New M10 Owner

[Swallow]

Hi all, bought an OMD M10 last week with the basic 14 - 42 non-pancake lens. Reason for choosing it was primarily the small size as I do a bit of touring on my bicycle so I needed a camera which wouldn't take up too much space. My previous camera was also an Olympus, the 810 Tough which was ideal for carrying on the bike but it struggled to take decent close ups of things like flowers and landscapes seemed to lack what I would non-technically term impact. A combination I think of a lack of pixels and poor processing of the image. It was a good point and shoot camera but having spent two weeks in June this year cycling from one end of the Pyrenees to the other I was a bit disappointed with my souvenir photographs, so a better camera was required.

I also bought at the same time a Velbon UT 43 tripod, not the lightest tripod but very compact.

No doubt I will be posting numerous questions here. Look forward to chatting with you all.
John

[OM USer]

Re: New M10 Owner

A warm welcome

[StephenL]

Re: New M10 Owner

Hi and welcome. Look forward to reading your views on the E-M10.

[MargaretR]

Re: New M10 Owner

Welcome John! Look forward to seeing some of your images.

[Zuiko]

Re: New M10 Owner

.....but having spent two weeks in June this year cycling from one end of the Pyrenees to the other

John

You're fit!

Looking forward to seeing some pics with your new camera.

[Simon Bee]

[Swallow]

Re: New M10 Owner

Well, I'm starting to get the hang of the thing now. Just got back from nearly 6 weeks in Spain in our campervan.

First day walking in the Pyrenees came across these Griffon vultures (75 - 300mm lens). Light wasn't brilliant and I was still learning how to alter things like asa quickly so most of my shots of them flying didn't come out very well. All of the shots shown below are uncropped and many if not all could benefit from some cropping and straightening up but I just wanted to show what I had taken.


This was the best shot of vultures flying but it is no way near sharp enough. I need a lot more practice - which is a good enough excuse to go back to Spain I think.


Later, tried it on some landscapes (14 - 42 lens). This is Los Mallos de Riglos in Aragon.



Then down in the south of Spain, in Andalucía, one of the classic white towns of the region, Vejer de la Frontera, getting the exposure right in such bright contrasty light was difficult. I took several shots adjusting the exposure a bit either way. Not sure how to tell which is best.



Later in the holiday I learned how to crank up the asa - this shot was taken hand held at something like 8000 asa and looks OK, no award winner but it was very dark in the church.


These are Umbrella or Stone Pines near Tarifa. The shot captures the very fresh green colour of them but to take a decent shot I needed more time to walk further and choose a better viewpoint. Which is of course always the choice on holiday - are you there to take photographs or have a holiday?



If I was more serious about my photography I would probably carry a tripod with me - this shot of the courtyard of Los Hospicio de la Venerables, Seville, probably needs more depth of field but as an opportunistic shot it looks OK to my ignorant eye. I took several shots but this was the best I think as I chose a better viewpoint (may be a theme developing here...)


Where I did struggle was trying to take shots with a bit of impact when the light levels were low. This shot of cork oaks in the Sierra Grazelama seems to lack impact somehow. I guess I could do some post production I suppose. But it had rained all morning and there was still a lot of low cloud so visibility was probably too poor.





And to show I am not above clichés, here is the classic tourist shot of the new bridge at Ronda - probably the 10 millionth taken but I still like it!


The Arabic baths in Ronda can be seen sunk into the ground just beyond the Roman Bridge:


Inside the baths themselves it was almost pitch dark - the only light coming through the small openings in the roof but winding it up to 16,000 asa got this shot:



I think for landscapes I need an even wider lens although of course this does mean things can get distorted. This shot of skies above the Sierra Nevada was taken at 14mm but probably could have been wider:



But the stock zoom does well for shots like this, a typical flat-roofed house of the high Alpujarras:



In summary, our holiday was a good opportunity to get to know the camera and begin to use just a fraction of its features. I just need to learn how to take better pictures so will keep coming back here for advice!

Having said at the beginning all the shots are as taken, I have been fiddling with a few. The first one below is the shot as taken (street seem Cadiz), the one below has been cropped and twiddled to remove some distortion using PSE 12.




Afterwards and on reflection probably over-corrected for distortion:



John