Some quick OMD Shots

[ajohnw]

As some hoped I would post some shots with it here are a couple. All quickly done from jpg. Looks like the camera has the same tendency to wash out white as per a Pen from some I haven't posted but they are so close they should be easy to get from raw. I found one feature a surprise - had used the camera in the house on manual focus and didn't bother looking round the viewfinder to check the settings before taking some of these - still in manual focusing. The focusing rate on manual seems to be a big improvement over the pen. I've programmed a button to switch to manual focusing as it allows independent metering. I used the video button for that.

The camera was on auto iso. Info in the exif's

12-50mm zoom 50mm full image



100% res crop from the same shot. I have the impression this a little down on the Pen 14-42mm not sure as it depends what's in the shot.



12-50mm zoom at 12mm. A little more work done on this one. Shaded area lightened a little and tone mapped.




And last but not least the Panasonic 100-300mm, At 300mm. About 1/3 size crop maybe. Now I have used it I'm sure I shouldn't have bought the 45-200mm. Looks like it is a better lens as well.



John
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[thequacksoflife]

are you using the grip on the EM-5??

I'd agree the 100-300 is a better lens than the 45-200. For travel photography I think the missing bit between xx-100 MAY be an issue but as a lens no question I agree with you.

Ooh you had Goosanders on the lake!

[Black Pearl]

Have you tried the Live Bulb Mode yet - got to be one of the best inventions in recent years.

[ajohnw]

I have a lot to try on the EM-5. I;'m not even sure what live bulb mode is. Weather has been crap round here of late so all I have really done is 20 odd snaps in the hope of something decent coming out. The shadow in the one shot is typical. Hazy sunshine but it never lasts long and it's generally been wet as well. I haven't downloaded a manual yet either - annoyed that the camera only came with a quick start guide, Paper manuals have to be bought. It's the same with the E-P3. The E-PL1 came with one.

One the lens. In my 35mm days many bought 135mm. I didn't I went for 200mm and bought a 100mm later. I often found 200mm was too short to be a really useful telephoto. It was more useful for limited depth of field in some ways.On That basis providing I can crop sensibly out of shots taken with the 12-50mm I'm not really concerned about the missing part to 100mm. I do have the Pen 40-150mm though but I prepared to bet that I will hardly use it. The 45-200 will probably go on ebay after Xmas.

Glad nobody commented on the photo's. They really are just snaps taken while my wife was at a farmers market in between showers and the odd mins of sunlight. Very nice bacon butty though along with Tai scotch eggs. I often use the same area to see what I have bought camera and lens wise.

John
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[ajohnw]

Ah I have found what live bulb mode is. No I haven't tried it but have a fair idea what is going on. I took some 10 sec star exposures with my E-P3. At the end of each one there was a long period of card activity. A very long period but much shorter than the exposure time. I suspect the camera takes a series of shorter exposures and then adds them. Maybe the E-M5 does the same thing on the fly allowing the user to view the progress. I've seen some indication on compacts that this sort of thing fits in with Sony sensors. Rumour also has it that Sony are working on building phase detection into the actual sensor and this is why Nikon have also switched sensor supplier.

I have used live view boost. The live view light levels usually mimic the exposure setting. Boost makes the view as bright as is possible. That allowed me to easily manually focus on stars for instance. That is on the E-P3 too. The E-M5 also has direct over and under exposure indication in the view plus the usual preview indication of the same. On the 1st one Dpreview advise using that rather than the histogram. Makes sense to me.

One thing that surprised me was the so called super menu that allows instant access to things that may need changing between shots and more. I don't rate touch screens as I need mild reading glasses. Looks like I can read what's on it without glasses so I may well use it as a more comprehensive control than the multifunction button. There are so many control options pass. Initially I have set it up to get at things that I couldn't easily change on a Pen. It looks like that may not be the best way to go but it is very dslr like.

On touch screens my only grumble is that it can't be reversed so that the screen is up against the camera body leaving a plain metal back to the camera but that relates to the fact that I don't generally use them. Sadly no built in flash either. I generally wont buy a camera unless it has that. They can be very useful. The clip on one supplied is just something else to carry around.

John
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