And for that reason, I’ve added you as a friend on flickr Fantastic pics btw Is it your job?

Thanks dude! I have reciprocated! Sadly it’s not my job, just a hobby that has started to pay, which is good as it funds my bike! Sell prints and calendars etc when I can, do some weddings, and functions etc. but landscapes are my thing, I love trying to capture what nature throws up for the briefest of moments. I self taught myself when I was 22, just reading and trying things out.

With the 1100D and 450D debate it’s a strange one. Canon’s entry levels were the XXXD range (XXD midlevel, 1D toplevel), so there was the 300D, 350D, 400D, 450D, 500D, 550D and now the 600D. But at around 500D-550D the prices had increased quite a bit so they decided to under cut the entry levels with a new Entry level, the 1XXXD. Basically they took the specs of early XXXDs and added some new functions.

So by comparing them it throws up a perculiar senario. The 450D’s new equivalent should be the 600D, but sepecs wise it’s closer to the 1100D. Bodies are just electrical boxes, so they change quickly and if you shoot in RAW all they become are settings recorders. The lens and the filters in front of it will always be the most important parts.

Oly your pics are great.. have you seen the STW pictures thread? Some fantastic stuff on there, you should contribute.

Yeah I’m another Olympus 4/3 user 😉

I can actually take any pick I like as I’ve got over 70 cameras sitting around and it always confuses people when I take an F5 for film and my Olympus E3 for digital.

I’ve got EOS lenses half a dozen.
Nikon lenses about a Dozen!

Funnily enough I just sold my pancake lens (£111) on Ebay!

Here it is sat on my Panasonic DMC-L1

My “kit bag” consists of

Panasonic DMC-L1
Olympus E3
My main day to day lens is the Leica Vario Elmarit, 14-50 f2.8-3.5 rather than the more usual 12-60.
Olympus Zuiko 11-22 Wide angle
Olympus Zuiko 50-200 ED f2.8-3.5

The Panasonic L1 is a lovely camera but I love the E3 for its waterproofing, you should see it at the moment its covered in mud still from my last day out taking pictures of my friends 4x4ing. My Dog decided to show them how to do it!

Blimey PePPeR that is some serious kit!

It’s all bought second hand though.

I forgot to add my 35mm macro lens too 😉

I won’t buy these items new, they are silly money and cameras are advancing so quickly that they become pretty worthless very quickly. Lenses in the main hold their value well, I buy them secondhand, use them and then sell them on again for a similar value.

Are you buying from eBay then or elsewhere? eBay seems to be as above – not that much cheaper than new, not enough to make it worth it. Although I haven’t even heard of half those lenses so maybe that’s it. Plus I’m in the budget market which is probably hotter.

35mm macro a bit downmarket for you, isn’t it? What about the 50mm f2.0? 🙂

Best place to look for lenses is either here, http://www.fourthirds-user.com/forum/index.php

Or Here; http://e-group.uk.net/

Oh and I’ll upgrade to the 50mm when I can 😉 But the 35mm is a fantastic little lens! (The main reason why I sold my Pancake actually as I preferred the IQ of the 35mm)

To be fair I can’t see myself using f2.0 at macro distances – I actually want MORE DoF for macro work, so I stop down as much as I can. I used to take loads of good macro shots hand held on my compact. Hand holding with the DSLR is extremely hard because even though the IS takes care of lateral shake the front to back shake means it’s pot luck if you get the focus where you want it. And setting up a tripod and macro rails seems like a hell of a lot of faff, and is only possible if your subject is fixed to the ground 🙂

But think of the 50mm as an f2 lens with macro facility and it then starts making sense, I’ll go out for the day with just the 35mm macro on and although in old terms it’s a 70mm, it makes an almost nifty fifty. When the Canonistas go on about using their nifty fifty, it’s actually by the time you take the 1.6X into account 80mm 😉 so at 70mm our macro lens is nearer.

I do find that as I’ve got older that like my father I am getting more and more into wide angle lenses!

I’ve taken the 35mm out and about and found it a bit too close for general shots actually. I tend to be with my family and I’m not usually far enough away from them 🙂

Wide angle – I never thought I was interested in it but then I realised what I could use it for and then I was all set on the 9-18mm. Now though I can’t decide between the 9-18mm and the 25mm for my next purchase…

Go wide 😉

You have the 25mm covered and you’ll play with the 25mm for a while then sell it on again, I’ll shorten it for you, GO WIDE 😉

Yeah but I’m into the portable thing. I don’t own a compact either…

Having said that, I am in the Alps for the next 3 months, so perhaps a wide angle would be useful.. but then again I’m going to the US in November and that saves a fair bit of money on what is for me an expensive lens…

Having said that, I am in the Alps for the next 3 months, so perhaps a wide angle would be useful..

Maybe not. Scenery tends to be quite cooperative about staying still so stitching panoramas can replace the need for a wide angle a lot of the time.

I’m happy enough with 35mm (equiv) outdoors and any lens is sharp stopped down.

Yeah I was wondering about that.. panorama vs wide angle… Never tried a double-decker panorama yet to replicate a wide angle field of view.

Oh btw, talking of post-processing I managed to get DxO to work with my camera last night. Impressed.

Very cool. Did you just hack the file headers?

On panoramas if you shoot in portrait you can get a usefully wider shot without double stacking.

I started off changing E-600 to E-620 using ExifGUI which apparently works for Lightroom but not for DxO. So I tried a binary diff but that didn’t work since the data is all over the place in the file. So then I eyeballed the manufacturer data using ExifGUI and noticed another parameter that was different but not editable. So using a hex editor I searched and replaced the two values and bingo.

Now to make a utility to do it for me as a batch and I might shell out for DxO.

Are you having a similar problem? It might work with other ORFs too.

Portrait panoramas – good idea.

Are you having a similar problem? It might work with other ORFs too.

I don’t think they support any of the Pen family yet but they have the e-pl1, e-pl2 and e-p1 in the pipeline. Ironically I just bought an e-p2! I assume it’ll come soon after though.

I managed to get DxO to work with my camera last night. Impressed.

Ah, well done sir. Quality hack.

http://www.dxo.com/uk/photo/dxo_optics_pro/for_your_equipment

E-PL2 supported with the 17mm pancake, other lenses to follow in a month or two it seems.

http://www.dxo.com/uk/photo/dxo_optics_pro/for_your_equipment

E-PL2 supported with the 17mm pancake, other lenses to follow in a month or two it seems.
Hopefully by the end of the year then 🙂

I’ve upgraded to the 14-42 mk2, which is a big improvement over the rather crappy mk1. I bet they take ages to add support for that 🙁

Hmm.. I still fancy one of those.

Does anyone make a really small case for it? I’m thinking mtbing.

PePPeR – how d’you like that 50-200mm? There’s one on eBay currently.

Omg I need to stop doing this

http://cgi.ebay.com/Olympus-Zuiko-DIGITAL-ED-50-mm-F-2-0-Lens-Four-Thirds-/220779595517?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item33677d46fd#ht_500wt_1002

http://cgi.ebay.com/SIGMA-EX-DC-HSM-30mm-F-1-4-Lens-Olympus-Four-Thirds-/220768966048?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item3366db15a0#ht_500wt_769

Hmm.. I still fancy one of those.

Does anyone make a really small case for it? I’m thinking mtbing.
An Pen?

Yeah, I use a small belt pouch. It’s what I use for mountainbiking. The e-p2 I picked up was almost new with a 17mm lens for £320. e-p1s are cheaper and the only difference is the e-p2 accepts an external EVF (the only reason I ‘upgraded’).

Its main job isn’t as a fast prime, it’s as a pancake. Is there an equivalent Canikon tiny thing?

Yes, sort of…. Nikon produced a series of manual focus, pancake lenses (‘e-series’) but they were aimed at the budget market. I had the 50mm one which came with a Nikon FM and it wasn’t the best….. But it was very small and flat 🙂

Lens purchased…!

Dear me I get so nervous buying stuff…!

Which lens did you end up buying??

Which would you have gone for, assuming you owned none of them?

50-200 😉 Was the most wanted on my list anyway! 😉

But now I still want the pancake and the wide.. for later.. 🙂

That was an odd ball choice after what we had been debating on here!

Not that I don’t admire it! Let me know how you get on with it or even better show me some of the images you get with it.

I’m over on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclingpepper/

I wish I’d got the 12-60mm straight away. Its an unbelievable lens, I bet coupled with the 50-200mm it’d be great. Image quality wise I think the 50mm f2 is the best lens you can put infront of a 4/3 sensor.

It is considered by some the sharpest lens for any digital camera…

I know, bit odd.. but f1.4 will really come in handy I reckon. We’ll see. At that price I can sell it on again if I don’t get on with it. I still want the pancake I think for portability. But then again, I could get an E-PL1 for not much more if I really want portability!

Was tempted on the 50mm they had on ebay too Oly, but I have the 35mm and a lot of people are saying that the 35mm is just about as sharp. Main advantage of the 50mm is the fact you can get closer so insects etc don’t fly off 🙂

The 12-60 might feature in the future but it’s quite expensive still and heavier than my 14-42.

The 35 is the true macro lens of the Zuiko line up, I had to buy the extension tube in order to get 1:1. Check the focus of your f1.4 carefully when you get it because those sigmas are notorious for being slightly out. Sigma can correct it though, or you can get an E30 which you can set it to compensate for it!

I can compensate for focusing distance on mine too. As in, if it focuses too far or too close. I guess it could be out of axial alignment though too perhaps.

Makes me wonder if that’s the real reason it’s being sold on eBay now…

What’s the deal with 1:1 anyway? Why is that special? I would like as much magnification as I could get really, for macro work..?