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Fun with the Olympus E-M1

Annna T

Active member
The 45 and 90 are Zeiss? The 75/1.8 m.Zuiko is really awesome, the 45/1.8 m.Zuiko (rumored to be actually designed at Konika) is not as sharp, but looks very nice as well. How do yours compare? But I have not heard anyone happy with full frame support of 28, 24, 21 and 18(!!) lenses except those using the M9, M240 and that bizarre Ricoh unit that takes an M bayonet mount. And those (well, we) still grumble... I have an ancient Canon thread-mount 19/3.5 that no present digital platform can get a good picture from, yet it focuses on an M rangefinder so I would like to use it.

scott
I read that the 75mm F1.8 was made by Sigma (they had a patent for exactly the same design as the Olympus). Yes it is an extraordinary lens, i love it.

Yes, the 45mm F2 and 90mm F2.8 i was speaking of are Zeiss Contax G lenses. I had a Contax G2 outfit during film times. On film FF the 45mm was sharper in the corners, but on MFT the 90mm makes a very nice longer tele. With the Contax G2 the focus was a little hit and miss during film times. With MFT and MF i never have that problem. That lens is very light and i love using it on MFT.
 

kweide

New member
Angel´s dressroom
Another lazy day so i made the decision and visited the angel´s dress room
and got the punish i deserved... :)




Olympus EM-1 + M.Zuiko 17mm, noNR
ISO100 @ f1.8, 1/250 second, 17 mm focal length​
 

etrigan63

Active member
Last night was date night for me and the Mrs. As I am psychologically incapable of going anywhere without a camera, I took mine. The wife is understanding as I am still alive and kicking. We went to a "gastrobar", aka restaurant & bar, called Bulla (pronounced "booyah") in Coral Gables. Decided to take a couple of shots with the OM Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 to give the camera a round in bad lighting conditions. I must say the focus peaking worked quite well - Sony level, in fact. And then when I went to process the images. I tried a little trick that I got in a newsletter the other day: importing the images into Lightroom and processing them in DxO Optics Pro. This had the added benefit of the new PRIME noise reduction engine which is leaps and bounds better than LR's noise sliders. Take a look and tell me what you think:


Tapas


Lamp of Bulbs
 
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etrigan63

Active member
They seem quiet... I'd love to see a comparison, side by side with LR's dragger.
Don't know what you mean by "quiet" but I will happily run both off for your perusal later this evening. BTW, routing the image via DxO Optics Pro means you get the optical correction as well (if the lens is noted in the EXIF data).
 

mazor

New member

em1 and panny 8mm fish 3.5 process in camera "Dramatic tone"

Testing out a Panny 8mm fisheye on my E-M1... so far so good.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Now that's one of the more appealing fish-eye photos I've seen lately!

I was looking at the new lenses Olympus announced. I wonder how the new BCL 9mm f/8 fish-eye performs ... for about $100, it would be worth a go! :)
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Soon as the adapter gets here, I'll test the Ultron 28/2 on the A7. I've heard it does well. Similarly, I've got an Elmarit-R 24/2.8 on the way that I'll test on the A7 too. ...
Scott,

Paul used the CV 21/4 on his A7r, a lens known to not work particularly well with full-frame sensors, and showed this picture from it:

Fun with A7/A7r thread - CV 21/4 landscape

Even if a lens doesn't work perfectly on the format, I think you can use it and get nice photographs. You should give that old Canon 19mm a try! :)

G
 

mazor

New member
thanks Godfrey, that was one of the first shots I fired with the 8mm panny. This lens is on loan so, still considering if it is worth the $$. The 9mm pancake option does sound very attractive especially the price and small size, but the cons is that there is no autofocus for artistic closeups, it does not focus as close as the panny, and being an f8.0, it would not be suitable for indoor use.

My other option would be to consider the rokinon or Samyang 7.5mm fish, but that is slightly heavier than the panny, and again has no autofocus.

choices choices.... what shall I do?
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
thanks Godfrey, that was one of the first shots I fired with the 8mm panny. This lens is on loan so, still considering if it is worth the $$. The 9mm pancake option does sound very attractive especially the price and small size, but the cons is that there is no autofocus for artistic closeups, it does not focus as close as the panny, and being an f8.0, it would not be suitable for indoor use.

My other option would be to consider the rokinon or Samyang 7.5mm fish, but that is slightly heavier than the panny, and again has no autofocus.

choices choices.... what shall I do?
Well, I don't know what you should do, but I've found AF with a fisheye is often pretty bad and usually ended up focusing manually anyway, even when I needed focusing. Most of the time, I'd just stop down to f/5.6 or f/8 and work the DoF.

Indoors ... use a tripod or fit bounce flash illumination to cover the field of view.

There are many ways to cook this cat. =*^)

G
 

mazor

New member
true true!! forgot about the bounce flash, although there is also benefits of natural light sometimes.

I have been testing the close focus with the panny 8mm and it seems pretty much spot on every time. When you say focusing is bad, are we talking close focusing (under 1m) or infinite focusing?
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
true true!! forgot about the bounce flash, although there is also benefits of natural light sometimes.

I have been testing the close focus with the panny 8mm and it seems pretty much spot on every time. When you say focusing is bad, are we talking close focusing (under 1m) or infinite focusing?
I don't usually use fish-eye lenses for doing close ups ... :)
I meant focusing in the average middle to far range. A fish-eye includes so much that most AF systems have trouble discriminating on what to pick as a focus point.
 

mazor

New member
hmm, will do more tests today randomly firing at anything I can find. Maybe the E-M1 focus engine may be improved since you tested a AF fish.

Also the Panny 8mm does not have the grab ring to switch between AF and MF since it is Panasonic, and not Olympus. If it existed, it would allow one to preset infinite focus setting when set into manual focus, and hence no reduce the risk of AF hunting for scenes which are clearly beyond the 1m focus distance.

Many thanks Godfrey for your input :)
 

greypilgrim

New member
So, I had fun with an EM-1 rental this weekend at Yosemite, and I thought I would share some shots. The first are some "trophy" shots. I normally avoid the standard places, but these were interesting to me as they were different lighting. The Valley View shot had the hills being lit by sunset behind us filtering through the clouds and painting everything red. Normally this time of year, only El Capitan and the hills on the left would be lit, so I found this unusual. The second shot, down the Merced River towards where Yosemite Falls would be if there was any water was also interesting because of the different light. This was early morning, and the light was filtered through clouds, so it softened everything up in an interesting way.

Enjoy,
Doug



 

greypilgrim

New member
These are from the base of BridalVeil falls. In spring runoff and summer, you would get nowhere near this area, so I found it interesting to explore when it was actually safe to do so. The first is with the Panny 20. The second is a two shot vertical pano (each shot horizontally framed) with the Oly 45. I really liked the character of the rock in the center top.

Enjoy,
Doug



 

monk

New member
Dragon King Showing His Stuff. OMD EM1 with the Sigma 18-35 (Nikon mount) on a Kipon adapter. Manual focus, metering (thanks for the focus-peaking, Olympus) stopping down after focus.


Arhat and Bowl. Same gear as above. Sigma lens on full manual.


Lotus and Pads. Ditto. Enjoyed the lens. The Kipon adapter seems to do the job. I'm sure on a D7100 with autofocus and electronic connection this lens will shine.
 

mazor

New member
wow greypilgrim lovely landscapes, which wonderful lens was paired up with your E-M1 to capture these amazing shots?
 

greypilgrim

New member
wow greypilgrim lovely landscapes, which wonderful lens was paired up with your E-M1 to capture these amazing shots?
Thanks, glad you liked them.

Lenses in order:

Oly 12
Panny 20
Panny 20
Oly 45 two shot vertical pano
Oly 45
Panny 20
Panny 20

My oly 60 shots are over in the fun with the 60 thread.

12-20-45 has been my standard kit for a while. Just added the 60.

Doug
 
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