Yeah, "but it is a dry cold" compared to what I was used to back east ... my wife would disagree, but I don't mind -20 to -30 out here with no humidity, compared to 0 to -10 back in Kingston with the higher humidity. No matter how you slice it though, -40 (with wind chill pushing -50) is bloody cold regardless of humidity! We usually get a couple of weeks per winter with daily highs down in the minus 30s and life goes on.

Nice shots ... brings back memories of when I lived north of Kingston and the neighbourhood kids would come over and play hockey (skates and all) on our driveway after a major bout of freezing rain. One of the things we don't much of out here in Alberta (and I don't really miss it :))

"another Glen H."

I believe the FL-50R should work fine with your e-520 ... I wish I had one to try on my e-520. I have only a single FL-36R and it works just fine ... though I find myself wishing for a bit more power in some situations, and definitely wanting a faster recycle time. Currently considering the Metz 58 AF-2, but still saving my pennies. Not sure if it will do what you need, but I have heard nothing but great reviews on Metz flashes in general.

Classic Red Green ... thanks for that Sarge :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanks for that Steve ... reminded me a lot of my drive into work this morning, unfortunately. Saw a few people slipping and sliding and ending up facing the wrong way when they finally came to a stop ... and they were on a flat piece of road!

Thanks ... needed a smile this morning :)

Hmmm ... I think the term "full frame micro four thirds" is an oxymoron. I agree that twin cards would be nice on my EM5. The EM5 with battery grip (thus 2 batteries in hand) is still a very manageable size/weight IMO.

The "power zoom" is just one option ... if you click the zoom ring into the next position (forward or back, I forget ... I only use the manual zoom) then it becomes a manual zoom, so you have the best of both worlds :)

I bought my EM5 in July of this year and have not touched the shutter button on my old e-520 or my EP-2 since the day I brought the EM5 home :) I still carry one or the other as a backup, but no other reason. Absolutely love the new camera, and trying to find a reason to get the EM1 as well ... only real obstacle is a wife who does not have any hobbies and does not see any sense in spending money on stuff like this :( Probably looking to sell off as much of my older stuff as feasible to build up a "war chest" to go towards EM1, as my conscience won't let me "accidentally" drop everything off of a bridge and collect the insurance money to put towards new camera!

Thanks Sarge ... made my morning. On my first date with my now wife she had just had her wisdom teeth pulled out that day but insisted that we still go out for dinner. Her face was still pretty much frozen, and all she could eat was soft food. Throughout her attempts to eat a portion of quiche there was food falling out of her moth and she was drooling pretty much non-stop ... and had no clue any of that was happening until I had to reach over and offer her a napkin to catch some of it. Our 28th anniversary comes up next week so I guess love trumps all of those other little issues :)

I regularly go for "photo opp drives" in the winter here, often down in the -20s with wind chill in the -30s (those are Celsius ... in Fahrenheit, -5 to -20 without wind chill, and -30ish with wind chill) and don't have any problems. I keep the car fairly cool while I am out driving (i.e., heater not blasting away, as the inside of the car can get pretty humid with melted snow, etc.) ... less of a shock getting in and out of the cold for both me and the camera. Even leave a couple of windows down a bit while out walking around so car cools right down. Then I can hop in and out at several stops with camera out and ready, and no issues.

While out in the cold my camera bag gets chilled too, so when going into a warm place I just stuff camera back in bag and zip it up ... that avoids the immediate impact of cold camera/lens meeting warm moist air, and everything just gradually warms up in the camera bag.

Thanks ... needed a good chuckle this morning!

Thanks ... the other thing I want to experiment with sometime soon is doing a very long exposure with some significant ND filtering in place. I hear that things like people and cars moving through a scene basically disappear in the final image. Now I just need a really dark ND filter, time to experiment with how long to expose, and a cool scene to practice on! After a big dump of snow yesterday, there is not much to look at around here right now ... I think maybe time has come to plan another vacation :)

Nice shots ... thanks for posting. They bring back good memories of our trip down there a few years ago :) You lucked out with the lighthouse ... really tough to get a clean shot without people climbing all over the area (or did you just clone out some people?). Maybe I was just there at a particularly busy time of year (August)?

There is also a forum (and possibly others) that is 100% 4/3 users ... so we don't have to feel sheepish about posting photos up against the big bad Canikon users :) The site is myfourthirds.com and there is some pretty amazing stuff posted on there.