i.Zuiko and a Video

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I am not much of a videographer... well, since the XZ-1 sports an HD video camera, here's a shot of a recent lion dance at the office.

The XZ-1 supports 720p resolution with Motion JPEG format. The lens zoom and tracking focus worked well during video shoot, and I was very pleased with the results.

Quite an interesting show, especially when the lion started to jump on top of the stilts.

Till next year...

iZuiko and a Lion Dance

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Dancing on stilts

14.1mm (33mm equiv.), f/3.2, 1/160s, iso100, -0.3ev

Well, we are still in the Chinese New Year period, and all around Klang Valley we can see the Lion Dance troupes zipping through traffic with their open-top lorries and the dancers sitting inside with the lion attires and drums. Lion dance galore.

Warming up for the main event!

When I went to have lunch today, little I had expected a performance near the cafe that I always patron. Luckily, the XZ-1 was with me! Great!!! Got my order in, and waited for the show to begin.

Jump!

What got me interested was this time around, the Lion Dance did a few jumps on elevated stilts. It's not often you see them do this for such a small crowd. Well, it was about time I tested the speed of the XZ-1 to capture action shots. Somehow, oddly enough, I opted for single-frame shooting. But, it worked!

Crane stance!

What a good show!!

iZuiko and Low Light

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6mm, f/1.8, 1/15s, iso800, -0.3ev

Nothing more challenging to a compact camera than to capture children action portraits in low light. I love doing it, capturing my children's action. Previously, I could only do it with my bulky E-5 that weighs a tonne. Well, with the S90, I couldn't do much at the long end for great portraits. Well, the XZ-1 is such a joy with the top-notch i.Zuiko. Small, unobtrusive and fun.

Children can't stay put for long. They have high energy, and are super fidgety. The challenge is to get the reasonable shutter speed to capture both motion and crispness in a single frame . Well, the XZ-1 sure delivers.

Zuiko and Monotone Filters

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Not much to do. I am sick today. Caught the flu bug, as the weather here in Klang Valley has been total haywire the last few days. Tropical sun and thunderstorm mingling interchangeably during days and nights without end. Time for some rest.

Red Filter

Good thing my E-5 is around. Nothing much to shoot, though. Thus, resorted to playing around with the E-5.

Do you know that all Olympus DSLRs allow in-camera processing of RAW files for any JPEG style you want? Yes you can!! You can do anything the camera allows, like different color profiles (Natural, Monotone, Art Filters, etc.), different image parameters (sharpness, contrast, etc.), and also different JPEG compressions and various aspect ratio crops. The possibilities are more than I can fathom, and I don't have to worry much if I don't have my PC to post-process the RAW files.

Yellow Filter

For this blog entry, I am showcasing the monotone filters. All of the JPEG files are treated with Red, Yellow and Green filters with Large SuperFine JPEG files (pretty large at 8MB, and no other manufacturer offer this JPEG quality!).

Green Filter

Well, nothing much to say as the pictures tell the story. Nevertheless, I always preferred the Red filter for brighter skin tones rather than Yellow and Green. And, with E-5 much better image quality, the noise often associated with older DSLRs like the E-3 is much controlled with the Red filter.

Time to shoot more monotones!

Zuiko and a Touch of Soft Monotone

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Simple photography. Get back to basics. I always remind myself.

Composition.

Mood.

Story.

In my journey to recover and rejuvenate, I am resorting back to simple basic stuff. Always go back to solid composition with the typical rules and lines and curves and contrast and tones. See the light, and the pictures will come.

I like this picture. It's not a complex fast-action nor close-up nor low-light nor portrait nor landscape shot. It's neither of these that makes it interesting to my eyes. It just simple composition, with the correct mood and outline to the story. The mood is quietness, something that I find serenity in the picture. I am not sure why. I took more than a dozen shots, but I am stuck with this shot. Somehow this has character, a story waiting to explode from the frame. But, the amazing thing is I cannot put why and where. That's what makes it interesting to my senses.

I overexposed the shot, blowing out the sky with the priority not to blacken the subject. Furthermore with the High Key curve profile, the shadows were minimized. A minimal crop to bring the subject closer, use of Red filter to highlight skin tones in monotone, and a touch of Soft Focus Art Filter effect was all it needed to tighten the loose ends. The low vantage point, the contra of subject with background, the curves of the pool and gazebo, the diminishing twin towers, the empty cabana chairs, and the placement of children made the quietness deafening.

Back to basics, take note of the subtleties in details, and just pray for the best.

Somehow, I am inclining to explore the works of Sam Abell....

Zuiko and The Aquaria at KLCC

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E-5 with Zuiko Digital ED14-35mm F2.0 SWD

14mm, f/2.0, 1/50s, ISO2000, -0.7ev

It was the school holidays, and we asked the kids about a visit to The Aquaria. And of course, they were ecstatic.

The vari-angle LCD coupled with class-leading IS system enabled this handheld shot from the top angle. The E-5 + HLD-4 + 14-35/2 lens was not light either!

It turned out to be a packed place; though we were quite early arriving there. We took the Family Package for RM99, which saved us up to RM21. The small space was easily filled with people within minutes. And, to have a stroller to strap my youngest kid in place put me in a tough situation for making some great shots in the cramped and dark fish-filled facility. Having one hand manning the stroller, and the other coping with the E-5 required some creative handling manoeuvres.

Tracking this large shark was good even though it was dark. Ramped up the ISO to 2000 and let the lens wide open at f/2.0 made the shutter fast enough to capture at 1/100s to freeze it.

It turned to be a nightmare for photography, and I resorted to video shooting towards the end. But, I did manage to get some shots. It was tough. Kids control was top priority as I did not want them to stray more than 10 feet away, and managing the E-5 with the Zuiko Digital ED14-35mm F2.0 SWD was no easy feat.

It was tiring, but worth it!

Zuiko and Hello Goodbye

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Well, the decision was made.

E-5 with Zuiko Digital ED 14-35mm F2.0 SWD

30mm, f/2.5, 1/320s, ISO200, -0.3ev

With the coming of E-5, the E-3 and E-30 had to go. There's no two-ways about it. I don't really shoot that much. The thing is, when the buyers asked about my shutter count, I found both cameras registered low figures. The E-3 only had about 17k and E-30 a meager 5k. With the E-5 being rated at 150k, I believe consolidating into a single body is the way to go.

From the 2 cameras, I find more nostalgia with the E-30. This is because of this camera was when Olympus found me. I remember vividly to this day the events that happened. The day when they asked me to review the E-30 in December 2008. Boy, was I proud to be an Olympian - to be recognized by the camera makers themselves. What an honor.

Now, with the E-30 gone, a new chapter in image making surfaces. I need new ideas, new perspectives, new point-of-views. The E-5 should push me to new limits of imagination and creativity. I wonder how to do that, though.

All dried up!

Sadly, I actually went into photographer's rut and malaise during the middle of this year. With dearth of ideas and inspiration, I rarely picked up the E-s. Maybe it's a natural progression, I was not sure. One thing for sure, I was glad it was only for a few months.

I need a push. A push of inspiration.

Some friend advised me that inspiration comes with effort. Maybe that's how I should approach the E-5. I should put more effort to explore the things that are foreign to me. Naturally, fresh new ideas should flow, and my work should flourish into a newer dimension. That's my motivation with the E-5!

E-5 with Zuiko Digital ED 14-35mm F2.0 SWD

14mm, f/8, 1/320s, ISO200, -0.3ev

For now, I bid farewell to my E-3 and E-30... May you find good use with your new masters!!

Zuiko and Dramatic Tone for Landscaped Portraits

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I am still warming up with the E-5. Though it is mostly based on the E-3, the technical jump has challenged my creativity to a new level. Notably on the technical improvements are the image quality ranging from ISO100 to ISO1600 with the excellent sensor pixel sharpness. With my collection of F2 zooms, this has opened a plethora of situations with regards to exposure value parameters (aperture, shutter speed, and sensor sensitivity). On the creative improvements, the addition of Art Filter 10 Dramatic Tone and Hi-Def video at 720p have pushed a new level of imaging possibilities.

E-5 with Zuiko Digital ED 14-35mm F2.0 SWD

22mm, f/8, 1/100s, ISO200, -0.3ev

Recently, I have been focusing a lot on the Dramatic Tone art filter. And why not? This new filter beckons to be explored. I started with simple landscape shots during my E-5 review. The 3-day loan was not long enough for me to explore its creative possibilities. Only now do I have the time to explore the beauty of the E-5.

The previous blog entry showed how the Dramatic Tone art filter interacts with wireless TTL flash setup. The diffused lighting seems to bid very well with the filter. I really like the output. I am looking forward to explore different lighting setup with this filter.

In this entry, the exploration of the Dramatic Tone filter with portraiture against strong backlight; in this case direct sunlight, was done. It's simple, actually. I put my composition setup as shooting landscape, meaning small aperture (f/8 or something like that) and pseudo hyperfocal distance focusing technique (not that I use Manual focus, but during Auto Focus, I keep in mind the hyperfocal distance relationship towards the subject to achieve image in-focus sharpness across the frame).

And I purposely did not use the flash for fill-in, as I really wanted to explore the capability of the filter to lift the near silhouette subject, in this case my ever-willing son.

To my surprise, the filter did a very good job. No doubt there was still noise even at base ISO200, but considering that the filter lifted easily about 3 to 4 stops of exposure, I considered this to be very good indeed. I doubt whether the E-3 or the E-30 can deliver this quality (just take a look at the SAT output). The TruePic V processor really shines!

In case, if you noticed, the solar ghosting and flares were also tamed. With the Dramatic Tone tendency to exaggerate contrast, I was smitten with the clear and crisp output. This was practically due to the Zuiko Digital ED 14-35mm F2.0 SWD lens. The optical properties for this lens was just phenomenal!

Hmmm.. what's next? Maybe shooting with the Circular Polarizer (C-PL) with wireless TTL Flash. That sounds interesting. The color saturating properties of the C-PL should produce more vivid output to the already eye-popping Dramatic Filter effect.

Now... where did I put my filter pouch?!!!

Zuiko and Taking it Easy

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Beautiful photography is within painless reach with the E-30!!!

Sometimes pictures turn out better when I take things easy. This was the case just this late afternoon when I took the time to photograph my youngest kid. Instead of thinking too technical about it, such as depth-of-field and noise, I took the liberty to set my E-30 to P-mode. Yes, P-mode with the ISO stuck at 800. I could have chosen 100 or 200 for better image quality, but somehow I want it to stay at 800.

To make things much simpler, I used the only prime lens I own; the Zuiko Digital ED50mm F2.0 Macro. This lens is known for its slow focus notoriety; mainly due to the lack of a focus limiter. What this means is that if I miss focus, the lens will scan through its range from 24cm to infinity. This will take ages in Auto Focus world, and most of the time will be such a pain shooting fast moving objects. Somehow, I did not bother about this fact. Though my kid was moving fast around the porch, I paced myself to track his movements wisely so that the lens won't feel useless, and won't take away the fun of shooting him.

What do you see, daddy?

The day was quite cloudy, with the shadows muted as if it's not there. He was running about the terracotta tiled porch playing at the gate and on the rattan chairs. My goal was to catch him at his many varied facial expressions and movements. With this lens, I was able to be around 5 to 10 feet away. Both of us were comfortable.

As for composition technique, I automatically set the subject off center; somehow the rule-of-thirds was ingrained in stone every time I scan a subject in the frame. Next came leading lines, both visible and imaginary. Then it was the contrasting lights between the subject and background. Lastly came the negative and positive space relationship, that somehow loosely based on the Golden Mean.

What popped?

These were the things that came to me automatically, after years of learning and practice. Yes, it sounds laborious, but somehow it worked for me on many occasions. Some people say breaking the rule is the way, but somehow after so many images, I still yet to find one rule that I broke. It's tough learn it, and much tougher to break it.

That being laid out, the cat and mouse game began.

Come on, daddy. Give it your best shot!!

The first few shots I used plain P-mode on the E-30.

One of my many teachers told me to focus on the eyes,

and so I did

Later, I shifted to Art Filter mode that totally liberated me from the gear and made me focus more on photography.

Soft Focus had always been one of my favorites, as it highlighted the eyes and softened the background.

Woopsss... A bit too soft? I am sorry, but I like!

Grainy Film added the grittiness of the moment, and focused more on the inner dimension of the subject.

Do you see my profile, daddy?

Pinhole provided the added focus on the subject without being too constraining to the viewer.

Surprised? I was too! With the details and sharpness.

Pop Art just oozed the primary colors to bring more color to the already awesome subject.

Am I too fast for you, daddy?

What I liked most with the Art Filter function was that it didn't tie me down. I let the E-30 handle the magic, and I focused on the story. Both combine to produce telling results that left me gobbsmacked when I saw the results on my PC screen. Even more satisfying was the fact that I just hit the upload button in Flickr.com without the slightest concern of postprocessing. What I saw at the time of the shoot was all it needed.

Balance!

Somehow I felt like I was shooting film, too.

Zuiko and E-5: In Retrospective

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It has been close to two weeks now since I laid my hands on the E-5. The three-day ordeal was not enough to satisfy my insatiable inkling to it. The good thing was that during this period, I managed to spend more time with the E-3. This gave me time to reflect on the performance of the E-5 compared to the E-3. In retrospect, it did give me an alternate insight to the true capabilities of the E-5. To be fair, during the 3-day test, my opinion might be biased based on the many enhancements that the E-5 supposed to do, as was briefed by the Olympus representative. Now, I believe I am more clear and objective about what the E-5 can do.

A bit of a struggle to get the right focus with the strong backlight,

Zuiko Digital ED14-35mm F2.0

To start with, my type of photography mostly revolve on things and events that happen around me. I tend to shoot people and events that cover a wide range of photography from portraits, candid and photojournalism. My style is casual with being the third-party observer rather than involve in the photographic experience. This is the area where the need for the E-5 is required. As for other types, I have the inkling to shoot the mundane things around me and try to make it interesting. In this aspect I don't think the E-5 will do much difference than the Canon S90 as the image composition and parameters are more controlled, and rather the lens choice is the main factor for fresher perspectives.

The ESP metering saved the background with the foreground underexposed a stop,

this is recoverable in post-process using Contrast Mask technique

So, to satisfy my need to cover fast moving events, does the E-5 able to cope and deliver the goods? Well, in one aspect I would say that it's excellent, and in another aspect, it's still lacking behind king Nikon. (I have various experience shooting the Nikon cameras ranging from the D3000 to D3 part being a teacher to photography classes, where the Nikons are very common).

Let's look into event shooting, and the real needs of the clients. (Clients can be your family members, too).

Loads of depth-of-field to cover sharpness across the frame

Bottom line, the clients want properly exposed crisp images with great colors. They don't care about the artistic value of your pictures, well it may add to the aesthetics of your presentation, but what they care about is the priceless moments of the events. Pictures must be accurately metered and exposed. The focus must be tack accurate and sharp. They don't care what lens you use. What they care is the head must not look much bigger than the feet, for example. This is the real challenge for the photographer and the gear.

Frontlighting with dark background didn't fool the meter, but I still see white clippings

lower shutter speed used to invoke motion into the composition

Looking at how the E-5 delivered the pictures in the two events that I managed to cover, I would say that it definitely advanced much from the E-3. For a start, the exposure is better. Though still using the same 49-zone ESP metering system, the handling of strong backlight has shown significant improvement. This was attested by one of my Nikon buddy (he's an active wedding photographer) who saw one of the samples and acknowledged how the E-5 properly controlled the bright sunlit window of an interior shot. Not an easy thing, he said. Well, that's good to hear from a quite neutral observer. This is so important feature for me. I am an ESP shooter, and when it comes to fast moving events, this is the real deal. There's no time to tinker with the features to play with the spot meters.

One person in the shadows, one person in the highlights

I like how the exposure turned up

In high contrast scenes, specifically with strong highlight and shadows in 9 zones, the ESP meter tends to over expose up to 0.7ev. I don't get it with Olympus. Why do they care so much for the shadows that the highlights get clipped? In the end, the smaller 4/3 sensor tends to show more noise in the shadows. I prefer the shadows are blackened, i.e. a supposedly Zone II shouldn't be exposed to Zone III where the details actually are noisy. No matter, though, as the E-5 have a preset exposure bias module, similar to the E-30. Just remember to set it to -0.3ev or -0.7ev once I get the E-5 in November (hopefully, somehow I haven't pre-ordered it yet).

Following the kids' fast movement was a bit of a challenge,

the hit rate wasn't very good but it delivered where it matters

As for the auto focusing, the feature that deals with crisp and clear pictures, I have a slight reservation on its overall performance. Please be reminded that the E-5 is a pre-production unit with the AF module still in debugging stage. Being a user of the E-3 and E-30, I don't find much difference in performance from the E-5, with regards to all lenses that I have (7-14mm/f4, 14-35mm/f2, 35-100mm/f2 and 50mm/f2). I can only hope that the production E-5 will have this solved and bring to life the 14-35mm SWD speed as it's supposed to do.

Kids don't sit still for long, they are always in action

The quick AF was crucial to get this snapshot as he's about to jump off the chair

In the two events that I covered, I focused on my two main workhorses, the 14-35mm f2 and 35-100mm f2 lenses. All I can say was that the 35-100mm was superb in AF control, partially due to the lens focus limiter that lowered the AF tracking range. I might say that there's some improvement to the E-5. Alas, for the 14-35mm f2 lens, I can only say that the E-5 is on par with the E-30. For strong backlight, the E-5 can't cope with the erratic 14-35mm AF jitter. My hit rate was about 80%, which was quite disappointing. In events, the hit rate should be in the high 95%. Well, I might be hoping too much on the E-5 that I forgot to apply the tricks I used with the E-3/E-30 to get the higher hit rate.

Hit rate was on and off for this shot with the 14-35m f2.0

I got it quite okay out of 3 shots

One thing that I really applaud about Olympus is the great JPEG engine. Out of camera images have always been superb, without much to postprocess. The colors are blended to appear pleasing to the visual acuity, without focusing too much on color accuracy. I was told that Sony has the best color accuracy (possibly meaning that the six primary and secondary colors are the most accurate), but I still find Olympus JPEG pleasing (partly due to the tonal transitions of the colors interweaved within the shadows and highlights).

The colors looked great in this shot even though it's ISO1600,

accurate AWB also played the role to ensure the color tint was correct

As for the E-5, this has been further enhanced mainly due to the more accurate Auto White Balance sensor. Another appeal to the E-5 for an event shooter like me is the that the AWB is much improved. After comparing with the E-3, the E-5 is the clear winner. In tricky lighting like cloudy mornings, mixed tungsten and incandescent interiors, the E-5 just delivers accurately. Even when I tinkered the RAW images to compare the pre-sets WB and the AWB shots, there's not much difference that's easily visible. To my eyes, the E-5 is the king in AWB! And imagine the time saved in the workflow to process the images for clients with high anxiety disorder!

At last a usable ISO1600 with the F2.0,

a shutter speed above 1/60s was achievable for this shot to freeze motion

The ISO has improved by 1 stop; though I think Olympus should have made it to 2 stops. Nonetheless, I managed to get high quality ISO1600 pictures, which was not the case for both E-3 and E-30 (the E-3 was simply horrendous, and I limit it to ISO1250).

It didn't take much to look cool and appealing - shades and a guitar,

maybe Olympus need to realign their strategy to make the E-5 more appealing

In summary, for an event shooter, will the E-5 be good enough? In my opinion it is. However, when we look outside and compare with king Nikon, there are still areas that the E-5 need severe improvements. Firstly the auto focus needs to be more responsive for fast action (E-5 is quick, but not smooth), secondly the frame rates should be higher at 8fps (not that it really matters with social events), and thirdly the sensor should have at least a stop higher ISO at 12800 (ISO expansion starts at 3200, in which I thought Olympus is being too conservative).

Notably, the E-5 is still the best overall for the fast and lazy event shooter. It's completely weather-sealed along with many of the Digital Zuiko lenses (I wouldn't care less on the environment being wet or dusty), the tank-like built meant that it can be used ruggedly without much care (my E-30 body was crushed and broken by the 14-35mm and 35-100mm lenses in the ThinkTank bag!), the JPEG and AWB is class leading (I would imagine the Sony or Nikon coming very close, but I still prefer E-5) that comprehensively eliminates color related post-processing time wasting, and somehow the resolution oozes pixels (this was clearly shown in my past blogs, and the SHG lenses were mainly to blame) that eliminates E-30 to the relegation zone.

One point to note. I actually have to commend Olympus for being bold to ditch the xD format. Now with E-5 sporting the SD-CF combination, it has opened up the flexibility to a new level. What I had experience in the event shoot was an eye opener. The client asked me when can the images be available, and my quick answer was "do you have an SD card in disposal?". It was a cinch, SD cards are too common, and it took me less than five minutes to transfer all the files from the CF to the SD. Coupled with the E-5 awesome out-of-camera JPEGs, I bet the client wouldn't be disappointed.

Great colors, tack sharp.

All you need is "F4 and be there" with the 4/3 system

In fact, the E-5 doesn't look so bad. It could have been better, but I can manage with its limitations. Come on Olympus, be bold for a change (and I don't mean the innovations, but in terms of competing with the big boys). The OM system was a well kept secret, don't let the E-system be another OM. In the 21st century, the market has changed, having well-kept secrets are not good for business. Olympus needs to be more like Apple ~ Innovative and loud!!

Come on Olympus!

Zuiko and a Football Legend

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This picture was taken quite a while back, around June.

Santokh Singh aka Iron Man was one of Malaysian football stalwart in the late 70s early 80s that qualified for 2 Olympic games, Munich 1972 and Moscow 1980 (in which Malaysia boycotted due to the Afghanistan invasion). Malaysia at the time was easily considered among the elite in Asian football (twice 3rd place), and the players at the time included Dato' Soh Chin Aun (Towkay), Jamal Nasir, James Wong, the late R. Arumugam (Spiderman) and the late Mokhtar Dahari (Super Mokh).

I remembered watching them on the small black & white TV screen chasing the white speck of a ball. Yes, resolution was non-existent compared to the 720p resolution we have on Astro TV nowadays! I was merely 7 or 8 years old at the time, and was very proud of them. Those were the time when it was proud to play football. (Eventually I changed sports code to Union Rugby in my teenage years after experiencing the football grassroots politics at school level that may be one of the actual cause of the pitfall of Malaysian football now).

E-30 with Zuiko Digital ED35-100mm F2.0

100mm, f/2.8, 1/200s, ISO800, -0.7ev

The talk was short and entertaining. See, this was done in June, when the FIFA World Cup Finals mania was at its peak. And, the spirit of Malaysia Olympic Team 1980 was rejuvenated to rekindle the football glories past. Santokh was a simple chap, and his witty quips made the crowd laugh. When asked to comment on the current football situation, he passed.

I think many of the 1980 Golden Generation wouldn't want to make statements that actually most Malaysians already know. It's a continuous debate among all walks of life on how to cure the Malaysian football disease, and it has been 30 years since! Until now, there's none. I bet cancer and HIV have a better chance of getting a cure than our national football team. For one, there's no way in my lifetime to see Malaysia play a minute of football in the FIFA World Cup Finals. I can guarantee that.

Aaaah.. such a sad state in our football is in.

At least, I learned one thing from Santokh though. One person did ask if he had any advise to the young players to at least bring back some pride or fresh air to the state of our football. Santokh's answer was simple, "Just have the 3D's! Determination, Discipline, Dedication!".

Though, I still remember when Malaysia lost to England 2-4 in June, 1991. That was entertaining football and the Malaysian players actually were at awe with Gary Lineker. Eventually, he scored all goals for England. Hmmmm.... I thought Malaysian football was getting better.... Ohhh Boy, was I wrong. The icing on the cake was the big bribery bust of 1994/95 which hurtled Malaysian football to the Stone Age!

Zuiko and the Shrouded

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Weird as it may seem, but the E-5 has put back my lost Mojo recently. I feel reborn, with the new spur to create images with my E-3. Since I got the E-30, the E-3 got a rather 2nd class treatment. It spends most of its time in the dry box, only to be used as a backup for event shoots. It is simply because of the more superior E-30 image quality.

Somehow, the E-5 experience has breathed in new spirit into the E-3. I can't explain the sensation, but boy am I glad to shoot picturesque with the E-3 with greater purpose now!

Recently my 16-month young boy has been very active walking and climbing at anything in the house. I make a point to follow his movements using the E-3 and the Zuiko Digital ED50mm F2.0 Macro. The choice is simply due to portability and ergonomics.

50mm, f/2, 1/400s, ISO1600, -0.3ev

One instant time, I saw him playing with the day curtain. Without hesitation, I pressed the shutter to capture the glowing moment. I was amazed with the E-3's matrix metering to handle the strongbacklight and its rapid auto focus to tame the erratic 50mm lens.

Sometimes I have to ask myself that some things are meant to be simple. And this old workhorse has proven itself to be worthy again.



Oh, yea.... for those interested to buy my E-3, please contact me directly. It's on sale to finance my E-5 pursuit!

Zuiko and E-5 Withdrawal

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* A word of caution, image may not be suitable for vegetarians.

Urrrgggh... no E-5 to shoot with!

What should I do to remedy the pain??

Wait a minute... why don't I pixel peep some of E-5's pics. Since I didn't have time to do it due to severe time constraints during the E-5 weekend madness, now is the perfect time to nit pick some of the images that I captured.

* Please take note that the E-5 used for this blog review was a pre-production unit with Firmware 1.0.

Well, to be honest, the rapid shots I did with the E-5 mostly were events type, and not really pixel peeping material. I had a hard time finding a handful out of hundreds. So far, I found one.

E-5 with Zuiko Digital ED35-100mm F2.0

33mm, f/4.0, 1/250s, ISO200

All the shots I posted in my 4-day blog with E-5 are either straight-out-of-camera JPEGs or straight-out-of-Olympus-Studio RAWs. I did not do any postprocessing with regards to any image enhancement techniques.

Well, for this image, I did some work with the GIMP software. I just upped the contrast with masking and bumped the sharpness a tad with High Pass Filter. Other than that, nothing was done.

To start with, I am going to nit-pick on the exposure. This image was metered with the ESP 49-point matrix metering system. I believe there's not much tweak in the current E-5 compared to the E-30. Notice that my exposure was not set to biased -0.3ev as I usually do with the E-3 and E-30. This was purposely done during the test to see how the E-5 metering cope with high contrast scenes. When I processed the RAW file in Olympus Studio, I noticed that the cook's white hat was in Zone XIII or IX as there's no detail at all. I tried to pull down the exposure by 0.7ev, and the whole histogram shifted within an acceptable shadow-highlight range. Typical, I told myself.

Thus, the best way to deal with this is to pre-set 0.3ev in the Exposure Shift function of the E-5, or just bias the EV by -0.3 using the dial.

As can be seen the highlight is blasted into kingdom come, image is 100% crop

Actually, there's enough range to cover this scene from Zone II to Zone XIII but instead the ESP metered between Zone III and Zone IX, as the shadows still show some detail but the highlight is burnt. I don't blame much on the meter, as the overall scene is biased to be darker, and in the effort of the AE to compensate for potential underexposure, it overexposes for the goodness of the cook's hat.

But there's still space for shadows to show detail, image is 100% crop

Hmmmm.. I wish Olympus can produce a much improved ESP metering system, but for a seasoned E-system user like me, I know how to cope with it.

Okay, enough with the exposure stuff. I will now move on to nit-pick on the resolution of the whole system with the Zuiko Digital ED35-100mm F2.0 lens.

In general, I am very satisfied with the edge sharpness of the image, and somehow I didn't get sharp focus at the center of the image when it's cropped 100%. As the general rule, I used f/4 in many situations to get acceptably sharp images for event shoots. Maybe there's not much depth-of-field for this shot, maybe f/8 should do it. Ah well...

If only I have used f/8 aperture, then this would be sharp. Then again, I won't be able to get the mood I wanted, image is 100% crop

The below image that is slightly off to the bottom left of the frame exhibits excellent details, especially the grains of spice used to marinade the lamb can be clearly seen.

Texture is detailed clearly with details of the spices used, image is 100% crop

And finally, the last image below really shows the details even at the edge of the frame. I have nothing much to comment on the E-5's ability to resolve the SHG lenses. I salute Olympus for a job well done!!

The fabric's weave on the collar can be clearly seen even at the edge of the frame, image is 100% crop

Wow, I found another picture with edge-to-edge sharpness. This is even better than the sample above. Why? Because this picture was straight-out-of-the-camera-JPEG without any additional sharpening done!!!! Please click HERE to get the full 12MP resolution, and marvel at the amazing detail with shots made by the Zuiko Digital ED35-100mm F2.0 at WIDE OPEN F/2.0!!!!!

The two hours I took to write this blog has been a good therapy for me to cope with the E-5 withdrawal. I don't know how long will this last; maybe I need to write another blog tomorrow!!

How about commentary on how accurate AWB is compared to preset WB?