Hi folks,

I didn’t think that a camera could ever be this much fun to use. When it was announced a few years back I remember thinking to myself “that’s a beautiful looking camera” but there was no way on earth that I could afford to buy one. Well, not that long ago, I found a mint condition one secondhand for a fraction of the original selling price and I decided to take the plunge.

I’m delighted that I did, apart from its retro 1960’s rangefinder styling, which of course I love, under the hood lies a very modern 21st century, fully-featured, 20MP camera which has every feature that I’m ever likely to require. But the point is that it goes much further than that, this camera makes me feel good using it. I don’t really know how to describe it but it gives me a feeling which I can only acquaint with the feeling that I used to have when using my first Olympus 35mm film cameras. When fitted with a small fast lightweight lens it’s a joy to use, the combination feels very well-balanced and natural in one’s hand with all the frequently-used controls at one’s finger tips. It’s the antithesis of a mobile phone camera. 🙂

The creative dial on the front which allows one to quickly switch between various, default or user-customisable colour and monochrome profiles as well as easily accessible highlight/mid tone/shadow control dial are fabulous creative features. It’s a bit like having a film camera with say Tri-X and Kodachrome or suchlike both readily accessible at the flick of a switch. If one shoots in super-fine JPEG and RAW then one has the best of both worlds, colour RAW and whichever profile that one has selected applied to the JPEG, it’s a win-win scenario. It’s nice to be able to create, save and upload one’s own profiles, something that I’m definitely going to be looking into more.

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy using my OM-D cameras which have and will continue to serve me faithfully, they’re excellent cameras, but the PEN-F is something special. Using it is extra-specially enjoyable and when I’m having fun I’m much more likely to feel creative. I guess, maybe, at the end of the day, it’s just as simple as that.

Kind regards

Leigh

Hi folks,

I was running through the menu on my Olympus PEN-F and reassigning some function buttons and I remembered the 2x digital tele-converter function so I assigned it to a button to try out, not expecting much in the way of image quality. I already knew of it but I’ve never tried it, as it turned out I was previously much too hasty in  assuming that it wasn’t going to be of any good.

To my surprise I was very impressed with the results. I did a few test shots indoors with my Lumix 12-32mm at maximum focal length (32mm) with the tele-converter function enabled giving me a focal length of 64mm/(128 mm full-frame equivalent. As it uses the center of the frame which one might expect to be the sharpest and assuming that one has a lens that is sharp in the center then it should be good. In the many videos that I’ve watched and articles that I’ve read I only remember one that mentioned it in passing.  This could be very handy when one either doesn’t have a longer lens in one’s bag or the time to change lenses. It really does extend the usefulness of this fabulous tiny  lens even more and it fits in squarely with my travel light ethos. It’s not a true alternative to a longer lens of course but, in practical terms you’ve got to look quite hard to notice the difference assuming that you don’t have your shots blown up to very large sizes. I’ve never been a “pixel-peeper” I’ve got a lot more creative things to do with my time when working with my images. 🙂

A test shot taken at f/5.6, 1/6th sec. @ ISO 800 cropped down to 640×480 for the blog which really doesn’t do it full justice, higher res. shot in the link. If your camera has such a function and you choose to try it I’d be very interested to hear about your findings.

https://leighkempphotoblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/12-32mm-at-32mm-f5.6-iso-800-with-2xdigital-teleconverter.jpg

Kind regards

Leigh

Hi everyone,

A first for me to be on the other side of a camera, done in one take 🙂 and shot with my E-M5 Mk II and M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 lens. This is why I love the Micro Four Thirds system cameras and lenses, so small and light. As to the “why”, all this gear is extremely compact and light and chosen to suit my photographic interests which specifically include travelling. The bag is so small that it easily qualifies as carry on luggage on aircraft and fits at one’s feet under the aircraft seat in one’s front or on a tray table on a train etc. and carrying it around all day I hardly notice that I’ve got it with me, which, for me, is the Holy Grail.

Obviously, as the saying goes, “you mileage may vary” it depends entirely on your photographic interests but,  personally, this combination of kit gives me a super lightweight and highly flexible travel setup. If I’m sacrificing anything in the way of image quality and I believe it to be debatable and at worst, marginal, it is easily outweighed in importance by the super portability of the equipment. Heavy, and this usually also means bulky, gear that habitually ends up getting left at home isn’t of any good when one’s out and about!. I’ve reverse engineered the idea of “I’ve got lots of heavy, bulky gear and now I need a big (and probably relatively heavy) bag to carry it all around” into “I’ve got a small bag and I want to find the best compact and lightweight gear to squeeze into it”. 🙂 . I already had the gear what I needed and, after lots of experimentation, ultimately found was the bag!.

Why these lenses?:

• 12-32 mm Lumix. A very sharp and ultra-lightweight pancake zoom which covers my most frequently used focal lengths. I’ve been very impressed with this tiny lens. I have the Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 and also the Lumix 12-60 mm both of which are excellent lenses, especially the 12-40 mm but they’re both quite large and somewhat heavier and there’s no way that I could accommodate either of them along with a camera body and still have room for other lenses in a bag so small.
• 25 mm f/1.8 Olympus. This 50 mm equivalent focal length is my absolute all-time favourite. I’ve really tried to get to like my 17 mm f/1.8 (35 mm) and my Lumix 20 mm f/1.7 (40 mm) both of which are excellent sharp and small lenses but they’re both just too wide for my preference as I’m not into street photography. The 25 mm is fast and sharp and good in low light and for me it is a better all round option especially as one can get closer to the subject without distortion.
• 14 mm f/2.5 Lumix. A tiny super-lightweight pancake lens that is fast, sharp and light and gives me a wider (28 mm equivalent) F.O.V especially useful in tight, often poorly lit, spaces, indoors etc.. I also have the Olympus 12 mm f/2 but that’s bigger and heavier and it’s a bit too wide for most of my shots however it is another great small sharp lens but the 14 mm wins out both in terms of size and weight and ultimately, all round usefulness when travelling .
• 9-18 mm Olympus.  Ultra-wide angle zoom really handy for scenic landscapes, and covers a good focal length range (18-36 mm) as an alternative walk-about lens that I can sometimes leave fitted.
• 35-100 mm Lumix. Although I don’t often need a telephoto lens option this one is such a small, light and sharp lens which I occasionally find useful when travelling and it compliments the 12-32 mm very nicely. Most useful to me in the 35-50mm (70-100 mm) focal length range. If I choose to carry a telephoto lens with me, which almost inevitably doesn’t get used, then its got to be very compact and light and this lens fits the bill perfectly. I might be tempted to swap this over for my Olympus 45 mm f/1.8 which remains my favourite telephoto lens or maybe my 60mm f/2.5 Sigma ART which I think is sharper, but, when travelling the zoom offers greater flexibility for the occasions when I need a telephoto focal length.
• 9 mm Olympus body cap lens. Certainly not the best fisheye in the world by a margin but great fun and so tiny and lighter-than-light that it commands a place in my bag even though I don’t very often need a fisheye lens. At a fixed f/8 aperture it’s not that good in low light but, given good light, it’s capable of producing some quite acceptable images if one remembers to get one’s fingers and feet out of the shot. 🙂 . Along with my 14 mm and 35-100 mm lenses it’s a “just in case I need it” type lens.

Kind regards

Leigh