Holiday Week continues today with special birthday wishes to my sister. Happy Birthday Sis.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.— Robert A. Heinlein
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you, no doubt, have seem me express my affection for the Olympus E-M1X Micro Four-thirds mirrorless camera. I love its rugged, purposeful and professional design and while 20.4 megapixels may not seem like much five years later, it’s enough for me.
My quest to purchase one has been ongoing and somewhat fraught with OM Systems selling new ones on their OM System Store for $2,019.95. For the record, the original price of the camera was $2,999. But now I see that MPB, who I have been looking forward to make a purchase from them to try the company out, is selling a “good*” used one for $689 with a battery and charger. Still not cheap but maybe in the not-so-distant future?
You can read my in-depth review of the Olympus E-1MX on the Shutterbug website that features some images of cars and motorcycles that I shot while I was in Florida (disclosure) courtesy of Olympus. (No links, for reasons…) I remember talking to The Camera Store’s Evelyn Drake in Orlando when the camera was introduced telling her, “this doesn’t seem like a three thousand dollar camera too me.” Her reply: “What does a $3000 camera look like?” but after three days shooting sports with the camera under all kinds of weather conditions, I changed my mind. Meanwhile back home…
Cars & Coffee
I wrote my impressions of Oly’s ED 17mm f/1.2 PRO lens on this blog. But now it can be told: Because of an NDA, I wasn’t able to say that the image of the O’Brien Park gazebo that appears on that post was made with the E-1MX with an exposure of four sec at f/8 and ISO 200—handheld. Yes, handheld at four seconds.
Later, I took an E-M1X with that ED 17mm f/1.2 PRO lens to Cars and Coffee and…where are all the cars? This post could have been subtitled “Suppose they had a Cars & Coffee and Nobody Came,” but what the show lacked in quantity it made up by the enthusiasm from the m, mostly, young people who brought mostly Japanese cars top the event. Interestingly most of the cars continue a trend you see everyday on the road: Many of them were black, while or some shade of grey.
How I Made this Photo: Mazda Miata ND versus NA. Which do you prefer? I like the NA model because it more closely reflects the car that inspired it—The original Lotus Elan. Mary owned a white Miata NA and was named Miata Owner of the Month by an on-line Miata owners group. She even received a nice email from one of the car’s designers in Japan! This image was made with an Olympus E-M1X and ED 17mm f/1.2 PRO lens in Program mode—my default for outdoor car shows—exposure of /1250 sec at f/5 and ISO 320, which also my default ISO for car shows..
One of the upsides of shooting at sparsely attended shows is that hardly anybody walks in front of you when you’re shooting a car. So sometimes there’s a silver lining. And since I love Mitsubishi Evo’s and Nissan Skylines, including a mostly stock 25-year old Skyline that was painted my favorite shade of grey, I shot the images you see at right.
How I Made this Photo: I photographed this Nissan Skyline with the E-M1X’s flippy screen flipped out. Lens was the ED 17mm f/1.2 PRO with a Program mode exposure of 1/1000 sec at f/5 and ISP 320 with a minus on-third stop exposure compensation. Oly’s Program is really weighted toward high shutter speeds, which is funny considering how amazingly capable their IBIS is.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($3.50), click here.
Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography with new copies and used copies that are available from Amazon.