A Fun E-Mx Comparison

 

It has been a long time since my last post, and I am sorry for for not giving prior notice, but I have been traveling ever single weekend for the past month, and I still have a couple more weekends to go, this kills any spare time I have for posting here, but I am able to squueze some time to share a few fun photos with you. As you might notice, I don't have my regular signature on the photos, and the photos are larger than usual (do click them to see a larger version), the reason is that I have prepared all this post on the iPad, the collages in this post (with the grungy color effects below) were prepared using Autodesk's Pixlr+ app, resized to 2500px, and uploaded and posted using the Blogsy app.

Say Hello To My New Friend

 

Finally! More to come later.

Posted with Blogsy

Fisheye Fun

This will be a short post, remember the fisheye lens I bought a while ago?

I have been having some fun with it, and I want to share one picture with you here. We had a team outing at work a couple of weeks ago, and I was one of the event organizers (that's why -as you'll see- I was wearing a high visibility vest), I was also taking pictures for the day. I took the OM-D and three lenses, the 12-50 for group shots, the 75mm for candid portraits, and the fisheye for some fun.

The photo you see above was taken by mounting the camera on a monopod, raising it high above the net, and using my Yongnuo RF-603 trigger to release the shutter. I was shooting at f/8 and 7 fps (the camera can reach 9 fps, but then the image stabilization would be off). I wish the camera's LCD would tilt 90 degrees downwards (it only reaches ~ 45 degrees) so that I can see it from below. I composed the image as best as I can, then I watched the game and use the trigger when I thought there was good action. Some friend took a picture of me while I was shooting a different game, but it's the same concept.

Posted with Blogsy

A Fish-eye, A Dell Monitor & Wireless Printing

The sexy looking OM-D EM-5, and the Bower 7.5mm Fish-eye

Today I want to tell you about three new gadgets that I've recently acquired. Hit the jump for the full post.

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 Meaningless Experiment

I was setting up a few lights at home to shoot pictures of my daughters, and I took the picture you see above while testing the hair light, you can see it is quite hot (I ended up reducing it by one stop), and what you can't see, is that it is causing lens flare, because it was not gridded.

The OM-D Visits Europe - Part 2 (Poland)

Taking a stroll in Mielec, Olympus 45mm 1.8 @ f/2.8

This is part two of my visit to Europe, in part one, I told you the story about my visit to Stockholm, I encourage you to read it if you like travel photography and stories. In this post I will show you lots of pictures from my visit to Poland.

The OM-D Visits Europe - Part 1 (Stockholm)

Västerbron Bridge, Stockholm

It has been a long time since my last post, and I apologize, the past couple of months were quite hectic, and I traveled a lot, both inside and outside of Egypt. In this series, I will be telling my story about my recent visit to Europe, and I hope you will enjoy it, and forgive my lack of posts. Hit the jump for the full post.

Phone Photography, Mirorrless Happiness And The OM-D EM-6

Say hello to my new phone. I have been a faithful Samsung Galaxy S owner since the series was first introduced more than three years ago, I owned the original Galaxy S, the Galaxy S II, the Galaxy S III, and now the latest Galaxy S4 (yes, Samsung ditched the Roman numerals). You see, here in Egypt we don't have the concept of carrier locked phones and 2 year contracts, phones are usually (97%) sold unlocked, and you have zero obligation to stay with a single carrier, that's why there is a huge market for buying and selling used phones, and that's what I do, once a new model is announced, I make a deal with someone to buy my phone, and the exchange date is once I have the new phone in my hands. People like to buy from me because I treat my phones really well, and they rarely have a scratch on them, despite never using any screen protectors or covers.

But we're not going to talk about phones all day now, are we? Hit the jump to go back to photography.

Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 Summilux

OM-D & Leica 25mm f/1.4 (taken with the Sony RX100, check the end of the post for a BTS)

This Leica lens is one of the great lenses available for MFT (Micro Four Thirds), it gives you a fast f/1.4 aperture, a favorite 50mm equivalent focal length, good sharpness, small size, fast focusing, and special image rendering.

In this post I will attempt to write down my impressions after using this combo for a few months now.

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.