Giving up the mirror

[Matt]

Here's the camera i have now: the OMD Em-1

Ugly, metal, and a lot of knobs and buttons. A true geek camera.
I don't have any Micro 4/3 lenses yet, but i have a 12-40 f/2.8 constant (weather and freeze proof) on order.
It's half the circumference of my 12-60 f/2.8-4.
There is an adapter that allows me to use my "old" 4/3 lenses with full autofocus and IS. This model has CDAF and PDAF so it can focus any type of lens pretty well. I'm not looking at some adapters (as cheap as 10 bucks on ebay) that will support old OM lenses. Focus peaking is so good, that it has opened up an array of manual lenses for me. They are cheap and plentiful on ebay. No more trying to worrying about focus. Just slide the focus ring and watch the viewfinder to outline the subject in white lines....snap. done. Love it.

I haven't shot much with it yet. Just one trip to Letchworth. I'll grab some pics this week to put up here.

This was taken with it: JPG right out of the camera and resized (not the best example)


I have some silky waterfall pics I took handheld with the IS instead of tripod. Those came out great.

[Des219]

Sounds like it might just work for you. It will be interesting to see where the future goes with it.

[ApproachingLight]

Thanks Matt,
If time allows please post pics. Some of the terminology of mirrorless cameras escape me, but i am interested in the quality…who isn't.

So i hear you saying it is a cost threshold issue. You buy the camera, you buy new lenses. eBay has some finds. Now that is a topic. upgrade to the Canon 5d mark III or consider and alternative platform.

Reminds me of the plaque a friend bought my father-in-law when he purchased a cottage. "Outlet." Money outlet. Photography equipment can become an idol of sorts. I am guilty of enjoying it too much.Still that. The technology is interesting.

David

[Des219]

David, for me the 5D III would be the choice, because if you are at that level you most likely have the lenses to go with it and to switch would be 5k or much more to catch up. For Matt it is in the same family, not so much to lose. From my understanding Canon's M line is not so compatible with L lenses and to switch completely would be difficult.

[Matt]

Sorry about the delay getting pics. I went out the first weekend I got it and haven't really gone out since.
I went to Letchworth for an hour while I could. It was a dull day, cold and raining. Normally I wouldn't shoot on a day like this, but the camera did alright.

These were all taken with the Olympus OMD EM-1, with my trusty 12-60mm (attached with an adapter).
No tripod.
All Camera JPEGs (my raw converters don't support it yet)
Just added to Photoshop, re-sized, and (C) added.

** oh and these don't seem to be 4/3 aspect ratio. I guess when i was playing with the settings i set it to 3/2 and didn't realize it. The raws still retain the larger size.

ISO 200 | 1/200s | f/5.6 | 56mm


ISO 200 | 1/200s | f/5.6 | 25mm
This is taken handheld in the HDR mode. It snaps 3 pics at 10fps, combines them in camera in about a second into one JPG. It keeps the raws for later. The cool thing is that you can preview the HDR in the viewfinder before snapping. Although this pic lacks contrast, I don't see any other way of capturing what was a bright sky and a shadowy foreground in one pic. I could always tweak the contrast in post... or in camera. 10fps bracketing makes aligning handheld shots work quite well.


ISO 100 | 1.6s | f/8| 20mm
This is handheld with polarizer and ND8 attached. IS enabled. When i was fooling around with IS, I could get a sharp shot with 2 second exposures and faster. I'm thinking I'm going to leave the tripod at home on more difficult hikes. This was taken in Vivid mode, but on the LCD it looks too saturated. Looks ok on the monitor though.


ISO 100 | 1.9s | f/11 | 60mm


Trying the built-in panorama function


ISO 200 | 1/250s | f/6.3 | 29mm


ISO 200 | 1/200s | f/5.6 | 39mm


ISO 200 | 1/30s | f/5.6 | 18mm

[Kelly]

Careful there, Matt. Wasn't it David S. who monitors how much sleep we all get? I believe you just set yourself up for a scolding.

[Des219]

Great pics Matt. I can see the results speak well. And great catch Kelly, Matt is even worse than you .

[Matt]

2 hours of sleep day allows me to get in my much needed 8 hours of Battlefield 4 online and 8 hours of website work a day.

I would say right now, I'm slightly disappointed with the viewfinder. COMPLETELY disappointed that EVERY year Olympus ships their new models RIGHT AS THE FALL COLORS DISAPPEAR!!!! I remember my last two cameras it was the same thing. I don't photograph in cold weather so i can't enjoy this camera until spring.

I'm happy that the camera has really amazing detail. And the colors are very rich.

I'm disappointed with how the TTL flash is working. things are way too dark... and that is the whole point of TTL ... shouldn't be so off. But it may be that I have some settings wrong.

I'm very happy with the bracketing options. I can customize and save a bracketing setup to a button, which i will do for waterfalls and one for markets. I may even set up a focus bracketing mode for snowflakes. There's even a setting to bracket all the color settings, WB, and art filters. Snap one pic, it will save the raw, then quickly process out a dozen variants using different filters. This is all at 10FPS... or whatever framerate I specify.

Live preview of the shot means less shutter snaps and less looking away from the camera. I have realized this is a reality already. I don't have to bracket as much. I have been, but I don't have to. And my WB set up is no longer guess/shoot/look/adjust. It is look/adjust/shoot.
Also it's pretty cool i can enable a color setting or art filter and see it in real time. Even on video. Yeah, art filters are gimmicky, but they are actually fun to play with! And video with art filters is super fun. My cameras are usually all business for me, but when I was playing around with the filters I was thinking more about taking pics of and for my family and more about sharing and goofing around. It's neat.