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| White Tail Deer, Skyline Drive, Virginia; Made with the Olympus OMD E-M5 and the Panasonic 45-200mm lens. Tack sharp, gorgeous and nice bokeh. In the original, you can clearly see the detail of the three flies on her fur! |
My all time favorite camera over the past 43 years is the Pentax 6X7 medium format single lens reflex. The camera is big, clunky, heavy and totally manual in operation, but the negatives it produced were spectacular. In fact, before I bought it I ran some image tests to compare it against a Hasselblad to help me make my decision as to whether to buy the Hasselblad or Pentax. I printed 20X24" images and I could see no visual difference in the prints at that size. That sealed my decision and I have never second-guessed that decision.
Today, it is all digital in my photographic world. I have several cameras for different uses but the one that I currently like the best is my Olympus OMD EM-5. It may not give me as good as image quality as my Nikon D800E, but I don't expect it to. It may not be as portable as my little Canon S95, but I don't expect it to be. But here is why it is such a joy to own and use the E-M5.
I have used just about every type and size camera between 4" X 5" and point-and-shoot over my photographic lifetime. Each camera I purchased, I bought for a specific reason. I didn't buy it just because I wanted it or the camera intrigued me. The same goes for the E-M5. I bought it because it is smaller, lighter, has great potential image quality, robust, a great variety of very good lenses, a gosh darn real viewfinder and allows me to shoot in raw. The specific features I was waiting for were the viewfinder, lens variety and shooting in raw. Turns out, that this camera and lenses I use with it is the first digital camera smaller than an APS-C sized sensor that gives me the quality of image that I find acceptable. I love it!
Just as I tired of carrying the big, clunky, heavy Pentax 6X7 after about 20 years (age and advanced maturity allows one to see things in a different light than when young and less experienced) I am growing tired of carrying the Nikon D800E and Nikon D700 around as I travel and photograph. Now, it is not necessarily just the camera bodies that becomes tiresome. The lenses I regularly use with those two cameras, 16-35 F/4 VR, 24-70 F/2.8, and 70-200 F/2.8 VRII are also big, heavy and "clunky" but in a good way. The combination of the two cameras, three lenses and all the other paraphernalia that one must carry in order to be prepared for most opportunities as well as problems, is the issue here. All of that stuff is very heavy on this old shoulder of mine.
Enter the Olympus OMD E-M5. First, I like the size, weight and shape of the camera and the "feel" of the camera. With only one half of the battery grip mounted, it is perfect in my hands. Compared to the big Pentax or Nikons, I never find it tiring to carry the camera with attached lens, either on a strap around my neck, bandolier style or with a wrist strap. Don't underestimate the value of how a camera feels in your hands, how the controls work, how the menus are set up. That can be as important or more important than the technical aspects of a camera.
Second, I have come to love the electronic viewfinder. I just don't like holding a camera out in front of me to frame and make an image. It seems so foreign after using a viewfinder for over 40 years. I didn't think I would like using an EVF, and in the past I have experimented with one and didn't like it at all, but technology has advanced considerably and I have come to like the EVF and what it brings to my photography. I get to see my histogram in the viewfinder before I make my image! That is wonderful. I call it "Pre-Chimping." I know exactly how I have captured the scene before I press the shutter button. I can see exactly how the image will look later in Lightroom. It directly reflects what I see in my EVF. Nice.
Third, the camera uses contrast detection to focus right off the front plane of the sensor which negates the necessity of having to calibrate lens to camera as well as phase detect autofocus imperfections. When the camera tells me the lens is in focus, it is in focus. It is not front nor back focusing. I really like that also. Contrast detect autofocus is not really very good at tracking moving subjects. I don't photograph fast moving subjects too often. I find the focus will track a side-to-side moving subject pretty well, but not subjects moving toward me or obliquely to me. So, I'm fine with the focusing abilities and speed.
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| Grand Canyon; Made with the E-M5 and the Panasonic 14-45mm lens |
Fourth, the lenses are smaller, lighter and pretty darn good for almost every use--amateur or professional. I find the lenses from Olympus and Panasonic to be of excellent quality and usefulness. Do they match a full-frame 36.2mp camera using the Nikon 70-200 F/2.8 VRII? No, but for 95% of what I shoot, the Nikon setup is overkill. When on my spring road trip on Route 66, we made a side trip for a couple of days to the Grand Canyon. I made a beautiful 12" X 18" print of the Grand Canyon in the late afternoon light it is as good as I would ever need it to be. The zoom lens used coupled with the qualities of the sensor in the camera produced a wonderful image. The images I have shot consistently are first class. I don't need overkill almost all of the time. I need something that meets my professional, stock photography, as well as personal needs and these lenses make the grade.
Fifth, as I mentioned, this is the first camera with a sensor smaller than APS-C size, that I am totally happy with the image quality. And that includes using higher ISOs. Now, I don't shoot at ISO 12,800. I never have had to and don't anticipating every having to shoot at such a high ISO. But I do, on occasion, use the camera at ISO 6400 and, although I get some digital noise, it is not objectionable and I can mitigate it in Lightroom easily. Normally, I use ISOs from 100-1600. That takes care of 99.5% of the images I want to make. Back to the Grand Canyon image. The dynamic range of the sensor captured the deep shadows as well as the detail in the rocks in bright sunlight. Overall, the sensor's 16mp resolution is perfect for this 12" X 18" print.
Sixth, and probably most important, the camera excites me. This may sound hokey, but some of you may understand, but the camera seems to call to me. I feel energized when using it. I feel enthusiastic being out and on the hunt with it. I love that feeling. The Nikons always make me feel competent, but they also make me feel as though I'm on a job. With the Olympus I feel much more creative.
I am intrigued with the Sony NEX system and everything I read about it sound wonderful. But two things precluded me from buying it instead of the Olympus. First, the lenses pretty much just as big as my full sized lenses since they have to be bigger due to the APS-C sensor the camera uses, and second, the lens selection is lacking terribly right now. Even when the lens selection improves, they still will be bigger than I want. Same with the Fujifilm X-Pro and XE-1. APS-C sensor demands larger lenses. After all, the point is to significantly downsize, not just in camera size, but lens size also.
So there you have it. Bob's Your Uncle! The Olympus is my current favorite camera system. I plan on keeping and expanding the system I have. I suspect, within two years, I will sell the Nikon gear and stick with Micro 4/3. The next generation of camera and the upcoming lenses look delicious!
Thanks for looking.
Enjoy!
Dennis Mook
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