Sunset on the Öresund

Sunset photos taken (handheld) looking over the Öresund between Sweden and Denmark with my favourite carry around camera the wonderful Olympus E-M5 Mark II and the spectacular Olympus 17mm f/1.8 M.Zuiko lens.

Old Fisherman's Cottages in Borstahusen Southern Sweden.

Taken with my trusty Olympus E-M5 Mark II and the wonderful Olympus 17mm f/1.8 M.Zuiko lens, all hand held.

 

   

 

P'tit Bleu - a Quick Grab Shot...

 My wife came back from a trip to Marseilles with a tiny bottle of P'tit Bleu which is the most remarkable blue colour you have ever seen. Had to take a photograph of course... 😎 So I grabbed my Olympus E-M5mk2 and attached the excellent Olympus 45mm f1.8 lens. I used my home bar as a studio, turned on the lights above the shelf and my phone's flash-light for front fill, had to ask the wife to hold the phone and point the light. 😁 

Cheers/skål/prost/nostrovia!

Best Travel Camera?

I have a range of different cameras, from film to aps-c to full frame to Micro Four Thirds,  but which is the camera I grab when I'm travelling, or going for a camera walk in town, or going on a motorcycle trip? Well it's my trusty and very compact Olympus OM-D E-M5mk2 and the wonderful 17mm f1.8 lens. They are truly tiny and easy to slip in anywhere or ride with while dangling from a strap. I also have the very excellent Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 PRO lens that has image quality in spades and is very versatile, but it is bigger and heavier than the 17mm by a long shot and the E-M5 always feels somewhat unbalanced with it attached. Add the very tiny Olympus 45mm f1.8 in a spare pocket to pair with the 17mm and you are covered for a good range of shots anyway. I truly hope that the MFT system stays around for a very long time, what a pleasure to carry it about!

Here is a quick comparison pic of a full frame and an MFT body side by side, add similar focal point lenses to them and the size difference grows exponentially. I know which one I would rather lug about on a trip.

Here are a couple of pics taken while travelling by motorcycle through some Swedish forest a while back:

Sunset in Landskrona

I went for a walk down to the beach-front to get some pics of the sunset. I took along my wonderfully small and light Olympus OM-D E-M5mk2 with the super sharp 17mm f1.8 lens. Today I ran them through DXO Photolab 4.

Very Green Swedish Forest

 While driving home earlier today we happened to drive through a section of beautiful natural Swedish forest that was just a really gorgeous hue of green. Stopped by the side of the road, grabbed my OM-D E-M5mk2 with the 12-40mm f2.8 PRO lens attached and shot a few hand held photos.

Sunrise Over the Baltic

 My wife and I were on a short trip to Kivik on the East coast of southern Sweden this week and yesterday morning we got up early to catch the sunrise and it was worth every moment of sleep missed!

I took along my favourite travel camera, the tiny Olympus E-M5 mk2 and the excellent Olympus 12-40 f2.8 PRO lens. As you can see in the pics below this Olympus combo is more than capable of producing excellent quality photographs to satisfy the travel photographer on the go. All these photos were taken at f8 and hand held. I ran the raw images through the fantastic DXO PhotoLab 4 processing program.

D750 - Shooting in the Dark

 On my early morning walk to work today there was a little mist about and I decided to shoot a few pics. I am not claiming that any of these are any good artistically but what struck me is how good the D750 shoots in the dark at high ISO's. I could get much better results using a tripod and low ISO's but who has time for that on the way to work? 😊

All these were taken hand held, manual mode, 1/40s, f4.0 & ISO3200 and the lens was my spectacular Nikkor 50mm f1.8G "nifty fifty". I ran these briefly through DXO Photolab 3 and these are the results.

Stockholm Old Town

Stockholm Old Town (Gamla Stan) Olympus E-M5 Mk2 & M.Zuiko ED 12-40 f2.8 Pro @ ISO800, 12mm, f2.8, 1/13s, -0.7ev, hand held.

Winter View Over the Öresund

Winter View Over the Öresund. 

Snow, frozen sea and grey looming clouds complete the view over the Öresund to Denmark on the opposite side.

Nikon D750, NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G. Handheld.
 

Light, Form and Texture 4

 On a discovery of minimalist black and white photography where light, form and texture are more important than subject matter.

Nikon D750 & NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G. Handheld.

Harbour in Landskrona

Hotel Öresund to the left & boats parked outside.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 50mm f1.8G. Handheld.

Landskrona Stadshuset (cityhall)

One more from my walk Friday evening with my camera and the fantastic Nikon 50mm f1.8G lens. I put that lens on my camera about a year ago and I like it so much I haven't bothered to remove it. It's a lot more versatile than one would imagine and the image quality is simply wonderful!

Minimilist Sunset

Taken with my trusty 50mm f1.8. Spectacular lens that costs very little, best value for money when doing a cost vs image quality assessment.

Small Boat Harbour, Landskrona

Took a little walk with my camera and favourite nifty fifty lens yesterday evening.

Sculpture and Watertower, Landskrona

Took a little walk with my camera and favourite nifty fifty lens yesterday evening.

Sunset on Halvmånen Beach, Landskrona

Took a little walk with my camera and favourite nifty fifty lens yesterday evening.

Landskrona Citadel

Took this photo today at the Landskrona Citadel in an area between the outer and inner moats while on a photo walkabout.

A Freckle Portrait

Occasionally I take a portrait that simply stands out from the rest. This was one of them.

Olympus OMD EM5 mk2, 12-40mm f2.8 pro lens, lit by some led panels on light stands. Edited in DXO PhotoLab 3.

Light, Form and Texture 3

On a discovery of minimalist black and white photography where light, form and texture are more important than subject matter.

Olympus OMD E-M5 Mll & Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 PRO. Handheld.

Red Bicycle & Blue Door in Landskrona

Olympus OMD E-M5 Mll & 12-40mm f2.8 wide open at f2.8, hand held. Light processing in DXO Photolab.

I am Very Impressed by the Panasonic 25mm f1.7

I am very impressed by the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 as it is exceedingly sharp even from f1.7. Normally in post I always apply a little sharpening to my photos but so far on the OMD E-M5 Mll with both the 12-40mm f2.8 and this Panasonic Lumix 25mm f1.7 I don't have to do a single bit of sharpening because the raw files are already so sharp that any more just simply isn't necessary.

I took the bike pic below while out on a ride this morning, it is shot wide open at f1.7 and it's tack sharp on the bike. The second pic is a 100% crop from the same photo.

Light, Form and Texture 2

On a discovery of minimalist black and white photography where light, form and texture are more important than subject matter.

Olympus OMD E-M5 Mll & Panasonic Lumix 25mm f1.7. Handheld.

Light, Form and Texture 1

On a discovery of minimalist black and white photography where light, form and texture are more important than subject matter.

Olympus OMD E-M5 Mll & Panasonic Lumix 25mm f1.7.

Olympus OMD E-M5 Mll 40mp High Resolution Mode

When researching the E-M5 Mll online I saw a lot of talk about the cameras high resolution mode and because I like product and landscapes/cityscapes so much I felt that this was a BIG plus for me and of course I was keen to give it a shot and see what happens. Below I posted four images, the first two unresized so that you can delve right in and pixel peek. If that's your thing. Lets face it, most of the cameras in the world are sold to people who fair yearn to view an image at 100% to see if it "measures up". Like it's important or something... and then they post it to Facebook where it will be viewed mainly on mobile phones. 😀

The first photograph is the 16mp file, the second is the 40mp from the high resolution trick mode. I took these both on a tripod, both in jpg format. I downloaded them to my computer, ran them both without adjustments through DXO Photolab to get their special hoodoo, then added a quick url text to the bottom left corner.

Ok, I tried to get a 100% size pic to show but blogger obviously resizes during upload and so they both look the same... for now. I'll see if I can work around this somehow.

16mp

40mp

The next two pics are screen grabs directly from Picasa zoomed in at 100%.

16mp at 100%

40mp at 100%

As you can see the high resolution mode obviously works and works very well. Aside from the higher resolution I am also seeing higher dynamic range. Wins all around!

 I am really looking forward to putting this mode to good use with some controlled lighting in a studio environment.


I am totally having fun with this little camera from Olympus and at the end of the day that is probably the most important reason to delve into the mirrorless world. Carrying around a lot of heavy stuff takes the fun out of even the best intentions...

K&F Nikon to MFT Converter

The day after I ordered the camera I also ordered a cheap K&F converter to use my Nikon lenses on the Olympus... and voila, it works! The first lens I tried was the DX 40mm Micro. At the bottom is a coin.

The aperture ring works but I have no idea how to tell which aperture it is in. Just look at the screen, manual focus, shoot and hope for the best.

Not bad for a hand held shot in bad light.