I make the plunge

A brief review of the Olympus OMD EM 1

Yes, I took my own advise and took the plunge. I just purchased a new Olympus EM 1. I'm very proud of myself. The price was right and it was silver and black, which I happen to prefer to the all black. With the shipping of the new EM 1 Mark 11 a matter of days away, the deal was just too good to pass up.

I am still learning how to handle it and will certainly report on that in the next little while, but I do have something to pass on now. I got the new 30mm f3.5 Olympus lens with the camera, and holy crap! If you do macro photography, watch out. Olympus will get you.

I upgraded the firmware to the newest one and stuck on the new lens and (after stumbling over the settings to get the manual focus enlargement working), after maybe ten pics, this magical stuff started appearing.

I'm not a dedicated macro guy, but I have dabbled, and the problem most people commonly face is this - with our f1.4 or f2 or f2.8 macro lens and our lovely 1:1 close up pics, we are left with a soft, beautiful shot of ... something, but it's hard to say what, because our depth of field is about the thickness of a piece of paper. Stop down and you ask yourself, why the heck did I get an f2 lens? Move back and you ask yourself, why the heck did I get a macro lens?

The geniuses at Olympus have sussed this out brilliantly with this new macro lens. First of all, 30mm in Olympus-land is equivalent to 60mm in 35mm film photography (or full frame digital) and it is a really good focal length to work with. Secondly, f3.5 is as open as this lens goes, and when you start shooting with it, it makes a world of sense. And thirdly, well, hold on to your hats - the Olympus firmware update includes a thing called 'Focus stacking'. For now, it only works with three lenses, and this macro is one of them. What it does is address exactly the issue of macro photography mentioned above - depth of field.

Of course macro guys have done this for years. But it takes a tripod, often at least a smallish studio and lighting setup, multiple pictures, each one set up individually for different depths of field, and stacking software on the computer to put the pics together. As one guy I read commented on his blog, Olympus has just taken an hour of work and compressed it to the click of a shutter button. Before we go further, let me make a believer out of you. Please note that these pictures are hand held, indoors with no lighting aids, at ISO 200 (and therefore shutter speeds most people often don't hand hold with).

The top pic is with focus stacking, the bottom without. Both shots were focused on the rounded red push tip of the clear pen. Look at two things in particular - the purple pen leaning behind the bright orange one, and the rim of the cup, The other thing that draws my eye is the bokeh - the blur in the stacked shot is a little more detailed but also a little cleaner to my eye. The exposure on both shots was 1/8 sec., ISO 200, f3.5, natural light only.

The bottom shot is great. But for the times I want to get up close and see more, focus stacking is a wonderful alternative.

Here's another two shots;

Just look at the rug around the shoe and you get the idea.

And below, my favourite - I didn't take a normal shot, but I think you're starting to get the idea of how we are right up close, but still focused front to back - a powerful option to have.

The lens and camera combine to take a series of 9 shots, moving the focus as it does. The camera then combines these into one shot (although all 10 load into your picture processing program). I was absolutely convinced that this wouldn't work hand held - I mean we're talking 9 shots at a 1/8 sec. shutter speed for crying out loud - but work it did, to often stunning results.

Off to shoot some more. Will keep reporting on my experience with Olympus, but so far am very, very impressed.