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Despite having a number of work things to do, I managed to get the lawn mowed this afternoon and then enjoyed a cuppa as the sun went down. Just before it disappeared behind the houses at the top of the village, it lit up the field behind the house and the clouds beyond with the most amazing light. Definitely a day to feel good to be alive ! Covid & Brexit be damned!
Beautiful shot. I'm sure you could get a great shot with a Box Brownie Paul. Just as well you can't swap eyes it would be difficult to find an upgrade!
Jim
Lovely Paul. How long have you had the EM1.3? I thought you had the EM1.2 as well as the EM10.2. Can't keep up with your gear!
Well Bruce, here's the full history... I'll let it be a lesson to the rest of you:
- I bought an E-M1iii back in May and sold the E-M1ii I'd been running for the previous 3 years. I didn't dislike the new camera, but didn't think it was a huge upgrade from the mark ii.
- At about this time I'd been musing (again) about FF and liked the look of the Nikon Z system. Then there was the JIP announcement so it seemed a good time to do it.
So, I did a shake up to arrive at a three-camera setup:
- E-M10ii plus the 17, 25, and 45 primes - for travel, street and social stuff. Before Covid I did a lot of travel and really liked a small kit like this. I had a Pen-F but swapped it for the E-M10ii to save a bit of cash but also that I prefer a tilt screen for this sort of shooting and the 16Mp vs 20Mp sensor wasn't a big deal. I've also always had a bit of a soft-spot for the EM10ii - it's fantastic value for money. I also sold off the 75mm and the 12mm primes since they just weren't getting used.
- E-M1ii plus 40-150 and TC as a long lens camera for action etc. I sold the E-M1iii and bought a used E-M1ii - again to save some cash. I sold my 8-18, 12-100, and 12-40 lenses too.
- Nikon Z7 plus 14-30, 24-70 and MF fisheye as my main camera and primarily for landscapes.
I ran with the Nikon system over the summer and into the autumn but bit by bit I found that despite its stellar IQ, I just didn't enjoy shooting with it as much as the Olympus cameras. Then I eventually received the 24-200 that I'd had on order for months and was pretty disappointed in it. I'd hoped for something as good as the 12-100, but it just wasn't. I need (no, I really do!) 200mm equiv FL for landscape and I realised that the only other alternative with the Nikon was the 70-200 f2.8 which is huge, heavy and pushing £2.5k!
I then went back and looked closely at the images I was producing and how I was using them and came to the conclusion that apart from the dubious pleasure of admiring the IQ at 1:1 in LR the Nikon was making no practical difference to my photography in terms of output, but it was actually impeding some of the enjoyment and in fact some of the shooting opportunities (e.g. to get some shots of summer lightening storms I used the E-M1ii since the Nikon has no LiveComp mode).
As some proof of that, the two images below are shot at the same time with the Z7 and the E-M10ii. Can you tell the difference at this size? I can just about - but only because I know how I processed them and what to look for.
So, the obvious thing to do was to admit my mistake and back-track. So, I sold all the Nikon gear. The financial loss wasn't enormous since I bought it as a grey import at an amazing price and sold it for only a couple of hundred less on eBay. I then re-bought the 8-18 and the 12-100 ! At this point, I still had the E-M1ii, but I went back and looked at the HHHR output from the E-M1iii and thought it would help in some situations, so on the basis that I was still well up in cash terms from selling the Z7, and that life is a one-shot trick, I would trade up again!
So, I'm now back with the E-M1iii, 8-18, 12-100, and 40-150 (oh and the 8mm fisheye since I couldn't bear to sell that when I got the Nikon!). I'm very happy with the results I'm getting! I'm watching the planned Olympus 8-25 as a possible replacement for the 8-18, but other than that I'm not planning any moves at all. Promise!
That all makes perfect sense to me, and rather parallels my previous dalliance with a Sony A7Rii!
42Mp of on-screen joy, but the IQ differences were almost invisible in almost all my final-use images (even in prints), while handling, ergonomics, configurability, weather/dust resistance, frame rate (especially with silent shutter, with which you can’t use drive mode), rolling shutter avoidance, CAF performance, and cost, size & weight of the then-available lenses (those with good or excellent performance) were all bettered by those of the E-M1ii. Of course the equation has now changed, on both sides, but I don’t feel the outcome is yet different.
I’ve found I get a lot of pleasure from actually using the recent M1 series bodies, and that physical enjoyment was almost completely lacking from the Sony. Yes, you can crop more, but again there’s great satisfaction for me in getting it as right as possible in camera.
If I only did landscape or studio work I’d feel differently because the Rii is genuinely wonderful for things that don’t move (when it isn’t raining), but I re-replaced it with a s/h A7S, which remains a beast for really low light street photography and is much more capable than almost any other body for that niche application, certainly for the price.
If Olympus crashes and my wildlife gear dies I shall doubtless switch to the latest Sony kit in the A9 area, but there will be disadvantages (which I won’t elaborate on here, since I’ve gone on long enough!).
Thanks for that run through your recent photo history Paul - fascinating! I can't afford the hare approach, but my tortoise approach has served me well. I got a new EM1.2 in January for a very good price with free grip with the Oly trade-in offer on my EM5.1. I like a pair of similar bodies to avoid too much lens swapping unless I'm travelling light, and picked up a friend's very lightly used EM1.3 in August for a very good price. I'm not finding the moved Menu button too annoying, except in bad light (bring back backlit buttons!) I'm not convinced of HHHR yet, but only tried it once or twice, and still yet to try tripod HR on either, as the IS means I rarely need to carry a tripod. I've moved my original EM1.1 to use as a compact for paragliding aerials with the Panny 12-32mm with the JJC automatic lens cap, and retired my other EM1.1 to occasional / sacrificial use after it developed a few dead pixels (easily edited out).
One of my Flickr contacts, Andy Hough, used to shoot FF Sony DSLRs, but recently got an EM10.3, and getting great results with the 12-50mm.
You kept that quiet Paul! The Gap region is a Mecca for sailplanes I'm sure. We've had several trips to Laragne Monteglin over the years. The Le Chabre ridge is a brilliant launch for paragliders and hang gliders, and the XC up to Aspres and on past Gap was one of my most memorable flights. Done in half an hour for you I'm sure! I soloed in gliders way back in '76 at Shalbourne. Had a two week course with a trainee BA pilot teaching me. The weather was so good with me the only student, I soloed after 11 days. Sadly I didn't have the money to continue it then. I learnt hang gliding near Marlborough in 86, then started paragliding on the Isle of Wight in '93. Been all over the place on trips in the past, but these days, a nice bimble at Chinnor or Combe Gibbet up to 4 grand keeps me happy. Might get back to gliding when I'm too old to walk up hills ;-)
Yes, I'm still an active pilot. Started in 1989 at a little club near Bedford called Sackville. I used to go to Sisteron quite frequently in the mid nineties through to mid 2000s, but it's a while since I've been. I used to instruct and also flew the tow planes, but I've cut all that back now to just flying solo. I'm based at Bidford now (near Stratford) = https://www.bidfordglidingandflyingclub.co.uk/. I've posted a shot below that I took last weekend.
Happy boy! What's the glider, not that I know much about modern ones? I learnt in a rattly old Blanik, but we were looping and stall turning at the end of the course for a change (not me driving!) I guess you have a share? The take-offs are a lot more scenic from paragliding hill sites, but you can blast around the country a lot quicker. The weather seems to be getting windier, often too much for us except for the serious guys doing 300km downwind flights.
It's an LS8 Bruce. 15m or 18m wingspan according to what tips are fitted in the day. I usually fly it in 18m . It's an old design by modern standards, but it still performs reasonably well.
I learnt in a Blanik too - and did my first solo in it.
I did some gliding at Cranfield back in the 80s, learning in a arther elderly Bocian. I enjoyed it a lot at first but eventually gave it up for two reasons. Firstly it quickly became apparent that all thermal activity would cease as soon as I left the ground, and secondly I bottled out when the time came to practice spins ...
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