Ponderings about Retro Cameras

 

Fujifilm X-T2, XC 35mm f2

I'm very strongly attracted to Retro cameras, specifically those similar in design to Nikon's iconic FM & FM2n. This is largely because I shot most of my film work on those cameras, the F3 and a few other similar bodies (FA, FM10, FE, FE2). I still own an original FE and an F2a. 

With retro cameras I've seen 3 general approaches across the 4 brands that have seriously done retro cameras.

The first is 'Retro in looks only' with the new OM-3 being the classic example, but the essentially the whole Olympus/OM System Micro4/3rds line except for the E-M1/OM-1 series fall into this category. A few Fuji's do as well, notably the X-Tx00 series. Essentially this is a camera with retro styling, but a modern PASM+dual dial interface. Key items are no external shutter speed or ISO dials, although an external exposure compensation dial is OK (we've even seen that on non-retro designs like some Sony's). These bodies tend to work well and look good, but don't tend to become iconic as in use, they're just another camera with a small grip (The Pen-F being the exception)

The second is the fully integrated design. This is a design where you get an external interface with ISO & Shutter speed dials, intended to work with an aperture ring on the lens, but also two control wheels and you can readily switch between dial and wheel interfaces as needed. The Majority of Fuji designs are in this category. It's also what Nikon has tried to do, but not quite achieved with their 3 retro designs (the Df being an abject failure and the Zfc and Zf being near-misses). The key here is that these bodies allow you to work both like a fully retro body with the external exposure triangle (usually plus exposure compensation) and a modern body, and allow you to switch each corner of the triangle independently and seamlessly. Fuji also does a few bodies that are partially here, with ISO replaced by either some alternate control or nothing on some bodies that are either lower-end or more compact.

The third approach is to make the most minimal concessions to digital possible. The only real entry here is the Leica M digitals, although the X-Pro3 dabbles in this. Leica has simply taken their film body, stuck digital internals into it and added the absolute minimum required to make them a functional digital camera. It works very well, if you want a camera that works like it's 1985 and only that way. 

The challenge with Nikon here is they continue to half-ass the experience. The Zfc and Zf are excellent cameras. But they suffer from two significant issues, only one of which is at the camera level.

At the camera level, the core issue is that they work well when only using the external dials and when only using the internal controls, but when mixing the two experiences it's a study in gotchas, especially with ISO where you need a written guide to figure out how everything interacts (except in Auto mode, where it does exactly what you'd expect when moving the ISO Dial in and out of C, why can't it be set to work the same in PASM modes?). Some of this comes down to the choice to borrow the PASM switch from the old Nikon FA rather than use a Pentax/Contax style A positions (Fuji clearly borrowed their X-T series UI from Pentax's retro-style AF cameras like the MZ-5n). Ironically many Nikon film bodies use A positions on the shutter speed dial (the FA was the exception here) and even a P position on a couple bodies (like the FG). I'd bet whoever was lead designer for the Zf and Zfc used these cameras only in all manual or in Auto (which are the two good experiences) with minimal use of Aperture priority in particular.

The other issue with the Nikon retro bodies is simply Nikon has not given users a lens selection to match these two rather popular bodies. Even the two SE lenses match in styling and size only, but as they lack an Aperture ring (or even a control ring) you can't use the lens as the third corner of the exposure triangle in manual focus. The two f1.4 lenses are a better experience as they do have a control ring, but you still can't see aperture on the lens, only on that tiny top LCD display. The irony here is that there is a good experience available, just not from Nikon. Many 3rd party primes come with aperture rings, so if you want the best experience just use Viltrox, Voigtlander, Meike, 7Artisans or TTArtisan lenses instead of Nikkors on your Zf. Nikon needs to start releasing lenses designed for these cameras in more than just cosmetics, as by all reports they are very good selling cameras and likely would sell even better if Nikon had thought out the lens needs of these cameras. 

So what can Nikon do.

In short - firmware updates. I'd like to see the following changes:

1. Setting in the Auto-ISO setup to disable Auto ISO when the ISO dial is not set to C

2. Setting in Controls CF's to 'have camera select shutter speed when dial set to C' 

3. Setting in Controls CF's to ' Use PASM switch for User Custom Settings' 

4. Setting in Controls that if setting 3 is enabled it allows the PASM Switch positions Auto, P, A & S to each be mapped to a Ux setting (U1/2/3/4) instead of AE modes. - This would also solve the loss of directly selectable user banks on these two cameras.

5. Add an A position after minimum aperture in the aperture range so you can dial into having the camera select aperture + respect A position on lenses with a physical aperture ring. 

Also, when the ZfcII comes (and eventually for the ZfII), give us a half-grip option with a shutter release and front control dial, like the OG E-M5 offered. That will be killer for these bodies with larger lenses. 

If you wonder why all the retro musings, well I can't frikking decide whether I want a Zf or an X-T5. Or to be more correct, I want a Zf, but I want some of the X-T5 experience (UI fully sorted and lenses with aperture rings). I keep digging in and realizing the two best kits for me would be X-H2+X-T5 or Z7+Zf, in both cases with the small creator camera added at some point for video/light carry (Z30/Zfc or X-M5/XT-30II). The question if I go Fuji is how do I align the body selection/acquisition as I ultimately would want two bodies, but do I get X-H2+creator or X-T5+creator first, then add the other higher-end body afterwards. 

The Most Dangerous Activity

 

OM System OM-1, m.Zuiko PRO 12-40 f2.8 II

Trawling through my Archives is a dangerous game. But the results are increasingly predictable. I really like my output from my Nikon and Olympus shooting, and everything else rates as 'good but not quite great'. 

My OM-1 ownership was bookended by an A7RIV and  Canon R7. I actually shot some of my all-time best work on that A7RIV, but that really was from a single trip to Algonquin Park and some shots with the SLRMagic 18/2.8 on an absolutely amazing cold February morning. The rest of the work is good, but not great. A fair bit of that is simply colour profiling though. I don't love the default Sony colour rendering and never quite built a profile that overrode it when the light wasn't golden.

Same for the R7, just without the 'best work' part. A solid body of work, nothing spectacular. Ditto the R6, although I didn't shoot landscape seriously enough with it to really get to know it.  

The OM-1 work, as a whole, was simply more consistent. It is clear I did need to spend some more time with it as I wasn't getting quite what I wanted from the multi-shot modes and I think that's entirely a case of I didn't know them well enough.

The flip side is I also see the weaknesses in the files vs larger sensors. While I do love the results I got from the OM-1, I'd much rather work with my Z7 files and I like the Nikon results pretty much equally. 

So did the trawl through the archives tempt me to go m43? Yep. But not quite enough this time. 

OM-3 Is out - My thoughts

 OM-1, 40-150/4 Pro

OM System announced the OM-3 today, their new compact vintage styled camera.

And it's a brilliant camera overall. But it's got one screaming issue for me. The EVF is simply not up to snuff for a camera that costs more than $1500USD. It's an old 2.36M panel at an unacceptable low 0.69x magnification. Overall a worse spec than the E-M5II from a decade ago. 

The good? Excellent build, it's the cheapest stacked-sensor camera on the market by far, which makes it also incredible in terms of performance, there is literally nothing at its pricepoint which compares except a used OM-1. 

Control layout gives up a few items, but that's inherent to a size reduction. The new CP button allows direct access to all computational features (which I very much like), the on/off switch is still in a bad position (and I'm NOT giving up the Fn switch to fix that), JPEG dial is neat if you like that and like the OM-1II, the profiles are very tweakable even if not up to the real-time LUT system of Panasonic. Oh, and it shares the OM-1 battery and has a proper SD card slot (not in the battery compartment like the Zf/Zfc)

Cost is too high, as is usual for OM at launch. It will come down in 6 months. 

No grip options, which is a pity, a 2-part grip like the early E-M5's offered would have been great here. 

Also launched are updates of the 25/1.8, 17/1.8 and 100-400. The primes get sealing and the 17 loses the focus clutch, the 100-400 gets SyncIS but not saner pricing (as it's a Sigma rebadge and the Sigma version is half the price)

The verdict? A very solid effort and a great camera if you can live with the low-spec EVF that's the only real stripper aspect of the OM-3.

No, I don't plan on getting one. I skipped the E-M5 series after the MkII over the EVF and the OM-3 has the same EVF as those bodies. 

Random Gear Thoughts

 

Canon EOS R7, RF-S 18-150 IS STM

The photo above is from probably the best midsize walkaround combo I've ever owned. The combo of size, focal length range and effective crop capability of the lens and sensor are superb. Essentially it's a 29-300 in one lens, if I crop to 20mp m43 format for the long end (which is very doable on that sensor as it has the same pixel density as the OM-1). 

The RF-S 18-150 has been a surprising gem, and I've also shot a fair bit of video with it, as I have a non-Photography youtube channel that's been shot exclusively with the R7 since June. I will be testing out the R6 as a B-cam for it, but the R7 will remain the main video camera since it's got somewhat better sorted video controls (Video is NOT on the mode dial, but a position on the power switch, allowing easier switching, although that also means I occasionally accidentally put it in video mode instead of stills. The R6mII's separate and dedicated switch is the best setup of the lot). The close focus and good sharpness of the 18-150 has proved quite useful for my video needs in addition to being a good stills lens.

Don't get me wrong, it's not L glass, but it does punch above its weight as a kit lens and delivers quite acceptable results for the way I use my images. 

Overall the RF system is proving to be a nice mix of capability for me. While not perfect, and definitely lacking in 3rd party AF options, the 1st party native lenses fit my needs pretty well and are IMHO better selected than Nikon's, the mix of bodies is good at the low/mid-range (the weak spot IMHO is the R3, which isn't really competitive vs the A1/A9mIII/Z8/Z9 competition). One very nice aspect is how seamless the EF integration is, it makes using adapted EF lenses extremely seamless. I've done adaptation of AF SLR lenses on Fuji, m43, Nikon and Sony and the only comparable experience was Nikon E lenses on Z (and I found the older mechanical aperture lenses to be less nice to adapt, although generally capable). 

Speaking of L glass, my cheap 70-200L has had a new lease on life on the R6. While it was quite good on the R7, especially if stopped down, it did not wow me. That's largely because a 20-ish year old optical design and the R7's very high pixel density were not a great combo if I was looking for top notch performance. On the much lower density R6 sensor however the 70-200L moves from quite good to excellent and I've gotten a selection of shoots that I am absolutely loving with that combo. 

I also added the RF 24/1.8 IS Macro to my bag, providing a wide angle option for the R6 and a walkabout prime for the R7. It's quite a good lens and I'm liking it so far, although I've not used the macro focusing much yet. I do need an UWA for the R6 though, and will also need to add a second EF to RF adapter so I can run my 10-18 on my R7 and my 70-200L on my R6 at the same time. Probably will go for the control ring version to get that extra control point for the R6/70-200L combo. 

OM System OM-1 - A System of One

 

OM-1, 40-150/4 Pro

Ever since taking my look at Fuji again last week, I've been trying to understand where my frustration is with m43 this time, because it's definitely not with the OM-1 or the files I'm getting.

And it's pretty much in the title, at this point the OM-1 and m43 is a system of one. One body that's stills focused, one that's video focused, one lens per usage. 

Really, there's two modern competitive m43 bodies today, the OM-1 and GH6. Everything else is pretty much old tech, old UI but new and trending to high pricing. 

That is great if you just want to buy some kit and go out and shoot, so long as you are good using the same high-end body for backup (which many serious shooters are entirely good with). If you like to experiment and play it's much less good. There's lens options, but most of the cheap and fun lenses are intended for APS-C and suffer from crop factor issues.

Since I want a backup camera for various uses (B-cam, in-city manual lens fun, light carry) I've been looking seriously at the m43 options and just not liking them. The OM-5 suffers from decontenting and high price. It's got great internals, but the dinky viewfinder, dinky battery, old USB Micro-B connector and ridiculous price all argue against it. The E-M5III has all of those issues, but can be found somewhat cheaply on the used market. The Pen-F is expensive and rare on the used market and the EM-10's again are just too much money for what they are. I'm not interested in another Panasonic body either (and if I was, only the GX9/GX7mII would make any sense). 

On the lens side, the native options are generally excellent, but also somewhat limited in terms of decent used availability. You just can't find used kit and I don't want to pay new money for lenses that I don't use continuously.

So yes, I'm looking at another system switch, not because I'm unhappy with the OM-1, but because I'm unhappy with the rest of the ecosystem.

Pondering Systems Yet Again

 

Fujifilm X-T2, 7Artisans 25mm f1.8

I've been thinking about a second body for a while now, what would work for me as a complement to the OM-1. This has me strugging with m43 again.

What do I want in a body split?

1 larger body, PASM style controls, beefy grip, good performance, good EVF

1 smaller body, PASM or traditional controls, can be lower performance but same basic IQ wanted, I want a good EVF though. 

I'd really like common lens/battery/cards across the two, with battery actually being the key item (I rarely change cards when shooting, and frankly I kind of want to be zoom primary on the larger body, prime primary on the smaller, although being able to cross-swap would be useful when hiking).

The OM-5 fails on batteries and EVF. The Panasonic lineup has mostly the same set of issues.

Fuji on the other hand offers the X-H2(s) bodies and X-T4/5 in this space, which all share the same battery, support UHS-II cards (the X-H2's also support CFE B cards)

The downside, in holding the Fuji bodies it's clear that Fuji still hasn't figured out buttons. Even the latest of their bodies still suffer from chiclet buttons, although they have improved a bit. Honestly I could live with that on the dial-based smaller camera, but not on the larger PASM body.

The other issue is that simply even the X-H2s isn't as capable a camera as the OM-1, despite a higher cost. VERY limited computational capabilities (high-res only really, and that requires post-processing on your PC), and the AF doesn't stand up either, as Fuji lacks a basic AF-C+Tracking option, which is the weakest mode on the OM-1, but is at least there. Subject recognition is better on the OM-1, it's also faster (50fps vs 40). Video is better on the Fuji side, but if I was video focused I'd be shooting a GH6, not an OM-1. 

I actually did box up my gear and head in to Henrys to look at Fuji options. This usually results in my coming home with a different camera, but this time the OM-1 came home with me. None of the options I looked at were as good as the OM-1 as a primary camera. 

The takeaway? I think I'm sticking with m43 for now, but I still need to figure out what I'm going to do for a backup/city camera to the OM-1. Who knows, maybe I'll just get an X-T series and some cheap manual focus primes and shoot Fuji in the city, OM System in the field. 

Late Spring Updates

OM System OM-1, 12-40 PROmII, 6 stop LiveND

 Well, it’s been a hot minute since I posted here. What’s been happening? Both a lot and not very much. I spent most of the winter and early spring cooped up for various reasons. Not much photography happened until recently, although I did get one good outing mid-spring. I also started an RC-related YouTube channel which has been eating a lot of time. That’s somewhat relevant to this blog as I’m shooting those videos on my OM-1, which has proven to work very well for my needs for video. 

Overall I’ve been very happy with the OM-1, I’m up around 2300 exposures on it, limited mostly by the lack of outings. At this point I have very few complaints about it. The handling is great, the IQ is up to par, even coming from the outstanding A7RIV, I don’t find myself going ‘I wish I had the Sony instead’ when I look at the files from the OM-1. Is it a match for the Sony in IQ? No for resolution and Dynamic range, yes for colour. But with the computation capabilities, i rarely find myself in a situation where I can’t get the IQ I need while also getting the shot. I had more issues with the Sony due to the need for ND filters, poor LCD articulation for low-angle shooting and lower-quality LCD resulting in worse viewing angles in sunlight. The LiveND feature is probably the biggest win for me, I can carry one filter, a polarizer, and almost always get the shot I need. I do carry a 10 stop ND just in case, but rarely ever fit it, 6 stops is enough for most of my uses. 

On the handling side, the OM-1 beats the pants off the A7RIV. I just really like shooting with this camera, it feels right, the controls are better laid out, not cramped and I have full confidence in the camera in every condition. The A7RIV was good enough at handling, but just not as good as the OM-1. 

On the lens front, I have the 12-40/2.8 Pro mII, the 40-150/4 Pro and the 17/1.8, I haven’t used the 17  much at all yet (I’ve owned it a couple times before, so I know what I’m getting). My only complaint with any of them is the close focus on the 40-150/4, it’s a little restrictive. 

There’s surprisingly been more cases where I wished I had longer lenses than wider. I was expecting to miss not having an UWA more, and not having a longer telephoto (>300mm-e) less, but it’s actually been the opposite. Regardless I do see adding lenses at both ends of the spectrum over time. The 8-25/4 Pro and 40-150/2.8 Pro would make a good working pair, sharing a 72mm filter thread (and I already have a polarizer that fits), and the 40-150/2.8 is TC-compatible and known to work vey well with the Oly/OM TC’s. That way I’d have the current pair of zooms for minimalist carry and the bigger set plus a TC or two for wider-ranged carry. Stretch setup would add the 100-400 and 60 or 90 Macro. 

I have been somewhat interested in adding a second body, more as a B cam for YouTube than anything else. No idea where I’d go there, there’s so many decent options so long as all I need is decent 1080p60 with manual focus. I honestly will probably add an action camera first.

On the pure photography side, getting up north has been a big win for me. I love the geography of the Canadian Shield and getting up there to shoot has just been good for the soul, and also for the bank of images to process. I suspect there’s going to be more overnight and short weekend trips north in my future. While I have concentrated on the Muskoka’s and Ontario Highlands since getting into Landscape Photography, it’s the North that is where my true passion for the subject lies.

Second Outing with the OM-1

OM-1, 40-150 f4 Pro

It took long enough, but I finally managed to get out and shooting last week after being essentially stuck around home since early November for various reasons.

I got a little greedy with my plans, intending to chase a sunrise and sunset as well as do some hiking. I got the sunrise and half the planned hiking before realizing I was too tired to continue without a nap, and was not properly equipped to be napping in the truck in the winter. 

I got up along Highway 522 before dawn and chased the sunrise from a little before Loring to Golden Valley, then some golden hour shots on 522 east then 534 until I made it to Callander mid-morning where I stopped for an easy hike of a decent distance, ~5km on the Cranberry Trail. After that I drove up to North Bay for lunch, then east to Corbeil and started south. Somewhere south of Corbeil I decided that the right choice was to head homewards rather than stopping and napping before another hike and/or a sunset attempt. I've simply been so inactive since the summer for various reasons that I need to build back up to these long days if I'm going to be hiking and trying for sunrise/sunset on the same trip.

Photographically, I came home with a ton of images, 951 to be exact. That is in large part because I encountered Chickadees and feeding stations on the Cranberry Trail and decided to try out a few OM-1 features I'd never played with, namely ProCapture, the SH2 drive mode and Bird Tracking AF.

ProCapture is a pre-shooting experience, it starts recording images when you half-press the shutter and writes the current buffer when you full press. This allows you to control the end of the burst instead of the beginning and therefore force a write the moment after the moment you wanted to capture, and still get the shot. It's also a guaranteed way to come home with a full card.

SH2 drive mode is the fastest full-AF/AE drive mode on the OM-1 (SH1 is twice as fast, but AF/AE lock on half-press). With my 40-150 f4, SH2 operates at 25fps, but it can go to 50fps with a supported lens. Between those two features, I managed to shoot around 700 shots alone. 

Bird Tracking AF is exactly what it sounds like, an automated subject recognition mode for birds. The OM-1 has several such modes, although confusingly eye detect AF for people is a completely different AF tracking mode. OMDS does need to sort out the control system for these modes, they're too time consuming to switch between unless you put them on a Custom menu slot. 

Being a newbie to bird photography I also made one big mistake, I left the camera in Aperture Priority mode, which meant my shutter speed stayed WAY too low for small, fast moving birds, at 1/320 vs the 1/2000 or so I actually needed. I have a bunch of nicely focused blurs from whenever the birds took off. I did figure out my mistake afterwards and now C4 on my mode dial is Bird mode. Maybe next time I'll get 700+ usable shots instead of a lot of motion blur.

In terms of landscape, I definitely did better, although my route wasn't as scenic as I'd hoped. Just a lot of tree-lined rural highway with a handful of really nice winter morning views. I'm pretty happy with what I came home with, but also want some more soon. Might have to go up east of Algonquin, I haven't done that in the winter in a couple years.

 

2022 Wrap Up and 2023 Goals

 

OM-1, m.Zuiko Pro 12-40mm f2.8 II

2022 was a bit of a study in opposites for  me. While I didn't take that many photos, at 4093 for the year, I think I produced some of my best work ever, most notably the work from my trip to Algonquin Park in February and from Eastern Ontario in early November. The image above is from the latter trip. and the one below from the former.

A7RIV, SLR Magic 18mm f2.8

In terms of photographic outings, I really struggled. Not so much with motivation as with life getting in the way of any real excursions. Simply put, I had a lot going on this year between work and health (both mine and my partner's) and I either simply didn't have the time for a proper photography outing, didn't have the energy or couldn't be far from the city. That meant a lot of RC flying and not much photography.

Photography in and around my home struggled for different reasons. Simply put, I do a lot of macro and near macro work when shooting like this and Sony's lenses don't match up well to how I do that, with poor MFD on pretty much all the zoom options. It's the same basic issue I had with Nikon Z for that work, although I at least had the Laowa 15mm f4 Macro to partially make up for it. 

This leads to an interesting observation. Going back to m43 from Sony is the second time I have switched systems because of the 12-40 Pro. My experience with that lens, it's excellent optics and remarkable close focus performance was a big reason why I went all-in on m43 in 2021 and sold the Z5. My memories of that lens and struggles with close focus work on Sony was a major reason why I went back to m43 in October 2022. I found the FE28-60 to be a remarkable little lens, but I missed the close focus of the 12-40 and most importantly, across all the Sony system there simply wasn't a comparable mid-range zoom for close focus work. The takeaway here? Unless I have a direct replacement for the 12-40 in terms of optical performance and close-focus, I shouldn't even look at alternate systems. I'll just end up going back to m43. 

To be honest, I never was unhappy with the A7RIV, if I'd been able to find an acceptable and full replacement for the 12-40, ie small, sharp and great close focus, I would still be shooting the A7RIV. It actually got a ton of use, but as a webcam, not a stills camera. 

I had a couple minor annoyances with it, mostly the LCD articulation, and I never really trusted it in tough weather conditions, but that really was it. The challenge here is the classic FF one, the good normal zooms are big or short-ranged and MFD on zooms sucks compared to m43. 

In terms of my goals, it was 3 misses and a strike out in 2022.

Goal 1 - 10,000 images on one camera. Hard fail, I broke 3k on the A7RIV and that was over 3/4 of my shooting for the year. I think if I had been shooting more, I would have hit the bar. I simply shot 1/3 as much in 2022 as I did in 2021.

Goal 2 - Go out to do photography in some way every week. I'd failed this pretty much in a month from setting the goal. WAY too much hermiting up in 2022, for good reasons but it did cause a fail here.

Goal 3 - Get my Like to Post ratio up to 70% on Fred Miranda - Also failed, although I have steadily improved the ratio, it's currently 55.8%, up from under 52% when I set the goal. This was way too high a bar for the math to work unless I produced a ridiculous amount of work.

For 2023, my goals will be as follows.

Goal 1 - 10,000 images on one camera. This is a good goal, I just need to actually shoot 10,000 frames as my system shifting has slowed down. In 2021 I bought 5 cameras, mostly via trade-ins, in 2022 I bought 2. I'm hoping that will be 1 in 2023 (a backup camera for my OM-1)

Goal 2 - At least two major photographic outings every quarter. I think this is more realistic than the 'shoot something every week' in case I hermit up again. This also accounts better for the two big dead zones for me (spring from melt to first bloom and fall from leaf fall to first snow).

Goal 3 - Get my Like to Post ratio up to 60% on Fred Miranda. Same basic goal, but a more realistic bar. Given that the m43 forum is much less watched than the Sony one I need to be more realistic, I get more Sony likes than m43 simply because people are actually reading the image threads.

First Real Outing with the OM-1

 

OM-1, 12-40 f2.8 Pro mkII

First off, I didn’t realize that I actually bought my OM-1 on OM System Day, OMDS’s apparently annual celebration of the OM System on October 27th. Just a neat coincidence.

One of the things that made me seriously reconsider sticking with Sony was Nick Page’s recent musings about his experience with his A7RIV’s robustness in difficult conditions, as well as quality of life items. He’s currently testing out an EOS R5 system as his A7RIV is pretty much dead from sealing-related failures and he doesn’t see a major upgrade on this aspect for the A7RV. Given I never quite trusted the Sony body in this aspect, I tend to agree with him here and I also wonder if in the back of my mind a lack of trust in the robustness of the body was been an inhibitor for me in getting out more with the A7RIV. Nick noted that for all the pre-release content for the A7RV, there was a serious lack of Landscape shooters involved in the launch and postulated that this group had increasingly left the A7R series behind because of a lack of robustness in the field.

Getting back to my actual shooting, I shot around 350 shots yesterday with the OM-1, all over Eastern Ontario. Got both a sunrise and sunset, I do like fall and winter for making that practical without noon naps. Sunrise was in Cobourg and Sunset near Portland, ON on Big Rideau Lake. The shot above was on Highway 2A east of Cobourg as I made my way towards the Bay of Quinte and the Loyalist Parkway. 

I tested out LiveND mode, got High-Res (regular, not Hand-Held), HDR and AE bracketing all sorted the way I wanted and just played with the camera a fair bit. Overall the first impressions were decidedly positive, with minimal fighting of the camera once I figured out that LiveND mode required the camera to be set to M mode (in true Olympus fashion, it told me clearly I was in the wrong Shooting Mode, but skipped the ‘set to M mode’ info I needed). I do wish that bracketing modes could stack with computational modes though, especially High-Res, as I do want to bracket those when possible.

LiveND works very well on a tripod, but is not really a handheld mode right now unless you have a 12-100IS, because you NEED SyncIS to be able to viably handhold these exposures. The IBIS is really good on the OM-1, but it’s not ‘reliable 2S exposure’ good without SyncIS. Note SyncIS is the linked IBIS+Lens IS mode available on mostOlympus IS lenses (pretty much any Oly/OMDS IS lens except the 100-400), however there’s only one wider lens with IS, the 12-100, all the others currently are long telephotos. The other thing I found with LiveND is the results don’t HDR stack well, although I suspect that’s a Lightroom limitation more than anything else, it’s not handling in-frame blur well.

The other modes worked as expected. I was happy to figure out that AE bracketing was burst by default (what I prefer), which makes bracketing wildly easier than on the A7RIV. Push a button, get the burst. Hold down the button to change settings. That beats the already good Sony experience of selecting a drive mode (from the approximately 672 drive modes available, on Sony practically everything is a drive mode), drilling down if you want to change the settings, then confirming and shooting. The Sony experience is better than it sounds, the OM-1 is literally press a button and shoot, allowing me to switch back and forth instantly. I had no idea life could be this good (I don’t think that was possibly on my older bodies, aside from maybe the E-M1.2 which I had only briefly). The E-M5.2 let me select HDR this way, but not AE IIRC, although I could just have never figured it out.

I’ve actually assigned specific buttons to each of the 4 main functions I use (AE bracketing, HDR, High-Res and LiveND). Two are on the front (HDR and LiveND) and two on the top (AE Bracketing on the +/- button, as I put Exposure Comp on a dial for AE modes, HR on the Movie button which I essentially never use). 

The much hyped Menu update both is and isn’t a big deal. It’s cleaner for sure and super easy to navigate, but the excessive use of obtuse iconography to reduce the need to localize, the often lousy descriptions and the lack of any real touch integration all rankle a bit. I haven’t found the 1 fish/3 fish setting yet…. It’s pretty, but some language improvements and adding real touch integration would be nice. On the flip side the command dials are really well integrated, which makes using the menu extremely fast once you figure out that the front dial pages though categories and the back dial between tabs in each category.

Otherwise I really do like the camera overall. I would have swapped Delete/Play and Menu/Monitor though, the left side of the body is over-supplied with buttons that I’d like the option of triggering one-handed. 

Card performance is excellent, I was never waiting unlike on the A7RIV, although file sizes are also about 1/4 of the A7RIV sizes which simplifies things and makes my high-end UHS-1 cards more viable and largely eliminates the need for UHS-II cards unless you are shooting high-end video or action/wildlife. There probably will be a 128GB UHS-II V90 card in my future at some point though, just to make 4K video and 50fps continuous modes viable.

The OM-1 EVF is remarkably better than the A7RIV, despite the specs being almost identical. Chalk that up to Sony’s generally poor EVF implementations, they almost always end up with the worst results from a given panel. However it’s not blackout free unless you are using the high-speed drive modes (20+fps), even with electronic shutter enabled there’s blackout at low drive speeds.

Other little things: The grip is a nicer shape than the A7RIV, I still prefer the left-side lens release of Nikon/Canon/m43 over the right lower release of E, X and K mounts. The selectable lock for the mode dial is nice, I still don’t like the left-side power switch that dates back to the film OM’s, but Quick Sleep makes up for that, I just don’t have to flip the power switch anywhere near as much on the OM-1 as I did on older bodies (aside from the E-M1.2 which had Quick Sleep too). Battery is huge (both physically and in capacity) and charges fast on USB-C PD so long as your adapter does 27+W, that almost makes up for no included charger. It’s  nice to have flip/twist back. I still need to sort my focus assist setup. Probably going to drop the HDR mode for peaking on a button. I still don’t know why OMDS just doesn’t allow you to have Peaking always on when in MF mode rather than tying it to a button or focus ring movement.

And I’m Back, with a switch

Olympus OM-1, m.Zuiko 12-40 Pro f2.8 II

This year has been pretty dead for me in terms of shooting, not because of a lack of desire, but a combo of too busy with work (I was pretty much flat out from May onwards), high gas prices, actively RC flying in my rare free time (the field is close, good landscapes are not) and just a general desire to hole up at home rather than go out. 

That said, I did get out a couple times and got a small selection of good shots. 

I’ve got my brain going off on gear again as well. I do miss a lot from the m43 system, especially the 12-40 Pro, the IBIS and the automation, LiveND especially. I do really like the A7RIV, but the two real gaps in the Sony lens lineup are a compact and close focusing 24-xx zoom and a good 70-200/4 options. There are alternative solutions though, the Tamron 70-180/2.8 can mostly replace a 70-200/4 in terms of size, weight and cost. But there’s only one small 24-xx option and that’s the thoroughly mediocre and ancient ZA 24-70/4.

Sony just launched the A7RV and Oly the OM-5. Both are fairly minor updates on paper, mostly processing and firmware improvements. Both kind of interest me, but one is WAY too expensive and the other really could only be a second body for me. 

The other aspect is something I touched on in my last post some months ago. Most of my best work has been on the Oly kit. The exception really is that one set of shots from Algonquin last February, and I could have done that with an OM-1. I simply don't really take advantage of the A7RIV's true power beyond the Dynamic Range, and I miss the OM systems quality of life features. 

In looking over my work over the last few years, and especially since February, I'm just not taking advantage of the A7RIV's insane megapixels, and while the AF is really nice, otherwise it's merely good.

So it went into the store, along with 3 of my lenses (18/2.8, 28-60 and 70-300) and an OM-1/12.40II kit came home instead. I really regretted selling off the E-M1.2 in March 2021 and this gets me back to where I was then, just with a lot more capable body and a mildly improved lens (the Mk2 12-40 has better sealing, better coatings and 50fps AF support). 

The initial take is the ergonomics are something I missed as well. The A7RIV was the best Sony I've shot with, but the OM-1 is significantly nicer in the hand. The EVF is better as well, somewhat surprising since it's the same basic hardware. AF is something I'll need to get a handle on as it works differently from either the A7RIV or the older Oly's I've used. IQ is very good, not FF good, but the files are way less crunchy than the E-M1.2, let alone the G9 or the 16MP m43 bodies.

Oh, and I have the 12-40 back. That alone is worth it, I've missed this lens a shocking amount over the last 8 months. The combination of compact, well built and crazy good close focus make it the single best normal zoom I've used over the years. 

 

OM-Wow - The OM-1 is Launched

 

E-M5II, m.Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 Pro

So the new OMDS 'Wow' camera has been announced. It's called the OM-1 and it's a real nice set of upgrades.

But very few of the changes would have benefited my work and the price increased over 20% as well vs the E-M1.3 that this replaces as the flagship camera (I expect the E-M1X to just fade away like the Pen-F did)

It's faster, better sealed and upgraded all around, but only performance changes to the computational features that interest me (LiveND and High-Res). LiveND now can do 6 stops and High-Res post-processing is twice as fast. Oh and a claimed 1 stop better DR from the new sensor.

That's nice, but frankly I'm getting a bigger boost for my work from the A7RIV, so I have no desire to reverse course on my switch to Sony. 

That said, this is clearly the best crop camera on the market by a fairly large margin. While some have claimed the D500 still held that crown, IMHO the E-M1.3 was already in that position in most regards.

Switched Again

 

Sony A7RIV, FE 28-60mm f4-5.6

So both the G9 and the E-M5II are gone, along with all the m43 stuff including the MMF-3 and the 12-40 Pro that was much of the reason I got rid of the Z5 and bought back into m43

There was nothing wrong with this kit. It generally worked well for me unless the light got low. So why did I sell it?

There were a couple reasons. 

1. Yeah, I still like shooting in the dark around the city. Especially in the winter and when I'm stuck close to home. m43 stuff just wasn't great for that unless you bought the f1.2 lenses, which are spendy and largish, defeating what is for me the biggest advantages of m43

2. If I was going to stay shooting m43 seriously, I needed to invest in a quality telezoom and UWA. That was going to cost me FF money

3. The rumours on the next-gen bodies which I would be looking at for long-term usage are all around a $2K USD price point. That's a hard sell when you are seeing A7RIV's coming in lightly used around $2300

Note I already own a pretty good but slowish telezoom in Sony mount, the Tamron 70-300 I acquired last fall. Should have kept the 16-35 ;-)

And yes, I got the A7RIV. Because the deal was insanely in my favour after the trade-in. Also picked up the tiny but excellent 28-60 for a good deal. It will be a bag lens and cover most of the gap between the 70-300 and the 16-35 I will inevitably be re-buying shortly. Cheap plastic, but sharp.

Why the A7RIV? 

I looked seriously at a few options. Most notably the Z7, the A7IV and the A7RIV. The Z7II was too much money and I wanted a body with more than 24MP for reasons I'll get into.

The Z7 was the best deal on paper. A used Z7 with the excellent 24-70/4 S cost less than the bare A7RIV did. But the Z7 came with at least $300 in additional cost due to the card setup (CFE-B card is $180 minimum, plus at least one USB reader, maybe 2 as I need both a USB-A 3.1 reader for my desktop and a USB-C for my iPad Pro in the field) and delivers less performance in a number of areas over the A7RIV. Not so much in terms of IQ (the Z7 is more than adequate there) as AF, multi-shot and several other areas. The end result is that the Z7 would have cost me almost the same as the A7RIV did for less camera, but more lens.

The A7IV is a newer camera and in most regards somewhat more refined than either the A7RIV or the Z7. It also has a flip/twist display, which I prefer to the single-tilt display on both the Z7 and A7RIV, but the EVF is trash compared to the Z5, let alone the Z7 or A7RIV. But it's the most expensive of the lot as it would have been a new body. I could have swung the deal, but it just didn't make as much sense to me as a low-mileage A7RIV given the latter offers better build, better EVF and a higher-resolution sensor. I give up the faster responding UI (the A7RIV is already pretty good there), the CFE-A slot and the better AF tracking. Oh, and the A7IV is a little bit more money than the A7RIV I was looking at (I could have got an even lower mileage A7RIV for the same price as the A7IV)

Why not the A7RIII? They are a little cheaper than the Z7 used, but the UI and EVF updates to the A7RIV are enough to swing the difference for me, especially if I manage to keep this body long-term.

One reason why the A7RIV appealed was the possibility of keeping it for a long time. It's well known as one of the best landscape cameras on the market today, it's also for the most part Sony's best APS-C camera, I can run it in crop mode and get class-leading IQ, speed and the ergonomics that are lacking on all their actual APS-C cameras. Plus the body is reasonably sized (slightly smaller than my G9 was in fact), the ergonomic niggles on the Mark II bodies are mostly solved as well. Big buttons, better button layout, a joystick and a better grip with more finger clearance. Ditto for the battery life, the A7RIV is on the Z batter that's twice the capacity of the W battery in the Mark II's. Responsiveness is also improved, it's faster all around (AF, FPS, UI), the menu's are improved, even if they are still Olympus-level disorganized.

So for now I have the A7RIV, the 28-60 and 70-300 as well as all my manual lenses from 24-300mm. I'll add a replacement UWA shortly and my hiking kit should be covered then.

First Days with the G9

 

Panasonic G9, Olympus m.Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 PRO

So far the G9 has been a pretty raging success for me. I’m over 1000 shots in on it in 5 days of ownership. That’s compared to 450 in the first week with the Z5, 440 for the E-M5.2 and 1000 for the E-M1.2. We'll see where I am by next Thursday, but it's likely to exceed the E-M1.2 count by a bit.

The image above is from a spot I've been meaning to revisit for a long time, it's a great view of downtown Toronto and the last time I shot there was in 2007 if I recall correctly, I was shooting with the Pentax K10D and Pentax DA 16-45/4 which I sold off in early 2008 to get my first D300. This is from Boradview Avenue about mid-way between Danforth Ave and Gerrard Ave, looking southwest towards the CN tower. It's really one of the best angles to shoot the city from, and since you're looking over the Don Valley but the DVP is mostly invisible from here, there's nothing really to distract the eye. I've driven by here a number of times recently and have been meaning to stop and get the shot. Last night I was finally able to do so and I'm glad I did. While I'm just not that interested in Cityscape work anymore, I do like to dabble in it occasionally.

The G9 worked very well for this. It's got a couple nice features for long-exposure work, specifically it counts down the remaining exposure on the display both when making the exposure (for exposures longer than 1 second) and while doing the dark-frame subtraction (aka Long Exposure Noise Reduction), which means you are never staring at the camera wondering when your camera will be responding again. The fact that it can be set to take bracket sets as a burst is nice as well, I've always preferred this as it makes getting good matching bracket frames much easier and it's something I've found lacking on a lot of recent Mirrorless Cameras including both the E-M5.2 and the Z5 (I'm sure there's probably some hidden setting I'm missing on the E-M5.2, but the Z5 simply didn't do this, and the Nikon DSLR's did).

Overall, the G9's ergonomics are just dead on, it's like a combination of all the ergonomic high points of the Z5 and E-M1.2 in one body, with a couple improvements of its own. Having a 3 position AF/MF switch under my thumb is excellent and beats the 2x2 switch on the E-M1.2 (which is more flexible as you can choose what it does, but flexibility doesn't add anything for me here because I use that for AF mode switching), plus a joystick like the Z5, but I can also get the touch AF control like the E-M1.2 if I want it. AF is as far as I can tell generally more configurable than the E-M1.2, although I do lose the ability to set a custom focus range limiter like the E-M1.2 can. It's more flexible than the Z5 because you can assign specific modes to buttons (which none of the Z's can).

Oddly, this is the first camera I've owned since the NEX-7 that won't let me re-assign the record button. That's not too big an issue here as it's located in a convenient but reasonably out of the way spot and there are so many other configurable control points (19 in all counting buttons, touch buttons and assigning joystick and 4-way actions) that I'm not losing anything by having a few buttons dedicated to specific functions (the WB, ISO and Exp Comp buttons are also dedicated functions)

Z9 is Here and it's awesome. I bought a different '9' instead

 

Sony A7II, ZA FE 16-35/4 OSS

The Nikon Z9 got announced last week and frankly, it's utterly amazing. Not only did it come in cheaper than expected ($1000USD less than the Sony A1, $500USD less than the Canon R3), but it's clearly a class leader in many respects. Not everywhere, but in enough places that Nikon's got a clear winner here. Interestingly it becomes the first performance-oriented camera to completely drop the mechanical shutter in favour of its extremely fast (3.7ms or 1/270th) electronic shutter.

Would I buy one? Nope. It's too big (integrated grip) and too heavy (1350g) for my uses. But it is amazing and has some features I really want to see come down the line, especially the dual-tilt LCD setup which should become standard on the Z7III and Z5II (the Z6III should get flip/twist as it's the 'video' body of the 3 lower-end FX Z's)

Does this have any impact on my gear choices? Not really. 

With regards to gear, I've been struggling. I've really liked the results I was getting with my Partner's A7II and the ZA 16-35/4 I picked up for it last month, but I still struggle with the LCD setup and ergonomics, as well as the speed of the body. Pretty much the same complaints I had when it was my body, and when I had my first A7II. Nice body overall and still very competent, but not as well suited for my style of working as I'd like.

I've been on the lookout for a while for another E-M1 Mark II body, but haven't seen anything crop up. However I've seen a few Panasonic G9's crop up for good prices. The G9 is pretty much Panasonic's take on the E-M1 Mark II. It's a little more capable in some areas (better video, better EVF and astonishingly, even more configurable) and a little less in others (inferior AF-C, not quite sealed as well, IBIS is not as effective as Olympus's market-leading system)

As I was sitting on a bunch Henry's store credit, I grabbed a G9 when one popped up yesterday (they go quick) and am going to give it a good try-out. It's got all I want in terms of ergonomics, is compatible with my m43 lenses and gets me some very nice automation as well. I'm looking forward to seeing what it can deliver, I've not owned a G series newer than the G3, and not owned a Panasonic since the GX7 (I did quite like the GX7). This kind of puts a stake in chasing the dragon for a bit I hope, I'm going to be on m43 for a while yet. 

In terms of lenses, I might just look at the 8-18/50-200 pair to round out my kit. I'd already been considering the 50-200 over the Oly 40-150 Pro, but the latter just makes more sense for an Oly shooter because of Pro Capture and the focus stacking features. Likewise the PanaLeica lenses make more sense on the G9 for DFD and DualIS (the 50-200 is an IS lens, unlike the 40-150Pro).

Interestingly, the G9 is actually larger than the A7II, on par in size with the Z5, and the handling is quite similar as well overall. The biggest difference is the G9's EVF optics are not as good as the Z5's, although the panel itself is on par. I can see distortion in the corners with the G9 due to the somewhat over-magnified display (0.83x to the Z5's 0.80x). It is a much nicer EVF than the E-M1 Mark II has, I'd call it my second favourite after the Nikon Z's.

Handling on the G9 is excellent, ergonomically it's very close to the Z5, but it's got WAY more configurability than the somewhat limited Z5 and the rear switch above the LCD is dedicated to AF (which I will use) rather than a Video/Stills switch (which I won't use).  

The G9 becomes the first mirrorless body I've had with a settings LCD on top. It's not something I missed in my transition from DSLR to Mirrorless, we'll see if I find it useful on the G9. 

Initial testing is good. The AF is as fast as I've ever seen (the G9's weakness is fast AF-C, which I don't really do, even then it should be as good as the Z5 and better than the A7II, AF-S is insanely fast from initial playing). I've setup a basic config, but I will be tweaking it before I get my C1/2/3 fully setup for long-term use. 

One thing I really like is the included charger is a USB Charger. Hallelujah! It does seem VERY slow to charge, but the fact I can readily run it in the truck as well as charging the camera directly off USB makes for a big win. I picked up a second battery, an actual Panasonic one, so I should be good for battery life as the batteries are relatively large capacity. I've heard that the new and higher capacity S5 battery might work in the G9 as well, but would need a different charger. Might check that out if I have any issues with battery life, but I'm not expecting to. I've generally done fine on the E-M5II with 2 1st party BLN-1's, or 1 st party and 2 3rd party ones and the BLN-1 is much lower capacity than the BLF19 the G9 uses (1220mAh for the BLN-1 vs 1860mAh for the BLF19). The G9 has a thirstier EVF and LCD, but 50% more capacity and a proper power-saver mode should offset that.

With regards to the Sony stuff I picked up last month, the 70-300 will stay with the A7II for my partner, the 16-35/4 I'm undecided on, it could go to fund an m43 wide or tele, or I might just hold onto it for now. For the two m43 lenses I traded in towards the 70-300, well I'll miss both, but they weren't all that well suited to my working style. I may re-acquire them in the future if I manage to stick with m43 though, the 45 is dirt cheap and the 75 should continue to come down in price for a while.

It's Announcement Week

 

E-M5.2, 12-40 Pro

Sony kicked things off last week with the A7IV, a significant update of their aging A7III. It gets the new body design from the A7SIII, the new processor platform, CFE-A support on slot 1, lossless RAW compression, all the new AF algorithms from the A1 and a new and promising 33MP sensor, but also gets a 25% price increase (to $2500USD/$3200CAD) and it's now limited to 6fps or lower in Uncompressed or Lossless Compressed RAW (the A7III did 10fps in Uncompressed, but didn't offer Lossless). Oh, and a flip/twist LCD. The sensor readout speed stays the same, so AF is not on the level of the A9 or A1 series, but it has a real touch UI, not the spec-sheet only touch of the A7III, and the UI responsiveness is increased to be actually comparable to a Nikon or Canon body.

I'm ambivalent on this. On paper it's perfect for my uses as it's very much the sort of balanced camera that I like, not too much MP, but enough to be a boost over 24MP, enough speed and the flip/twist LCD. The problem is I can now get a good high-MP camera for the same or less money and with current card prices, extra MP isn't really a downside. At the previous model's intro pricing this would have been a winner, but I just struggle to justify the price jump for a body that actually has more tradeoffs compared to the higher-end bodies than its predecessor did, even if the A7IV is a big upgrade over the aging A7III.

OMDS and Panasonic had big events advertised for today, both of which underwhelmed. OMDS announced they're dropping the Olympus branding in favour of OM System, a new slogan and a lot of clear focus on adventure photography. It's very clear where they're going and it's the right focus. But no lens announcements and only vague words about the upcoming 'wow' body that they've been hinting at in interviews.

Panasonic did even less. They had the 20th anniversary of the Lumix brand, a few weasel words about the GH6, but no announcement and a bunch more that basically come out as 'L is our future, we'll support m43 for video as long as it sells, forget m43 stills from Panasonic'. Not really surprising that pretty much every stills-focused Lumix Ambassador seems to have dropped either their Ambassadorship or their use of the Lumix system as a whole. 

There were also some lens announcements. Tokina announced that they will now sell rebadged Viltrox lenses in E mount too, and their pricing is saner (only slightly more than Viltrox this time) and Samyang dropped their AF 12/2 in Fuji X mount. 

Nikon's big day is tomorrow. Expected is the Z9, a new FTZII adapter addressing at least some of the complaints about the current one, plus 2 lenses and a development announcement for a third. The lenses expected are an f4 standard zoom (probably the 24-105 S on the roadmap), the 100-400 S and the announcement is expected to be the 400/2.8 S. This is a critical announcement for Nikon, their previous Z releases have all been very competent cameras, but have been overshadowed by their competition, even if they actually compare much better in the field than they do on paper. The Z9 is Nikon's first real attempt at making a body that truly is a world-beater and it needs to deliver. Nikon also needs to continue to build out the lens line, particularly at the long end where they remain weakest. 

As for me, how does this affect things? I honestly don't know right now. I frankly like the Nikon body options better than what I can get for the same budget from Sony, but I like the Sony lens options better in general (the 24-70/4 being the big exception right now). I can't help but think that the Techart TZE-01 might be the real solution here, letting me use E mount lenses (Samyang excepted) on Z. Get one, a Z body and just use a mix of E and Z lenses until Z catches up.

Some Changes

 

Sony A7II, Zeiss ZA FE 4/16-35 OSS

As you can probably guess from the image above, I picked up a new lens, and a Sony lens at that.

In fact I've bought two. One is the 16-35/4 OSS, the other is the Tamron 70-300 f4.5-6.3 in FE mount.

I've let some gear go as well. The E-M1 is gone, as are the 45/1.8 and 75/1.8 in m43 mount. The E-M1 was really only needed if I was going to run a 2-body m43 kit, and with those lenses gone I didn't have as much of a need for that. The 45 I let go because I barely used it at all. It's a REALLY good lens, but for the way I shoot the 12-40 at 40mm simply works better. The 75 I used as a faster alternative to the 40-150 f4-5.6R, but while the results were amazing, I always found it either too long, too short or too limited in MFD. All 3 of these went to get the Tamron 70-300, which is one half of a 2 lens Sony hiking kit.

The other lens is the Zeiss 16-35/4. I'd originally planned on getting the Tamron 17-28/2.8, but I was able to get a much better deal on the 16-35 and when working with only two lenses that 28-35mm range will give me more flexibility than f2.8 will for what I do. Biggest downside is the 16-35mm is 72mm filters while the 17-28 takes 67mm filters like the 70-300. I'm shooting these on my partner's A7II for now (actually, I expect she'll get the 70-300 long-term to replace her current telephoto, a Canon 75-300 on an adapter, I'll likely switch eventually to a 70-200/4)

For now, I'm not getting out of Micro 4/3rds. I've still got the E-M5II and 3 lenses, the 12-40/2.8 (which I love), the 17/18 (my webcam lens, also a nice street lens) and the 40-150R (the plastic fantastic of consumer telezooms).

As to why Sony, well there's two reasons.

1. My Partner already shoots it. We can share gear and for now I can just use her body, while she can use my lenses when we're out together.

2. All sorts of neat stuff available. Sigma's I series lenses, Sony's G compact primes, Samyang and Viltrox AF lenses, TTArtisans and 7Artisans manual lenses, etc. 

I do like the Nikon bodies in my price range better, but the Sony ecosystem just works better for me right now. Of course, I could just get an AF adapter and use the Sony lenses on a Z6 or Z7 in the future. Who knows? It's not like I've settled on a body for myself in E mount yet, although it's basically down to an A7III or an A7RII at this point. 

More GAS Struggles

 

Nikon Z5, 50mm f1.8G

It’s times like this that I kind of wish I’d kept the Z5 even when I went all-in on m43. That would have given me an easy-out for my current GAS struggles, just get something for the Z5 and shoot it for a while. 

I’m currently fighting off an attempt by my brain to argue that I should get rid of the Oly kit and go all-in on Sony. The reason being that I can get so much interesting stuff for Sony cameras. This of course ignores the reality that I already have the basics of a solid m43 kit and I’d be starting almost from scratch with Sony (I can borrow lenses from my partner, who has a basic Sony A7II kit)

What would Sony bring me?

1. Commonality with my Partner’s kit. She can borrow my glass, in a pinch I can borrow hers.

2. Better suited for adapting my solid selection of film lenses. I still have 24mm, 28mm, 2x35mm, 2x50mm, 55mm Macro, 105mm, 2x135mm, 200mm and 300mm options. 

3. WIDE selection of available lenses. E/FE mount is the best supported mount today, especially for inexpensive primes, both manual and AF.

4. High-MP single-shot options. 36MP+

5. Fast AF if I get newer bodies (mkIII+)

What would it cost me?

1. Flip/Twist LCD. None of the bodies I’d be looking at would have anything other than a tilt LCD.

2. Multi-shot capabilities. If I get a MKIII body, I lose any in-body multishot capability. If I got an A7R, A7RII or A7II I’d at least have the Smooth Reflections app, which is actually better than Oly’s E-M1.3-only equivalent (LiveND). But going with the older body costs me the AF and handling improvements.

3. Lens selection. I currently have 5 m43 lenses covering 24mm-e to 300mm-e, and only one is at all weak (my little 40-150 f4-5.6R). While I still have gaps, it’s a pretty solid lens selection overall. I’d be starting from almost-scratch with AF lenses in any other mount. 

One challenge is I know I just don’t love using primes when hiking. I get by, but I do prefer using compact, high-quality zooms like the m.Zuiko 12-40 f2.8 Pro. That lens is simply the hardest lens to replace in my kit and the biggest draw for remaining in m43. It’s quite literally why I sold the Z5 (which in hindsight might have been as big a mistake as selling the E-M1.2 was)

With regards to my other lenses, I’ve never quite gelled with the 75/1.8, it’s an amazing bit of glass but it doesn’t focus close enough and the focal length always seems either too long or too short. I continue to use it solely because it’s f1.8 and on m43 that matters a lot when I’m in darker areas of the forest, so it replaces the more flexible 40-150R due to that extra 2-3 stops of speed needed to make up for the noise limits of  the m43 kit.

The 17/1.8 is pretty much just a webcam lens for me. I do use it when walking around in the city, but that’s generally it. The 45/1.8 is something I just don’t use much, the length makes it a people/street lens for me and I barely every do that these days. At its current cost, it’s a keeper for sure, but it’s not something I’m really needing either. I bought it as much because I found the 105mm too long too often on the Z5 as anything else. 

The gripping hand here is that Z6’s and Z7’s are comparatively cheap on the used market right now. As bodies, they will work well for me based on my experience with the Z5. The challenge there is glass, it’s very good, but doesn’t really feed my cheap/fun glass addiction the way Sony can. 

What do I really want? A Z7 with FE lens selection, flip-twist screen and Oly software…

The End of the Break

 

E-M5.2, 12-40 Pro

I pretty much took July and August off as a break, even stopping uploads to Flickr from the Archives for much of this period. 

There were a few reasons for this. Part of it was just general burnout. I hermited up in general over this period, as I just didn't want to go anywhere or deal with people.

The Forester had to be on limited use for a month of it while I waited for my 100k km service appointment, as it had a really bad rattle going on around 1500rpm and I did not want to risk pushing it, plus I did not want to go over 100k without getting the service and I had to wait over 3 weeks for the nearest appointment at the shop. Turned out the rattle was the minor 'Subaru Rattle' that I expected, ie a loose heatshield, but the alternative was potentially major. 

The weather also sucked, I do not like really humid hot weather and it was exactly that for this period.

Once the Forester got cleared, I ended up with a new blocker, namely I'd decided that after 6.5 years the Forester was just no longer the right vehicle for me, so I traded it in on a new vehicle and one that's much more adventure focused, namely a 4WD Crew Cab pickup with an offroad package, which I picked Sept 1st.

I'd looked hard at modifying the Forester for Overlanding-type usage and while doable, it just would require too much money and too many compromises to get what I wanted, and I would make the Forester's two biggest weaknesses worse, namely the lack of power when pushed and the seating/cargo tradeoffs (the Fozzie hauls stuff or people, not both). As I don't daily drive to work anymore, the fuel efficiency of the Forester is less of an benefit and it's relatively high maintenance costs were going to get worse as I passed 100,000km and started to look at really expensive service intervals every 20k, instead of just moderately expensive service intervals every 20k.

That ended up taking me through the end of August with no outings since late July.

E-M5.2, 12-40 Pro

I did kick off September with a bang, with an 800km road trip up to Barry's Bay, then west on 60 and 169 to Bala, south-west to the 400 and home. Did a decent amount of photography but only a bit of hiking as it was really the first adventure with the Big White Truck. The truck photo is from Highway 62 near Maple Leaf, ON. The truck did very well, averaging 9.7L/100km and with 200km of range left over from a full tank. I did fill up mid trip to be safe, but with less than 80L of fuel burn on a 98L tank, that was well within my range, which it would not have been with the Subaru, which would have burned 60L or so of fuel on the same trip on a 60L tank. While I've got some great mileage from the Forester (6.5L/100KM is quite achievable on road trips in Southern Ontario), it did much worse in the hilly Highlands and Northern Ontario as that 2.5L engine just wheezed on the uphills. I'd occasionally outright run out of power, with the pedal floored on a steeper climb at highway speed even running light. The BWT doesn't even blink, unsurprising with the far more powerful 5.3L V8. And if I ever need more power, the BWT has a ton of aftermarket that can add significant power, while the Subaru's limited aftermarket can't add any real power to the 2.5L engine, it's pretty much at its limit now (Subaru's Turbo 2.0 and 2.4 can be tuned, but the non-Turbo 2.5 can't really)

Since then, I also did a Saturday Morning meander along the Lakefront Trail on the shore of Lake Erie, as part of a road trip to Tillsonburg to visit family. The top photo is from the harbour at Port Burwell, the end of that meander.

I'm on Vacation next week, so Fall Colour is on the menu. Not sure where yet, I have a couple destinations I want to hit over the week, including one I was always hesitant to go to with the Forester due to the rough dirt road.

On the Photography Gear side, little has changed. I'm still using the E-M5.2 as my primary, mostly with the 12-40 Pro, and the E-M1 as a backup/long-lens body. Still want an E-M1.2 or E-M1.3, a 40-150 Pro and some wide option (probably the new 8-25/4), but those are mostly long-term plans, the current kit works well enough for now and Oly has one new lens coming that I want to see before I decide my priorities, a new 40-150/4 Pro.

Expect to see some Overland-related content here as I go forward, the journey is as much of the fun as the images I come back with and I now have a vehicle that can be setup to take me to places that were inaccessible with the Forester, at least running Solo as I so often do.

Third Time's a Charm

 

Olympus E-M1, Panasonic G Vario 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 OIS

I burned my remaining Henry's store credit yesterday to pick up another E-M1. This is the third I've owned, matching the D300 for the digital body I've owned the most copies of (the image above is from my first E-M1 in 2015)

I've owned many more bodies twice, including the Pentax *ist DS, the Nikon D7100, D800 and IIRC the D3200, as well as the NEX-7, one of the NEX-5R or 5N (I've owned 3 NEX-5's, but not sure if I had 2 of the 5R or 2 of the 5N), A7II and Olympus E-M5II

Why did I pick it up? To minimize lens changes while I'm hiking. I noticed I kept losing shots when I needed a telephoto lens on the E-M5II and I had the 12-40 mounted, but I kept swapping to get wide/closeup shots with the 12-40. This will let me leave the 75 or the 40-150 on the E-M1 and the 12-40 on the E-M5II while hiking. This is the one spot where the Z5/E-M5II combo worked better than a single body with a full set of lenses. This will probably become the 40-150 Pro on the E-M1 and the 12-40 on the E-M5II. Long term goal on the lens setup is probably the 8-25/4 as the wide and the 40-150 Pro as the tele option, with the 12-40 covering the middle if needed.

Why the E-M1? I know the body, know it will deliver a better long-lens experience than the E-M5II, it uses the same batteries as the E-M5II and it's cheap. I fully intend on getting a newer 20MP body eventually, at which point I'll probably demote the E-M1 to webcam usage (which is where it will spend most of the time anyways, it'll come off Webcam duty only when I need it)

The main downside to the E-M1 is the tilt screen. Yeah, it's one reason I sold the Z5, but with the E-M1 I'm not limited to using certain lenses only with that body, I can swap between the two bodies as needed since they have identical lens compatibility.

There's a few other issues of course, the E-M1 lacks the level of control over the EVF/LCD switching the E-M5II has and I use that a lot, the control layout isn't quite the same (that's more an issue for the E-M5II, the E-M1 layout is better) and there's no way to fast-sleep the E-M1 (the E-M5II can sort-of do it when the LCD is turned in and the EVF is set to activate on the eye sensor)