Monday, April 29, 2013

Olympus E-420 - 25mm f2.8 / The Pack Rat

I trade out cameras frequently. Keeps me busy. I like to believe I replace current stock with cameras that are "better." Better resolution, better dynamic range, better usability, faster lens, smaller size (I appreciate not having lug around heavy equipment), better high ISO performance, faster focusing, and on and on. Once in a while I sell a camera and then buy another later because the "better" cameras don't please me as well as the "older, less better" cameras. I buy and sell used. If I'm lucky I'll get a camera used and resell it later without much depreciation. Some of the "better" cameras take startlingly good photographs, in spite of the skills the photographer lacks. Those I hoard and only take out now and again. Those cameras are few in number. Right now that's the M8 (and a handful of lenses) and the A850. I'm still working on the X-E1 and it may join the other two as a permanent keeper. The rest come and go. I'm using an EOS-M a lot and liking it but it's output is pretty much that of a T3i or whatever Canon is up to in consumer grade SLR's. Last week I purchased my third E-420. I waited for it to be available for the price I wanted to pay. It took about a month. I had the Zuiko 25mm f2.8 in stock from earlier cameras. I've had the E-1, E-3, E-620, E-410 and E-500 and by now three E-420s. I missed it. I'd rather the E-3 or E-620 but the 420 is okay and costs a third of the price. I'm now using it a lot. We'll see how long that lasts. It's a nice, compact SLR and after shooting a lot of mirror-less cameras lately, the small SLR is a pleasure to use. 4/3s format is pretty much a dead issue. Micro 4/3s is about all you can get new these days. Doesn't bother me much. I had used a lot of M4/3s cameras and they're great but the 420 (with pancake lens) is a sweet spot for me. I was out and about this morning and stopped by one of my favorite stores in Fayetteville, the Pack Rat. The Canada geese, which hang-out there, have had some chicks and they were in the pond out front. I did some photo merges because the 25mm pancake equates to a "normal" 50mm lens and it's a massive store which begs for wide angle. So to do wide angle, I merged some side by side shots. So here they are as examples of the E-420 w/ 25mm pancake. The merged shots are at the end. All shot RAW and batch converted to JPG with a flat profile in Lightroom. The merges were done in Photoshop.





The chicks (goslings?) are on the right side of the pond, above.





















































Got a new top this winter