Visiting the past in Virginia (Olympus/Panasonic m4/3 gear)

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Birma
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia

Unread post by Birma »

Another day and another two Sony cameras! Now the A6500 looks a very complete package, and the RX 100 mk V, well those tiny 1" sensor cameras are so easy to pocket ... :)

I saw the rumour for the A9 with 70 mega pixels as well :shock:
Nex 5, Nex 6 (IR), A7M2, A99 and a bunch of lenses.
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bakubo
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia

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Birma wrote:Another day and another two Sony cameras! Now the A6500 looks a very complete package, and the RX 100 mk V, well those tiny 1" sensor cameras are so easy to pocket ... :)
Yes, I posted about the A6500 several hours before you did. The A6500 certainly looks good. Finally, IBIS for the E-mount!
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia

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bakubo wrote: Well, there is one thing I have been sort of hankering for off and on for the last few months. :lol: I have been jonesing for the PEN-F. Several times I almost decided to buy one, but each time I changed my mind. The price is rather high and, truth be told, there is nothing it has that is better for me than my E-M10II. There are some changes that some people care about: new 20mp sensor, 80mp High-res Shot mode, etc., but they aren't important to me. When it comes right down to it the body style is what I like so much and at the high price they still go for that isn't enough. :) Also, it uses a different battery and charger than my E-M10II and E-M10 so that is a negative.
Lo and behold, this morning after breakfast I heard a scratching and whimpering sound at the front door. I went to investigate and there was a box with a brand new silver Olympus PEN-F in it! :)

The exchange rate since the U.S. election has improved considerably and on top of that I got an additional 10% off from the normal price. Ended up paying about $1015 for it. Just a month ago it was about $1350 because of the weaker U.S. dollar and without the 10% discount I got. Ordered yesterday with free shipping and received it in about 23 hours. Japan is efficient!
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Birma
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia

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Congrats. Henry :) Looking forward to hearing about the new camera.
Nex 5, Nex 6 (IR), A7M2, A99 and a bunch of lenses.
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bakubo
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia

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So far, no surprises at all. I had spent time considering it for several months and had handled it 2 or 3 dozen times. The things I thought I would like I was right about and a few things I thought I would prefer be different I was also right about. :) I waited for a few months hoping that there would be a less expensive body, let's call it the PEN-E (pronounced penny :lol: ), available or at least announced. I would have been happy for a body that was almost identical to my E-M10II in a rangefinder style body instead of the SLR style body. If Olympus just raised the top deck height a few millimeters and then embedded the EVF into the left corner and made the price the same as the E-M10II then I would have gone for that. The E-M10II is the best camera I have ever owned for what I like to photograph. Not perfect, but best so far for me. Now that I stopped waiting and bought the PEN-F I am pretty confident that within days Olympus will announce a PEN-E. :lol:

The PEN-F is well known for its beautiful build quality and it is very nice, but I find my E-M10II to be just fine. The E-M1OII is a step up from the E-M10. I am enjoying the PEN-F. For the first time in my life I bought a camera just because I wanted it and liked its looks. Never done that before. All my other cameras I had specific, non-aesthetic reasons for buying. Darn, I even bought cameras I thought were butt-ugly -- Minolta XK and Minolta 7xi. :)
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bakubo
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia

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bakubo wrote:So far, no surprises at all. I had spent time considering it for several months and had handled it 2 or 3 dozen times. The things I thought I would like I was right about and a few things I thought I would prefer be different I was also right about. :)
I am happy to have discovered something yesterday. The PEN-F has a dedicated exposure compensation dial just like my Canon G16. Although I like these separate controls for some situations I also like how I have my E-M10II, E-M10, E-M5, A700, 60D, etc. set up: the front control wheel adjusts the aperture and the rear wheel adjusts exposure compensation when using A mode. I find that setup just a bit faster for me to use, especially when I have the camera up to my eye. The rear control wheel turns more easily than the dedicated exposure compensation dial on the PEN-F. Anyway, I discovered last night that among the many ways you can configure the PEN-F you can change the exposure compensation dial to flash exposure compensation and then configure the front and rear control wheels to my preferred way. Great! It isn't like my preferred way is totally superior even for me though. :) I will probably go back and forth for awhile trying to decide which way I prefer. There are a few times when using the standard dedicated dial would be better since sometimes I want to discreetly make some adjustment before I even bring the camera up so having the dedicated dial is better in that case.
bakubo wrote: The PEN-F is well known for its beautiful build quality and it is very nice, but I find my E-M10II to be just fine.
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I really do like how the camera looks and feels. No doubt about that. :) I have just been using it with my smaller lenses:

Olympus 25mm f1.8
Olympus 45mm f1.8
Panasonic 14mm f2.5 pancake
Panasonic 20mm f1.7 pancake
Olympus 9mm f8 fisheye bodycap
Olympus 9-18mm f4-5.6
Olympus 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 EZ pancake

The body style works fine for those. The only 2 larger lenses (still small compared to similar APS-C and FF lenses though) I have are:

Olympus 14-150mm f4-5.6 II
Panasonic 45-200mm f4-5.6

I played around a bit with the 14-150mm on the PEN-F and it is okay. I usually put on the extra grip on my E-M10II with those lenses though. I don't have an extra grip for the PEN-F and probably won't buy one.
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Birma
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia

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It is a handsome looking camera, Henry - glad you're pleased with it :)
Nex 5, Nex 6 (IR), A7M2, A99 and a bunch of lenses.
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia (Olympus/Panasonic m4/3 gear)

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Yesterday I discovered a new thing in the PEN-F menu. Now there is an option to set the EXIF lens info when you attach a non-electronic contact lens to the camera. That, of course, includes any adapted lenses, but also the 2 inexpensive Olympus bodycap lenses:

9mm f8 fisheye
15mm f8

Fortunately, the new menu item already has the info for those 2 Olympus lenses entered so I selected the 9mm option and now anytime I shoot with it the EXIF info will be correct. Previously I would use the free exiftool program to add EXIF info to the files. For adapted lenses you can enter the correct info and the camera will remember it.

Since this new menu option is just a firmware change that doesn't require any new or changed hardware I hope Olympus will put it in a firmware update for the other cameras.

Totally unrelated, but here is a PEN-F photo from a few days ago at a Buddhist temple. Sometimes pilgrims leave their old, traditional sandals hanging there.

Image
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia (Olympus/Panasonic m4/3 gear)

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As I already mentioned, I use exiftool to add EXIF info for non-electronic lenses. The PEN-F can do it without the use of a separate step on the computer though. Today I learned of a cool Lightroom plugin named LensTagger that can do it too:

http://www.essl.de/wp/software/lenstagg ... om-plugin/

I haven't tried it, but it looks very convenient. If you use non-electronic lenses (legacy MF lenses, etc.) then this would make life much simpler for you.
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia (Olympus/Panasonic m4/3 gear)

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I haven't tried it, but my Olympus PEN-F has an 80mp high resolution mode. It is only for static subjects though. I have read that besides much higher resolution it also has the benefit of better colors because it is sort of like making it into a FOVEON sensor since each pixel position gets R, G, B info.

Olympus PEN-F High-Res Shot Mode
Astounding resolution from High Res Shot Mode

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/o ... fTECH2.HTM

You'll also need to be shooting with the camera mounted on a tripod and with a subject that's pretty much static, because any subject or camera motion during capture of the eight frames used to make a High Res Shot Mode image will prevent the technique from working. That rules out use of the function for sports, nature, family photos and the like, but if you're shooting landscapes, architecture, still lifes, product photography and the like, you should be just fine.

Here is a description of how it works, but this is for the 64mp E-M5II instead of the 80mp PEN-F:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympus-om-d-e-m5-ii/4
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia (Olympus/Panasonic m4/3 gear)

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I happened to see this new post by Ctein on another forum about the super low noise using the 80mp high-res mode:

https://www.mu-43.com/threads/so-what-a ... 569/page-6

He used to write interesting articles at The Online Photographer website and, I gather, is a master printer going way back. Anyway, his post in the thread is interesting.
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia (Olympus/Panasonic m4/3 gear)

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Thom Hogan posted about the large m4/3 lens catalog:

m4/3 Catches Canon and Nikon Lens Catalogs

http://www.sansmirror.com/newsviews/m43 ... nikon.html

List with photos and specs for m4/3 lenses:

http://www.four-thirds.org/en/microft/lens.html

Of course, there is some focal length duplication, but the same with Canon and Nikon. For me personally, as long as the lenses I want are available then I don't much care about having even more that I don't care about. Of course, a different person may very well care about some of those lenses I don't care about. :lol:
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia

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bakubo wrote:I usually put on the extra grip on my E-M10II with those lenses though. I don't have an extra grip for the PEN-F and probably won't buy one.
I bought a very inexpensive leather grip for my PEN-F off ebay from a seller in China. I saw it mentioned on another forum. A few months ago some people were buying an expensive one (over US$110) made by some known company, but I didn't want to spend anything like that for something I didn't really care much about. Now you can buy a similar one for US$8.99 with free shipping though so I ordered one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Coffee-leather- ... 2445540631

It arrived today and it fits well and looks pretty good on my silver PEN-F. Retro 1940s, 1950s look with the brown leather -- available in black too. It adds 5-6mm in height and some grip to the camera. It is also light and well made. I probably won't leave it on the camera all the time, but it makes using slightly larger zoom lenses more comfortable. Usually I just use small primes on the PEN-F though.
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia (Olympus/Panasonic m4/3 gear)

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Last week I bought an Olympus 75-300mm f4.8-6.7 II lens. It is quite compact. I had sort of thought about getting one for the last 5 years, but the truth is I rarely have a use for a 150-600mm (in FF terms) lens. The price is so attractive for them here in Japan though compared to the much higher price in the States that I decided to just go ahead and get it. :) Sigma and Tamron make 150-600mm f5-6.3 lenses. You can see the Tamron compared to the Olympus below -- the Sigma is the same size.

I have played around with the new lens a bit and it seems to be pretty good. Of course, at 300mm (600mm equivalent) you need to be careful of your technique if you are handholding, even with IBIS. The aperture is modest, but in reasonable light I have had no problems using it. I shoot wide open since with m4/3 lenses they usually perform about as well wide open as stopped down. A couple of tests I saw for this lens said the same thing. Olympus base ISO is 200 so that helps too.
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Re: Visiting the past in Virginia (Olympus/Panasonic m4/3 gear)

Unread post by bakubo »

This is a cool story of a long lost camera and lens buried in wet snow and rained on for months and then found again.

How Weatherproof Are Olympus Cameras?

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.co ... o-exa.html

No doubt other weatherproof cameras from other companies could have done as well, but the story is about an Olympus. Fun read.
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