be most useful with legacy lenses which have an aperture ring and means all you need is a legacy lens to MFT adapter to use a legacy lens with it.

Note that Rong Jin also makes a large range of legacy lens to MFT adapters – see his Ebay store.

Oh, and if you don’t believe me that MFT can do great nature macro shots, check out Fardel2009 on Flickr who uses a Panasonic GF-1 with Leica 45mm MFT macro lens to give shots such as these:

CATCH - ARRIBA LAS MANOS

and

OJO ROJO 2 - CLOSE UP FLY - RED EYES

Posted in lenses | 2 Responses »
Tags: Four Thirds Micro, macro

Sony’s mirror-less digital camera system and it’s NEX-5 camera

Written by Gary on May 11th, 2010

Following the unprecedented success of the Micro Four Thirds system by Panasonic and Olympus, Sony has joined the mirror-less interchangeable lens digital camera system marketplace with a DX-crop camera system.

Sony did not make the mistake Samsung made and opted for a shorter sensor-lens mount distance of only 18mm – even shorter than Micro Four Thirds of 20mm, and thus unlike the 25.5mm distance of the Samsung NX system, theoretically, just like as has happened with Micro Four Thirds, we should be able to adapt almost any legacy lens ever made onto this system, including Leica M.

This is great news and will give Micro Four Thirds a run for its money – competition is good!

The NEX-5 with 18-200mm lens will offer similar 17mbps 1080i 60fps AVCHD video capability as a Panasonic GH-1 with 14-140mm lens although details and image quality comparisons are yet to be seen. I suspect with the large lens, the GH-1 will handle better and of course it has the massive advantage of a built-in EVF to help steady your videos.

Unfortunately, the NEX-5 does NOT offer a 720p mode in either AVCHD or MPEG4 and there is no manual video exposure mode – you only get some Scene modes and exposure compensation. This is a deal breaker for me – I mainly use 720p and mainly use manual exposure – what a pity – perhaps they are saving this for a higher end model?

The entry-level NEX-3 is $Us100 cheaper, has different body construction, and only 9mbps 720p MPEG4 HD video, but otherwise is very similar to the NEX-5.

Like Panasonic with MFT, Sony have announced they will market a HD camcorder based on the E system later this year.

The initial lenses offered by Sony are:

16mm f/2.8 pancake (24mm wide angle lens which will be handy for travelers but a bit too wide for candid portraits)
18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS (27-82.5mm) – much longer than the collapsible Olympus equivalent
18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS (27-300mm) – 67mm filter, 524g and 99mm long

The advantages of the Sony NEX-5 over the Micro Four Thirds cameras appear to be:

marginally better image quality at high ISO given the larger sensor although in practice, this may not be significant – images I have seen to date at ISO 3200 show the NEX-5 with more aggressive NR applied and less image detail and perhaps less dynamic range.
1.5x crop factor vs 2x crop factor allowing better use of legacy lenses in the wide end and marginally shallower depth of field for same subject magnifications.
smaller camera body size – this may make it more pocketable without lens or with pancake lens, but may adversely impact ergonomics – nevertheless, I would expect MFT camp to come up with a body as small as this one sooner rather than later.
tilt out LCD allows waist level shooting but not for self-portraits as with the flip out and swivel screen of the Panasonic GH-1
high resolution LCD – 921K dots
various multi-image modes which may be of use to increase dynamic range, twilight, sweep panorama or reduce motion blur
offers ISO 12,800
optional IR wireless remote control
1080i HD video in motion jpeg or AVCHD
although 2.7fps burst rate is comparable to MFT cameras, it also has a brief but very handy 7fps mode where AF/AE is fixed on first frame
aggressively priced (said to be ~$US699 for NEX-5 with 3x kit lens)

The advantages of the Micro Four Thirds system over the Sony system:

more mature system provides a range of bodies, lenses and adapters for legacy lenses
smaller lenses
HD video much more functional than on the NEX-5, with added options of motion jpeg or AVCHD at 720p 60fps (50fps PAL)
pancake and 3x kit lens appears to be substantially sharper edge-to-edge – see here for how bad the corners are on the Sony
the very nice Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens which is great for low light work, candid portraits, street work, social events, and travel
many of the Four Thirds dSLR lenses will autofocus (the Sony Alpha lenses will not AF on the NEX-5)
availability of either built-in EVF (eg. GH-1) or add-on EVF (GF-1, E-P2, E-PL1) – the Sony NEX-5 will only allow an add-on optical viewfinder
true multi-aspect sensor (GH-1)
Panasonic cameras have in-camera CA and distortion correction for MFT lenses
iA dummies mode still allows exposure compensation unlike on the Sony NEX-5
can disable NR
Olympus jpeg engine which is highly regarded for its colours
Olympus Art Filters
in-camera sensor shift image stabilisation in Olympus cameras – important for legacy lenses in particular
hotshoe on camera body to allow bounce flash, etc instead of only the Sony proprietary attachable flash with GN 7m at ISO 100
wireless remote TTL flash (E-PL1)
better access to controls and menu system
AF subject tracking
2x crop will potentially allow more telephoto reach for same size lens
LCD touch screens (G2, G10)

My impression – the Sony system has the potential to be a great system, I am not sure the first two cameras and the lenses cut it though, with crippled video modes, no hot shoe – and when it does come it will probably be that lame Sony/Minolta proprietary hot shoe that is not compatible with any other flash without an adapter, no EVF capability, and perhaps worse of all – poor image quality away from the centre – perhaps they will need an expensive Leica M9 type of sensor to remedy this.

Personally, the Panasonic GH-1 with 14-140mm lens and 20mm f/1.7 pancake is a far better all purpose camera kit than the Sony NEX-5 with 18-200mm lens and 16mm f/2.8 pancake, BUT the Sony will presumably be a lot cheaper and the camera body smaller, although the 10x lens is substantially bigger at 76x99mm and 67mm filter vs 70x84mm and 62mm filter for the Panasonic.

I really couldn’t see myself using a tiny NEX-5 with a massive 0.5kg 18-200mm lens, especially without an EVF to help stabilise it.

But I could imagine using a NEX-5 with a 25mm f/1.7 pancake lens if they make one, and in the interim, the 16mm f/2.8 – for this is the camera’s strong point at present – pocketability and affordability.

Furthermore, one could use this combo and a MFT camera, and interchange your legacy lenses between the two with ease once adapters become available, and then you will have access to the advantages of each system and 2 different crop factors for your legacy lenses.

Once there are more digital lenses and legacy adapters available for the Sony, the NEX-3 may indeed give the Panasonic GF-1, Olympus E-P2 and E-PL1 a run for their money at that price point but I am concerned about image quality away from the centre, it’s lack of EVF or flash hotshoe options, poor ergonomics and tripod support – not a photographer’s camera, not a videographer’s camera, but perhaps better than an iPhone.

We will have to see if Sony can really make a real photographer’s camera smaller than a MFT camera and add some better quality lenses, but you can bet MFT teams will be under pressure to add an entry level small MFT camera to match the NEX-5’s size.

My final take on the Sony system:

has lots of potential but proprietary flash interfaces will always plague Sony products
current cameras whilst cheap, and having interesting features are just not ergonomically or functionally designed for photographers or videographers with far too many compromises for serious use.
current cameras will be best used as a pocket camera with a pancake lens – unfortunately the only pancake is too wide for most needs
there is no image stabilisation built in to assist with legacy lenses when adapters do arrive – and they will.
current zoom lenses are not as good optically in the corners and the 10x zoom is too big for such small cameras
the system has a long way to go before it can match what is available for the MFT system.

See reviews of the Sony at:

imaging resource – unfortunately they didn’t compare it with the best MFT sensor – the GH-1
dpreview
luminous-landscape – scathing of the NEX-5’s user interface and poor video with some concerns of image quality but like me, believes the system has potential – just not these cameras.

Posted in cameras | 3 Responses »
Tags: Four Thirds Micro, Sony

The ultrazoom for travel – maybe a compact digital will suit some better than Micro Four Thirds?

Written by Gary on May 8th, 2010

I was asked by a friend this week to recommend a camera for travel that is relatively light and compact and unfortunately, her main priority was that without changing lenses, she wanted to be able to do wide angle landscapes as well as shoot super telephoto shots of eagles whilst riding on a donkey across America.

BUT, BUT, I protested, you can’t do this unless you get an ultra-zoom digital compact, and you will be forced to sacrifice image quality and be limited to prints of 11″x14″ or computer screen display, and well lit scenes as image noise at ISO higher than 400 would become intolerable.

Why don’t you just get a Panasonic GH-1 with 14-140mm 10x zoom, and know that you can deal with lower light levels, and you will have image quality capable of very good 20″x30″ prints, and you could do HD video, and buy a Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens for those times when light levels are too low?

She said, she didn’t really care about image quality – she wanted just one lens and 30x zoom range so she could document her travel.

So, that meant both dSLRs and Micro Four Thirds were out of her picture as the longest zoom range options for these cameras are combinations such as either:

Micro Four Thirds with Lumix 14-140mm f/4-5.8 10x zoom (28-280mm in 35mm terms)
Micro Four Thirds with Olympus 14-150mm (28-300mm) +/- Olympus 9-18mm (18-36mm)
Micro Four Thirds with 14-45mm (28-90mm) + Lumix 45-200mm (90-400mm)
Micro Four Thirds with 14-45mm (28-90mm) + Olympus 70-300mm (140-600mm)
Sony NEX-5 with Sony E 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 (27-300mm)
Four Thirds with 12-60mm (24-120mm) + 70-300mm (140-600mm)
Four Thirds with 14-54mm (28-108mm) + 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 (100-400mm) + 2x TC (200-800mm)
Canon APS-C dSLR with Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 15x zoom with macro (29-432mm) – 560g lens
Canon APS-C dSLR with Canon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 (29-320mm)
Canon full frame with Canon 28-300mm L lens (28-300mm)
Nikon DX dSLR with Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 13.9x zoom (27-375mm) – 628g lens
Nikon DX dSLR with Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 (27-300mm)

That left her with the 30x ultra-zoom compact digitals with their tiny sensors and lower image quality:

Essentially that came down to two current models:

Olympus SP-800UZ:

28-840mm f/2.8-5.6 30x ultra-zoom introduced in Feb 2010
14mp 1/2.33″ sensor with up to 10fps burst rate, 3″ fixed LCD, SD memory card
720p HD video
limited shutter speed range 1/4sec – 1/2000th sec but thankfully can do up to 4sec in night scene mode albeit without any manual control
sensor shift IS?
no EVF, no RAW mode but does have option of Olympus Art Filters
timelapse with interval settings of 1-99 minutes and number of shots from 2-99 with sleep mode during intervals
435g, 110 x 90 x 91mm

Fujifilm Finepix HS10:

24-720mm f/2.8-5.6 30x ultra-zoom introduced in Feb 2010
Sony 10mp back-illuminated 1/2.3″ sensor at up to 10fps via mechanical shutter
1080p/30fps HD video with stereo sound, various video capture rates even 1000fps but tiny images at that rate
sensor shift IS
electronic viewfinder but no where as good as the EVF for the Panasonic GH-1 or the Olympus E-P2
fold out LCD – not flip and swivel though as with a Panasonic GH-1
a very limited shutter speed range of 1/4 sec to 1/1400th sec but this should not limit her photography needs but may impact on other’s needs
RAW or jpeg; AA batteries
636g, 131 x 91 x 126mm

Unfortunately, I could not comment on comparative image quality of the two but as image quality was not that important to her, I think she quite wisely chose the more expensive and heavier Fuji HS10 as it best matched her needs, in particular:

if shooting at long telephoto without a tripod, holding the camera to the eye is critical in stabilising the camera, and the lack of EVF in the Olympus could be seen as a major shortcoming in design.
the wider field of view of 24mm on the Fuji vs 28mm on the Olympus is more likely to be useful for travel than more telephoto.
the flip out LCD on the Fuji will come in handy for ground level or waist level shots
more video shooting options including up to 1000fps in low res frames, plus 1080 HD instead of just 720p.
a much more sensible 10mp sensor than the silly 14mp sensor in the Olympus

Would I buy a 30x ultra-zoom?

Well, no… for me, image quality, high quality EVF, ability to use external TTL flash, have more control over shutter speed and lens selection is far more important than super compact ultra zoom capability.

I would much rather carry around a Panasonic GH-1 with 14-140mm lens and an Olympus E-PL1 with Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens and maybe an Olympus 9-18mm lens or Panasonic 7-14mm lens for some ultra wide work – and I would sneak in an Olympus OM 135 f/2.8 lens to allow low light telephoto work (ie. 270mm f/2.8) – of course, this kit would cost a LOT more than a Fuji HS10, but then at least I could be confident those treasured moments will be captured in an image quality I could be proud to show others and not appear to be just snapshot quality full of noise and smeared details which I would forever regret.

The most important possessions most of us have are our travel and family photos – I for one do not mind spending a bit more and carrying a bit more to ensure that these are of high quality without the equipment becoming a burden, and this is where the Micro Four Thirds system excels – although it is still an immature technology with much development to follow in the next 2-5 years.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too – cameras are always about compromise – that is why there is not one perfect camera.

If you don’t need 30x zoom, perhaps one of these more compact travel 12-15x zoom cameras may be more your cup of tea:

In May 2009, dpreview.com compared 6 of these cameras and the clear winners were the Panasonic TZ-7 (ZS-3) 12x zoom and its cheaper version, the TZ-6 (ZS-1).

Since then, Samsung have added their WB650 sporting a 15x zoom, 920K AMOLED screen, and GPS tagging to go up against the latest Panasonic version – their TZ-10 which has remained with their successful 12x zoom, and added GPS tagging as well.

In June 2010, dpreview.com compared 13 of these travel zoom compact cameras and the winners were the newer Casio Exilim FH-100 and Samsung HZ35W while the Panasonic cameras which had won the previous year, were not far behind.

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

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