Because of the sheer number of cat pictures on the internet not everybody enjoys viewing or shooting cat photos. I love cats, especially their inquisitive nature. I never get bored of watching them snoop around and photographing them while they do so. The following photos are quite old. I’ve taken them in September and October 2014. All were shot with the Olympus OM-D E-M10 and 45mm f/1.8. I hope you like them. 🙂
Robstar1963, a Dpreview and MU-43 regular, has had a chat with Olympus raps at the LCE PRO CAMERA Show and here is what he found out:
I visited the LCE (London Camera Exchange) PRO CAMERA Show this morning in Southamton (UK)
Both Olympus and Panasonic had stands and I had a chat with the reps from both camps to see if I could glean any news on upcoming models !
Lo and behold – Speaking to one of the Olympus Reps I was told that the EM1 Mk2 is definitely going to be launched at Photokina and will be on sale in October 2016
The new camera is said to be vastly (and this was reiterated) improved compared to the EM1
Several aspects of performance will be much improved including video which ‘ may’ include 4K ?
What will definately be improved is the ability of the new camera to be used for sports photography
Olympus are said to be trying to further penetrate the PRO market and improving performance for sports photography is seen as an important goal to achieve increased PRO level recognition, sales and use
I mentioned that I enjoy motorsports photography and was told that the Mk2 would DEFINATELY be much improved for that type of fast moving capture
The rep advised that Olympus were going to put a lot of effort into a much bigger launch of the EM1 Mk2 and staff were already working on and towards the launch
With regard to 4K or no 4K on the new model I was told that there were hidden barriers to adopting this technology as Panasonic and other companies held ‘rights’ to some aspects to the technology involved and were more able to implement 4K at reasonable cost compared to what Olympus would have to pay in order to use it
It wasn’t clear whether 4K would be included but it certainly wasn’t ruled out
If true this perhaps explains (at least partly) why Olympus has been slow to adopt the technology
With regard to the pricing of the new model I was told that despite the newer version being a huge improvement over the Mk1 there was no intention to increase the price significantly over the price of the EM1 – I would expect this to be with regard to pricing at launch – the EM1 being approximately £1300.00 (UK) at launch if I remember correctly.
Obviously much of this should be taken with a pinch of salt but from what was being said I think we can definately expect sales to commence before the end of the year and a launch at Photokina
Regards
Rob
Photographers often use lenses for subjects they are not primarily designed for. Macro lenses, for example, often double as portraiture lenses – especially the ones with medium-long focal lengths. But how about doing it the other way around and using a dedicated portrait lens – such as the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 for micro 4/3 – for macro photography? Not a good idea? Well, no, not if you are only going to use the portrait lens. But if you attach one or two close-up lenses, you will be surprised what can be done with that kind of set-up. Take a look at the following photos I’ve shot with the Olympus OM-D E-M10, 45mm f/1.8, Marumi DHG200 (read my review here) and Raynox DCR-250. It’s important to note that none of these images were cropped.
Copyright: Tamara Skudies
Today German lens manufacturer Meyer-Optik Görlitz announced a new Kickstarter campaign to fund a new and improved version of its Trioplan 50mm f/2.9 lens. Despite the campaign going for thirty-four more days the community has already pledged more than twice as much money Mayer-Optik was asking for.
If you’ve never heard of Meyer-Optik, it’s best known for its Trioplan series of lenses with the “soap bubble bokeh”. The 50mm f/2.9 will be available in almost all mounts, including micro 4/3, and it will cost $449. If you are looking for a cheaper alternative: the classic Trioplan 50mm f/2.9 is going for around $150 on eBay.
In the last couple of posts (here and here) I’ve mentioned that I’ve been using flash and a do-it-yourself diffuser for taking macro photos with my Ricoh GRD3. It’s a simple diffuser made entirely out of paper, which I’d like to show you now. Please don’t laugh, it works better than it looks. 🙂
In my reply to Joni in the comments of my last post on the topic of shooting macro with the Ricoh GRD3, I said that the GRD3 has a very special wide angle lens, unlike any other either fixed (as in compact camera) or interchangeable. I now want to show you just how close you can get to your macro subjects with the 6mm f/1.9 (28mm full frame equivalent). What you see below is an image of a microSD card shot at the closest focusing distance. It’s important to note that it was not cropped at all. I just resized it from 10MP to 1920 × 1440 pixels. If anyone wants to see the photo in full resolution, I will upload it to Flickr. Just let me know in the comments. 🙂
It’s hard for me to fathom, just how much time has passed since I bought the Ricoh GRD3. I purchased it in October 2011 as a small street-photography camera, an addition to my “big guns”. In case you were wondering about the name of the blog: “big guns” for street-photography or big street guns… It just made sense back then, but not so much now. Anyway, I carried the Ricoh everywhere with me, but somehow I just couldn’t bring myself to like the wide angle focal length, since I was so used to shooting with 50mm standard primes with all my other cameras. After a while I stopped carrying the Ricoh with me and a couple of months later I gave up street-photography altogether. Since then the GRD3 has been slumbering, tucked away in a drawer, waiting for me to rediscover it.
Panasonic has just announced its Lumix DMC-GX80 (GX85 in North America), a lower end model of the GX camera line. Judging by the MSRP of $799 including the 12-32mm kit lens, it is meant to be a competitor to the Olympus OM-D E-M10II and Sony A6000.
The GX80/GX85 sports a 16 MP sensor without an AA filter, a new shutter mechanism for reduced shutter shock and 5-axis Dual IS. According to Panasonic the absence of an AA filter increases resolution by 10%. Like Panasonic’s latest cameras the GX80/GX85 also offers 4k/UHD 30p video and video related features, such as 4k Photo and Post Focus.
On the live view side of things there is a 2.76 M-dot EVF and a 3” 1.04 M-dot touch screen monitor, which tilts up by 80° and downward by 45°.
There is a black and silver model, both of which will go on sale at the end of May.
Nikon 1 community has been debating whether Nikon will abandon the system entirely, ever since the DL series of compact cameras with the 1“ sensor was announced at the end of February. The last Nikon 1 related announcements – Nikon 1 J5 and Nikon 1 Nikkor VR 70-300mm f/4-5.6 announced in April 2015 and March 2014 respectively – were made quite a while back, which naturally contributes to the anxiousness of N1 users. The V3 being two years old and there being no sign of the V4, the next high-end model, doesn’t help matters either.
But as the Japanese blog Egami reports, Nikon could be working hard on a fast wide angle prime as we speak. The 9mm f/1.8 (24mm full frame equivalent) described in the published patent is designed for 1” sensors, which implies that it could also be intended for a DL series camera or a lower end Coolpix A model. As you can see in the schematic below, the lens has a moderately complex optical formula, consisting of nine elements. Just to put things into perspective, the 1 Nikkor 10mm f/2.8 has six elements in five groups, while the optically superb 1 Nikkor 32mm f/1.2 has nine elements in seven groups.
