The Joys Of Owning An Olympus E-M1 (firmware v4.0)

For a long time, I wanted to post a review of the Olympus E-M1 and how it compared to the Olympus E-M5 I had before. However, I guess this is not relevant anymore with the release of the E-M10, the E-M5 II and the E-M10 II. Let me tell you the jump from the E-M5 to the E-M1 for me was quite significant, these are some of the major differences that affected my day-to-day use of the camera:

An Eye-Opening Experience & The Power Of Olympus

Ever since I got the Sony A7II, I have been using it almost exclusively, apart from my trip to UAE where it made sense to pack a MFT kit due to its small size, versatility and auto-focus (Will be covered in a different post. The pictures are ready). To be honest, I was having too much fun playing with the A7II and both the Zeiss and the legacy lenses while ignoring my Olympus kit, to the extent that I decided one day to sell all of my MFT kit and only keep the Sony with the single autofocus lens that I own. And indeed I put my MFT kit for sale, only to decline the first few offers I received. I just didn't have the courage to do it. But I kept using the Sony.

Fast 50mm Shoot Out: MFT vs FF (or why I bought the Sony A7II and a single FE lens)

You might remember from my previous posts about the Canon 35mm f/2, the Canon 50mm f/1.4 and the Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 lenses how much I appreciate and love the 50mm focal length. To the extent that I previously mentioned that if I found a fixed lens FF camera with a fast 50mm (think Sony RX1 with a 50mm lens instead), I would sell all my gear and only use that camera and a single TTL flash. Unfortunately, that camera doesn't exist yet. So I bought something a bit different. Did it work? Hit the jump to find out.

Review Part 1: Tamron SP 90mm f/2.5 Macro (on MFT)

In this post I will give you a brief review on the Tamron SP 90 lens as a portraiture lens and as a macro lens when mounted on a Micro Four Thirds camera. In part 2, I will review how it performs on a full frame sensor.

P.S. Look how elegant the top plate on the E-M1 looks. Now compare that to the bland Sony A7II I showed you earlier.

Optimizing My Gear

 
We all love playing with new camera gear, but sometimes things can get out of hand to an extent that makes you feel un-easy. That's our story today.

Long Term Review: Olympus M.Zuiko 75mm f/1.8

This is one of them posts where I don't know where to start. The 75 f/1.8 has been reviewed all over the internet, and I don't want to repeat what other reviewers said (as best as I can; at least), so how do I approach this review then? For those who don't like long reads, I will sum up the review in one sentence at the beginning, then go into more details in whatever order the thoughts spring to my mind, with a lot of pictures for demonstration. So here we go.

Second Opinion on Micro Four Thirds; Next Camera

E-M5 + Olympus 25 1.8

My friend MShafik just doubled down on Micro Four Thirds with his recent purchase of the OM-D E-M1.  Meanwhile, I just started using Micro Four Thirds a little more than two months ago.  This post is an update on my experience with it.

A Quick, Simple 2/3 Lights Setup

The final result

 

I received a request from an anonymous commenter to show the lighting setup and the processing done to a picture of my daughter wearing a scarf. And since I didn't have any BTS pictures of the setup, I decided to shoot a similar picture, in the same place, with the same scarf, and show the lighting steps as I progressed. Click through to read the rest.

2013: The Camera Year

Blockbuster

This year has witnessed an incredible range of very interesting camera releases (can you guess how many?), there are a lot of tidal shifts in the market, players that are becoming stronger, and others that are referred to as stagnant and old fashioned. I am not attempting to analyze the market and company strategies in this post, instead I will be thinking aloud, analyzing what is going on around, what to do regarding any further camera purchases, and where to head to. The more I think about the new camera releases in 2013, the more I get confused, so I decided to get a white paper and a pen, and jot it all down so I can be able to make a clear analysis. Hit the jump to continue reading, and be astounded with the sheer amount of cameras released in 2013.

I'm Back, Olympus 75 f/1.8 & Some Camera Musings

First of all, I would like to apologize for the long hiatus period, I was (and still am) deeply bothered with the events taking place in Egypt, and with a 7 pm - 6 am curfew, which has been in effect for almost a week now, and shall continue for 3 more weeks, there is barely an energy outlet for me or my family, especially the young kids who get bored by sitting still for just one minute.

That's why I decided to spend a few nights (despite my heartache) taking photos at home, and posting on this blog again instead of going crazy. As for Mic, he's quite busy nowadays and has no time to post here, I (or he) will let you know if there are any updates, but for now, you'll have to bear with me.

I received my Olympus 75mm f/1.8 last Saturday, and it's given me enough spark to ignite my interest in photography again during these hard times. As expected, I didn't have enough time to shoot with it in real world situations, so I will keep the full impressions for a later time. The lens feels quite hefty and well-built, and with a relatively huge front element, it looks classy and very cool, it immediately reminded me of the Canon 85 1.8 and the 200L 2.8 which both have a large front element. As all reviews have mentioned, it is very sharp wide-open (it might even beat the 200L, but I have yet to shoot more photos). Focus is not as instantaneous as the Olympus 45 1.8 or the PanaLeica 25 1.4, but I consider it a quick focusing lens, considering that I only shot with it indoors.

And to let you know how lucky US citizens are when it comes to purchasing electronics and gadgets, here's a snapshot of what I paid for the lens (by the way, after I placed my order on Amazon, the lens price got reduced to $799 the day after, lucky me).

The "Our Fees" part are the fees of the shipping company, and I ended up paying $15 for international shipping fees, it is calculated after the item arrives and gets weighed, you pay $7.5 for each 0.5 kg. And at the end of the day, you don't get local warranty because it is bought from the US of A. And no, it is not available from Olympus Egypt (which doesn't exist).

You've all seen the new Panasonic GX7 camera, now that's a well-specced, very good looking camera, especially the silver version. I've said before that I would buy the OM-D EM-5 successor which was rumored to be announced next month. Would the GX7 be a worthy upgrade for me? Reviews said it has comparable image quality to the OMD, a viewfinder inferior to the Olympus VF-4 (which is the major point for me), inferior image-stabilization system compared to the EM-5 and the EP-5, and it doesn't have phase detection auto-focusing. Additionally, my Olympus flash and intervalometer would probably not work with it, so it is not worth the hassle.

However, if I were in the market today for a new high-end MFT camera, I would consider the GX7. The EP-5 is a great camera, but when you add the VF-4, it becomes oddly large and expensive, and the VF-4 takes up the hot-shoe, I use my OMD a lot with my Olympus FL600R flash mounted on top. And that brings us to the upcoming Olympus camera, the leaked OM-D EM-1, it will supposedly sit above the EM-5 and cost somewhere around $1,500!!! It better has some super capabilities at this price point. Rumors say the EM-5 successor will come some time next year, hmm.

I would consider the EM-1 if it achieved the following points (sorted by order of importance to me):

• Size not larger than the EM-5 with the hand grip installed.
• PD focusing that works and can track moving subjects like a DSLR can.
• Similar EVF to the current VF-4.
• Lower base ISO and higher maximum shutter speed.
• Better video options (mic input, manual audio levels, focus peaking, touch to focus, 1080p @ 60 fps, etc...)
• Better image quality (they say it won't have an anti-aliasing filter).
• Uses same battery as the EM-5.

Otherwise, I would wait for the EM-5 successor, or wait until GAS hits me. Which brings us to a more important point. With the increasing price points of high-end MFT cameras, and the expensive quality glass, what edge does the MFT system have over an APS-C camera other than the obvious size and weight difference? You can get a D7100 or a 70D body for $1,200, and you'd get a larger sensor, more resolution and higher image quality.

As I see it now, high-end MFT systems are facing tough competition, with a few advantages that can be argued both ways, but I will leave that to another topic. I will be away for a while. I am preparing a guest post for 43rumors.com that will take some time to finish, I will let you know when it's up.

Different Cameras & Lenses, Same Point of View

This should be an interesting post to some of you, see that swing in the picture? I take pictures of my daughters ever year in the summer on this exact swing, where they spend the summer vacation time by the seaside. I wanted to make a comparison between the different pictures taken from the spot, with different cameras and lenses, over the years.

What camera/lens combination would you say was used to capture the above picture?

A Tale Of Seven Cameras, And One Subject

One camera to rule them all!

Welcome to one of my fairly long posts, but I promise you this will be an interesting one. There has been a lot of changes in my life recently, in some ways, I am re-calculating my priorities in my life, a lot of changes have resulted from this, selling all of my full frame gear was one of those changes, it's not about money, but rather time and much needed optimization, for example I sold my iPad since it consumes too much time that I could spend with my family instead, another thing I did was to remove a lot of blogs from my RSS feed. I am now giving less priority to photography (and photography blogging) than I used to do, that's why my last post was almost one month ago, and I apologize for this delay, but I admit I cannot spare time to blogging more than once or twice a month (there might be exceptions of course), and this takes us to the main topic of this blog, the tale of seven cameras, and my daughter.