The Micro Four Threads Third

Accidentally came out wrong but I like it.

So, have been using the E-P1 intermittently for about a week now, with various c-mount 25mm f/1.9 lenses and recently a Voigtlander 12mm f/5.6. Thoughts - well, the E-P1's performance, at least how I have it configured, doesn't match a real DSLR yet in terms of shot to shot speed. Despite using it on MF, there is still a delay between shots, and still some shutter lag. I've read somewhere that the shutter lag is caused by the metering - to fix, press half down to lock the meter then make the exposure. Will try this out.

NB: since the following images have been downsized to 800x600 or thereabouts, you won't get to pixel peep at stuff like noise and sharpness and all that stuff. I shot RAW+JPEG and did some post processing in Aperture on the JPEGs - I know fuckall about image editing and these adjustments are just what looks best to me, which usually involves Can't wait for Aperture to support E-P1 RAWs, which I estimate will occur sometime in 2015.

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/P7280352.jpg

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/P7310631.jpg

All my 25mm f/1.9's vignette, which effectively turns my E-P1 into a $650 Holga. Nice!

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/P7310478.jpg

Shot at ISO 1600 - noise at 1600 is much better than my E-520.

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/P7310555.jpg

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/P7310570.jpg

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/P73106211.jpg

Was raining in NYC and struggled to find a ISO/aperture combination to keep the shutter speed above 250. As you can see noise is very prominent when the image is underexposed. Not sure how the RAWs will clean up but the JPEGs seem to be okay. The first two are 800 I believe, and the last one is 6400, which is probably unusable IMO even in B&W. All of these were with the VC 12mm.

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/P8010673.jpg

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/P7310513.jpg

Corner sharpness using the VC 12mm seems perfectly fine - I'm not really a pixel peeper though. The only thing I had trouble with was shooting at such small apertures, that and the fact that I'm still learning my way around the camera. Biggest peeve in terms of usability was the delay in-between shots, which was often a second or more even if you mash on the shutter button right after you take a picture. Thinking one of those Sandisk ultra-fast SD cards might improve it. Considering exchanging the VC 12mm for a VC 15mm which gives a 30mm EFOV and about 2/3 more of a stop - however have read corner-smearing is more pronounced with it. One thing about the VC 12mm is that the focusing range is so small - about 80% of the range is from 1 feet to 5 feet, then it's infinity. The VC 15mm seems a little bit more flexible as it goes from 1 to 10 feet before infinity.

Manual focusing with the 25mm f/1.9's isn't so bad - in fact I've gotten pretty good at guesstimating focus with it. Feel that it works better with lenses that have short focusing ranges. All of my c-mounts do about 330 degrees from short focus to infinity - so you get stretches where you're turning the barrel and not seeing any change at all on the screen, which is frustrating. Manual-focusing the 12mm is almost impossible unless you're zoomed in, cause everything's so small on the screen!

It's still not 100% of the camera I hoped it would be when I purchased it, but a lot of it is stuff that ought to be fixable in firmware, and Oly generally has a pretty good history with firmware updates. Worth paying the early adopter fee? I certainly feel much more liberated when using it - the shutter sound is barely noticeable on the street, I feel much less self-conscious than when hearing the mechanical whir of my E-520. Still wish it could be quieter however.

Lightroom already supports the new Panasonic micro-4/3rds camera (as of v2.4), so E-P1 support can't be far behind. But that doesn't help with Aperture (are they usually a bit behind Adobe with raw support?).

I have read that the E-P1 seems to be optimised for use with the kit lenses (and I've seen surprisingly good images with the 14-42mm) so the wide mount compatibility may be a bit of a double-edged sword.

The shots above seem a bit oversharpened (but soft at the same time) but that could be a result of the resizing. You don't do Flickr, do you? Cos you could do click-through links to images there where, if so inclined, people could pixel-peep at the original/larger sizes. 12mm is plenty wide enough though, isn't it?

Yeh! Aperture is notoriously slow for new camera support, they have yet to support the G1/GH1 for example. I think much of it has to do with how they're planning on supporting the metadata about lens distortion and CA correction. Olympus Studio (Olympus's in-house software) is a pig to use. Downloaded Raw Photo Processor which 'supports' the E-P1 but that's also a pig to use.

You're right about Olympus optimizing for their own lenses - and it seems to extend to their 4/3 lenses as well. The E-P1 is different from other current Oly offerings in that it has a significantly reduced anti-aliasing filter over the sensor, so Oly lenses, which were designed to provide obscene amounts of resolution for the smaller 4/3 sensor, really shine on it. There are some pics in the DPReview M4/3 forum taken with a 14-54mm which look stellar in terms of absolute IQ - too bad I've already sold mine, ha, ha. One guy on there thinks it takes even better pics than his 1DsMkIII w/ 85/1.2L!

Good eye on the oversharpening - I discovered yesterday that I had accidentally set the Sharpness in-cam to +2 because of reading that doing so helped with focusing on the LCD. I do have a Flickr, but cleaned it out in a fit of reorganizing pique a few weeks ago and haven't really thought about how to put things up back up again in a way that makes sense. Plus I'm not really a fan of how they tend to apply a saturation curve to all the pics.

Thinking about getting a Voigtlander 21mm f/4 for a 42mm 'normal' FOV. The 12mm is almost too wide - I've never shot with a 24mm EFOV lens! Very challenging to use - it'll take a while to learn how to 'see' with it. Wish Panasonic would hurry up and release their 20mm/1.7 pancake already.

One guy on there thinks it takes even better pics than his 1DsMkIII w/ 85/1.2L!

Oh, come on now! But I could see how you could take pictures with this camera and a small zoom that you simply couldn't attempt with a beast like 1Ds3/85L.

Re: Flickr
Plus I'm not really a fan of how they tend to apply a saturation curve to all the pics.

Really?! Can't say I've ever noticed this and I've got thousands of pics up there.

Hah, yeah, I couldn't really see any difference but here you go: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1041&thread=32547875&page=1

Since the judging audience were primarily non-camera folk maybe they preferred the Oly colors better. When I had my 10D I wasn't a fan of how 'cool' the pics came out sometimes.

Re: Flickr - Hmmm, I dunno, but all the pics I've seen on there always tend to be bright and punchy no matter what. Picasa and Photobucket on the other hand tend to 'wash' pics out.

I really should bite the bullet and just get the 17mm pancake and enjoy modern niceties like AF.

I think there has become something of a Flickr style - mad, popping colours garner views and faves and stupid animated GIF "awards", etc. It's almost become the signature community style by osmosis.

I'm not immune to it - in fact, it's quite a shock when I put a 2007 photo next to a 2009 photo, how much more I saturate now. Not only have I come to prefer those sort of in-camera settings but I work up RAW images to be moderately punchy too. Photos I thought were good portraits two years ago look quite bland to me now.

Yeah I feel the punchy Flickr colors are sort of a response to the whole 'flat' look of digital in general - S-curves go a long way towards reclaiming that awesome film color.

Here are some more from today, shot in good light - some wide open, some at f/8. These are to my flickr - not sure how you can do a clickthrough on here so here's a direct link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel_yao/

Playing with the built in spirit level inside a Dollar store:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2462/3785720367_92db7e7f44.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2608/3785712683_d39752547c.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2457/3785705381_9447bd968c.jpg

Outside my house:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3423/3785698281_b5e3144fe1.jpg

Some pics of lol america:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2662/3786499472_7a689c404a.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2508/3785683715_541d7c28d7.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3460/3786486190_73e0684c7b.jpg

Some of the corner softness inside the store is cause the corners are not in the plane of focus - some of it is because of the stretching. I don't mind - people who only look at corners in a picture are a bit perverse, anyway.

Cleaning the front element of the 12mm and already found a small nick in the coating. Ugh - that's probably a $100 off the resale value right there. O well

Oh, these are loads better. It's going to be a great street/verite camera, isn't it?

(For clickthroughs, go to All Sizes, choose Medium, copy the HTML from "option 1", and "Convert simple HTML to BBcode" before you post).

Made you a contact, btw.

Likewise. Really love the set from the parking lot. Did you do a lot of processing on them? They look very like transparency to me, a very natural quality. Am excited about this cam again.

Thanks guys! Reciprocated - you both have some great stuff in your stream!

Michael - yeah, I can't wait til I can get a 28 o

stet - nah, these are straight from the camera, under 'Natural' settings. May switch it to 'Vivid' and see how those turn out. Olympus probably has the best in-camera JPEG engine on the market, according to a lot of the big review houses

whoops that thought went unfinished - can't wait til I get a 28 or 35 equivalent with 2.8, or until Oly fixes their AF to make it at least as fast as the Panasonic's - then I might get the 17mm pancake

Ugh discovered that I managed to put a nice little ragged scratch on the bottom casing. Probably after the warranty expires on this thing I'll take it apart and spray paint the top and bottom parts black.

Received the leatherette kit from Aki-Asahi and have applied it - it looks quite fetching in person, reminds me of my old Canonet.

http://666kb.com/i/bbajmmdkyqm11jqkf.jpg

new supposed Panasonic answer to the E-P1 - looks like there will be an attachable EVF judging by the port below the hotshoe, which looks just like the one found on Ricohs with attachable EVFs

some people have done size comparisons - despite the fact that it lacks in-body IS, it's about as thick and a little bit shorter length-wise than the E-P1

well you can't see the port in that pic above, but 43rumors.com has more pics

the 20mm pancake looks more fleshed out than it did in mock-up demo pictures, hopefully Panasonic will sell it separately, but they have an extremely spotty record with regards to product availability

took these in SF this past week. think I'm finally getting used to this, after having made an estimated 1500 exposures since owning it! camera in general is very discreet - out of about 4 days of shooting only 1 person realized I took a picture of him, and I think he was one of the numerous SF crazies. outside of SFMOMA some guy with a Leica M8 and a 35mm Summilux stopped and asked me about it - he even let me put the Summilux on my E-P1 - thing is crazy sharp, I had no problem nailing focus without the MF zoom, but of course it was 70mm EFOV.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3434/3806567760_66ef395e01.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2529/3806570708_a3cc40b05e.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2498/3805757267_82ca7a8ab0.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2435/3805760065_5409e6a8dc.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2559/3806580192_eb0f52e15c.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3509/3805767029_e3abf3d1c9.jpg

Good stuff. You know you've got a desirable thing if strangers are lending you their Summicrons. Guy in the park on Saturday with a Leica R9 (with digital back) certainly wasn't offering me his Summicron. Not that I could've done anything with it.

I was given an old OM20 at the weekend, so, if anyone near me gets a E-P1 and an adaptor, I've got a nice Zuiko 50/1.8 they can play with.

I didn't know R9s could be fitted with digital backs! I don't know anything about Leica's SLR system in general so... obviously the sensible thing for all DSLR manufacturers to do is to come out with models with interchangeable backs, but then how would they make their money?

I love OM cameras - smaller than the Canon/Nikon equivalents but yet still so usable. it's funny to me that no matter how advanced DSLRs can get, their viewfinders still pale in comparison to even the most basic of 70s SLRs. I've shot with 1D and 1Ds's and they still didn't match my old OM-G.

The excellently-named OM-G was actually the same camera as this:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2461/3812474258_07cf979956.jpg

Shot some nice, sharp pics with the Zuiko-S 50/1.8 on Sunday but I do wonder whether I have a light leak...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2669/3811662207_edf9362a59.jpg

But it's not on all the frames - this shot of some marigolds is fine:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3564/3812475190_5566259805.jpg

I am still rocking my OM-10.

is that slidefilm? looks super saturated! I see your 50/1.8 has 'made in japan' on the nose - those were reputed to be the best of the Zuiko 50/1.8's. xp

glad to see so many OM users on here; maybe we should start a ILX Flickr group. I have a 50/1.4 on mine - thought about getting adapters and stuff for the E-P1 but figured I might be able to find some Pen F lenses for about the same price, and it'll make for a smaller footprint. almost pulled the trigger on a 24/2.8, I lust after the 24/2.0 and the 21/3.5 and 2.0 (!)

It's Photoworks ASA 200 negative film - a friend from the US left a couple of rolls here a while ago (they appear to be a Seattle-based company, I don't know whether this is rebranded Fuji or something - there's no manufacturer name on the negatives). It's actually a year beyond its expiry date.

They're breathed on a little in Lightroom but I didn't really saturate them any more, just filled in the bottom end and altered the yellows a bit to tally with the prints. Nice mid-to-late afternoon summer light. Do wonder about that light leak though.

Along with the OM20 and the Zuiko 50/1.8, my friend gave me a Miranda 28/2.8 and a Vivitar flashgun. Very odd feeling of deja vu using it - I think my brother had this very camera (I thought it was the older OM10 but that wouldn't have been compatible with his motor drive) and I took pictures at his (first) wedding with it in Feb '85. He got all his SLR gear stolen on holiday a year or so later and never got back into it.

mid-to-late afternoon light is great light to shoot in, and a big neener-neener to all those who still shoot in B&W exclusively. you ought to be able to find a DIY kit on eBay to fix the light leak - I remember buying a kit for about twenty bucks to fix a couple of old fixed lens rangefinders (Canonet, XA) , and it came with strips of foam in all sorts of widths as well as lots of black felt. I think they claimed there was enough material to fix 10 or so cameras in a kit. you might as well replace them anyway since the camera's getting on what, 40 years old?

Not quite that old - OM20 was 1983. May look into that kit. It wouldn't be that much of a chore to just tape the hell out of the thing with every new film. What with the Bronica, the FTb, the EOS 10, the EOS IX7, the Blackbird Fly and the K1000 all competing for attention (and with me trying to keep processing costs under £20/month), it's not like I change film often*. 24 exposures on one trip to the park was very unusual.

(* in fact there's now a danger than the bunch of new 120/135 film we bought last year will go past expiry just like all the old film we scored on Freecycle to start us on this whole daft adventure in the first place)

that's quite a collection! tape sounds like it'd work - or you could leave it as is to get a little of that Lomo feel

was interested in the E-P1 at 1600 ISO and took it out - 5.6 @ 1600 and 0.3 EV got me around 1/80-1/120 shutter speeds in the brightly lit streets of HK. still on the lookout for a reasonably wide fast lens - come oooon, Panny 20mm/1.7.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3427/3837947045_f7b6d5553e.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3518/3838737866_860f2c0b52.jpg

lol hipster w/ asian girlfriend

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3529/3837950067_1fb10b9e27.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2613/3838741078_5f566cb9ee.jpg

it's not really a camera until you've taken a picture of a baby with it is it? this is with an old Canon 50mm/1.8 - for the Canon rangefinder systems. has 10+ aperture blades for that smooth and creamy bokeh. contrast is a little low - but good overall.

GF1 info out on DPR!

it has an EVF! 20mm 1.7 details also released. everything but the price.

looks like the EVF doesn't match the G1/GH1's:

The G1 and GH1 have been widely praised for their high resolution viewfinders; the Olympus E-P1 criticized for it's lack of one. The GF1 sits somewhere between the two, offering an optional 'Live View Finder' (the DMC-LVF1), which clips onto the hot shoe. The resolution is nothing like the G1/GH1 (202k pixels), nor is the finder anywhere near as large - it's more like a mid-range bridge or super zoom camera than an SLR (the LVF1 gives you around 0.52x magnification, compared to the G1's 0.7x magnification). From a size point of view, therefore, it's not far off most entry-level digital SLRs, but from a resolution point of view you're not going to be using it for fine focus checking.

But it does work, and it does allow you to use the camera at eye level if that's how you prefer to shoot, and in very bright light (where the main screen suffers the usual glare problems.

The viewfinder image may be small and you may be able to see the pixels, but it's pretty sharp and contrasty, and has a high frame rate (60fps). Best of all you can tilt it up through 90 degrees; great for macro and studio work. We understand the downgrade from the G1/GH1 (apparently the engineers did try, but it proved impossible to make a removable version), but we're slightly disappointed that, unlike its bigger siblings, the GF1 doesn't have the option to use the main screen as a status panel when shooting with the viewfinder; it's one or the other.

gear lust dying down. definitely going to try to source one of the 20mm f/1.7...

Oh, that's really nice! Do you miss the vewfinder on the Oly?

Leica making a big announcement next week too.

I kind of do, actually - manual-focusing is a pain on the LCD. it's not really a problem when shooting with a wide-angle, but it's a big pain when shooting with a portrait length/telephoto; not only do you have to zoom in to adjust focus, but you have to keep the camera very steady otherwise the image jumps all over the place.

I may be chasing after a white whale when I say I want an EVF or a LCD screen that can fine-focus without zooming in; I don't remember being too impressed by the G1's EVF when I played around with it ages ago.

scuttle seems to be that the leica announcement will be the m9 and, uh, something else

Presumably the GF1 with a leica badge on it and an M lens.

http://leicarumors.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/leica-x1.jpg

X1 announced! less exciting than I thought it would be. basically a fixed lens w/ an APC-S sensor, no optical finder. you could get a E-P1 or GF1 kit with a 35mm/2.8 or 40mm/1.7 equivalent for less than half the price. but that's always been the rub with Leica hasn't it?

I'd seriously consider selling everything and a kidney if it had an optical finder - would just be like using one of the old fixed lens rangefinders, like a Canonet or Oly RC.

also makes me feel better about my E-P1 having a "cheap" LCD when the X1 has one that's 1. smaller and 2. the same res!

GF1 reviewed over at DPReview, and tbh, I think it would suit my needs much better than the E-P1...

picked up a 20mm 1.7 the other week; some usability issues on the E-P1. hoping a firmware update will improve things

Had an extended play with the Panasonic G1, GF1 and Oly E-P1 in a store over the weekend; the G1 is really terrific, I think. The way it handles (that rubberised body!), the speed of the AF, the clarity of the EVF. Really impressive.

G1 is also the cheapest of the bunch - you can probably pick up a used G1 body in the US for $3-400 on the 'Bay

NB, the rubberized coating is said to be flimsy and will wear off after extended use

so: i'm debating between the G1, GH1, GF1, and the Oly?

i don't see the advantage that the g1 has for its extra size - you'd be better off going with a larger sensor dslr i think. the gh1 looks better if you're into video, otherwise i think it's the gf1 for its portability - supposedly faster autofocus and better screen would swing it for me over the olympus.

i'm just going on specs and samples though, sure that dyao has more insight.

Yeah, from all the reviews I've been seeing, the EP-1 is pretty great, but the GF-1 is all kinds of better at focusing.

the ability to do video is actually pretty tempting, to be honest, but the GF1's portability is v appealing

going to B&H in Manhattan on Monday to check out:

GF1
LX3
G11
Kx (thanks, ledge)

GF1 looks amazing but, of course, $$$

what are your requirements gbx? I think there are two big factors in choosing among the current crop of M43 cameras:

viewfinder - are you absolutely sure you don't need a viewfinder? choosing a GF1 opens you to an optional electronic viewfinder, but the current attachable one for the GF1 is not as good as the built-in one for the G1/GH1 nor the attachable one for the E-P2 (which is not cross-compatible, sadly)

focusing speed - do you expect DSLR-like focusing speed? GF1 has this, plus is all around more responsive than an E-P1 (which can be a little sluggish, especially if you're changing a lot of settings at once).

my personal recommendation would be a GF1 kit with the 20mm - perfect all rounder. the main advantage of the GH1 is that it comes with a nice, video-ready 14-150 zoom with silent AF, and that it has a great EVF.

GF1 can also do video, just not 1080p I think - it has a dedicated video button which is more convenient than the video mode on the E-P1s dial. 720P is still pretty great - I shot this at my local coffee shop...sure it could look way better if I knew the first thing about post processing video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjvPKCMkW1Y

IMO the main advantage of a M43 system over a compact DSLR system is the portability. the shutter sound, although different than the mirror slap, can be just as obtrusive - IIRC you did a lot of people photography in Africa, so that might be worth considering, how obtrusive you want to be. the responsiveness is a little worse than even an entry-level DSLR (at least in the E-P1's case) - the GF1's supposed to be better. AF is almost as good or as good as an entry-level DSLR - but certainly won't be as fast as a top of the line Canikon.

also think about lens choice - at the moment I think there's only one killer lens out there right now for the M43 system and that's the Panasonic 20mm (40mm equivalent). however, the AF speed is not as fast as the 14-45, although it's still pretty fast. Panasonic and Olympus have released lens roadmaps and there's a 14mm (28mm equivalent) coming from Panasonic next year. NB prices for M43 stuff is still pretty inflated - for the price of a GF1 kit with 20mm you could easily get a secondhand DSLR with maybe 2-3 good lenses.

I think if you can afford to wait, next year's going to bring a lot of new stuff - if rumors are to be believed, other manufacturers are going to get into the mirrorless, large sensor compact camera market, which will drive prices down all around. as it stands right now, I think the GF1 is the best iteration of all the good things about M43 - portable, responsive, great image quality (if you process from RAW - its JPEGs leave a lot to be desired).

hmmm

thanks for the info! i'm only paying for part of this thing, as it is gonna be a xmas present from the fam. i AM mostly interested in people pictures, and will likely do everything RAW by default. i had fun with the pics i took this summer, and learning the ins and outs of processing actually appeals to me.

the lack of a viewfinder kinda annoys, but i guess the external one is ok?

ah actually the external one is pretty lame compared to the one built in to the G1/GH1 and the external one for the E-P2! maybe Panasonic will release a better one in the future?

one thing I forgot to mention is that the E-P1/E-P2 both have in-body image stabilization - basically the camera moves the sensor to compensate for any shaking of the camera. lets you shoot with a slower shutter speed - of course it won't help if your subject is moving, but it's great for still life, especially nighttime shots.

lol unfortunately nobody's released a "dream" M43 camera yet that has everything - yer gonna have to pick yer poison. I think the following links will be germane to your decision:

DPReview real-world comparison between GF1/E-P1
DPReview focusing speed comparison
Thom Hogan's GF1 review/E-P1 comparison
Mike Johnston (online photographer) compares the two part I
part II

in the end it's gonna be six of one, half dozen of the other. no matter which you get I think it'll be fine for people photography - people will just think you're using an oversized digicam, not a real professional SLR. hope it works out for you!!

GF1 Fieldtest

sounds like it was written by a panasonic pr rep. but whatever

Got the GF1 today, 20mm lens. And then dropped it on the pavement within the first hour.

By the time I got it light was gone for the day, so not a lot of fieldtesting. But it's a very pleasing device so far.

congratulations! share some pics when you get it up and running. look at it this way: you got the camera's first nick out of the way, now you don't have to be paranoid about it anymore. I dinged my E-P1 within the first three days

these are all using the iA mode

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2679/4201596047_77e565f386_b.jpg
should have used exposure bracketing on this one. blown out highlights in outdoors shots will be common, apparently.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2802/4201598971_04dd00989d_b.jpg
you may have heard that it snowed yesterday in nyc

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2662/4201609787_6607b823b0_b.jpg
this trip to the airport was such a failure i have to go back tomorrow

those look good! yeah I usually shoot at -0.3 EV, although if you shoot with the live histogram and dedicate a dial to changing exposure you can keep blown highlights in check

..>~pending~<..

btw what do you guys know about using an optical viewfinder (eg voigtlander) with the GF1? i've heard some say the 35mm is the best, others the 40mm

(for use with 20mm pancake, obv)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/atto77/4208165691/in/photostream/

guhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

think i'm gonna do this

I have a 35mm viewfinder with the 20mm pancake - I like it fine. I think the 35mm is better because you can see outside the 'edges' of the shot like in a rangefinder. however you won't know what you're focusing on/need to prefocus before you shoot.

read somewhere that the trick is to just listen for the autofocus to stop and then go with god

GF1: i spend a decent amount of time locking the AF and then re-framing, so that's a scary strategy for me.

i like ppl/editorial pics the best, and am kinda seat of the pants anyway, so firing away thru the OVF and checking the results later seems like it'll be a strategy that'll work for me

:D :D :D :D

so excited

♫ i own a camera ♫

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1389/1409492639_7867164d6b.jpg

waaaay too excited about this

I can promise you one thing: you'll annoy everyone around you by having the thing glued to your hand for the next few weeks. I'm still in that phase a month later. Good times.

congrats gbx!

i like ppl/editorial pics the best, and am kinda seat of the pants anyway, so firing away thru the OVF and checking the results later seems like it'll be a strategy that'll work for me

― into the young coconuts (gbx), Saturday, January 9, 2010 1:00 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark

pro tip: for this kind of shooting, turn on multi-spot AF and face detection. it'll automatically focus on whatever faces are present

and gbx, post pics! i love seeing what i could theoretically someday achieve.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4257598663_03901b6523_o.jpg

l-r: broek, gonna get an adaptor for that zeiss lens, <3

Ooh, what's the Zeiss lens on the Rollei? Is there a QBM-micro4/3 adaptor already out there? You might have to stack and go with QBM-M42-micro4/3.

I have an M42-mount Zeiss 135mm for my Canon (M42-EOS adaptor) and it's great.

yeah, i think i need two adaptors, so it'll be ungainly for sure

but it's a zeiss planar 1.8/50mm

that's a canonet right? what's wrong with it

film advance lever broek :(

also, got a leatherette kit for my lumix and it's pretty fly imo

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4298169921_05fc4f1b03.jpg

nice looking skin gbx! I've got one for my E-P1 as well.

new E-PL1 has canon G11 proportions:

http://olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/images/product/1501/epl1_camera_hand.jpg

unfortunately no new primes announced, but that 9-18 looks interesting

whoah that thing is dinky!

Damn, they're talking only $600 for the kit, too. So I guess ~$1k for the body plus one of the primes...

yeah but it sounds like making "manual" adjustments might be a PIA

yeah this camera is not really aimed at 'serious' photogs

I keep on getting an urge to buy one of these cameras every time I open this thread - I really should stop reading it!

Possibly disagree on not being aimed at serious photogs - even without easy manual adjustments, it might be an ideal carry camera for when someone doesn't want to bust out the SLR and big-ass zoom.

I'm looking for a small camera, either in the Ricoh GR-D III range on up the Panny/Oly 4:3s - I'm always in spots where I wish I had a camera, but the D700/50 combo is pretty difficult to be casual with and I can't afford a $10k M9 in this lifetime.

The EP-2/VF would be a good option - even though AF sucks, you can zone focus and go hyperfocal when there's enough light - but I read that it resets the focus point every time you turn it off/on.

you can set it not to reset (it's how I keep my panny 20mm set). the real problem with that setup is that there is /no/ focal scale, on the lens or in the camera - no digital scale at all. so you always, always have to guesstimate, which is a real pain. one alternative would be using the digital body with a manual lens with a real focus scale. but then you'd have to do some real-time calculations since the focus scales are set up for 35mm film, and you'll need to compensate for the smaller circle of confusion/etc. of m4/3

so I was an idiot and left my GF1 on a kitchen table in Ireland. a friend is posting it to me. obviously she doesn't have the proper plastic caps to remove the lens and then seal the camera and the lens properly.

is it best for her just to keep the camera intact and wrap it with lots of bubble wrap? or is there some risk that impact will ... ? i assume there's some reason the camera gets shipped with the lens off.

dammit.

lots and lots of
bubble
wrap

makes sense. ok, i'm breathing again, thanks.

keep the camera intact and use lots of bubble wrap and padding, it'll be fine

What's the lens? If it's the 20mm, it'll definitely be better left on there, well padded. In fact, unless it's some huge zoom, I think it'll be fine anyway.

20, yeah. My friend says she has things taken care of. Let go and let God.

Camera misplaced/lost/stolen/fell out of bag/???? on Friday night while out with old pal and at a party with strangers.

Totally gutted.

dude :( it'll probably turn up in a few days, try calling back.

else look on ebay for GF1s being sold in MN w/o accessories

I almost left my e-p1 on a bus in thailand, some guy gave it to me just as I was stepping off the bus.

yeah i've been keeping my eyes peeled on CL and ebay, and have been pestering everyone i know about it's whereabouts

:((((((

feelin you

Oh, man, what a nightmare. Do you have contents insurance that covers lost/stolen items outside the home?

Fingers crossed it'll turn up!
I left my backpack in a pub after an all day drinking session and only realised in the morning I'd left it somewhere, I couldn't remember where I'd been either.
I phoned every pub in the area and finally found the pub, someone had handed it in, I couldn't believe it.

i have been pestering every single establishment/person i was with that night about its whereabouts. theft seems less and less likely, and the worst possible situation seems more likely: it fell out of my messenger bag on the ride home

mess bags are always a little tilted, and the cam was sitting on top of clothing, which means that it literally could have rolled out of the bag and i might not have noticed it (i was listening to headphones on the bike path)

blech. i have no camera now :(

sorry to hear this :(

jesus, gbx, sympathies

can you claim on insurance?

dont thimnk so, not definitively stolen

If you have home insurance, it's be worth giving the company a call.

yeah so

thinkin about sucking it up and buying another cam

now the q is: used GF1, new GF1, or wait another six or so months for the GF2 to come out (which apparently will have an in body EVF???)

Still coveting the GF1+20/1.7; if I had the money I'd snap a used one up like a shot. There's always going to be a better model round the corner (unless you really missed the EVF?), I'd just go with what you know. Though the original Oly Pen (EP1) is now half-price in some places (though inferior in most ways).

I'd just go with what you know

yeah this makes sense. i'd just gotten comfortable with the thing when it got nicked.

gonna do some financial soul-searching here

Def used if you can find one right? Built like a fine-precision brick.

next q:

never bought anything from abroad on ebay (there are CHEAP NEW GF-1s in like taiwan) except for the $15 faux-leather skin for my old one (from Japan, from the manufacturer).

slightly nervous about wiring $700 overseas and not having much recourse if they are shady. is it worth $100 for, uh, transactional insurance, or am i just a) a noob or b) some kinda racist

the E-PL1 can be had new for as low as $525 on amazon... and it takes the olympus vf-2 evf, which by all accounts is better than the gf-1's EVF... and the AF speed is nearly on par with panasonic cams after the latest firmware.

as for q2 IME it's better to stay local when buying, check out photography forums for sale sections. these cameras in general are cheaper in the states than in Asia, believe it or not. for example this GF1 body is only $400 shipped. lots of gear forums out there, check out getdpi, fred miranda, mu-43, four thirds forum, etc. etc.

i have it now :D

Hurrah!

inexplicably brought it to work. like, just to have it nearby or something.

i usually keep mine nearby tbh

http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/voigt/v-lens/micro-ft/index.html

http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/voigt/v-lens/micro-ft/25-0.95-top.jpg

gf1 on its way 2 me

=D

what lens u get?

20mm package + 8gb card

i don't really know anything about the lenses :/

it was between that and a 14-45 lens

you made the right choice

one of us

good to know but why is it better? the 14-45 is a zoom right

i'd been wanting one of these for awhile thx to this thread btw. can't wait

better glass, according to CW

good to know but why is it better? the 14-45 is a zoom right

― (ㅅ) (am0n), Thursday, December 2, 2010 2:40 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

faster lens (2-3 1/2 stops faster depending on what zoom length)

better image quality

smaller, doesnt look like your camera has a chubby

lighter

its pretty awesome but.. maybe i should have waited for the gh2 since its got the viewfinder and high iso capability. the viewfinder for gf1 is like $150!

the lack of a VF is the only thing that bugs me about the gf1. i keep holding out hope that they'll upgrade the EVF but i have a feeling that'll never happen

do you have the current one

nope. and have never tried it out, either, mostly because THE INTERNET says its subpar. then again, i think there's a heavy helping of camera dork perfectionist at work in the reviews i've read where dudes are all "it can't do fine manual focusing" because i use AF basically all the time. i just want it for framing and bright light situations that glare out the screen

have considered getting an optical VF (like a voigtlander or oly). they're cheaper and look hella classy

thinking about this

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-7-14mm-Micro-Four-Thirds/dp/B0028Y5GKK

wait, no I'm not, it's almost a bill

I had that 7-14mm, had a bitch of a time selling it on the used market. you can find them for like 7-800 nowadays

nope. and have never tried it out, either, mostly because THE INTERNET says its subpar. then again, i think there's a heavy helping of camera dork perfectionist at work in the reviews i've read where dudes are all "it can't do fine manual focusing" because i use AF basically all the time. i just want it for framing and bright light situations that glare out the screen

have considered getting an optical VF (like a voigtlander or oly). they're cheaper and look hella classy

― BIG MUFFIN (gbx), Saturday, December 4, 2010 2:22 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

if you only use the VF for framing, there won't be a big diff between the GF1 EVF and the GH1 EVF. if you're always using it to check critical focus on your flower shots or w/e then yeah it might be a big deal. but yeah $150 for the GH1 EVF is kinda a big deal.

optical VFs are pretty good, I used on on my E-P1, no complaints

errr $150 for the GF1 EVF.

why'd ya sell the lens?

cause I sold my E-P1! I'm shooting film atm

it was a great lens. but atm I have a voigtlander 12mm which is even wider

but yeah $150 for the GH1 EVF is kinda a big deal.

right, esp if all i need it for is framing. i've heard the Oly optical VF mates with the 20mm lumix lens pretty perfectly, and can be had for half the price.

i won't be getting any other lenses for my lumix for a v long time (if at all, tbh), so optical is a-ok in my book

http://grab.by/7IAP

yeah the oly is good because it's in 4:3 ratio, I used the voigtlander 35mm metal one which was good but displayed brightlines in a 3:2 ratio, I never really cared about what I caught in the edges of my pictures though so ~shrug~

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2687/4134711827_e14bb34d0f.jpg

ultra wides are def specialist lenses though, I only use mine like once or twice a month

also have been thinking that if my gf-1 is just gonna be a lo-pro fixed lens job, i should sell it and get that fujix100

how did we post at the same time O_O

yeah the fuji x 100 looks sexy, I would wait to see what reviews say

O_O

oh for sure. if the glass isn't better than the lumix, there's no point.

ultra wides are def specialist lenses though, I only use mine like once or twice a month

― .\ /. (dayo), Saturday, December 4, 2010 9:28 AM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

also have been thinking that if my gf-1 is just gonna be a lo-pro fixed lens job, i should sell it and get that fujix100

― BIG MUFFIN (gbx), Saturday, December 4, 2010 9:28 AM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark

attention stet we broke ilx

yeah I would also see about responsiveness, AF speed, menu interface, etc.

oh for sure. i'm not just gonna do it on an impulse anyway. probably can't afford it anyway!

i sent it back for an exchange :/

why?

decided i was kinda in over my head. used it for a couple days but it wasn't as portable as i'd like. great camera but i don't really require the jump in quality it provides and realized i just needed an upgrade of my point-and-shoot

not easy decision tho, it reminded me a lot of my first camera which was a old hand-me-down oly 35mm rangefinder

http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~yue/misc/oly35SPsm.JPG

sounds like you need an s95 then

otm haha

http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/af100/

neat

zeiss and schneider to join the M4/3 consortium

:o

admrl, can you hear me?

Fantastic news.

so ... a micro four thirds or a fuji finepix x100?

maybe if i wait long enough they'll do an x100 with a four thirds system?

Highly unlikely. The X100 sensor is based around a specific fixed lens (the 24/2) - they'd have to entirely redesign the sensor (microlenses that work for interchangeable lenses, etc.) and the optical viewfinder becomes much less useful.

Closest you could do is an Olympus PEN with EVF.

you know, i thought about this all day and i don't even know why i thought this was a reasonable comparison in the first place

good info to hear that the x100 won't have an interchangeable lens any time soon

The X100 looks amazing, but I've heard that the initial firmware has some usability issues.

As nice as the MFT offerings are right now, some long-awaited updates should be arriving soon (E-P3, a true GF1 replacement, etc).

This is intriguing: http://www.43rumors.com/ft5-panasonic-will-release-an-advanced-gf-camera-and-a-new-gh-successor/

the new 12mm f2 lens looks sick

i have been out of the loop. what lens? can these things focus quickly now?

the contrast-based autofocus on mirrorless cameras is based on the refresh rate of the sensor - how many fps can the sensor deliver to the processor so the processor can detect differences and move the focus in and out accordingly. apparently the new generation of olympus's cameras can do 120 fps and thus autofocus will be very quick in normal situations (still no promises for low light). I think Panasonic has always had this capability.

the new 12mm f/2 lens (24mm equiv) is pretty awesome, has a real manual focus ring with real stops, instead of the weird focus-by-wire setup of previous lenses. it has real dof scales too! they look paltry but at 12mm everything will be in focus.

http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/1106/olympus/12mmsnap-001.jpg

pretty

The new 45mm ƒ/1.8 is intriguing too.

I had a play with the Sony NXE-5N today, and it seems super-sweet. Looks perfect for replacing the tonne of glass and over-sized body I'm carting these days. Anybody got any opinions on them?

(There's also rumoured to be a Nikon mirrorless next week, but with a 2.7x crop! wtf?)

the criticisms I read about the NEX are that 1. menu system completely aimed at newbies, not intuitive at all and 2. the lenses are just ok and 3. the body is super small and thin, but isn't very ergonomic or user friendly? only an extended test run will tell you if these things are tolerable though.

That's been my impression as well, though I've only spent a couple hours futzing with a few display models. I suppose I could adapt, but the bodies felt very awkward coming from my GF1.

Interesting, thanks. The 7 seems better in the UI department; has two dials as well. There's a Zeiss lens coming too.

Whole area seems a bit compromisy right now tbh

so a friend of mine (really) is in the market for something GF1-ish. He's thinking about getting one of those just because I have one, but is there something Better these days?

well samsung entered the market for mirrorless compacts too, and there's the NEX mentioned above. I think the NEX and Samsung have larger sensors than M43 cameras? but personally I would still choose a M43 camera, since the lens lineup is vastly better imo.

or tell your friend to go all in and get an X100, lol

I didn't like the ergonomics of the previous generation NEX cameras - I don't really see the point of such a tiny body when the lenses are still pretty big. Might as well have a grip for the right hand on the NEX at that point. The NEX-7 w/ built in EVF is pretty fascinating, though.

I like the E-PL2 my dad has - with the Panasonic 20mm, it makes a great light/small package. I imagine between the NEX-7 and X100, Olympus will be coming down the pipe with a 'pro' u4/3 that has an EVF in it.

I told him to get the X100 (a fellowship is paying for it), but hes leery of not being able to swap lenses...even tho the gf1 he'd get would just have the prime, so I dunno

Supposedly there's a most enthusiast-friendly followup to the GF series in the pipe, but it's all rumour so far.

People with E-P3s seem to love them, and I've been interested in the G3. It's not much bigger than the GF1, and the EVF would be nice. I'd like to try one to see how improved the sensor really is for low-light shooting.

well it would depend on what his purposes were - if he just wants a smallish camera to document things, and hence isn't too terribly concerned with lens quality or image quality, then probably a GFx or EPx w/ zoom lens would be best? or a NEX w/ zoom lens?

well i think he wants something to build on---like, smallish and documentary, but that can make nice images if/when the time comes

i am also interested in the g3

Sounds like an E-PL3 or GF3 would suit him fine. He'd probably find a great deal on one of the last-generation models. All of the new Olympus bodies, save the E-P3, lack a built-in flash though. Would he mind?

the two wide angle primes look really sweet - 24mm f/2 equivalent?! 28 2.5 is not bad either. the 7-14 is a really sweet lens as well, and the f/4 aperture isn't so important since it's much easier to handhold wides than teles. panny's new 25 1.4 (adapted from the leica designed 25 1.4 for the original four thirds platform) also looks really sweet - a superfast normal is what every system needs.

and if you're a boss bitch you'd get the voigtlander 25/.95 w/ a EVF and get really good at manual focusing quickly

holy balls .95

i'm realizing more and more that i want a VF. i've been dicking around with my Rollei SL35 (ie - just looking at stuff and focusing) and it's reminding me how different shooting with the GF1 is. i love what i can get out of the gf1, but really a lot of the time i'm shooting with it it's from the hip and i just see what comes out later. framing is a secondary concern (esp with post-processing hi-rez images). i should've just pulled the trigger on an OVF

Hey yo, so I just seen some stuff shot on a GH2 (we're talking video here) that looks SICK and am thinking about getting one of these instead of a 7D or 5D. Again this would be for shooting video almost exclusively. I also heard that you can get an older GH1 and hack it to increase the bitrate. Is this true? Any thoughts on these cameras? The 5D seems to be the indie filmmaker/artist's camera of choice now, but I don't see why it has to be. Are these full frame? How are they in low light, etc.?

only certain GH1s can be hacked - I think everything that was lacking in the GH1 was then added to the GH2? not sure.

these are not full frame, otoh Panasonic makes lenses that are optimized for video shooting - silent AF, some other features.

low-light, 5D or 7D would probably kick ass, but the GH2 could probably hold its own.

size wise obviously the GH2 is much more versatile.

dont know of any sites that are reviewing this new video capable generation of stills cameras as video cameras, but I know luminous landscape will sometimes opine about the video capability of a product

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/gh2_discoveries.shtml

This is pretty damning but who knows. Actually it makes me just want to stick to film. Rolling shutter is so ugly:

http://vimeo.com/6894404

what about the panny agaf100

Tell me more

oh snap - gbx has got it

wasn't Sony also supposed to release a video camcorder that could be used w/ NEX lenses?

I kind of feel like the best thing at this point might be like a refurbed GH1 and use the money saved to convert my Bolex gate to super-16 and transfer to HD. I can't see springing for a 5D Mk.II, it doesn't make much financial sense.

xp - there is supposed to be some Sony rival to the 5D, yeah

haha my friend bought a bolex hand-crank and tried to make a film with it. you hear nothing but the bolex in all the scenes

Oh I am a long-time Bolex user and love it, I also don't shoot sync sound though. With that, you either get a silent motor or something that can sit inside a blimp. But trust me the images you can get out of a little clockwork box are fucking unreal if you know what you're doing.

haha it was my friend's first film ever. he got it off CL for like...$250 or $300? one of the lenses is a CCTV lens.

well if the 5d is a stretch money-wise then I'd pass on the agaf100. but it's basically a gh1/2 optimized for video.

if I were gonna make another doc I'd probably go with that tho

why don't you make another doc?

I am trying to make ~myself~ into a doc

aha I see what you did

(=´∀｀)人(´∀｀=)

totally tripping balls over here

if you get a used/refurbed GH1 and you want hacks do some research on which versions are hackable. I'd also look into what the GH2 improved on, might be worth the initial outlay to get access to features of second gen tech

I think I remember what the panny video m43 lenses have: stepless aperture...

adamrl - I'd look at the upcoming Sony A77 dSLR. Full-time AF even in film mode thanks to the pellicle mirror. $1300 for the body.

Coolio, when's it dropping?

any day now - there are already some being sold in Asia, I think

It's a 24MP beast, the already-out A55 has the same 16MP sensor as the Nikon D7000, but I don't know what you're giving up in terms of viewfinder quality/features.

Well the ubiquity of the 5D must come to an end eventually, surely

Whatever the 5D II is replaced with will probably be 50% movie camera, or Canon will come out with a dedicated EOS movie camera or something.

If you buy via Canada (someplace like Henry's), new 5DIIs are under $2k USD, which is pretty crazy.

I did not know that, thank you

Guys reading all these tech sites is making my head spin. What a bunch of bores DSLR nerd are.

So you can basically find a supporting argument for/against any camera you want to buy.

This A77 seems fairly decent though.

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/collection/6666/top_dslrs_compact_interchangeable_lens_cameras_for_video.html

Yeah, the equipment arguments are all angels dancing on the head of a pin at this point, with a couple of exceptions, at least in terms of stills. I don't know anything about video, other than the D700 doesn't have it.

You guys

This is where I announce that I am now the proud owner of a GH2. I got the 14-42 kit lens which I heard is not so hot but have ordered adapters so I can use all my c-mount movie lenses and my Pentax film lens. Isn't it exciting??

I also got fat, fast memory and a Hoodloupe so I'm all pimped out

One thing though - I'm still not sure this thing shoots TRUE 1080P. Supposedly it does in 24P movie mode, but it's hard to find anything that says this for sure.

awesome! are you counting on it to shoot true 1080p?

not counting on it, no. But it seems like a bit of a gray area. that said, the price was right and the only other thing close I would have considered was the 7D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqhNN2fh-Ew

this was shot on a GH2

thoughts on the new olympus?

link?

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/olympusem5/

http://i.imgur.com/4DDtk.jpg

looks like olympus's versions of a panny g series. but it's fully weatherproofed!!

I am seriously questioning my commitment to DSLRs.

woah

My GF1 is barely over a year old, but this is extremely tempting. The new body is nice, but I'm even more interested in seeing how sensor performance compares to the G3/GX1 and if they've improved DR by any noticeable degree.

I doubt it - Panny always seems to have the edge in the sensor tech (not surprising as I think panny manufactures oly's sensor)

want

now i'm torn between this and the x1

well since I've got a m43 cam already this seems like a better deal

Cosina-Voigtlander also announced a 17.5/.95 (equivalent of 35mm) manual focus lens.

I miss having the option for other focal lengths w/ my X100 - between the OM-D and X Pro 1, I don't know which I'd favor.

XP1 - probably superior in low-light (and it seems like half of my shooting is at 1600+), way more expensive, slower AF (presumably), no clue if the lenses are awesome or not
OM-D - smaller, cheaper, the 12/2 and 25/1.4 are great lenses, image stabilization in the body, add-on grip that will probably make it more comfortable for my big hands...

Cosina-Voigtlander also announced a 17.5/.95 (equivalent of 35mm) manual focus lens.

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, February 9, 2012 4:10 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wait for m43?

Indeed. Probably $600-700, I'd guess.
I'm not too sure about the usefulness of super-fast MF glass for those systems, tbh. Very thin depth of field and magnification being the only reliable way to manually focus is a weird combo.

yeah I think those lenses are useful as 1.) baubles to be admired and 2.) shooting in the faint light

the olympus 17/2.8 will take you 90% of the way there, the panny 20mm/1.7 will take you 105% the way there (i.e. will probably outshoot the 17/0.95 at all apertures head to head)

http://www.43rumors.com/hot-voigtlander-announces-the-new-amazing-17-5mm-f0-95-lens/

oh, whoa, $1300 Euros if that's right

Baubles OTM. Lots of the C-V lenses coming out these days seem like gear for fetishists.

I owned a CV m-mount 35mm/1.2 for about two minutes. great lens, great build quality, but jeez it was so big and heavy and not worth carrying around over a tiny canon 35/1.8

Got a 20mm pancake lens and some filter for GH2 this weekend, much happier now. Thing is p. dope, imo

has anyone used anamorphic lenses/adapters? how was it 4 u

the OM-D E-M5's image stabilization looks pretty amazing for video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SimZkKidsHE&hd=1

no?

too distracted by the shoulderblades

but yes

doing this now

http://osgfilms.com/hack-the-panasonic-gh2/

anyone got the G3?

I got one for my mom last week, with the kit 14-42mm as her X100 couldn't keep up with her corgi and the OM-D was going to be out of a reasonable price range for corgi photos.

It's very light and feels pretty chintzy, the touchscreen is just so-so in responsiveness, there are a lot of menus and settings that are pretty confusing even for me. The EVF is definitely not as good as the one in my X100 or the new OM-D, pretty laggy and seemingly grainy. For what she paid ($579 w/ lens) it's a fine deal, though, and I suspect with one of the good prime lenses (20/1.7 or 25/1.4) the whole thing would work just a bit better.

I used it a little when I was setting it up, but I couldn't find a good way to look at the files on my parents' Windows computers.

I seriously considered a G3 complement my GF1, but its flimsier construction put me off. I'm glad I waited long enough to see the E-M5 hit reality.

I been shooting video using a lens from my Bolex (a 50mm Fuji CCTV lens) and the Tele Conversion. This is just a screengrab of raw video, no grading obv. Check the flare!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7182/6803857082_2acfa3dd94_b.jpg

Oh this is with the GH2.

Marionettes

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7197/6803875814_761eaf1718_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7065/6949985993_327a943374_b.jpg

waht is latest 4/3 news? may be in market for new camera following burglary.

OM-D

Lots of interesting new lenses have come out in the past few months, like the Olympus 75mm, 60mm macro and the Panasonic constant f/2.8 zooms. The biggest news lately is the GH3. E-PL5 looks to be pretty nice too, for high quality in a small package.

http://3.static.img-dpreview.com/previews/panasonic-lumix-dmc-gh3/images/intro-001.jpg?v=1756

wooooooooah that is an ugly camera

GX1?

GH3 is marketed as the pro-level (magnesium body, weather sealed) Panasonic. It's a good deal larger than the GH2 (or for that matter, OM-D).

I bought an OM-D, and can't be happier. It has a bit awkward ergonomics, but its 5-axis in body image stabilization is a marvel, and the Sony sensor it uses is the best in m43 land. Panasonic refused to sell Olympus sensors larger than 12mp, so Olympus got Sony to produce a downsized 16mb m43 sensor with the nearly the dynamic range and color depth of the Sony sensors used in the Nikon D800 and D7000, newer Pentax K cameras, as well as their own NEX and Alpha lineups. The OM-D lags those cameras a bit in high ISO noise, but the physics of sensor size can't always be helped.

The GX1 was widely lauded at release for being the true successor to the GF1 (rangefinder ergos with good controls). That said, its price has sunk faster than any other m43 camera to date from $800 to sometimes $400 in under 9 months. I'm definitely tempted to get a GX1 as a second body if they come down further, for conversion to full spectrum for UV/IR imaging.

The 75mm f/1.8 and 60mm f/2.8 macro are both pretty stellar lenses, though the 150mm (35mm equivalent) focal length of the 75mm is awkward for anything but outdoor portraiture. I have the 60mm, and it will outresolve my OM-D's sensor across the frame both at 1:1 distance and distance.

The Pany 12-35mm f/2.8 is pretty good (like the 7-14mm, its almost prime lens quality), but like the other non-Leica cobranded Panasonic lenses, it doesn't correct lateral chromatic aberration (purple fringing) well (Pany bodies do this via image processing). Not an issue for Olympus bodies if you shoot RAW and process via Lightroom 4. The Pany 35-100mm f/2.8 is probably similar, but at $1499 its kinda absurd. Anyone shooting at sport action focal lengths with that kind of budget would do better to get a Canon DSLR + 70-200mm L glass.

Panasonic announced a 42.5mm f/1.2 at Photokina for 2013 release. Probably the ideal m43 portrait lens (equivalent to a 85mm f/2.4 in angle of view and depth of field control) if its as good as their 20, 25, and 45 macro primes. They also announced a 150mm f/2.8, which fills a big hole in the lens lineup, and I'll be very tempted if they also make a 2x teleconverter.

BTW, it was this video review that finally sold me on the OM-D (I was looking for something with less shutter-lag than my compact):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEEXYHWm5dM

Oh, and some useful links:

Micro Four Thirds User Forum: pretty much home base for µ43 discussion on the internet
DPReview µ43 talk: Some bright users, and some abusive ones.
4/3 Rumors: you are a gear geek, no?
Dirk Hennig's overview of all native µ43 lenses: specs and convenient links to reviews

And for OM-D:
DPReview - Getting the most out of the Olympus E-M5: a lot of useful features are hidden in the menu labyrinth
Mike Hendren - Customizing the Olympus OM-D E-M5: so many one guide isn't enough.
OLYMPUS RAW codec: need to view thumbnails of your RAW images in Windoze?

Great stuff, thanks. I'm totally sold on the OM-D. 5-axis stabilisation does look amazing in that youtube.

... and order placed.

I love mine. It's a fast, very fun camera that does a lot more than you'd expect.

Some OM-D users figured out how to use an art filter to do on demand focus peaking, so no need for NEX envy. (link to video)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8483/8200528805_47cfd2f451_b.jpg

0.7sec, 37mm, thx 5-axis stabilisation. liking the colours too, didn't notice the pinks on the wall being quite so outstanding when i shot it.

So I've got a GF1 with the 20mm pancake. Ready for a second lens; might not buy another one for some time. Anyone have opinions on what it should be?

I'll be shooting ummm ... touristy stuff I guess: city streets, landscapes, buildings. Not action sports that's for sure.

Maybe the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 portrait lens. You already have the 40mm equivalent for street wides, obviously appreciate the benefits of primes, and like small packages. On m4/3 boards the 45 f/1.8 is considered one of the must-haves for prime shooters, wheras there's ongoing debate on the merits of 17.5, 20 and 25 for not-so-wide to normal duties. I want one (but got the 75mm instead in an insane parental gesture/loan repayment).
review, review, review, review. If you're contemplating a third lens, the fine 14mm wide pancake can be had for a song new as it was a weird kit option.

it's only a "must-have" if you're comfortable shooting that focal length

the portrait looks like it might be really useful, actually, thanks.

The 45mm is a steal for the price. I was in the exact same situation 18 months ago (GF1 + 20mm pancake) and got it as my second lens, too. Still have it.

If you don't often shoot in low light, you might check out the 60mm f/2.8 macro. A little more reach and it renders even more nicely IMO.

it's only a "must-have" if you're comfortable shooting that focal length

Can't dispute that. Its a portrait length (90mm equiv) so suited to foregrounding and isolating subjects, is a flattering perspective for human torso-up shots, but its less suited to landscapes or architecture.

Going significantly wider than the 20mm he has there's the 6mm fisheye, the 7-14mm f/4.0 (ultra-wide rectilinear zoom, pricey, no filter ring, near prime sharpness at 7mm end), the 9-18mm f/4-5.6 (light/compact collapsable zoom, kit zoom image quality), the 12-35mm f/2.8 (the Panasonic pro-spec event/walkabout zoom, nosebleed pricey, near prime image quality at 12mm end), the 12mm f/2.0 (landscape prime, pricey, metal build, well corrected, sharp to corners wide open), the 14mm f/2.5 (pancake wide prime, terrific value, needs CA correction in post), and quite a few (eight in fact) kit zooms that start at 14 on the wide end, the best regarded (for value) being the older Panasonic 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6.

The most pertinent questions I had getting a wide were just how wide I wanted to go. 7mm lends itself to quirky deep focus compositions where you have close inanimate objects foregrounded against distant context. Human figures suffer a lot of distortion at 7mm, and frame tops & bottoms can be hard to fill. 9mm is easier to compose with, but people near edges are. 12mm lends itself to classic widescreen landscapes, and the f/2 speed on the prime is useful under street lights. 14mm (28mm in 135 format) is the 63-65° angle of view that delimits the wide end of the majority of compact zoom cameras (about 20% extend to 12mm).

As you can see, its a lot easier suggesting a portrait lens than a wide lens. That's probably why I went there.

^ 9mm is easier to compose with, but people near edges are still significantly distorted.

^ also, the 14-45 zoom is more correctly the best regarded for sharpness, for value a number various flavors of 14-42 that can be had starting around $50-60 on Ebay, not so much because they're bad lenses (frankly they're about the same as current kit zooms on DSLRs) but because they were kit zooms (very common, parted out after bodies were discontinued, replaced by owners getting into primes etc).

Going wider, the 14mm is a great place to start simply because it's so cheap. Software distortion correction robs the little pancake of a lot of its edge sharpness, but it's better than any of the alternatives at even double the price. I had the 14-45mm and was happy with its performance, but sold it because it sat unused. Compact primes are so much easier to carry day-to-day.

where is all this cheap 14mm? panasonic one is still over $200 on amazon. is that cheap?

Check eBay. Mostly Asian sellers have been selling new copies as leftovers from kits. I paid the equivalent of around $150 for mine (I'm in South Korea).

oh yeah there's some on there for just over £100. should probably play with my brand new 20mm first to get a feel for whether i fancy going narrower or wider. (both, obviously.)

that 12mm is tempting as well, dammit.

I finally found this image which is a pretty useful visual guide to m4/3 focal lengths:

http://www.rahsoft.net/fov_rah.jpg

Rt click for full res. Maybe this can help Lukas decide his next paycheck's destination.

That's pretty neat! Thanks. I'm weighing a few different wide options for a nearish future purchase.

Have a bid in on the 45mm portrait, fingers crossed. Have an upcoming trip, would be fun to shoot the whole thing with a new lens.

A video of the OM-D EM-1 (the upcoming "pro" model) leaked. Its a slightly larger EM-5 + on-sensor phase detection autofocus (for 4/3 SLR lenses) + a grip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXgS95cgUwQ

Very nice, as 4/3 HG and SHG lenses are purportedly some of the finest glass ever, but my budget will wait a couple of years for the on-sensor PDAF to trickle down to the prosumer line.

The video was pulled seconds before I clicked submit. Sorry.

I saw it before it was pulled. Also noticed the usual peanut gallery complaining that it was ugly, but I think it looks fine. The size looks about perfect, speaking as someone who rarely uses my EM-5 without the add-on grip. It still looks smaller than the GH3.

OK guys - April Fool's or something else? I was just looking to preorder a GH4

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/10010/panasonic-abandons-m43-stops-cameras-production-except-gh4/p1

April fool's. Eff this day.

Bought an E-M1 last weekend. Shooting sports and kids running around at work (elementary school), and autofocus does a great job keeping up! Almost every annoying thing about the E-M5 shooting experience is improved. Very happy.

not that i need to spend more money, but trade GF1 for EM-1?

1. low light performance
2. autofocus
3. my photos suck surely this will help

Should this be a more general compact-system thread now or should we keep it purely u43?

My wife is looking at something small and decent that has wi-fi. Was edging towards GX7 + 20/1.7 (had a play with GM1 - just TOO small; GM5 seems to fix that but at a cost). But we have both been wowed by friends' Fuji X cameras. One got the X100S (essentially a APS-C compact with a fixed 23 f/2 lens) and doesn't use his Canon 7D any more.

I love my X100S more than any camera I've ever used.

I went the GF1 to E-M1 route. Image quality is better (as you'd expect), but the real improvements are in handling and speed. The weather sealing has been useful.

X100S/T would be very, very tempting if I only needed a ~35mm equiv.

MJ: Has your wife looked at the E-PL bodies, or E-M10? The newest (E-PL7?) seems to tick all of those boxes, but is new enough that I don't think prices have had a chance to fall yet.

The EPL7 is definitely also on the list of models to play with. I don't think she's going to consider anything that doesn't have a compatible pancake prime. System or compact, she may never buy another thing for it (yeah, right).

So, GX7 + 20/1,7 is available as a bundle for £599. X100S (w/fixed 23/2,0) is around £799. EPL7 + Pan 20/1,7 = £638 (or £568 w/ Oly 17/2,8). Either of the u4/3rds cameras and she'd probably get the Oly 15/8,0 "lens cap" too, tbh. Or I'd just buy that for her as a stocking filler this Xmas.

I really do like the look of that latest Pen.

Too bad no one appears to offer an E-PL7 + 17mm/1.8 kit. Avoid the older 17/2.8 — slow and noisy AF, never gets sharp even stopped down.

The 14mm/2.5 is another cheap option, and as tiny as they come. Corners are merely adequate, but it's very sharp in the centre and blisteringly fast to focus. I got one on eBay a couple years back.

Spoiled for choice in µ43 land!

Thanks for the tip! 14/2,5 looks nice. I think I meant the 9/8,0 body cap above, but that looks to be a fish-eye. 17/1,8 looks a bit chunkier, perhaps more at home on an OM-D?

GX7 + 20/1.7 continuing to come down in price. Shame we missed the very limited double-cashback period over Xmas - would've effectively been around £450. GM1 is practically half its launch price now too. Fuji X still looks v tempting.

Am swithering between the X100T and XT1 myself right now.

So... Pam eventually went for the GX7 + 20/1.7. As we always knew she would ;)

The staff in Park Cameras on Rathbone Place were happy to let us play with a whole bunch of things for what seemed like hours (with a lunch break in the middle). While we knew the APS-C sensors of the Sony a6000 and Fuji X-E2 / X100T were going to offer better quality at the extreme end of things, the former was rejected on aesthetic grounds and the latter were just a bit too pricey*. Also, Pam was coming at this from the "better than a smartphone" angle rather than "lighter than my DSLR" angle that Fuji are really going for, so I think she's not that fussed about Fuji's superior EVFs but was concerned about their lack of touchscreens.

(* - there is an extraordinary deal going on at the moment, available in most UK outlets, where you can get the Fuji X-Pro1 with 17mm and 28mm pancake primes for £650. That's basically a free camera if you're only after the lenses (or vice versa). X-Pro1 has been pretty well outstripped by Fuji's later X-mount models (no wi-fi, not great AF, etc) but I imagine you could flog it on eBay as mint/as-new for £300ish and put that towards an X-E2 or an X-T1. And when I say "you", I mean "me". NO, NO, do not need.)

Oh, look - it's me 10 weeks ago telling myself I wouldn't buy a Fuji.

So...I got the X-M1 on a deal with the 27mm prime and the basic 16-50mm OIS zoom. It's cute, it's a bit cheap-feeling, but it has terrific dynamic range and colours straight off the bat. I was ready to be disappointed with how Adobe's Raw engine would deal with demosaicing files from the Fuji's unconventional sensor (everyone seems to complain about Lightroom + Fuji), but I like the default results and I've made a couple of sharpening presets following advice I read on a blog which improve things.

It does seem like the X-M1 is the runt of the litter; Fuji are very good at rolling out substantial firmware updates but the M hasn't had one for a while and it's pretty much disappeared from the shops. I guess it's about to be discontinued. But that's why I got such a deal on it.

And now Fuji are offering accumulative cashback on certain XF lenses. Oh stop it.

just saw that fuji cashback deal myself, trying very hard not to think about picking up the 16-55 f/2.8 for the £75 discount ahead of a trip to the US next month :(

Can you remind me which lenses you own for the Fuji X?

I'm lobbying LFH to start stocking Fuji gear (there are lens hire companies which rent out Fuji, but, unlike the LFH model, they require deposits, extensive ID for couriering to the workplace, etc). I can't really justify a 56/1.2 but it would be a nice thing to have in my bag at a wedding, supporting the Canon 135L/24-105L workhorses.

£225 off if you buy two lenses, BG. Just sayin'.

gah, stoppit! i already have lenses which cover the 16-55 range so really i'd be paying £700 for the privilege of not having to switch lenses occasionally, which is insane. yet somehow still tempting :(

i've got the 10-24mm, 23mm, 35mm, 56mm and 50-140mm. they're all among the sharpest lenses i've ever used, and the 56mm really is amazing - it would be great for weddings. everything i've read about the forthcoming 90mm f/2 seems to suggest it's optically even more impressive than the 56mm.

Yeah, I'm telling myself I really would never need the 90/2.0, as glorious as it sounds, as it's the same as my 135L on full-frame, and that is all I've ever wanted from a portrait prime. (Also not included in the cashback deal). OTOH, if I followed your lead and switched systems, it would be top of the list ;)

I guess if I was going for a twofer, it would be 35 + 56, though the former is really very close to my little pancake, if two stops faster. But if I'm applying my don't-replicate-what-I-can-do-with-a-FF-Canon logic, the 35 is also redundant. Really pretty impressed with the 16-50 at the wide end, so not hankering after any fast wide primes. Well, no more than usual.

The price of the X-T10 at launch is really low too - no more than the X-E2 currently is. Have they learned nothing from the big boys? Always ratchet up the RRP every model! And the firmware thing is remarkable - X-T1 w/FW 4.0 is a completely different camera to the one at launch, for no additional cost. They just get this stuff right, it seems.

yeah, their commitment to continuous improvement is pretty amazing - when i came to sell my x100 to upgrade to the x100s it was a much, much more responsive camera than it was when i bought it thanks to the firmware updates. can't wait to give the new x-t1 firmware a try next month.

i can't work quite out their thinking with the x-t10, though, because it seems so close in form and function to the x-t1 that i don't know why most people would choose the more expensive camera. the x-t10 has a slightly smaller viewfinder, a couple less physical dials and a smaller frame buffer but is basically the same camera at £500 instead of £800 afaict.

if i had to choose a two-lens kit i think i'd go 23mm and 56mm - those are the lenses i seem to use most on the x-t1. the 35mm is really a phenomenal lens, though, especially considering the price.

X-T1 is weather-sealed too, I guess. If you look at the price diff between, say, Canon 5D3 and 1DX, it seems to mostly come down to build quality (shutter that will last 3x longer, tank-like body, huge capacity battery), but what the cameras can actually do is very similar. Perhaps that's the thinking here.

Quite what Fuji are going to do with the "flagship" X-Pro will be interesting.

My OM-D E-M10 crapped out - in order to get the back LCD to work I have to hard reset the device on startup.

Should I ...

(1) get this repaired
(2) buy an OM-D E-M10 Mk III
(3) something else

I miss my GF1.

Maybe look for sales? The E-M10 series can usually be had for a bargain somewhere. The Mk. III and IV are both pretty nice. Maybe consider a GX85 or GX9?

of course beating in mind that Olympus have discontinued all their cameras grrr (OM-D E-M10 mk 2 owner with some $ in glass here)

*bearing

OM Digital is still selling everything. Jury's still out on how the new company will fare long-term, but cautious optimism seems warranted. There are a couple lenses and at least a new camera body in the pipeline for 2021.

Yeah, certainly don't jump ship if you've got some glass. Panasonic released another m43 body last year, I think, even though they seem to be going all in on the FF line. Still lots of nice third-party primes out there.

Repair ££ likely = finding a good E-M10 on eBay.

Thanks, eBay it is!

also you can sell yr old one to someone who wants a crack at fixing it, or for parts.
I just watched an E-M5 mk II with case, accessories but no lenses finish up for $US370 equivalent here.

Yeah, good call.

What is the average lifespan of a (theoretically quality) digital camera, anyway? A bit bummed that they seem to be disposable, although I guess I should have expected it.

Maybe I'm lucky, but my 12-year-old LX3 is still used by my parents, and my original E-M5 is still ticking. Some bits age more poorly than others...rubber grip material deteriorates, mechanical connections and motors wear out. I think lack of suitable batteries will eventually be the showstopper, but there's no reason a digital camera shouldn't last a decade or more.

Yeah tbf I could have treated mine better, will try not to make that mistake with the next child.

My kids have fully functional DSLRs from 2003-05. Granted, they don't actually care to use them much (I bought the eldest an EF-S 24/2.8 four years ago and that's a great lens! Pah), but I picked up a couple of third-party batteries, so they should keep going for a bit.

The received wisdom I'd heard was that something else would give out on a camera before the shutter mech reached the end of its natural life, regardless of what it was rated for, but that hasn't been my experience. My 300D shutter packed in around the five-year mark (still in a drawer, dead), and my 40D started misfiring around the same age (replaced the mech, later sold). Fine in other regards. My 6D is still going strong after 107k actuations (nearly 8 years old), but top dial is a bit sticky now.

(I bought an absolutely battered X-T1 secondhand in 2018 too... that occasionally has card errors, but it does look like it was dragged across concrete at some point in its life. More disappointing was having to get the 27/2.8 pancake repaired; focus motor gear issue. Only three years old. You kind of hope the lenses at least last decades).

Haven't had a shutter mechanism fail yet, but I'm sure it will happen eventually with all the use I get from my bodies. An underrated benefit of modern bodies with usable electronic shutter — prolonged mechanical shutter life.