My New OlympyKON (Page 2): thanks.. I am looking at that sigma 19 and the 50. I have been gravitating back to prime lenses with my Nikons and prolly will go prime with the Olympus. I...

frankie c Loc: Lake Havasu CIty, AZ

johneccles wrote:

Good choice, I have been using an Olympus M43 camera for some years now and have never regretted dumping my DSLR, I am sure that you will enjoy your new camera.
The 1442 kit lens is quite good, but I now use a Panasonic 1445 which is a far superior lens but my main lens is a Sigma 19mm 2.8 which is an excellent lens and produces very high quality images.
Occasionally when I need a wider angle I use the 1445 lens but now I keep the Sigma on my camera 99% of the time.

thanks.. I am looking at that sigma 19 and the 50. I have been gravitating back to prime lenses with my Nikons and prolly will go prime with the Olympus. I am tired of slow lenses and Plus my primes are sharper in general also I really don't like it changing through the zoom range.

Oly Guy

I too use focus peaking-on a Sony A6000. Love using the Nikon lenses with an adaptor. Have been trying the old Minolta Rikoor film lenses. My favorite is the 45mm 1.8 lens-the color and sharpness are good! They are smaller lenses. Good luck with your Olympus the empl 1 I had, had great color and sharpness. Love Olympus and still use a E300 for outside portraits etc.

frankie c Loc: Lake Havasu CIty, AZ

debbie wrazen wrote:

Congratulations on your new addition. I am more of... (show quote)

thanks. YEP the EM1 is sweet. Almost went there but decided that since was a new venture I would try it with a less expensive model and the specs still sounded good. The 75mm sounds like a good choice. I think I am leaning more towards the 60mm f 2.8 macro. We can never have enough lenses :)

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

frankie c wrote:

thanks. YEP the EM1 is sweet. Almost went there but decided that since was a new venture I would try it with a less expensive model and the specs still sounded good. The 75mm sounds like a good choice. I think I am leaning more towards the 60mm f 2.8 macro. We can never have enough lenses :)

The 75 is a gem...If I could only have 2 lenses, it would be one of them...the 12-40 would likely fill the other spot.

CaptainBobBrown

The Oly 12-40 mm Pro is a really great lens on the OMD line. I use one on my E-M1 and rarely fail to get sharp images ... some almost macro since it closes so focus even at full extension. The Oly 60mm macro lens is quite good but you do have to be aware that micro four/thirds sensor size gives increased depth of field so for macro you might have greater background sharpness then you expect. Easy to take into account though and results can be great.

wingclui44 Loc: CT USA

frankie c wrote:

New OlympyKON
I have been investigating buying a 4/3 system for some time now. I finally did it. After doing my homework I decided on the Olympus OM-D E-M10. My decision to go Olympus was partially due to Owning a couple of Olympus SLRs back in the day (an OM 1 and an OM 10). There were a couple of things I always liked about the Olympus even though eventually I went Nikon. I like to almost always have a camera with me but did not always want the bulk of carrying one or more of my Nikons. During my quest I looked at a lot of cameras and I looked at a lot of images taken with 4/3 systems. I was always a little put off by the softness and somewhat pastel like colors I saw in the images. I did however, start seeing some images that that seemed to have overcome that look. So decided it would be worth an investment to see for myself what the possibilities are. I have had the camera for almost a week and took it with me on a little escape holiday and explored as much as I could of the camera and its features. I guess I wound up I kinda like it and maybe not so much.
I bought the camera with the 14-42 kit lens (not the greatest) and I also got an Fotodox NG 4/3 adaptor so I could use my Nikon Lenses (glad I did that). The adaptor was supposedly for use with Nikon G lenses (of which I have a few primes) but was glad to discover it works with most my Nikon lenses and really great results with my Nikon 50mm f 1.8 D lens.
OK so the likes:
8 fps burst really cool, focuses quick, Low light situations really good, in video mode (not something I use a lot) did a good job without the onboard mic picking up camera noise. I did a short clip of a band with the only lights being the stage lights and was very impressed with the results. Low light stills also impressed. The little built in flash was ok once I learned to keep my hand off the top of the lens. Oh yeah I do like the ability to change aspect ratio (that comes in handy).
OK likes not so much:
I did not find the small body all that comfortable to hold the squared corners were sometimes annoying on my hand (I have ordered the little grippy thing maybe that will help. I set the camera on my smart phone it looks like the camera has its own resting tray. Images in low light and artificial light looked good but daylight did bring out that pastel look to the colors and that general soft image look (flat) I mentioned I was skeptical of in my research. Oh shooting monochrome was better. An observation I made while doing my homework on 4/3s that a lot of the photos up for display were monochrome (hmm). Oh I did shoot in all the modes (before someone tells me I was in the wrong one).
OK (so I can see the potential) Things I need help with:
RAW files, I downloaded Olympus viewer 3 (not a great piece of software). I downloaded the plug in adobe cameraRaw 9_1. I can get the RAW images to load into Adobe Photoshop elements 13 but not into Lightroom. In Adobe elements I cannot convert the RAW image (ORF) to JPG I have to save it out as a DNG then Bring it into Lightroom and post process and convert. There has to be an easier path (HELP).
Speed lights.. right now I am leaning towards the Olympus FL-600R or the Generic MK-320 TTL Mini. Recommendations welcome. I am a bit of a strobist. I like to be in control of my lighting (modeling my lighting to meet my creative ideas. I rarely do any serious people photos without at least introducing some light to enhance the image.. Im gonna leave this here and get your thoughts. THANKS.

New OlympyKON br I have been investigating buying... (show quote)

Congratulations to your discovery of your Olympykon!
I too started getting into M4/3 two years ago with Olympus, I got the more compact EP-L 2, I found this is a fun system to have even I am a Nikon user for 40 years. I got a few adapter for using other brand and type of lenses. I have the old Olympus Pen-F 42mm f1.2 H. Zuiko Auto-s, A Fujinon 35mm f1.7, a Minolta 50mm f1.7, and Switar-Kern 16mm f1.8 , Plus all the lenses from my Nikon system. I also home made a concave lens (0.67X) putting in-front of the 14-42mm kit lens to convert it to a ultra wide angle lens (about 9.38mm , it's 19mm as 35mm equivalent). :)

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Frankie, check out the complete m43 lens list at

http://hazeghi.org/mft-lenses.html

Also check out the MetaBones SpeedBooster adapter for Nikon lenses to m43 cameras. It reduces the crop effect by .71 and adds a full stop of light to the image. It's pricey, but actually improves the lens MTF (performance) at the same time. There are reviews of it on YouTube...

You should have a LOT of fun using this camera. m43 takes a bit of getting used to, but there are many great features to the format, and the competition between Olympus, Panasonic, and others has led to RAPID development of really good gear.

jcboy3

If the EM10 feels small, I recommend you take it back and get the EM1. I find it to be one of the most comfortable m4/3 cameras to use.

If you do portrait work, I recommend the battery grip; it provides very comfortable use in portrait orientation.

I use an imported ARCA L-bracket on the EM1 so I can use it in landscape or portrait orientation with a tripod or monopod. There are a couple of different styles; I suggest the iShoot version which moves the tripod screw mount to align with the lens.

I also use an iShoot adjustable ARCA L-bracket when using the battery grip; it adjusts on bottom and side, and can be adjusted enough to allow use of the remote shutter cord (which I also recommend getting).

The advantage of the EM1 is that you can use legacy 4/3 lenses, allowing a cheaper alternative to the m4/3 pro lenses (I especially like the 12-60, 50-200 SWD, and 50mm macro).

Lightroom will process Olympus raw files (ORF extension), but you need to have a recent version. Version 5 will probably work, version 6 will definitely work. PSE does not do 16 bit editing; so I don't bother with it anymore.

I still don't have an FL600, it is not compatible with my system and I don't like the LED flashing when using it as a controller or slave.

I use Olympus FL-50/50R and FL-36/36R flashes. But I also use a lot of other stuff (more on that later). If you want to do remote TTL, the FL-50R flashes are great. The flash that comes with the cameras works as a controller. For macro work, a pair of FL-36R's on a bracket also works very well. The FL-50/50R flashes are the only TTL flashes that can be used with a battery pack (get recycle times down to 1 second). But there is a problem getting cables; simply not available anymore. I have a bunch, and use both Olympus batteries (also no longer available) and Quantum batteries.

I use Cactus V6 radio triggers for remote flash operation. There is a built in profile for the Olympus 50R and 36R; they can't use the FL-600 because of the way that flash is designed. I also can use the V6 to control Nikon and Quantum flashes; it adjusts power and fires the flash remotely. Not TTL, but if you are a manual flash guy that's not an issue. If you want radio TTL, I only know of two solutions, Quantum and Aokotec.

If you are an event shooter and want a robust flash solution with TTL and battery packs, I think Quantum is the only feasible solution at this time. Olympus really dropped the ball on the m4/3 flash solution; their 4/3 flash systems were really more robust (including macro twin flash and ring flash, flash based AF focus illumination, and so on).

For a basic portrait shoot, I use the EM1, battery grip, Panasonic 35-100 f/2.8 lens, 3 FL-50/50R flashes (doesn't matter which because I don't use RC mode), 4 Cactus V6 radio triggers, a flash meter, a white balance target, and assorted stuff for background, stands, flash mounts and modifiers.

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

You will find that bottom plate for M-10 makes quite of bit of difference in handling and grip. It's still not the most ergonomic camera but I have gotten use to it.
The eyecup that comes with the camera is not very comfortable but replacing it with the EP -14 you will notice an improvement.
I found that I needed to increase the contrast, sharpness and color vibrance inside the camera which really improved the JPEGs right out of the camera.
I use LR CC to process the RAW files.
I bought the 45mm and 12-40 mm lens- both excellent lenses.
I have found very little that I don't like about the camera.
Join the Olympus groups on Flickr- I have seen some amazing pictures there.
Have Fun!

frankie c Loc: Lake Havasu CIty, AZ

suntouched wrote:

You will find that bottom plate for M-10 makes qui... (show quote)

thanks.. I am finding those same adjustments necessary. I switched the focus to AF+MF that is a bit annoying but it seems necessary. My reviews of images from 4/3's systems (I see a lot of soft focus images). I was worried about that and looks to be true at least for the kit lens. I did a short test comparing my Nikon D5100 AF to the same shot with the Olympus AF. The Nikon was tack sharp the Olympus needed to be adjusted with the +MF option. I am sure I will figure out where I need to be with this camera and it will be fine. The grip should be here Wednesday along with the flash. So I will be playing a lot. Well we love our toys. Don't think I will be retiring my DSLR's just yet. I will check out the group. Thanks again HAPPY SHOOTING.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

frankie c wrote:

thanks.. I am finding those same adjustments neces... (show quote)

Softness...hmm, doesn't sound right...but then again I haven't touched the kit lens since I bought it. Slap on a prime like the 45 and it should sharpen right up. I also use single point af to nail the exact focus point.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

frankie c wrote:

thanks.. I am finding those same adjustments neces... (show quote)

My copy of the 14-42 Kit lens is a real dog, only Oly lens I've ever had that wasn't sharp. I prefer the very sharp primes and some legacy lenses on my EM1 and EM 5. Don't have the 12-40 yet but it gets great reviews.

lukan Loc: Chicago, IL

minniev wrote:

My copy of the 14-42 Kit lens is a real dog, only Oly lens I've ever had that wasn't sharp. I prefer the very sharp primes and some legacy lenses on my EM1 and EM 5. Don't have the 12-40 yet but it gets great reviews.

The 12-40 PRO is every bit as good as any standard tele on the market (and that includes the Zeiss for A-mount Sony DSLRs). The 25 Pana/Leica, 45 Oly and 75 Oly are all very special lenses. The 75mm will change your life! :D :thumb up:
Honestly, I'd sell the 14-42 and get the 25 Pana/Leica. That would be an excellent first move.

frankie c Loc: Lake Havasu CIty, AZ

Cdouthitt wrote:

Softness...hmm, doesn't sound right...but then again I haven't touched the kit lens since I bought it. Slap on a prime like the 45 and it should sharpen right up. I also use single point af to nail the exact focus point.

OK thanks. Softness is quality where you don't see clarity in the image but it's kinda in focus.

kinda like this. pay attention to the spenders