The gentlemen in the costumes must certainly have developed ear issues if these ceremonies are frequent.

A martyr for photography, indeed you are, Henry. : )

Thnkas for sharing,

Yildiz

Yes, it was loud!



I had never considered m4/3 before because I figured they were so far behind APS-C, but then I read some good things about the Panasonic G3 and GH2. They both have pretty good Panasonic 16mp sensors (not the same one though) and although the GH2 has a bit more DR, the G3 has a bit better high ISO. When I looked at comparisons to my A700 and 60D I thought it was pretty good and when I found a really fantastic deal on a new G3 + 2 lenses in Tokyo I decided to get one to try out. I was pretty satisfied with the photos I could get with it and the new Sony 16mp sensor in the E-M5 was being said everywhere to be much better than the older Panasonic 16mp sensor in the G3. It is. I don't bother with doing my own testing (too boring), but I have used it now for a few months and I would say the sensor is overall better than the A700 and 60D (I was quite happy with both of those too though). I am using LR 4.1 and it seems to do quite well with the raw files. I also find the m4/3 lenses I have to be very good and the fast CDAF is very accurate. Size/weight is great. Ergonomics is my main complaint. Acceptable, but could be better. If the E-M5 was shaped more like the NEX 7 with similar controls and size of buttons then it would be much better. Maybe move the NEX 7 video button though.

The two men in the front covered their ears, but the two in the back didn't. It didn't appear that the two in the back had earplugs. They do this several times a day, I think, so I can't imagine why they wouldn't protect their ears. When they told us to cover our ears they said they were accustomed to the noise so they didn't cover their ears. I surmise that accustomed just means become partially deaf.

If I had had a few more minutes I would have gone into the visitor center's restroom and to get a bit of toilet tissue for my ears, but there was no time to do that. Looking back on it I wish I had just not bothered with the photo. My ears are okay, but that sort of thing is not good and I shouldn't have done it.

I forgot to mention it and maybe you noticed, but in that E-M5 vs. D7000 comparison review mostly jpegs were used except for the DR section where raw was used. Shooting raw gives better results and I only shoot raw.

If you are interested you can compare raw with up to 4 cameras here:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusem5/21

I compared the E-M5, A57, NEX 5N, and Nikon D7000 (all 16mp) using that tool. Shooting raw and using the good conversion available in LR 4.1 (great highlight recovery and auto CA correction too) also helps a lot. See the Imagining Resource link below. Down near the bottom in the Output Quality section there is a table that shows the quality of various print sizes/ISOs for the E-M5, Nikon D7000, Canon 7D, etc. According to it the E-M5 matches those two cameras:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/omd-em5/omd-em5A5.HTM

I think I have mentioned before that really the main reason I can see to seriously consider m4/3 is because of the smaller size/weight. For people who don't care about that then an APS-C DSLR/DSLT seems to be a better choice. Of course, you could say that the main advantage of NEX is size/weight too and if you don't care much about that then an APS-C DSLR/DSLT is better also. I do care about size/weight though and now with the E-M5 you don't have to give up much to get it. I still haven't used any of this gear while traveling though so it has still not passed the acid test.

Bakubo, an interesting, entertaining and thoughtful thread. When I sold my Minolta gear I bought Olympus but have later had reservations. The single piece of Olympus equipment that I have no regrets about buying is the Olympus 12-60 lens although the Olympus 14-54 is equally renowned. The 14-150 certainly worked but seemed to lack the quality of a Tamron 18-250 stuck onto a Minolta/Sony DSLR. Suffice it to say I've sold most of the Olympus gear - have kept one camera and the 12-60mm lens and am reverting back to Sony/Minolta. You obviously have access to much more equipment than I do so your reflections as to your overall preference would be appreciated.

Tony, those lenses you mention are 4/3 lenses, not m4/3 lenses so I assume that the Olympus camera you had was a 4/3 DSLR and not an m4/3 MILC. m4/3 is a different system, different lens mount, different lenses, etc. It is like Sony has two camera lines: Alpha DSLRs/DSLTs and NEX MILCs. The m4/3 14-150mm is totally different than the 4/3 14-150mm. The m4/3 one is quite good.

I never was interested in 4/3 and still am not interested in it. Actually, I had sort of thought that with the success of m4/3 that Olympus had more or less abandoned 4/3, but then today there was this news:

Olympus working on new body for 'Pro' Four Thirds lenses

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/08/17/olympus-working-on-new-pro-four-thirds-body

I know that. And given an additional part of the DPR - " while Olympus has 'pushed the boundaries of performance' with the Micro Four Thirds OM-D E-M5, 'it did not deliver with the legacy high end lenses from the E-system'" There are still adapters available to use 4/3rds lenses on a M4/3rds body.



I was interested in your thoughts of the system as a whole. And would suggest you try the 12-60 lens even if you have to use an adapter.

Okay, I wasn't sure since in this thread only m4/3 was discussed, but all the lenses you mentioned were 4/3 lenses. Yeah, I know there is an adapter (like Alpha to NEX adapter), but I have no interest in it or the 4/3 lenses since I already have all the m4/3 lenses I am interested in. For people who already own 4/3 lenses though the adapter gives them more options.



I am confused about what you are asking. When you say system do mean m4/3 system? Or 4/3 system? I am not interested in 4/3 and don't know a lot about it. 4/3 cameras/lenses were not smaller than APS-C cameras/lenses so I didn't see any reason to even consider it. As for m4/3, I like it. If you go through this thread and the other thread that someone else created about the NEX 7 vs. E-M5 that I posted in you can see what my opinions are about it so far. Of course, Olympus and Panasonic have other bodies, not just the E-M5 and G3. A few weeks ago Panasonic came out with the G5. It is similar to the G3, but a few nice changes, a bigger hand grip, and I have heard the IQ is a small step up.

I have all the lenses I figure I will be getting unless something new comes along in the future that really interests me or a better replacement for one of my existing lenses comes along.

Going fishing in Yorktown



Colonial Williamsburg



Jamestown Settlement

Go Henry, go.
Needless to say that I always admire your documentary style/street photography.

Love the frozen periodic shots.

What a fishing inthusiast in the first one! : )

Thanks for sharing, Henry.

Yildiz

Thanks, Doc and Yildiz!

I thought of something that I was surprised about earlier this year when I first got involved in m4/3 and it is probably something that other people will be interested in and be surprised about. The m4/3 lenses, like Sony/Canon/Nikon/Pentax lenses, have firmware, but unlike those others the m4/3 lens firmware can be updated by the user. Olympus and Panasonic release lens firmware updates just like body firmware updates. When I first got the G3 and 2 lenses in April I checked and found that the body and one of the lenses did not have the latest firmware so I updated both. Since then I bought the E-M5 and 4 more lenses so I also checked them. The 4 new lenses all had the latest firmware, but Olympus came out with an update to the 9-18mm recently. I haven't updated mine yet though. Just about all the m4/3 lenses have had one or more updates and they are usually for things like improved AF, improved IS (for ILIS lenses), and improvements for video. Cool.

Sorry Henry I did enjoy your photos of Yorktown fishing, Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown Settlement like I always enjoy your photos, (and read all your links) I’m just trying not to blather on (and boring people) as much as I normally do.
Greg

Sony had also a firmware update for the a77 (the last one) which said to improve AF functions with SAL24F20Z...
I had to delete (clear) all factory data (30 lenses) to micro adjust for the said lens. Now it's much better.

Yes, body firmware usually has various improvements and bug fixes and the firmware can be updated by the user. What I am saying is that the m4/3 lenses also have user updateable firmware that gets released from time to time. The firmware in Sony/Canon/Nikon/Pentax lenses is not something that can be updated by the user. I don't even know if it can be updated by the camera service centers -- maybe they could change a firmware memory chip. I imagine that over time later samples of the same lens sometimes have newer versions of the firmware, but the older samples will still have the older firmware.