Tag Archives: micro 4/3

Street

Lunchtime walk around town

On my lunch break, I needed to take a walk down to the post office to get a package that I missed delivery on and few books of stamps for Christmas cards.  So of course, I packed up the camera bag (Panasonic G3, Pana 20mm,  Oly 45mm) and off I went.  After the post office, I meandered around downtown Scottdale.  Since downtown consists of 1 main street 2 blocks long, it didn’t take much time at all.  I wasn’t really seeing anything of interest until I detoured down an alley.  Right in front of me, there it was.

I’ve walked past this numerous times, but never really stopped to look at what was there.  Everything just clicked into place.  Looking a bit further and I found this.

Having exhausted all of my free time, it was time to walk home and get back to work.  When I got there, I found this waiting for me.  I don’t think the cat moved since I started work at 7.

Animals, Nature

After turkey-day with a deer and the Oly 45

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Let me first say that I hope everyone had a fun and safe Thanksgiving with their families and friends.  My family had a great time getting together, even if it is very busy and sometimes crazy.  We had one more side of the family to visit today, so I had one last chance to gorge myself on a wonderful home cooked meal.  Before that could begin however, I noticed a young deer walking behind the family members house.  I excused myself, grabbed my camera and tried to sneak around out back quietly.

For the people reading this strictly for the gear… I had my micro 4/3’s kit.  The longest lens I currently have is the Olympus 45mm f/1.8.  So that gave me an equivalent view of 90mm (in 35mm terms).  How I wish I would have the 45-200mm right then.  So these shots are cropped in fairly close.

The deer was about 40 yards back when all of a sudden something spooked it and it ran directly toward the house and close to where I was standing.

When it got within 15 feet of where I was standing, it finally realized that I was there and stopped dead in it’s tracks.  Apparently it was rather used to people, because it just stood there for a few seconds looking at me.

Apparently I wasn’t that big of a threat, as I was quiet and I could hear numerous gunshots in the distance (we were in the mountains).  The deer slowly trotted back from where it had come from.

I followed it for 50 yards up into the woods along a path.  The ground was wet and made it easy to be quiet and not make any noises.  The deer knew I was back there all the time, but just didn’t seem to care.  The next 3 shots were all taken from about 12 or 15 feet away.  That was as close as I could get.

After following and observing this deer for about 15 minutes, he simply looked at me one last time, decided she’d had enough and bolted.  It was a great and very peaceful experience, one that doesn’t happen often enough in our busy lives.

Family, Gear

Family shots with the G3 + Olympus 45mm f/1.8

So I guess this will be the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 review, part 2.  Tonight I grabbed a few frames of Brooke and Dayna playing around before bedtime with the G3 + Oly 45mm combo.  It worked surprisingly well in the low light of her room.

This was at ISO 2000 and it cleaned up quite nicely in Lightroom.  The noise is fairly well controlled and the image doesn’t suffer because of it.  As I use the the G3 more, I’m feeling more confident about the high ISO of the camera.

I don’t have much else to say about this combo right now. The more I use it, the more I love it.  The sensor is so much improved over the GF1 I last used.   Olympus and Panasonic have really stepped up and brought a number of high quality lenses out as well.  All I need now is a wide angle to complete my prime kit.  Eventually it’ll happen.

Gear

The first days with the Olympus 45mm f/1.8

Having moved back into a micro 4/3 system for my carry everywhere camera, I was excited to test out some of the newer lenses that have come out since I last had the GF1.  One thing that I have wanted was a 85mm fast aperture prime lens for portraits.  Unfortunately, Nikon’s new version is around $1,700 and even Sigma’s is $900. The solution was to get Olympus’s relatively new 45mm f/1.8 prime for my G3.  This gives a 90mm (in 35mm terms) focal length on a m4/3 sensor.  It’s very small, lightweight and fast.  Just what I was looking for.  I’ve only had this lens for a few days, but I already love it. Below is the prerequisite cat picture that any true lens test has to have.Everything just looks so sharp with this lens.  This was shot wide open at f/1.8 so the background just melts away.The detail this lens captures is fantastic.  So far, the lens is performing as I hoped it would.  Now I can’t wait to actually shoot some portraits with it.  Once I do, I’ll post more examples.