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Overview On paper this lens is irresistible. It weighs a mere 210g, has a power zoom motor, doesn't change size when zooming (stays under 10cm) and it can focus as close as a metre from the camera. You get an equivalent 35mm field of view that you'd get from a 90-350mm lens with incomparably larger proportions. There's also an optical stabiliser thrown in for good measure. I've made some great photographs with this lens on safari last year, but you need to work with it a bit to find its sweet spots. Let's take a deeper look. Specifications Mount: micro four thirds Focal range: 45-175mm (35mm system equivalent to 90-350mm) Maximum Apertures: f/4 - f/5.6 Minimum Aperture: f/22 Weight: 210g Length: 96mm (some sites show it as 90mm but we measured it at 96mm sans caps & hood) Width: 60mm Minimum focus: 0.9m Features: optical stabiliser, power zoom, nano coating, internal focus Price at review time: US$360 Aesthetics The undeniable strength of this lens is in its physical dimensions. It's about the same size as I remember my Leica 90mm Summicron as being. Maybe a bit fatter. It has a satin black plastic finish on the barrel and you'll find two rings on the body - a rather thick one closer to the mount for zooming and a thinner one at the lens opening for manual focus. The finish is typical of kit lenses these days, and I suppose in the light of the somewhat exquisitely made new m43 lenses from Olympus it's a bit of a let down in the build quality department. The mount is steel and the lens hood is a circular bayonet type made of plastic. Handling I like the way it feels. The power zoom works really well and like the camcorders of old you can control the speed of the zoom based on the amount of pressure you apply to the W-T lever. Zooming by wire with the zoom ring feels OK, but there isn't that same tactile response you get from a traditional zoom lens. Manually focusing this lens will test your patience. Not because it is focus by wire, but because the throw is so long. It takes a good couple of turns to bring a midfield object into focus if you are at either extreme of the focus range. But then the autofocus performance on both my OM-D and GF-1 is blisteringly quick, so that's never going to be a consideration for me. The lens hood reverses onto the body for storage which is most welcome, given Panasonic and Olympus' proclivity to provide square hoods on some other recent m43 lenses. Performance In the Field It doesn't cost all that much and I am pretty sure that a lot of m43 users who are looking to shed the weight of zoom lenses that offer a similar range on bigger cameras (including some of the options on m43) will be very happy with 210g and just under 10cm in their camera bags. Travellers will be thrilled with this option. The trouble with this lens is that it's not as sharp as I am used to seeing on even consumer zoom lenses. That's not to say that it's soft, it isn't, but it just seems to be lacking that bite I've seen on lenses like the Nikon 70-300mm VR. There's also the fact that very shallow depth of field is not a hallmark of the m43 system, so if you're stopping this lens down to f/8 when shooting it at full zoom, you're not going to get the kind of subject / background separation that you may be more accustomed to with (say) faster lenses on the 35mm system. You could work around this by choosing your background a little more carefully, although this is not always something you can do, depending on the shooting situation. I got this lioness one morning on safari last year and luckily she was lying on top of an earth mound with a clear background. In some of the other examples here I wasn't as lucky and you can see how the depth of field tends to prevent you from getting that desirable separation. So, if you are looking to get shallower d.o.f. you really shouldn't consider this lens as an option. My feeling is that Panasonic didn't produce it so much for use in stills as they did for use in video. Not being a video person I am not really in a position to offer much comment on its usefulness there. That being said, I still think you are going to have a very hard time ignoring the usefulness of such a small form factor in a telephoto zoom lens. It's what sold me on it. Optically You can see through it and it can focus on objects both close and far. There's nothing optically wrong with it that can't be fixed in post production. See, I told you we don't do science on fotozones.com when it comes to reviews. We do reality. And pictures. Observations If you are using this lens on an Olympus OM-D you're going to have to switch off the IBIS system because the lens does not have a switch that allows you to turn its own OS off. I don't know why Panasonic would have omitted this from this lens since they have such a switch on just about every other OIS lens they make. I recall also that I had to update the firmware in the GF-1 to deal with this because previously there was no way to switch it off with that body. Now you have to go into the menu system to turn it off. While it is said that you shouldn't run both the IBIS and an optical stabilisation system at the same time, I have done this in the past and can't report any noticeable problems. Conclusion I think that if you analyse your needs for a telephoto with your mirrorless system you're going to want to satisfy one of two basic needs: the need to magnify your subjects and obtain decent image quality, or the need to isolate your subject and obtain decent image quality. Unfortunately this lens can't do the latter that well, but it does the former fairly well. As a travel lens it is a very good option when combined with a shorter kit lens like the Panasonic or Olympus 14-42mm. You'll get decent image quality and a light bag, the value of which when travelling great distances cannot really be over-emphasized. I'm not going to haul it out to do portraits or anything serious, but I am going to keep it in my m43 kit bag for those times when all I want is a candid snapshot of something off in the distance. I give it 3/5 stars. View full article

ThinkTank have released what I think is probably the perfect roller for the photographer who needs to travel by air with a decent amount of kit on any kind of photography excursion. As many of my readers over the years will already know, one of the biggest problems I have had since I began hosting photo safaris, is picking a suitable means of travelling with my gear on local flights. In the past I have used both the other (older) ThinkTank Airport rollers, namely the International and the Security. Both have their own strengths as conveyors of equipment, but for the most part they are also part of the problem in that they weigh a fair amount before you have even put any gear in them. These days the airlines are getting stricter with the carry on luggage limits and most of them in South Africa limit you to 7 or 8 kilos in a single carry on item for economy class seats. There is no way I would be able to get away with dragging the Airport Security V2.0 onboard a local flight as hand luggage these days. It’s a wonderful case to keep your gear safe in, but it’s not the most inconspicuous, mainly because of its size. When the cabin crew who man the gangways and plane doors see you bringing it onboard they will most definitely stop you and ask you to sky check it. The Airport International is a bit smaller than the Security, but it is still big enough to attract unwanted attention from the cabin crew. In preparation for this year’s Ultimate Big 5 Safari I was in a bit of a quandary when it came to deciding which bag I should use. On the two previous safaris I used the ThinkTank Retrospective 50 which swallows up an incredible amount of gear, including my 13” MacBook Pro and a bunch of other things like chargers, hard drives and power supplies. I like that bag a lot, but it is a bit large to carry around casually and I also had an issue a few years ago in getting it to fit in the overhead of a small plane. When fully loaded it also doesn’t easily go under the seat in front of you. My favourite and most used camera bag is the ThinkTank Retrospective 7. It can carry both of my Olympus E-M1 bodies, the Oly 50-200mm (without hood and tripod mount) and a bunch of other items I would want on the safari. However, the pouch on the rear of that bag is designed for iPads and isn’t big enough to fit my 13” laptop. Despite this I had pretty much decided that this was going to be my bag because I could always carry the laptop in its Thule case as a personal item and/or put it into that rear slip long side up. Then ThinkTank announced the Airport Advantage about 2 weeks prior to my departure. Just by looking at photos of it and watching the video on their website I knew that this would be the perfect case for me to take on safari this year. About a week or so later it arrived at my door via courier and boy was I happy to meet it! The Airport Advantage is a lot lighter and more importantly slighter in stature than the other ThinkTank Airport rollers, which means that when you look at it, it doesn’t attract any unwanted cabin crew attention. Yet this roller, in spite of this diminished appearance, possesses some sort of TARDIS-like magical power because it swallows up a lot of stuff, including some very large lenses which people coming on our safaris here in Southern African have been known to bring with them. Configuration Options Like all bags with padded dividers there are a lot of configuration options for the interior of this roller. You get a decent amount of dividers with the case too, as well as a raincoat (more about the raincoat later). The three-part telescopic handle only runs about halfway down the spine of the case so the bottom section has enough depth to accommodate the largest of DSLR’s, including gripped ones, with their big lenses attached. Typically on our safaris we find most of our guests bring two camera bodies, one main telephoto lens (the 200-400mm seems to be the most popular lens), a 70-200/2.8 and a wide angle like the 14-24/2.8, a flash, teleconverters and maybe one or two smaller lenses. So I took the opportunity on this most recent safari to see how this kind of kit would fit into the Airport Advantage. Below are some photos showing exactly how it handled a Nikon D4 with 200-400mm f/4 attached, as well as a D3s with the new 300mm f/4 PF with a 2x TC and the 70-200/2.8 on the side. I also put a Canon 7D Mk II with a 300mm f/2.8 and its hood un-reversed in there. You can see for yourself how easily it accommodates these large items and how much room is left over for other things. For my gear I had more than enough space to carry not only my 13” MacBook Pro (there’s a sleeve on the front for that), but 2 Olympus E-M1’s, the Olympus 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 SWD, Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO, Olympus 75/1.8, Sigma 19/2.8 & 60/2.8, 2x battery chargers, 2x external hard drives, lots of cables, a back-up card reader and a whole bunch of other items like extra batteries. I even had a dedicated space for my Peak Design Slide and Leash straps. It really is quite an incredible roller! With everything packed I weighed it on the bathroom scale and it came in at around 10kgs, which is still over the official carry-on limit, but the thing is because it’s so compact it doesn’t look like a heavy bag and nobody raised an eyebrow at all on my 2 domestic flights this time around. Features While it is a truly amazing roller, there are one or two things about the Advantage that I think could be improved on. Raincoat Firstly the raincoat, like all other bag raincoats I have ever tried to use in a hurry, simply eludes me. We were out on a game drive and it started to rain, so I tried to cover it up but nothing seemed to fit logically. Eventually I just gave up and left it lying on top of the case as we made our way back to the camp. They really ought to coat these cases in something more water resistant than nylon. Maybe a lining inside the nylon would be better? Pockets The other thing that I would like to have had is an external pocket to put my travel documents in. There is a zippered recess just underneath where you can put your business cards, but it isn’t deep enough to hold much more than a passport, and even that is a bit of a wiggle to get in on its own. I think that they could put a pouch on the flap of the laptop compartment which would then make this the absolute perfect safari travel roller. Unlike the other Airport rollers I have used where there is a stretchy sleeve on the front for putting your laptop in, only to have it fall out if you’re not careful, the Advantage has a proper sleeve with a velcro flap. The sleeve doesn’t have any padding though, so if you’re going to travel with your laptop in there it’s a good idea to have some extra protection for your hardware. I use the Thule semi-hard shell for my MacBook and it survived not only a couple of hours in the overhead bins of the planes I went on, but also 12 hours of road transit between Johannesburg and the Sabi Sands. I was careful to make sure that no other bags were placed on top of it though. Handles There are handles on three sides of the Advantage which makes hoisting it into overhead bins quite easy. I like the design of the handle on the bottom of the case which also doubles as its balancing feet. A nice touch. The other top quality finish is the telescopic handle. This feels very well made. I have wondered though why ThinkTank opted to use a dual shaft handle instead of a single one on this roller. I think it may have been a better design to use a single telescopic shaft that is housed on the outside of the back instead of two shafts that use up space on the inside of the case. Perhaps v2.0 will see some of these refinements? Tripod Attachment If you are travelling with a tripod it is possible to strap one onto the side of the Advantage and Think Tank supply removable straps for you to use with the loops on the bag. Personally I always put my tripod in my checked luggage so I doubt I would use this, unless I was using the roller on a local shoot and needed to take a tripod with. Lockable Unlike the big brother Airport Security, this roller doesn’t have a built-in TSA lock but it is possible to lock it from the zipper with your own luggage lock. I have a cheap combination lock which I have no doubt any thief could probably gnaw off in a matter of seconds, but I suppose it’s better than nothing if your bag might be unattended for a short while. Wheels The wheels are super smooth to run and I put those to the test properly when I had to literally sprint through OR Tambo airport to board my flight home on time. I think Wayde Van Niekerk better watch out - this old dude can shift his molecules quickly when he needs to! Conclusion In spite of my few little nitpicks and improvement suggestions, this is by far the most useful travelling case I have ever used for my camera gear. For people coming on our safaris it’s just about all you will need to bring out not only your essential camera gear but also a fair amount of accessories and of course your computer too. I highly recommend getting one to simplify your travels with cameras. If you would like to support Fotozones please use the link below to order your Airport Advantage. A percentage of each sale is paid to us in commission AND you will also get a free gift from ThinkTank when placing your order using this link. ORDER YOUR AIRPORT ADVANTAGE HERE View full article

Over the years I’ve bought ridiculous numbers of lenses for many different camera systems, ranging from Nikon to Canon to Leica to Bronica and most recently the micro four thirds system. On all the systems there have been dogs, there have been stars and there have been run-of-the-mill lenses. I think I can probably count on the digits of one hand the number of lenses I have used that literally made me gasp when reviewing their drawing characteristics on LCD playback or in the computer. Up in the top 5 of my best ever experiences are lenses such as my Nikkor 24-70/2.8, the Micro-Nikkor 60/2.8 (I use the older AF-D version), a Leica 180mm f/3.5 APO-Telyt-R, the Canon 400/2.8L USM and now joining them is this remarkable little gem from Olympus, the 75/1.8. When Olympus first unleashed this lens there were gasps heard all around the online photography world. Some were saying it was the sharpest lens they had ever used and had bokeh on a par with the likes of the Nikon 200/2. Now that particular Nikkor is almost mythical when it comes to optical performance, so claims like this definitely got me excited. Especially since the lens they were waxing lyrical about is only a little longer than the standard 50/1.4 offered by most manufacturers of 35mm equipment and weighs a mere 305g. Of course 75mm on m43 offers the same field of view of a 150mm lens on the bigger format, which is pretty close to 200mm, a focal length I use a lot on my 70-200/2.8. I had to have one. This article is more an assessment of how the lens worked for me on a recent shoot than an in-depth review. I’m never going to offer any form of resolution charts or figures on articles like this - all I’m going to do is talk about how the lens fits in with my needs and expectations. Ok, so right off the bat I need to explain how I came to acquire the 75mm and how I used it on a paid assignment. Those of you who follow my posts over on Nikongear.com may have read about my purchase of a Nikon D7100 last month to use as a second body to help me cover a 3 day hotel conference here in my hometown. The intention was for me to use the D7100 with telephoto lenses such as the Sigma 70-200/2.8 and then also with the Sigma 120-300/2.8 OS later this year on the Namibia wildlife safari we’re doing. I would use my D700 with 24-70/2.8 for all the other shots. When I got the D7100 home I immediately set about seeing how it played with those two Sigma tele zooms. Well, let’s be frank about this. Either I have totally lost my ability to hold a camera steady (even on a tripod), or there was something wrong with this camera. I tried every Nikon F mount lens I own (a fair number of them) and I couldn’t get it to produce a sharp image at all. I tried calibrating, I tried faster shutter speeds, I tried manual focus, I tried everything I have learned about photography since Y2K. No dice. It wasn’t working for me, so I took it back to the store and they were going to get me a replacement to try out. The problem was I was running out of time and had to get myself ready for this conference within a few days. They didn’t get the replacement in time so I had no option but to ask them for a refund. I then used that money to purchase the Olympus 75/1.8 with its hood, as well as the HLD-6 grip for my OM-D, together with a 2nd battery. I will admit, I was a bit apprehensive going into this conference without a dedicated body for my 70-200/2.8. I would be using my D700 together with the 24-70/2.8 for the normal shots and then relying on the OM-D and the 75/1.8 for shots of speakers at the lectern as well as unassuming delegates in the audience. The apprehension soon evaporated when I got a look at the first shots taken at home with the lens set to f/1.8 and the OM-D set to ISO 3200. Good grief. Was I seeing this right? Could it be that sharp? Really?? After a couple of days of checking and re-checking wide performance in dimly lit rooms at home I felt confident that I would have no problems using the 75/1.8 on the OM-D for speaker shots, as well as whatever else might catch my eye from a distance. I felt comfortable that shooting the OM-D at 3200 would also be OK because even though it does exhibit a fair amount of noise, it’s very manageable within Lightroom’s own RAW noise controls. Having shot many conferences at this particular hotel in the past I knew what the lighting would be like too, which also eased my worried mind. Here are some examples of speaker images shot at f/1.8 and ISO 3200 on the OM-D. Here are some shots of the delegates in a pretty dim auditorium: On the first night of the event there was a "Mad Hatters" cocktail party at another hotel a few kilometres away from the conference venue. This is where the 75/1.8 really shone! Autofocus acquisition in the even dimmer lit bar was outstanding. I had to pump up ISO to 6400, but I was getting very usable shots that I could run through a noise reduction setting in Lightroom. Here’s my assessment of a few key features that photographers will be looking for in a lens review. Sharpness Oh yeah. This baby is sharp and most importantly, it’s sharp where it matters most - at the widest aperture. There’s literally no point in having a fast lens that isn’t sharp at its widest aperture. Yes, all lenses will get a bit sharper as you stop them down to a point, but the whole purpose of having a fast aperture is so that you can let more light into the camera, keep your subject sharp and smooth away the background. This lens does exactly that. At f/1.8 I’m getting stuff that is sharper than any other lens I have ever owned with an equivalently fast aperture. Bokeh It’s as smooth as I need it to be. I’m very happy with the way it renders out of focus highlights. Smaller sensors like those found in the m43 system will normally not provide you with the subject/background separation that you get from bigger sensors, such as those found on DSLR’s. The Olympus 75/1.8 does a very good job of this though, as can be seen in all these images. Build & Handling The lens is just awesomely built. The only plastic found on this lens appears to be the lens caps and the bit that secures the front element into the barrel (you know, the place with the lens nomenclature etched in white lettering). Everything else is made from high grade metals. Not even the focus ring has rubber - it’s grooves are milled! The focus ring is the smoothest you are ever likely to find on any lens. It’s still a focus-by-wire lens, meaning that the focusing ring doesn’t physically engage any of the elements, it merely issues a electronic command to the lens to move the glass inside. Personally this is never something I would see myself using. Up until just a few weeks ago it was only available in the silver colour, but I believe that it is now possible to get a black version for the same money. I like the silver on my silver OM-D. Autofocus Speed On my E-M5 there’s a split second’s hesitation before autofocus engages, which after I did some testing, has more to do with the IBIS system starting up than it has anything to do with the lens. After that initialization of the IBIS the acquisition of focus on any object with sufficient detectable contrast, both near and far, is pretty much instantaneous. It’s darn near completely silent too. It was only when I had the IBIS turned off for testing that I actually heard any noise coming from the lens itself. The Controversial Hood Every lens review that you read online about this or any other Olympus lens for m43 will have the same gripes: why don’t Olympus include the lens hood when they sell us the lens? Why are the lens hoods so expensive? I’m going to break the mold a little on this issue and view the glass as half-full instead of half-empty. I bought this lens and made sure that I got the lens hood for it as well (as you can see from the product shot I took of mine right at the beginning). I had to pay quite a bit more for it, but so what? If you look at the price of the lens with its hood, you’re still well below the cost of an equivalent 35mm system lens at this quality level. Well below! I am of the opinion that the Olympus range of primes for m43 are at the same premium brand level of Leica equivalents. That seems to be the approach Olympus are taking with their range these days, and rightly so, in my opinion. It’s a class above the competition. Have you tried pricing hoods for the Elmars and Elmarits? Summilux anyone? The hood that Olympus uses on the 75/1.8 is made in China, but like the lens it is milled from high quality steel and secures to the barrel with a knurled tensioning knob, very much like those found on super telephoto lenses for 35mm systems. It’s not a bayonet fitting. I always want a hood on my lenses because I never use UV or 1A filters on the front of them. The hood acts as a degree of protection, should I ever get sloppy enough to put the front element of the lens at risk of damage. Paying a bit more for the hood for this lens didn’t bother me in the slightest. I reckon if Olympus are giving us an option of getting the lens for less than it would have cost with the hood, then that’s a plus, not a negative. My Conclusion It’s by far the most expensive lens I have purchased thus far for the m43 system, but it is also by far the best lens I have ever used on that system too. It does everything I need it to and it solved a very important problem for me when it comes to working at a distance in dim light with the small, very lightweight OM-D system. The sharpness and subject isolation is just about perfect for the kind of work I do. I believe that if the next generation of OM-D improves the high ISO performance of their sensor, as well as the AF tracking to match that of the top end 35mm systems, there will be a flood of sensible indoor photographers looking to this lens to replace a lot of the 70-200/2.8 lenses usually seen at indoor events. I certainly didn’t find myself caught short at the conference I used it on earlier this month. If you’re a m43 shooter, don’t dilly dally, just get it. If you've already got one, don't forget to rate it in our official member's ratings thread here. View full article

Image © NikonUSA My Nikon kit has recently been running one prime and 2 pro grade zoom lenses. Those pro lenses do not lend themselves to the casual stroll and smaller lenses are desirable. I'm not so much concerned about the weight as I am being able to fit everything into my recently acquired Lowepro Transit 250 AW sling pack. Went to a local camera store and was looking about for a nice, small-ish do-it-all street zoom. After looking at the various options available, I decided to give the Nikon 24-120mm f3.5-5.6 VR lens a try. The f/4 version would have been bigger than we wanted to go at this point and is quite the budget jump. Testing was done on a Nikon Df. Click images for larger view. 32mm | 1/30 | f/8 | ISO 400 IQ First and foremost, a lens must perform to my standards. It needs to be sharp and provide a good base image. Sadly, the majority of the internet reviews I read about this lens are very accurate. I was hoping it would not be as bad as the buzz stated, so I gave it a try for myself. This is not a good lens, and dare I say, that this might be the worst lens I've every used on any system. Why? It is not sharp at any focal length or any aperture. I tried auto focus fine tuning on the Nikon Df and D700....no go. I even tried shooting in live view with contrast detect AF to see if that improved things....no joy there either. On that point alone, the lens fails. Which is a shame because it is a decent focal range and the contrast seemed very nice. It's hard to tell where the IQ breaks down on web size images, and I'm not a pixel peeper. Trust me, the images are soft, in the center and it only gets worse at the edges. 120mm | 1/320 | f/5.6 | ISO 200 Handling I'm not a fan of the "reversed" focus/zoom rings that Nikon went to with the AF-S lenses. I tend to accidentally bump the ring by accident when supporting the lens with my left hand.. To be honest, I thought that might have been an issue with the image sharpness being so bad. I made sure that I took that out of the equation during the tests and verified that I was not moving that focus ring by accident. On the positives, the zoom throw from 24 to 120 is relatively short so going from one end of the focal range to the other can be a quick trip. It can also be a little less accurate because it is so close together. It is not an internal zoom lens, so there is telescoping, but it is not that far, to be honest. This is a G lens, so no aperture ring. 120mm | 1/640 | f/8 | ISO 200 Weight/Size For our desires, this lens was a good size and weight for the purpose it was going to be used for. No real complaints there. It balanced well on the Nikon Df, even better on the D700. 120mm | 1/125 | f/5.6 | ISO 320 VR active Auto Focus Auto focus was decent for this lens. Not slow, but not pro grade lens fast. It would be fine for the majority of my use situations. This is an AF-S lens with the full time manual focus override. 120mm | 1/125 | f/8 | ISO 1250 | VR active Conclusion I REALLY wanted this lens to work out, I did. It was a good size, had a useful focal range and was a quick, quiet focuser. Too bad that the IQ in the sharpness range was a total deal breaker. After many tests and trying to work with the lens over a 3 day weekend...there was just no salvaging it. It was returned and the money was used to purchase other lenses that might fit the everyday walk around lens scenario. To get the provided sample images to look even half way decent, I had to process these images more than normal. B&W with a lot of grain helped tighten things up a bit. Wider angles were better, but still not great. 38mm | 1/40 | f/8 | ISO 250 | VR active 32mm | 1/40 | f/8 | ISO 200 | VR active 110mm | 1/125 | f/5.6 | ISO 1800 | VR active 120mm | 1/125 | f/8 | ISO 3600 : VR active

Mongo was sort of lucky enough to be one of the first to get one of these in Australia. He has had it now for about a month. There is good and bad about it but mainly good (now that is). Mongo purchased it from an authorised Nikon dealer for $1700 Australian Dollars which is a very good price. AF Issues Initially, Mongo had considerable trouble with the lens. The AF seem to go “to sleep” at times and would not work unless you woke it by manually turing the focus ring or turning the camera on and off. Not really what you need when trying to catch wildlife (particularly birds in flight), sports action, aviation etc. These are the things this lens was surely designed for. The other problem Mongo noticed was that the lens seemed very slow to acquire focus on moving objects. The lens was relatively OK on stationary objects (apart from falling asleep as described above). This mystery was largely solved in two steps. First, having the “sleep issue” “fixed” with the firmware update. Secondly, by using the most appropriate VR mode. Unfortunately, Mongo had to work out the do’s and don’ts of VR on this lens largely by himself and the odd rare comment he could find on the net as the lens was still reactively new and few people had used it. It seems that “normal” mode reduced the the AF speed whereas, “sports” mode seems to have far less affect on AF speed. Unfortunately, the lens does not come with a real explanatory booklet - it only has a single open-out sheet. Mongo is all for cost saving to be able to provide this lens cheaply to customers but some information should not be skimped on. VR When you look through the viewfinder and engage “normal” VR mode, the effect is dramatic ! the movement is almost completely halted in a way Mongo has not previously experienced with other Nikon VR lenses. The claim that his lens’ VR is the best to date is probably well founded. However, as with any fast car or precision tool, you must know how to use it to get any good out of it. Mongo has determined that, “normal” mode is best used when handholding the lens and focusing on stationary objects. “Spots” mode VR should be used in all other instances including on a monopod, panning etc. Some of this information is in the instruction sheet but not all of it an not enough to have worked this out effectively in Mongo’s opinion. The combination of the above two steps have now brought the lens to a reasonable standard and one that Mongo is happy enough with and could, potentially, be very pleased with subject to further testing. However, all indications so far are that there is a little more that can be extracted from this lens and that should bring it to the that level of satisfaction. Quality Control Typically, Nikon realised the lens (in Mongo’s view) half baked and poorly tested - if at all. Untypically, Nikon came out within weeks of the lens being sold to admit there were AF issues and had a firmware update to rectify it. See: http://nikonrumors.com/2015/10/06/some-nikkor-200-500mm-f5-6e-ed-vr-lenses-have-af-issue-must-be-sent-back-to-nikon-for-service.aspx/#more-98465 So, Mongo was not wrong when he had earlier complained to Nikon that the lens had AF issues. It should be noted that Mongo noticed the problem within the first few hours of using the lens. One would have to ask how Nikon could not have notice this problem if it had carried out any credible testing. Again, as Mongo has previously stated, this should never have happened and Nikon needs to get its act together about properly testing its products before subjecting the public to them and expecting the public to be its test guinea pigs. If it does so, it may keep more of its customers and regain a lot of lost respect. If you buy a lens with a serial number greater than 2008365, the issue should already have been rectified. So, in the scheme of things, the problem was caught relatively early after the lens’ release. Build Quality & Features Mongo could go on at some length about this but it is easier to summarise it extremely good and excellent value for the money. It is solid, well built and well finished, movements are very precise (not sloppy) and no lens creep. Also, the foot on this lens is not like the 300 f4 AFS. It is , In Mongo’s opinion, it is very solid and well designed for this lens’ needs. In short, you will not have the need or urge to go out and buy an after market foot with possibly one exception. Most of us use the arca swiss attachment system and this lens does not have that feature. That is unfortunate as the foot is big enough and solid enough to have machined that profile into it. Mongo assumes this has not been done due to possible patent issues. Nonetheless, you can buy a short arca swiss plate/rail and attach it to the lens’ existing foot without any concerns. Image Quality What would you expect to get for this money in this zoom range? Well, you would have to think that it has to be at least as good as Tamron and Sigma offerings or there would be no point in making it. Mongo has only tried the Tamorn 150-600mm and found it to be a respectably good lens. He has not tried the Sigmas (although he managed to get a look at them and handle them as well as see some images from them). From that small amount of largely indirect knowledge, it seems they too are very good performers. Mongo’s analysis of the MTF charts lead him to believe that the Nikon is most closely aligned to the Sigma Sport. It would be unfair for Mongo (in these circumstances) to attempt to draw some comparison between the various lenses. So, he will comment on the Nikon more directly. The image quality is surprisingly good, indeed, very good. Even wide open at f5.6, the lens delivers sharp images with good contrast. As a habit , Mongo now largely shoots at f5.6, f6.3 and f7.1 averaging f6.3 most of the time. Even so, he finds that you may need to stop down a little more but largely for extra DOF and not for want of sharpness. This lens is small enough to fool you into forgetting it is 500mm and that you may be too close to the subject unless you add more DOF. Funny but you never seem to forget this when lugging the 600mm f4 around. It is something you will get used to quickly when using the 200-500mm. Having owned and used a Nikon 200-400 f4 VR for a few years, Mongo can say he can not tell the difference in the image quality produced by both lenses. If there is any, it could not justify 4 times the price and more than 30% more weight. The extra stop is not enough to faze Mongo either. Teleconverters Mongo must admit that, due to the other initial issues to try and get the lens right, there has been some delay in testing the teleconverters properly. Mongo had an initial try with the teleconverters before the lens was firmware updated and calibrated. Therefore, those old results are not reliable. Nonetheless, Mongo can tell you that the 1.4EII. 1.7EII and 20EIII all work with this lens although, not necessarily the AF. To break those results down, on the D800E, you get AF with the 1.4EII only but you can manually focus the other converters and the shutter releases and it all works etc. On the D4s, you get AF with the 1.4EII and the 1.7EII (which is very surprising becuase the latter combo is f9.3 wide open i.e more than f8 and theoretically the AF should not be capable of working …..but it does !). Neither body auto focus with the 20EIII. The images Mongo got from all these combos were all good to very good but read further below. While having the firmware update carried out on the lens, Mongo also asked that it also be calibrated (together with calibration of his D4s and D800E). Since getting the gear back about 10days ago, Mongo has been flat out trying to AF fine tune the lens to the camera bodies. At present , despite all having been calibrated and theoretically no AF fine tune should be needed, Mongo has found that the D800E and the lens are best at +4 AF fine tune. Accordingly, Mongo will have to calibrate each of the teleconverters with the lens and redo all the test with them. It may well be that he will get even better results than before the lens was firmware updated and calibrated. This remains to be seen. Commentary There is a thread in this forum started on 4 August. There is much speculation in it because the lens was not really around at that time to gain a real impression and feel for it. Mongo hopes his thread (here) helps clarify some of the lens’ mystery. Certainly, if Mongo were ever to go on one of those safaris he reads about, he would not hesitate to take this lens. Conclusion Nikon 200-500mm f5.6E ED VR is clearly aimed at the Tamron and Sigma competitors and despite its unfortunate troubled birth, it will make a serious indent into their market share of this approximate zoom range. Mongo would now recommend this lens. a quick sample image (view large): D800E , 200-500 @500mm, f6.3, 1/800th, ISO 2000, -0.3EV, +4 AF fine tune, monopod View full article

Another option to having a more compact Nikon kit would be a 2 lens option. I already have a very good copy of the Nikon 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5, but it lacks in the longer end. Doing research brought me to the conclusion that I needed to check out the 70-210mm f/4-5.6 Reviews everywhere give it rave reviews in IQ and AF capability(although it is claimed that the "D" version focus' faster than the non-D). Can it live up to what others have said about it? Let's find out!! Testing was done on a Nikon Df. 210mm | 1/500 | f/8 : ISO 900 IQ Initial testing of the 70-210mm f/4-5.6...is a little mixed at the moment. I think I need more time with it and some analytical testing. By that I mean I need to run it through some very controlled tests. There were times that images taken were blurry, then another shot with he exact same exposure and focal length settings would yield an in focus shot. It very well could be that my hand holding technique is off. More testing will be done to determine the cause. It is possible that there are focusing issues, so testing will be done on the D700 and D300. 116mm | 1/500 | f/5.6 | ISO 320 Handling Another push-pull zoom and same experience as we found with the 35-135 we reviewed earlier. Again, I kind of like it. On the Df, I use the lens aperture ring to change the value instead of the control dial. There is no VR on this lens, so when shooting at the longer focal lengths, you'll want to make sure you keep your shutter speeds in the realm of the hand holding rule. 70mm | 1/1250 | f/4 | ISO 200 Weight/Size While a bit on the heavy side(it is an all metal constructed lens) it balanced well on the Nikon Df. It fits nicely into the side pocket of the Lowepro Transit 250 AW attached to the Df. 210mm | 1/250 | f/8 | ISO 320 Auto Focus Auto focus was acceptable for this lens. On the slower side, but I expected as much for a lens of this age and design. It focus' accurately and the slower AF is better than no AF at all. I'm not going to complain about it! 110mm | 1/320 | f/8 | ISO 200 Conclusion This is a dandy of an old lens and for the sub $100 price tag, it will be able to perform its job admirably and to our needs. I envision this being used when I want to run with the Df and only take one lens. 210mm | 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 250 210mm | 1/250 | f/11 | ISO 1250 210mm | 1/250 | f/11 | ISO 1100 210mm | 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 450

Image © mir.com After my failed attempt to bond with the Nikon 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6VR, next lens into the testing queue is an oldie....the Nikon 35-135mm f/3.5-4.5 Again, the desire is to find a lens that can be an everyday walk about and useful focal length. 35mm may not seem wide enough for a lot of people, I find that I crave a longer focal length and a narrower field of view than I do wide. There was not a lot of information out there on this lens, but for the price, it was worth the gamble. Majority of the testing was done on a Nikon Df. 135mm | 1/640 | f/4.5 : ISO 200 IQ Initial testing of the 35-135mm was definitely more favorable than the 24-120/3.5-5.6VR we tested. Contrast on the lens is very good and the sharpness is there. No, it is not as good as the newest lenses out today, but it is not far behind. I was honestly surprised. I probably should not have been as we have similar performance with the older Nikon 28-85/3.5-4.5. 135mm | 1/640 | f/4.5 | ISO 200 Handling This is where I thought I would hate this lens, but turns out, the push-pull zoom is not that hard to get used to. In a way, I kind of like it. On the Df, I use the lens aperture ring to change the value instead of the control dial. 70mm | 1/400 | f/5.6 | ISO 200 There is even a macro mode at 35mm. Press the silver button on the side of the lens and twist to put it into macro mode. In this mode, it is manual focus only. There is no VR on this lens, so when shooting at the longer focal lengths, you'll want to make sure you keep your focal lengths in the realm of the hand holding rule. 85mm | 1/800 | f/4.2 | ISO 200 Weight/Size While a bit on the heavy side(it is an all metal constructed lens) it balanced well on the Nikon Df. It fits nicely into the side pocket of the Lowepro Transit 250 AW attached to the Df. 135mm | 1/200 | f/4.5 | ISO 200 Auto Focus Auto focus was acceptable for this lens. On the slower side, but I expected as much for a lens of this age and design. It focus' accurately and the slower AF is better than no AF at all. I'm not going to complain about it! 98mm | 1/100 | f/5.6 | ISO 280 Conclusion This is a dandy of an old lens and for the sub $100 price tag, it will be able to perform its job admirably and to our needs. I envision this being used when I want to run with the Df and only take one lens. 135mm | 1/200 | f/8 | ISO 200 135mm | 1/400 | f/8 | ISO 200

A few days ago I was supplied with a demo sample of the new Wacom Intuos Pro tablet (medium size) to review. I already own a very old, but faithfully still working Wacom CTE-640 (a.k.a. Graphire 5) which I only use when I am working in Lightroom or Photoshop. I use it mainly to do dodging and burning but every now and then I will also do a bit of the dreaded deep etching via clipping path in Photoshop that is sometimes needed for my product photography where clients want to drop the photo onto a different background. It’s a mind-numbingly boring job, but having a Wacom makes it a little bit less taxing. For the rest of the time while I am working on my Mac I use my Magic Trackpad, which has made a huge difference to my efficiency on the computer, mainly because of the numerous gestures it offers – things like swiping backwards and forwards between web pages, triple tapping to define words, swiping up to see open apps, etc. I love my Magic Trackpad. I also love that it sits beside the Wacom and I can chose to use either of them on the same computer without having to do any reconfigurations on the Mac. So, what if the functionality of my Magic Trackpad and Wacom tablet could be combined into one product? Well, this is exactly what the people at Wacom have managed to do with this new range of Intuos Pro tablets. They are pen and touch sensitive PLUS you also get even more functionality in terms of swiping and gesture customisation than a Magic trackpad offers. In fact, the customisation available on the Intuos Pro I have is quite mind boggling. You can customise just about everything to a degree that would most definitely leave an OCD sufferer unable to ever leave their computer. Reviewing a graphics tablet is very subjective, depending on what you use it for, so as a photographer who’s usage is pretty limited, what I have decided to do for the purpose of this review is explain how I have integrated the demo unit into my computer setup and explain how it has improved my productivity in a typical workday. The version of the tablet I have for review, while only the medium option, is still pretty large. It’s called an A5 size because that’s roughly the size of the “active area” (which is also customisable) that you can use for regular touch and pen use. But the actual surface area of the tablet is just a tad smaller than an A4 size of paper. The size of the medium is actually way too big for my needs, as you can see by the amount of real estate it uses up on my desk in a photo down the page. This one is 38cm wide and 25cm tall. The large version is a massive 48cm wide and the small one is a more manageable, but still somewhat wide 32cm. People with smaller workspaces may need to think the size options over very carefully before deciding which one to get. Photographers will probably be quite well served by the small version. If you use the tablet in mouse mode you will only be able to use the active area that is shown between the illuminated brackets that show up on the tablet surface. However, if you use the tablet in pen mode, you can decide how much of the surface area you want to map for use with the pen, and also, if you use more than one monitor, whether your pen will cover both or only one of the monitors. Or if you wish, only a portion of both the tablet and the monitor. The screen grab below shows you how you are able to customise this to your liking. Screen mapping options for the Wacom Intuos Pro Look, Feel & Layout Customisations The Intuos Pro is a very handsome looking piece of hardware. It’s finished in a dark, graphite finish and it has 8 touch sensitive Express Keys on the side, as well as a Touch Ring in-between the 8 Express Keys. When you lightly touch over any of the Express Keys a translucent menu pops up on your display showing what each of the keys is assigned to do (in case you forget, which is not impossible given the staggering array of functions that can be programmed into them). Each of the keys and the touch ring can be customised to perform everything from emulating a keystroke to opening an app to copying to the clipboard, etc, etc, etc. These functions can be customised per application. So say for instance you want the Express keys to do certain things on your OS when you are working generally you can program them to behave in a certain way, but then when you have an app like Photoshop open they can be programmed to do different things. Example, I have the top key set to toggle the touch functionality on or off in all other apps except Photoshop, where it is set to the Save command. If I wanted that button to do something else in Lightroom I could change it easily to have a different behaviour when that app is active. Touch On/Off on screen display The Touch Ring also has 4 customisable functions which you toggle through by pushing the button in the centre of it. These can be set to perform any keystroke you want, such as adjusting brush sizes in Photoshop, zooming into or out of a photo/drawing, rotating something, and so on. And of course you can set it to do different things in every app too. Touch Ring Preferences Did I mention how complex this can get? Fortunately it is possible to store, import and export all your saved settings using the Wacom Desktop Centre software that comes on a Cd or can be downloaded from the Wacom site. It’s highly advisable to back these settings up if you plan on buying a new computer and using the same Wacom on it. One of the setup options that you can modify using that Wacom Desktop Centre app is whether you are using it left-handed or right-handed. It’s expected that lefty’s (like me) will have the Express Keys on the right side of the tablet and everyone else will have them on the left. However, if you want you can use it left-handed with the keys on the left too. Wacom Desktop Centre screenshot This is one customisation that depends on how you expect to use the tablet in relation to your workspace. As you can see in the photo of my workspace below, I have it over on the left side of the desk with my keyboard to the right. This means that if I have the Express keys on the right I will probably need to use my right hand to use them efficiently, BUT only if I move the keyboard out of the way and have the tablet directly between myself and the big 27” monitor in the middle of the desk (that’s the one I use for editing). Alternatively I could set it up with the Express Keys on the left, using my left hand to push them and leaving my keyboard where it always is. I did try this for a while but it wasn’t very practical because I had to move my hand way over to the other side of the desk to use something stored on one of those keys. Because the Wacom isn’t surface clickable like my Magic Trackpad is I have set the bottom Express Key to perform the function of a regular mouse click for when I want to click and drag to highlight text (there is a 2 finger gesture that does the same thing but my muscle memory is so ingrained with the click and drag method that temporarily changing that behaviour will cause me issues when I have to give the demo unit back). My desk with the Wacom on the left. One problem I do foresee me having over time should I eventually upgrade to this size Wacom is that I will have to remove my watch when working with it, or use some kind of a protective pad to rest my wrist on. Although I am left-handed, I wear my watch on the left wrist and have done so since I was a kid. It has something to do with my multi-dextrousness (I am not entirely left-handed, I eat right-handed, play guitar right-handed and kick a ball with the right leg). Working With The Intuos Pro As I said at the start of the review, as a photographer my use of a Wacom tablet is purely to do a very small set of brush strokes on images that require dodging and burning in Lightroom, or sometimes Photoshop to draw clipping paths around products I have photographed for clients. The Wacom Intuos Pro is actually way too much tablet for me. A professional graphic designer will undoubtedly find a considerably larger scope of utility with this device than I ever could, especially when it comes to the pressure sensitivity (2048 levels of it) that is available with the Intuos Pro. You are also able to calibrate the sensitivity of the pen so that it feels either soft or firm on the surface when translating to an app, as well as how sensitive it is to the tilt of the pen. Artists will love it. So, I decided to try out some deep etching in Photoshop to see how it feels with the Pen. I still use the Wacom in “mouse” mode when doing this because the Pen mode is going to take a whole lot of getting used to and I really don’t have this thing for too long. I suppose I should explain what the difference is between the modes for those of you who have never used a Wacom before. Basically in Mouse mode it acts exactly like a trackpad does. In Pen mode wherever you touch the trackpad on its surface it moves to the mapped area on the screen, so you have to develop strong hand-to-eye coordination between the tablet and screen otherwise you will frustrate yourself quickly. Using that method does help to locate the cursor quickly though, but I couldn’t see myself using the tablet that way, so I have it set to mouse mode permanently. Strangely toggling between these two modes doesn’t seem to be possible via Express Key customisation (although it is possible via application preference). I suppose you either use one or the other permanently. Anyway, getting back to the use of the pen in Photoshop for my typical purposes of deep etching, I most definitely can see how much easier it is to use the Intuos Pro for something like this, especially by having one of the Express Keys assigned to the Undo command. On my old tablet I have to use the keyboard shortcut, which slows me down a bit. This way is much faster. Here’s a partially finished bit of deep etching that took me a few minutes to do (pros will probably do this in seconds). Partially finished deep etch Apart from the convenience of having an Express Key setup to step backwards as I am working (and cursing about dragging the pen handles too wide when tracing around curves), having the Touch Ring functions where I can zoom in and out and also being able to easily adjust the size of a brush when erasing the background, is seriously helpful. Also, if I am zoomed right in on a complex part of the image while deep etching I am also able to pan around just by using two free fingers on the suface of the tablet. I can’t tell you just how useful that is compared to the way I have to work with my old Wacom. The Wacom surface feels a lot different when using the touch functions compared to Apple’s Magic Trackpad. It’s not as smooth, which is I suppose the way it needs to be to provide the right amount of friction when using the pen. The Magic Trackpad does have a glass finish to it, so that accounts for it being easier on your fingers, but in saying that, the Wacom isn’t all that bad and after a while of using it you probably won’t even notice this. Using the pen on the tablet is a lot nicer feel wise compared to my old Graphire. It actually feels like a real felt-tip pen on a piece of paper, which is wonderful. Graphic artists will absolutely love this aspect of the Intuos Pro. Also, Wacom have cleverly hidden in the base of the pen stand some 10 extra nibs, a few extras of the default nib plus a few other types of nibs that are bound to suit just about any users preferences. Also found in the base of the stand is a steel ring that you can use to remove the nibs from the pen. A very nice design touch. Removing a nib with the steel ring provided Other Features Of The Intuos Pro One really cool aspect of the Intuos Pro is that you can get a wireless kit for it that consists of a rechargeable Lithuim Ion battery and a USB dongle so that you can dispense with the USB cable that normally sends power to the device. In the setup preferences you can also determine how long you want the Intuos to stay awake for when you are using battery mode, so that battery life is maximised. It looks as if the battery will last about 2 or 3 days with all day use, so make sure you keep the USB cable handy to recharge it when needed. Getting back to the customisability, there is an area of customisation that I think Apple people would like to hear about and that is the ability to customise what happens when you tap and swipe with 3, 4 or 5 fingers. A three finger tap can be set to bring up another feature I haven’t yet touched on and that is an on-screen control menu. There are a whole bunch of these that you can create that will pop up a translucent menu wherever you want to position in on the screen. Or you could just use the 3 or 5 finger tap to open an app. You decide. Swiping preferences THE BOTTOM LINE Wacom tablets are a must for anybody who takes digital imagery seriously, be they professionals or amateurs. This particular model is chock full of really useful features and customisations. Once you get it set up the way you want it will most definitely improve your efficiency around the digital workspaces you use it in. I’m not looking forward to going back to using my old tablet after my loan period is up, so I will certainly be looking to upgrade to one of these very soon, most likely the smaller version. The combination of pen and touch is a masterstroke by Wacom. Mind the pun. View full article

This will be a day-to-day summary of working with the new Nikon Df camera. I will report on whatever finding observed large or small, plus my thoughts on the entire Df concept. Thus, has Nikon gone crazy or are there underlying plans to this 'retro' design? Or is the Df pure nostalgia for its own sake? I aim to penetrate these enigmas over the coming days of actual usage of the Df. There is no strict schedule, just rambling along with the Df inserted as the main camera in my usual workflow (in visible light). For now I'll use a review camera, randomly pulled out of the production series. So the sample is in no way cherry-picked for the occasion. Later I probably purchase one for my own use (or abuse depending on whether I conclude stuff must be rearranged or readjusted with the camera itself). This is an 'all blacks' model, not the silver 'panda' version of this Df. Nikon Nordic plans on only selling Df kits with the redesigned AFS 50 m f/1.8 Nikkor G included and thus I also got a new lens to test. Common sense dictates you should never test two new items in combination unless you are able to split them up and combine with items of previously known features and quality. Thus for now I'm only using the 50 G to get an insight in the speed and precision of autofocus of the Df, and later of course will verify with known standards such as the 24-70/2.8 AFS or 200/2 AFS. However, the overall design of Nikon Df indicates it is made to cater for manual lenses, new or old. That in itself is highly interesting and shed light on how the makers' cameras have gradually precipitated towards a world of AF dominance, to the disadvantage of manual lenses. A tell-tale sign has been the evolution of the viewfinders to make them (overly) bright and virtually devoid of any grain structure, so you no longer can rely on them to focus fast lenses manually. The finder aerial image simply isn't broken up sufficiently to indicate precise focus. An overlooked side effect of this is that you cannot really trust the impression of depth of field given by these finders. The finder of the Df, however, is made to be useful with manual lenses. The screen is a type B, matte adorned with an outline of focus points, and while the entire finder gives a clear, crisp and bright impression as you lift the camera and look into the finder, the view is no longer overly bright. Instead, the focused plane of the image snaps in and out of focus as it should do. Exactly how the Nikon engineers managed this feat of redesign is unclear to me, but the finder surely works well with say 50/1.2 Nikkor or the 58 mm f/1.2 Noct, to name but a few I tested so far. This focusability extends to wide fast lenses such as 24/2 or 35/1.4 as well, and fast and long lenses now is a breeze. It remains to be seen whether the slower lenses are equally well handled. I had no issues with the 25-50/4 zoom though and this has been problematic on the DSLRs earlier. Later I hook up the Df to some of my über-long cannons such as the 800/8 ED, 1000/11 Reflex, or the king of them all, the 360-1200/11. However, on my current trip the longest lens travelling with me is the Voigtländer 180/4 APO again chosen because it has been a difficult-to-focus item. The finder itself makes a prominent 'hump' on the outline of the Df and reminds eerily of an FM2 or suchlike models. The entire finder image is easily seen corner to corner even with spectacles on. Among the many (flawed) speculations on the finder before actual samples started to appear, is that the finder specified to have an eyepoint of just 15 mm, must give problems in viewing and would vignette for people using prescription glasses. Several undocumented assertions claimed it would be equal to or even worse than the finder of say the D800 (the finder of which has 18 mm eyepoint). Now, with the Df in hand, it is easy to see where errors arose. The finder indeed has an eyepoint of 15 mm, but the bezel around the ocular is much lower than on the other models so the eye sits closer to the rear glass of the finder. That is why Nikon refrained from incorporating an ocular shutter because this would necessitate a higher eyepoint leading in turn to a bigger finder head or lower magnification. Always compare commensurable variables, as my professor in statistics tried to make us mere mortal students understand. Time for some breakfast coffee so sign off for now. View full article

Everybody who has read my articles about our 2013 Namibia safari will have heard me waxing lyrical about the awesomeness of the ThinkTank Retrospective 5 bag that accompanied me throughout that trip and how I could carry my Olympus E-M5 and 6 lenses without any problems everywhere I went. It’s been a love affair from the first moment I first got it. However, as I have continued along with my transformation to the micro four thirds system I have acquired more kit and my little Retro5, as magical as it is, simply can’t swallow all the new bits that have come its way. A new love affair was on the cards. Most important to me in my search for a new bag and carrying solution was that I needed something that could take both my OM-D cameras with lenses attached to them, plus of course the grips I am using on those bodies. I do have a Lowepro Nova 200AW that I used once or twice when I was shooting Nikon, but that bag is not suitable for micro four thirds stuff. The compartments are too big for the lenses and it also makes me stick out like a … photographer carrying a lot of expensive equipment. Not my aim. I had a chat on Facebook with Simon Pollock who runs social media for ThinkTank and told him what I was looking for and what it would need to carry. He suggested the Retrospective 7, which is the same as the Retro 5, just a bit bigger. That was all I needed to hear. Nothing is cooler than the Retrospective series bags in my opinion, so if I could have the same degree of cool in a slightly bigger bag without giving away my photographer status I would be a happy Fonzie. So the Retro 7 is what I decided on and it has come to me all the way from California. Just as Simon suggested it is about perfect for what I need it to carry. It’s almost exactly the same design as the Retro 5, with the only real difference being that it has a zippered and padded sleeve in the back that can accommodate a full size iPad or an 11” MacBook Air. I have neither, so I dumped the raincoat in there for now and come safari time later this year will probably put my 13” MacBook Pro in there sideways (inside its protective Thule shell) for my flights. I don’t foresee a problem with this as my carry-on for the flight because I can take out the MBP when I put the bag in the overhead and then put it in the seat pocket in front of me to keep it safe - I will just have to remember to take it with me when I disembark! Of course being a micro four thirds user now means I will have no bag weight stress either, which has been the cause of much angst over the past few years whenever I have been on safari. The supplied dividers of the Retro 7 are the same as the Retro 5 - they divide the bag into three big sections with a few short and thin dividers you can optionally add in. Unfortunately those supplied dividers were inadequate for what I wanted to put into this bag, so I pilfered more of the stiffer dividers I had left over from my ThinkTank Airport Security roller and had my own way with the innards of the Retro 7. The roller dividers are just right for this bag and have allowed me to divide it up into 6 or 7 sections, depending on what I’m carrying with me. Here’s a look at the way I have configured it (empty). On the right hand side I have used a thinner divider that connects to a loose inner pouch and can easily shift its size to accommodate my biggest lens, the Olympus 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 when I need to carry it, or become 2 smaller sections for my other stuff (flash units, more smaller lenses, etc). When I want to take a lot of stuff and 2 bodies it looks something like this before I put the cameras in. The two compartments in the middle are deep enough for two shorter m43 lenses to "bunk" together, so there's space for 4 of them there. In this shot above you’ll see how the E-M5 slots into the vacant spot together with the Olympus 7-14/4 (four thirds mount) or Olympus 12-40/2.8. The E-M1 will attach to the 50-200mm and everything fits perfectly. Unfortunately I had to use the E-M1 to take these photos so until I get a third body (heaven forbid!) you’ll have to use your imagination, or just take my word for it that it all fits well. I should mention that I have the hood and the tripod mount of the 50-200 still attached here, which brings me to some criticisms I have of the Retrospective 7. I don’t like those little bits of material that are sewn into the corners of the inside. They just get in my way when I'm removing things from that part of the bag. I am very tempted to take a box cutter to them. All that stops me is the fear that they may in some way be the glue that binds the whole bag together and butchering them could result in the entire thing coming apart at the seams. Unlikely, but for now I will endure their presence. I’d also really like the bag even more if ThinkTank could incorporate the raincoat into a bottom sleeve as this would not add much bulk and could free up useful space in the pouches. They could probably design a little pocket in the main flap for this. It would certainly make it easier to get to in a sudden downpour. The pockets on the external sides of the Retro 7 are useful to store slim articles but perhaps they could be a little looser so that you could put a water bottle in them? Apart from those minor criticisms I have no complaints about the Retro 7. Some cool features that are carried up from the Retro 5 are the business card sleeve on the inside of the main cover flap, plus you can also silence the velco on that flap using the ingenious ThinkTank fold-over bits. The same internal pockets that are on the Retro 5 can be found in the 7, so you can store memory cards, paper clips or any number of other things that you might need to carry with you while you're out shooting. I use the front pouch to carry my wallet and phone. I could also probably slip that third OM-D body in there should it ever come to that for me. On the whole it is a really nice solution for when I need to take along a bit more kit than I can get into the Retro 5. I’m looking forward to this being the only camera bag I take with me to Botswana and Sabi Sabi this year for our Photographers.travel group safaris. The above shows the Retro 5 in front of the 7 to give you an idea of the size difference. All I need now are some more rock n' roll badges to make it look even less like a camera bag. If you’d like to order a Retrospective 7 directly from ThinkTank please use this link and you will get a free gift with your order. Note: there is now a V2.0 of this classic bag. 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The genre of photography that excites me the most these days is landscapes. I can’t think of anything I enjoy shooting more than a drama filled natural landscape. I feel at peace doing this type of photography, truly content. In preparing for our recent photo safari to Namibia I was looking at getting a filter system to help me make the most of the landscape photo opportunities that we were going to encounter. So why use filters when a lot of the effects they offer can be replicated in post production software like Photoshop or Lightroom? Well, firstly I don’t like to do things in post when they can be done in the camera. If there’s a recipe for making me fed up it involves me sitting behind a computer screen for hours tweaking pixels with masks and layers in software that requires a great deal of expertise to get the best results from (besides, I’m not playing the Adobe rent-a-shop game these days). Secondly, the sensors on digital cameras these days have pretty good dynamic range, but if you want to make the most of the digital information captured on those sensors, it’s probably best to avoid working with the extremes of DR. If you’re on the edge of blowing out the sky while lifting the foreground, why not just play it safe and protect the sky with a neutral density graduated filter? Neutral density filters that block light in the same way that sunglasses do have long been used by photographers to slow down exposure times when using wider apertures in bright outdoor conditions, or to selectively reduce glare in parts of the frame. Doing this not only helps to minimise depth of field in situations where your shutter speed is hitting the limits of your camera’s ability, but it also helps to create drama in skies with moving clouds, or to give moving water the dreamy silk-like effect that we see so often in seascapes and photos of rivers and waterfalls. You can’t replicate those effects easily in Photoshop or any other image manipulation software. So, now that I have convinced you to use filters to enhance your landscape photography, you have a couple of options if, like me, you are chasing down exciting landscape photography: 1) you can buy filters that screw onto your lens, which gets expensive if you have quite a few lenses with different filter thread sizes, or… 2) you can buy into a system of filters that can be used on any lens with an adapter. I decided to look into the latter and the LEE filters Seven5 filter system that has been designed specifically for smaller mirrorless cameras like micro four thirds popped up on my radar. The Lee Seven5 system is much like their well known bigger system of resin based rectangular filters that can be slotted into a holder, which is then attached to a lens by means of a lens adapter. The only real difference is that the Seven5 filters are smaller (they are 75mm wide whereas the bigger filters used on DSLR’s are 100mm wide). Assuming you are using a ND grad, once the filter is in position you can easily rotate the holder around your lens to darken certain parts of the frame. You can also slide the filter up or down inside the holder to adjust the part of the frame you need to darken. This can’t be done with a traditional screw-in filter. I got a LEE Seven5 filter system that comprised the following bits: LEE Seven5 filter holder (dual slots for filters) 46mm, 52mm & 58mm adapter rings 0.3, 0.6 & 0.9 ND hard grad filters 0.9 ND filter The filter numbers indicate the number of stops of light that they cut out. For example, 0.3 is 1 stop and 0.9 is 3 stops. These hand made filters come in handy micro-fibre pockets that can double as cleaning cloths, but they are also wrapped in a fine tissue like paper that I have often used to clean lenses with in the past. Unfortunately the tissue paper didn't make it out of the desert intact... The adapter rings are made of a black anodised metal and the filter holder simply snaps onto these, allowing you to easily rotate the holder with the filters in place. It’s a very neat, uncomplicated system. So how does it work in the field? Prior to this Namibian safari I had never used filters like this, so you could call me a complete filter system newbie. Fortunately there is a lot of information on the LEE Filters website, as well as guides on how to use their products, so before I went on the trip I spent some time reading up how to use them and it seemed to be a fairly straight forward process. The first time I tried to use them was at Bloubergstrand in Cape Town where you get some amazing sunsets over the ocean. Initially I found it a little difficult to figure out where exactly the ND grad line was appearing on the Olympus E-M5 because even if you press the depth of field preview, the EVF automatically brightens itself. This is a setting somewhere that I simply didn’t have the time to go looking for, so I guessed where to place the filter. The results were interesting, but as I was still learning how to use the system, I needed to experiment a bit more. click to enlarge Above is a shot showing the sun setting over Robin Island with a bit of the shoreline in the frame. If I remember correctly I was using the 0.6 ND graduated filter here, but I might be wrong. The overall exposure between land, sea and sky seems to be nicely balanced, but there is a spot of flare from the sun in the frame. This is not a train smash as you can always clone it out, but because you’re using what is essentially an external element to your lens, the quality of the filter will affect the severity of flare if you have the sun in the frame, so keep this in mind if you get the notion of buying cheaper filters. The next time I got to use the filters was a couple of weeks later when we found ourselves photographing landscapes inside the Sossussvlei, which is a spectacular dune reserve in the south western part of Namibia. This is a place where landscape photographers die and go to heaven. Wherever you turn there is majestic landscape waiting for you to capture it. On our second day in the area we stayed inside the reserve in one of the exclusive Namibia Wildlife Resorts which enabled us to stay in the reserve at the most important photographic times of the day, sunrise and sunset. We made the most of this and did a session near dune 42 in the fading light of late afternoon and then again the next morning before sunrise at the Deadvlei, which is about 60km from the lodge, right at the end of the asphalt road that runs through the reserve. The afternoon session gave me some much needed time to play around with the ND grads using my Olympus OM-D E-M5 and 9-18mm lens. While our group were mostly photographing the massive dune in front of us, I turned around and looked at the landscape behind us. The sun was setting and the light was amazing, so I found some foreground interest and proceeded to experiment with the LEE Seven5 ND grad filters, trying them all, before finally finding my stride with the 0.6. The next morning three of us arose before the dawn and headed for a sunrise at the Deadvlei. This gave me yet more opportunities to try out the ND grads. Again the results were great! click to enlarge The next time I got to try out the filters was in Swakopmund, but the sky was very washed out there and there weren’t any clouds, so for this particular shot I went with the 0.3 ND grad and positioned it just below the horizon to give some more definition to the tops of the dunes. click to enlarge I think that this little system of filters is indispensable to landscape photography. It’s been downsized for use with the smaller mirrorless systems, such as micro four thirds and Fuji X-trans, so it’s easy to carry around in a camera bag. I managed to find a $20 slimline Lowepro GPS case that fits the filters and adapter rings I have perfectly. The filter holder comes with a drawstring pouch that fits nicely into the side of my ThinkTank Retrospective 5 bag, which means I can bring along my entire m43 kit and a filter set without having to resort to a bigger bag. There are quite a few filter options available for the Seven5 system, ranging from sunset, B&W, tobacco, chocolate and sepia grads to polarisers and even a lens hood to help minimise the flaring from light hitting the filters at oblique angles. All in all it’s fairly comprehensive as a system and should keep landscape shooters using smaller systems quite well prepared for many eventualities. Price wise it’s not cheap, but it should be remembered that each filter is hand made, so you're getting the very best it can be. For the set of 3 ND grads, a single 0.9 ND filter, holder and 3 adapter rings you’re looking at approximately US$396 excluding shipping. There are now also Singh-Ray filters that will fit the LEE Seven5 holder, but those cost even more than the LEE filters. In my opinion if you’re into outdoor photography, especially if you want to keep weight down by using a small mirrorless system, you can’t beat this Seven5 system for convenience. Go get it if you can, it's a worthwhile investment in your photography. View full article

(This was cut and pasted from my blog, so I apologize if I did not catch all the formatting discrepancies) Hello all. We wanted to give you a quick look at the newly arrived Nikon Df. In the "body only" box: Nikon Df camera in black EN-EL14a battery battery charger viewfinder cap w/ tether camera strap manualsViewNX2 software body cap USB cable This camera has been quite an opinion piece for a lot of the forums and bloggers. Before anyone had this in their hands they were either praising it as the next coming or panning it as an overpriced piece of trash that is nothing more than a way for Nikon to bilk money from fanboys. The above 2 images were taken using the Df's in camera HDR mode setting (2EV). As with most things in life, going to either extreme is a very emotional, reactionary way of looking at this and generally just causes more trouble than its worth. What we do know is this as of this writing: The heart of the Nikon Df is, arguably by some, one of the best high end DSLR full frame sensors made to date - that of the Nikon D4 and the Expeed 3 processing engine. The price of the Nikon D4 is $6000USD, the Df $2747USD. The Df is weather sealed to the standard of the D800. The Df is about still images, so no video mode is present. The Df standard for digital fusion. What this means is that you have a conglomeration of manual controls from legacy cameras in the Nikon line up like the F and FM series SLRs. You also get the control system of the modern DSLR with front and rear control wheels. Its your choice how you want to work with this camera. Plus some of the control methods can be combined!! More on that further down in the post. It is the lightest full frame DSLR that Nikon makes right now(710g with no lens) Feel free to visit the Nikon site to get the full list of specs...but you get the idea. 1/13, f/4, ISO 1600, 36mm, Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5VR Below, I'm going to share some things that I found interesting. Feel Of The Camera: It is lighter than you would expect, but feels very solid. The control wheels are stiff and I think would be fine even without the wheel locks for a lot of users. It would be nice if the locks were "on/off" and not "press and hold", but for me it was not that big of a deal. I've gotten used to running the exposure comp and ISO dials by feel - no need to move my eye from the finder. Focusing: Auto Focus - Because the weather here has not been the best, most of my tests have been indoors. Cannot say that I have seen this camera hunt for focus at all. The majority of my shooting has been with my old 50mm f/1.8D lens. It focus' fast and sure. I plan on eventually running every lens I have through the Df to see how they all perform. Manual Focusing - A lot has been bantered about regarding manual focusing. Some people think that it will be difficult if not impossible to manual focus lenses on the Df because they believe that the viewfinder is the same as a D800/D610 or because it does not have a split prism focusing screen. My findings showed me that I was able to manually focus without issue. Not 100% dead on rate, but better than when I tried on my D300 or D700. So far, I've tested manual focus on 50mm f/1.8D and the Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6. The image really did "snap" into focus and I could tell even without verifying with the "little green dot" in the finder that the focus was there. This is one of those things that you really need to investigate for yourself if you are going to want the Df for those old MF/AI/AI-s lenses. Make sure it is going to get you where you want to be. 1/80, f/5, ISO 200, 68mm, Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5VR Black and White processing in onOne Perfect B&W 8 Exposure Controls: Shutter Speed - I think that Nikon put a lot of thought into this and gave us a lot of options. You have the choice of going one stop steps with the shutter dial on top of the camera. Nikon also gives you the option of putting that dial in "1/3 step" mode and then using a command dial to adjust the shutter speed. Pretty standard stuff. Now this is the extra stuff and where the "fusion" style starts showing itself. There is a setup option that you can active that will allow you to do a kind of "program shift" with the rear command dial while using the top shutter speed dial as the main setting. With the "f11" menu setting "easy shutter-speed shift" it will allow you to increase or decrease the shutter speed by 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop using the top dial as the base. Pretty slick if you ask me. Aperture Control - The Df gives you the option of controlling the aperture value from the command dial, or if you are using a non-G type lens with an aperture ring on the lens(this does not include some older AI lenses) you can use the aperture ring on the lens. If this mode is on and you switch out the "D" type lens and put on a "G" type, it recognizes that and automatically activates the command dial for aperture value adjustments. Auto ISO implementation - I like how this works. You setup in the menu the minimum and maximum ISO you want to allow the camera to "bounce around" in. They also give you a menu setting to set minimum shutter speed as well. What I like is that if I override the min or max from the ISO dial, I get that overridden value. I think it is a very smart way of doing the ISO. Shutter Sound: Yes, it is very quite. We need to keep it in perspective, though. It is quite when compared to other DSLRs. My D700 and D300 can sound like someone is racking the charging handle on an M240 machine gun in comparison. But if we compare this shutter sound to say a Fuji X-E1/X-Pro1, then to my ear(not scientific) it is louder. 1/40, f/4, ISO 140, 35mm, Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 VR Black and White processing in onOne Perfect B&W 8 Customizable Buttons: There are a lot of buttons on the camera body that can be customized. The OK button in the middle of the multi selector, the multi-selector, command dials, AE-L/AF-L button, the preview button, the function button, the LCD illuminator button and the BKT button. Not all are programmable equally, but it is nice to have the flexibility to set these up how you want. For example, I really never use the DOF preview, so that button I set to "flash off". I do this at times when working with on camera flash or radio triggers and want an ambient only lit image. Instead of having to turn the flash/trigger on and off - I just press the "flash off" for that image. Holding The Camera: The grip on the Df is going to need to be adjusted slightly. Anyone coming from any retro styled digital camera or a vintage film camera will be familiar with this. I'll compare my grip on my D700 versus the Df. The D700 gives you a deeper grip, which allows you to keep your fingers parallel to the ground when holding the camera at eye level. Your index finger and thumb then naturally fall to the shutter release and the front and rear command dials. The grip on the Df is different however. You need to drop your palm downward and angle your fingers 45 degrees to the ground when the camera is held at eye level. This then puts your index finger at the shutter position and then your thumb and index finger are also in proper position to get to the control wheels. I've taken some images of me holding the D700 and the Df below to illustrate. Pardon the stubble...I'm growing in my winter coat!! lol Df D700 For those interested in a deep dive, the manual can be found here: https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/18767 Here is an interesting story for you. I went to my local photo store to pick up the Df. When I was checking out the salesman and I had this exchange: Salesman: "Yeah, when we first heard about this camera, we were not interested in it." Me: "Really?" Salesman: "That was until we took our demo out shooting last night. Now we finally understand it." At the end of the day - this is quite a unique design. You do not want to read the blogs of people that have never used the camera. You cannot appreciate this piece of kit from afar. To truly understand it, go in with an open mind and use it. Then if you still don't like it, at least you gave it the benefit of the doubt. The way I see it, you are getting a still image only version of the Nikon D4 with a price tag of less then half that. That is nothing to disregard lightly. Another item that I would like to share is the comments about the 1/4000th shutter speed "limit". I put in the shutter speed filter in Lightroom and out of the 35,000 image catalogue, I had under 100 images that exceeded the 1/4000th shutter speed mark. Most of them were images that I forgot to switch the ISO back down after shooting indoors. I understand some people's need for a shutter speed that fast, but I think for the target audience of this camera, the 1/4000th should do them just fine. Here are some street images captured on my first "day out". Went to the North Market and Short North area in Columbus, OH on a brisk December day(roughly 28F). Just took the Df and the 50mm f/1.8D out for a stroll. Still looking for the "just right" settings. All these images were taken with the "standard" picture control and then processed in Lightroom 5.2 and onOne Perfect B&W(which is my standard workflow for post). 1/250, f/4, ISO 800, 50mm 1/640, f/4, ISO 100, 50mm 1/60, f/5.6, ISO 400, 50mm My Personal Feelings About The Camera: After shooting with this camera for a week, I can honestly say that I love using it!! It draws very little attention, creates great files, and shoots like a dream. I love going out and shooting personal projects with this camera. I find that, for my shooting style, there are no compromises that need to be made. I get top rate performance. I could not ask for anything more.

If you’re like me you will probably skip to the end of any product review and read the summary before delving into the parts that are important to you. I’ll save you the bother and tell you upfront that if you’re looking for a well designed, well equipped, excellent piece of photographic equipment you can stop reading right now and click this link to buy it. It’s a work of art. Just go get one. It’s everything a camera should be. There, I said it - are you back from buying it yet? You haven't bought it yet? Wanna know more about it? OK, well, I guess you ought to read on a bit then. Grab a beverage because this review is about 4000 words long and there are quite a few images to look at too. It's a slightly different approach to the way I normally write a review, but I am sure you will find the information useful if you're planning on getting one. Ergonomics Camera ergonomics is one of the most important elements of photography. If you’re not comfortable with finding your way around your kit, you’re not going to be happy and at the end of the day your images will reflect that. The E-M1 has been very well thought out in as much as button position is concerned. Buttons, Dials & Levers At the most basic level there are 3 variables involved in photography that the photographer needs to be able to adjust quickly. These are the lens aperture, the shutter speed and the ISO. Those are the fundamentals and you need to be able to get to them quickly and without impediment, which is why older cameras had aperture rings and a dial on the top to select the shutter speed. Easy. Happily I can report that the E-M1 lets the photographer change all of those variables very quickly and much easier than an old retro SLR could. On the E-M1 there are a pair of dials on the body that you can assign to shift the value of each of these variables. The main dial is directly under your right thumb when holding the camera and the sub-command dial is integrated with the shutter release, so it’s easy to get to. Olympus have allowed these dials to be customised for each mode that the camera is in. So for instance, if you are in A mode and you want the rear dial to adjust aperture and the front dial to set compensation you can do that, or you can have them reversed. If you are in S mode you can set it up to work the same way, or if you have some kind of twisted brain you can make it work differently to A mode. You can also set the direction of the dials, which is quite a handy feature if you are coming from a brand of camera that works a certain way. So as far as the two main variables (aperture & shutter speed) are concerned, adjusting them is real simple and you can compensate easily without having to press any other button on the camera. What about ISO? On the other OM-D model I have, the E-M5, getting to the ISO was a bit of a fiddle. You had to set it using the Super Control Panel. This was pretty easy to do, but if the last item you adjusted on the SCP was (say) the image quality, you’d have to navigate through the other options on the screen to adjust ISO. This involved several button pushes. On the E-M1 there is a lever integrated with the AE-L button on the rear of the camera that you can flip up or down. If you flip it down the two dials I already mentioned can be used to adjust something else on the camera, like ISO and white balance, for instance. So if I want to quickly change from auto ISO to a low value, all I do is flip down the lever with my right thumb and then use either of the dials to adjust it. How cool is that? There are 5 different modes you can set this lever to, each of them re-assigns either the dials or a couple of the custom function buttons. It’s not as complicated as it sounds and I know that some of the reviews I read before I got the camera had me scratching my head as to what they were on about with the 2x2 system. All you have to do is choose which of the modes will work best for you in the menu and then remember what you’ve decided to use the lever for. I’ve set mine to Mode 2 which lets me use the main dial for ISO adjustments and the sub-dial for White Balance adjustments. Couldn’t do that with my Nikon D700. The custom functions buttons are much easier to reach on the E-M1 compared to the E-M5 and they have a much nicer tactility than those of the E-M5. There are also quite a few of them compared to the older camera. If you have the HLD-7 grip for the camera there are 7 buttons you can assign just about any camera setting to. The trick is remembering what you’ve set, because in addition to these buttons you can also assign a function to each of the 4 navigation buttons surrounding the OK button and the AE-L button too! This is where most people get scared off from the OM-D but really, there’s nothing to be afraid of. My advice is to write down the most important functions you usually use and then assign each button as you’d like. Having come from Nikon I have tried to keep my function buttons as similar to the Nikon layout as possible. I also haven’t assigned specific functions to all the buttons I am able to. This is how I have mine set up: Fn-1 - focus peaking Fn-2 - multi-function (this adjusts the highlight and shadows of the image using a tone curve) Rec - I have left this to start the video when needed AEL/AFL - left as is, it locks the AE value but could be set to drive AF if you like to shoot that way Front top - set as DOF preview Front bottom - set AF target to Home B-Fn1 - DOF preview (it’s not easy to reach the other button when holding on the grip) B-Fn2 - focus peaking Up/Down/Left/Right - I have left these to select the AF area OK, so you can assign a crap house full of functions into the buttons, but there is also a couple of buttons on the top of the camera that let you adjust the drive (FPS and self timer), HDR, AF method and metering method when held down and shifting either of the dials. This is very similar to the way many of the top-end Nikon bodies worked, so it’s a feature I am quite happy with. Another cool feature is that you can lock the mode dial to prevent accidentally shifting from A mode to (say) P mode. I used to do this on the E-M5 quite often as it was easy to shift that dial. This one is a lot stiffer and now obviously with the locking function it’s a lot better. I have read much squealing from other reviewers about the position of the on/off lever now being on the top of the camera, with the associated misery that it now requires you to switch it on with your left hand as opposed to your right. So what? Are you Lucky Luke or Billy The Kid that you have to be able to flick the camera on in a split second and take a shot? Why not leave it on if being ready quickly is that important? I think it’s in a better position now than it is on the E-M5. So on the whole the ergonomics are great. Provided you can remember what you’ve programmed each button and dial to do you should be able to adjust camera settings very easily. I like the feel of the buttons and I especially like their positions. Much better than the E-M5. Performance There are a couple of areas that I demand performance from in my cameras. The main one is obviously image quality, which I will get to later on in the review, but close on its heels is auto focus performance. How does the camera work with the lenses I have? Auto Focus The E-M1 has both CDAF and PDAF sensors so it’s able to use the latter when using lenses for the 4/3rds system. Apparently it works very well, but as of the time of this review I don’t have any 4/3rds lenses so I can’t comment on that. What I can comment on is that when using a m43 lens there doesn’t seem to be any way of using PDAF instead of CDAF. The camera will only use CDAF with a m43 lens mounted. The CDAF is very fast on every m43 lens I have used when in AF-S mode, but it does tend to be somewhat iffy when I switch to AF-C mode. There’s a C-AF-Tracking mode that pops up an on-screen target that looks just like something you see in the movie Top Gun when the F-14 Tomcat is about to blast the hell out of those Russian Migs. It moves around your EVF in exactly the same way and looks very cool. I took a few shots of my niece giving her border collies a run on the beach (see image below) and most of them were in focus. I did battle a bit with keeping the subject on the AF target when shooting at 10fps, mainly because you lose the proper live view in machine gun mode, so with a telephoto lens it is very easy to lose your subject - this is about the only benefit of an optical view finder that miss. I must say though that the refresh rate of the E-M1 when shooting at high fps is a gazillion times better than the E-M5. I haven’t played around enough with a live moving subject to be able to form an opinion on whether this tracking feature has improved since the E-M5 or not, so I will reserve judgement for now and address this in a separate article once I have had time to test it a little more, hopefully using a 4/3rds lens too. Image Quality Superb. Do I need to say more? Really?? OK, it’s really superb. Best IQ of any camera I have ever owned. Better than the Nikon D700, definitely. The dynamic range and tonality is awesome, but what sets the E-M1 apart from other cameras is the colour it gives you. Skin tones are excellent and truly life-like. I haven’t photographed anyone with dark skin tones yet, but so far the caucasian skin tones I’ve shot under natural light and flash are spot on. I’m very happy to report that I don’t touch colour at all when I am editing the E-M1 files and I have the white balance properly set. This is a shot of my son, the chef. Only adjustment made here was to the background. A lot has been written about the JPG’s that the Olympus cameras produce. I’m not wild about shooting in JPG, but I did try it out and they seem pretty good. I have tested a few of the Art Filters, which if you have the camera set to RAW will give you a funky processed JPG and a RAW file even if you haven’t asked the camera to produce a JPG. The only one of these filters I find interesting is the grainy B&W. The rest seem quite gimmicky in an Instagram kind of way. High ISO performance is excellent. I am quite comfortable shooting this camera at 12800 ISO, which is a full two stops more than I am comfortable shooting the E-M5 at. Yes, it looks a bit grainy, but if you run a noise reduction filter over it, you get a very usable image, which is useful for when I am in reportage mode in a darkened conference room and I don’t want to fire a flash. Actually the grain is decidedly film like in character. I kind of like it at 12800 more than at 6400 for some reason. EVF There has been a lot said about the EVF improvements in the E-M1 over the E-M5. It’s a lot bigger and the rendered image is a lot better too, thanks to many more pixels being jammed in there. As I mentioned in the AF performance part of this review, the refresh rate when shooting at 10fps is significantly improved over the E-M5, but you still don’t see a live view image when you’re bursting frames at that rate, so it can be hard to keep track of something that is moving fast when you’re using a telephoto lens. I don’t see this camera being used effectively for action sports, but I do think I would like to go and try some surfing photography with it, mainly because of the huge advantage of the smaller sensor on telephoto lenses. Overall I prefer an EVF over an OVF. The advantages by far outweigh the negatives, especially as you gain so many shooting aids, like live highlight and shadow clipping, axis levelling, histogram, and not forgetting that you can see the image you just shot in the EVF without having to deal with outdoor reflections on the LCD screen. Features There are more features on this camera than I am probably ever going to use. However, there are a few that I would like to mention, simply because they are so cool and actually something that I can use. Wifi Remote Control If you carry around a smartphone you have a very handy remote control for your E-M1 that works on wifi. It is surprisingly easy to set up, even I managed it (my Lexmark wifi printer still sits plugged into my Mac some 3.5 years after I first bought it, simply because I can’t figure it out). What’s extra cool about this remote control feature is that the E-M1 transmits the live view image to your phone, so as far as making selfies goes, this is truly da bomb when used in conjunction with the self-timer. It’s also a neat party trick to confuse the hell out of your friends with. Over Christmas I got some peeps to hold my iPhone as if they were taking a shot while I held the E-M1 just behind them. It all looks fine until I point the camera at the back of their heads and they start to think I’m pulling an epic Dynamo Magician Impossible illusion on them. Much scratching of heads. The Olympus Remote Image app can also be used to do other cool things, like transfer images directly to your smartphone from the camera, which can then be shared to Facebook. It can also use the phone’s GPS feature to geo-tag your images, which is pretty neat, although to be honest I’d have much preferred it if they put a GPS feature directly in the camera. I have also used my iPad Mini to connect to the camera and do some product photography. This is a very useful feature because I can see on a larger screen exactly where I might need to make adjustments. I tried connecting to my desktop Mac using the SSID that the E-M1 creates but it doesn’t connect and simply times out. It would be nice to be able to shoot wirelessly directly to the Mac. I also hope that Adobe will start to give better support to Olympus products in Lightroom for tethered shooting because currently it doesn’t recognise the camera when it is plugged in via USB. This is a pity because I did enjoy shooting tethered to Lightroom. Live Time Exposure This is a very neat little feature that I’m sure I will put to great use the next time we are at Sabi Sabi doing night photography. When the camera is in manual mode you can set the shutter speed one notch beyond BULB to get to this feature. What it does is show you your image “developing” while the shutter is open during long time exposures. There is also a live histogram that you can use to gauge when to close the shutter. Very cool. Focus Peaking I really love this! It's so well implemented on the E-M1 and I am now quite confident to use any lens on the body with manual focus. It works so well. If you don't know what it is, basically when you have it on the camera detects the strength of edge contrast while you are manually focusing and shows up a bright white outline when that contrast is at its maximum. This allows you to get a good indication of when something is in sharp focus (provided it has discernible edges, obviously). The Feel Of It When I took it out of the box for the first time I was quite surprised by how small it still looks when compared to a DSLR. Yes, it is now slightly bigger than the E-M5, but not by all that much, especially if you have been using the HLD-6 grip with the E-M5. Having said that though, the changes Olympus have made by including the hand grip on the main body this time have made a big difference to the way the camera feels in your hands. I don’t have either huge or small hands, but it feels really good when I hold it. Solid. I do have the HLD-7 grip for it, which makes it feel even better, but then it does start to take on small DSLR proportions. I am using an old Canon wrist strap I still had from my early days and this allows me to get rid of the need for a neck strap. Olympus do make their own wrist straps for the OM-D range (Olympus GS-5) and I will most likely be ordering one as soon as they get the stock in locally. The materials used on the body are high quality alloys and plastics. The rubber coating feels good too. It’s not quite as grippy as that found on the likes of the top end Nikon bodies, but I prefer it because the Nikons tend to get very grubby looking in a short time. I like that the eyepiece now protrudes away from the rear screen more than it did with the E-M5. This has made a difference to the eye sensor sensitivity (the sensor detects when your eye is at the EVF and switches off the LCD) - it now doesn't pick up your hand movements when you are using the touch screen. Quirky Stuff AF-Illumination Beam The AF-illumination light has moved from the left side of the body to the right side and is very close to the hand grip. It doesn’t get blocked by this at all and is probably the reason why Olympus decided to move it there instead of keeping it on the left (although that area is now used by the PC-sync port). However, this is not the ideal spot for my own purposes, reason being that when I am using the E-M5 to take candid stuff of delegates at conferences, I cover the beam with my thumb so that it doesn’t give me away. You simply can’t do this effectively with the E-M1, so I have had to switch it off in the custom settings. It’s not ideal because there are times that I would like to have it work because the Olympus FL-600R doesn’t have a nice AF assist function at all (it does double duty as an LED light for video so it’s really bright and makes people squint terribly). I guess I will have to make use of the MySet presets that Olympus use and have one with it on and another with it off. AF-C Focus Confirmation Beep & Locking Another setting that you need to look into under the AF settings is that when you are in AF-C mode, you can set the AF to lock based on how much activity it detects in the focus zone. The options are High, Normal, Low and Off. Setting this to Off means that your camera will try to re-acquire focus faster for whatever the AF target is looking at. I suppose this setting is to help with slower moving subjects in case you accidentally move the AF point off the subject and the camera then adjusts AF slower. You’ll hear the focus confirmation beep in AF-C too, which is a behaviour that I don’t normally associate with AF-C focusing. Home AF Position One of the functions you can assign to any of the Fn buttons on the camera is the […] Set Home option. This is a very tricky thing to set up properly and it took me quite a while to figure out just how it works. Say you are using the small AF target and you have it set to somewhere near the edge of the frame. To get it back to the middle of the screen you could press the direction buttons on the back of the camera repeatedly, but by using […] Set Home you can get it back there with a single button (whichever one you have assigned the function to). So I set this up using one of the buttons but every time I pressed it all the AF points would illuminate and the camera would then randomly select any point based on wherever it could focus quickest. It drove me nuts. Then I saw in the AF settings menu that there is also a bit about […] Set Home position for the AF target. It shows four options, the default of which is the entire AF target grid. There are also options to set the home position for the large single AF point and the small single AF point, as well as a grouped cluster of AF points. But the twist here is that you don’t have to select the central point as the home point, it can be any of the 81 AF points! So you have to choose which of these options would work for you before setting the Fn button up to get back to wherever you want home to be. I found that very weird, but hey, even weirder is that you can calibrate the front and back focus for 37 of those AF points for every lens you have and the camera will remember them the next time the lens is attached. This is I believe for use with the PDAF system. God save the poor soul who is anal enough to want to do that. I’d rather slit my wrists. Conclusion The E-M1 is everything I need it to be for the kind of photography I do. It combines cutting edge technology with well thought out controls and it all comes in a small, lightweight package that is capable of doing everything and doing it well. There are a lot of settings that you have to look at before you can go out and start shooting with this camera. Because it is so highly customisable I would suggest spending at least an entire day (or two) familiarising yourself with the options available and then go practise shooting at least a dozen times before you use it for a serious shoot. I have tried to set mine up as close as possible to the way I had my Nikons set up and so far apart from the odd issue I have had understanding the settings (like […]Set Home for example) it has been an absolute joy to use. For the asking price of $1400 I don’t think you could ask for anything more. I don’t have any nits to pick. This is the bees knees for me. I will be adding some more shorter material related to my use of the E-M1 throughout the year and you can find those articles under the tag E-M1dD (I will apply this tag to all articles I write that are related to this camera). Go get it. You won’t be sorry. Here are a few more images (click to enlarge): Shot at a live theatre show My other son, the aspiring musician My guitar is similar to this (not my Dad in case you were wondering!) Scrat, the Meerkat! Scrat's Mom More Sample Images Here If you have any questions about the E-M1 please use the comments section below and I will be happy to answer you as best I can. Footnote: please help me to make this website work financially by purchasing your E-M1 from Amazon.com if you are in the USA using this link. It won’t cost you anything more but I will get a sales commission if you do use the link. For South African readers you can order an E-M1 directly from me as I have a dealer account with the supplier (Tudortech). Just send me an email and I will advise you of the current price. View full article