Advanced Photographer Magazine

On a recent trip to the bookstore I was looking through the photography magazines as usual and saw one that was interesting.  Ever since I bought the iPad I have been subscribing to magazines on it instead of the paper versions with a couple of exceptions.  But of course all magazines aren't yet available on the iPad and I like to browse.   This one magazine called "Advanced Photographer" sounded interesting.  It was targeted at serious and advanced photographers but not necessarily working photographers.  I find a lot of the more popular and general photography magazines like Popular Photography don't hold my attention.  I used to subscribe to that particular one but found I just flipped through it rarely stopping to read.  Because of the broad appeal the magazine has it often focused on very basic photography talk.  Then there are the 'pro' magazines like Digital Photo Pro magazine.  I like them but in general they are focused on business discussions.  I find them useful but wouldn't mind more in they way of advanced photography discussion.

So now this magazine "Advanced Photographer" comes out and seems to thread the needle between the two rather nicely.  It is doesn't shy away from technical discussions that would lose a general audience, but doesn't focus on how to make money from wall portraits either.  Kind of refreshing.  They had some really nice articles in their first ever issue (you might still find one on news stands, though I think the second edition is about to come out) about panoramas, lighting and shooting wide open.  Were they more advanced than you'd find in other magazines?  Maybe.  But they were definitely well written and enjoyable.  I read most of the articles, skipping very few.

They have some gear reviews, and in fact debuted with two that I was interested in, the Olympus E5 and Pentax 645D medium format camera.  I was a little disappointed with the gear reviews.  It seemed like there wasn't much content talking about the cameras in use even though they profess to have a hands-on approach and to using kit they review in the real world.  They have lots of nice photos of the gear and photos taken with the gear as well as some technical information and tests.  What I was hoping for was more of a running commentary on using the gear in the field as the ISO charts etc can be found online easily enough.

The magazine was printed on nice paper, reads well and sparked my interest enough to grab the next one when it comes out.  Not sure if I'll subscribe yet but for a magazine that claims to target itself at photographers that "have attained a respectable level of expertise" I believe it is on the right track.

Other magazines I buy, subscribe to or used to buy include:

• Popular Photography:  I gave up my subscription a year or two ago.  Nice magazine, good for reading in an airport, but in general I found it repetitive and lacking content for advanced photographers.  Great for new ones though.
• Digital Photo Pro: I gave up my paper subscription to this last summer.  I liked it but found it expensive.  If it comes out with an iPad version I'll probably buy it.  I liked the articles in it, especially the ones featuring photographers and their work.
• Shutterbug:  I have an iPad subscription to this one.  I never really bought it in paper version because I find it really full of advertising and not all the articles really catch my interest.  They do have some good stuff though and if you can look past that it reads more like a B&H Photo catalogue than a magazine it is well worth a digital subscription.
• Silvershotz: I subscribe to the paper version of this magazine because it is simply a beautiful fine art book.  I love getting it and going through each edition looking for inspiration and just enjoying some great work.  Not a magazine you read and recycle, one you save and look back on and one best read printed on paper, not digitally.
• B&W Magazine:  Another fine art magazine focusing on black and white images.  I don't subscribe but I often buy it in print at stores.  Same comments as above on Silvershotz.  Just an excellent magazine.
• American Photo:  I have an iPad subscription to this one.  I like it, but I don't love it.  It is very inconsistent in that some issues are really interesting and some not so much.  I'm not sure who they target with it.
• Photo Life:  This is a Canadian photo magazine.  I subscribe to the paper edition and I do enjoy it, though it does suffer from some of the pitfalls of Popular Photo.  I enjoy the book reviews, they do nice gear reviews, and they also feature some nice photographers, particularly their up and comers.  The also list Canadian workshops and gallery showings which is nice for me.
• Professional Photographer:  This one comes as a paper subscription with my PPA membership.  I like it so far.  Good business articles in it and it is printed on nice paper with inspiring images.  A lot of advertisements, but given that their target is working pro's it makes sense that services for working photographers would line up to advertise in it.  

I'm still tinkering with the new blog layout.  Forgive it as it changes.  I'm not loving it yet. 

I Changed the Blog Format

OK, I was getting bored of the black with white text.  I'm not saying it is going to look like this for long, but for now it works for me.

So You Want to be a 'Professional Photographer'

I remember when I made a decision about two and a half years ago that making money from photography was for me.  I had a full-time job running another business, but photography was my passion.  It still is my passion, but I shutter now at my train of thought only a short 24 months ago.  I meet a lot of photographers, some in it longer than me (but surprisingly few) and some just getting started.  It seems like every month I meet someone who took a workshop, bought a shiny new D300s and has decided to hang a shingle.  I used to accept their business card and pop by their website to look at their images. Occasionally I would  see good stuff, but usually it was really bad.  And I mean that, really bad.  But I thought that the 'established' photographers were just a bunch of old fuddy duddy dudes (some of them were and still are) still trying to keep things as they were and I identified with the new guys because the shine hadn't worn off my penny yet.

Now I'm older in the profession.  Not wiser, but older.  I've done some time in the trenches.  I've made good money and bad money as a photographer.  I've messed up some jobs and done some work I'm really proud of.  I've lost clients and gained new ones and weirdly enough I'm starting to get known as one of the established photographers in my area.  Then again, most of those new young photographers I've met over the past couple of years are no longer around.  Their first camera broke, they had unhappy customers or they just got a 'real job.'  A lot of my peers on the surface appear to be doing well.  I sometimes wonder if they are doing better than me and sometimes I know they are not.  Most of them are juggling families, a full-time or part-time job that pays the bills and a photography business.  I consider it rude to ask people how much they make.  Money has always been a very private thing for me, but a quick Google search and a look at a survey I got my hands on reveals some pretty interesting things about photographers incomes.

I think when I first started I had this perception that photography was one of those professions where you did your time at the start, but then started to get known, get kinda famous and get to make the big money (then again I used to think that the forum trolls on popular photography sites were actual photographers).  I  thought that if my work was good and I photographed lots of people, eventually Vogue, National Geographic and Digital Photo Pro magazines would all be calling me with assignments and for interviews.  Yervant and Chase Jarvis would be personal friends and I'd do lunch with Dane Sanders.  Truth is that the average photographer makes somewhere around $21,000 to $34,000 per year.  About half of all photographers work freelance or as an independent business.  The lowest paid, and I'm assuming part-time, photographers are only bringing in less than $15,000 a year.  That is a McDonald's wage.  The most successful photographers are averaging about $55,000 to $67,000 a year.  Different surveys on the subject vary slightly but for the most part they are in the same ballpark.  They newest data I could find was from 2008.  What those numbers say to me is that even if I get to be one of the most successful photographers in my market I won't be rich by anyone's definition. 

Of course there are a few photographers out there that are certainly making a fortune.  We all know them because we subscribe to their online tutorials, go to their workshops and buy their books.  We see their names in the news after they photograph celebrities in a controversial way or if they run into financial trouble with their millions.  They endorse products we drool over, from studio strobes to camera brands to light modifiers.  Some even make their own products.  Upon reflection what I realized was that to attain that level of income I had to forget about being a photographer.  These people are really the best at marketing themselves and being part of the machine that sells crap to us, the photographers masses.  Really looking at them, I don't even like some of their photography.  Of course some of them make stuff that blows my mind with how amazing it is, but a good portion of those people have a team of help around them.  Personal Photoshop techs, lighting dudes, marketing people,etc..  A very few of these ultra-rich, ultra-famous photographers do their own work, and produce jaw dropping images.  And yes, I admire them the most.

But what to do as a new photographer?  The truth is that being paid for your work has nothing to do with how great of a photographer you are.  The word professional doesn't mean good, it just means 'paid.'  One quick look around Flickr or any other image sharing site and you'll see some work that is better than the best work by the ultra-famous photographers in the world.  And it is work shot with an Olympus E1 and kit lens, off-brand flash and a bed sheet and moose head as a prop.  The image is processed in Photoshop Elements and spat out in a day by one young woman living in her parents basement. Her salary  for such amazing work?  $0.00.

Hanging your shingle as a photographer is exciting.  It is fun at first to tell people, "I'm a photographer."  Of course they must think you hang out with Annie Leibovitz and were schooled by Richard Avedon.  The truth is most new photographers won't make enough to pay for their camera equipment.  While I used to think that 'old' photographers were just grumpies on the subject matter, I now empathize with their frustration that most of the weekend warriors are really doing their clients and other photographers a real disservice.  They show up to weddings uninsured, with one camera (no backup) and deliver an inferior product all for the privilege of earning beer money.  The Bride usually gets some poor work (but hey, not always) and photographers that are trying to feed their families with the job lose out on the work entirely.  The weekend warrior and the serious pro are not on the same level playing field.  The pro has to pay insurance, have pro gear and backup gear and relies on the money to pay the mortgage.  The weekend warrior just wants extra cash and doesn't worry about things like that. 

Now sure, the $500 wedding photography client isn't going to pay $2000 for wedding photography.  They would have just had their uncle Joe take the photos for free.  But the very easy availability of $500 wedding photographers devalues the craft.  What the working pro charging a living wage has to do is offer reliability (backup equipment, insurance, consistently strong images) and a product that can't be purchased from weekend warriors (better quality prints, better books, better images, better service, better everything).  The Craigslist photographer isn't going away.  It is a reality so for me, I think about how I need to differentiate myself from them, I don't spend time worrying about them.  Some of them will join me at some point trying to push their business and craft to the next level, most will disappear. 

None of this is meant to be a complaint because this 'concern' has been covered on the internet before.  It is more of a personal reflection.  The landscape for photography has changed, probably forever as has my viewpoint of where I want to go in the profession.  I suppose all of us change our goals at some point.  

If you aspire to make about $60,000 a year it will take skill, the ability to produce great images on demand time and time again and great marketing.  If you aspire to be one of the very elite few you can either be as good as Annie Leibovitz or you are left with selling products, selling tutorials or workshops or getting sponsored by a brand.  You need to be a marketing wizard.  You can fake the rest if you need too. 

Thanks for dropping by the blog, comments are always welcome and whichever type of photographer you are, working pro, amateur, weekend warrior or famous person that secretly loves my blog I wish you a successful and happy 2011.

Pushing Pixels

So my wife bought me a book for Christmas called "Creative Photoshop CS4."  We were all up so early on Christmas day that my wife and kid were in bed early as well.  I decided to spend some time playing with lessons in the book and goofing around.  I find my stance on Photoshopping images to be pretty liberal, I also really respect (and prefer) getting things right in the camera.  To me, a photographer that is always saying "I'll fix it in Photoshop" is really missing the boat on their craft and is usually just being lazy.  Then again, once that image has been captured to the best of my ability I have no problem with pushing pixels around later and creating what I want.   Call me a fence sitter if you like, but in today's photographic world half the creativity sometimes happens after you turn on your computer.

So I opened up the book and took a tentative look.  Most of the procedures in there are beyond what I know how to do in Photoshop without a tutorial in front of me and some of them didn't interest me at all, I just won't use them.  But every once in a while I just feel like tinkering with an image for fun.  It might not sell, it might not even be that good, but it is a really creative exercise to occasionally treat Photoshop like the open box creative tool it is.  I ended up pulling an image I shot a week or so ago using black and white film (and scanned) and starting to play with the 'Painting in Photoshop' techniques in chapter one. I painted the background (that was a lot of fun actually) and blended it all in. Then my attention span wavered and I decided to duplicate the image and inverse it and use the gradient tool to bring part of him back in again.  Didn't get that from the book, just got distracted.

So then I flipped to Chapter 16 'Creature Architecture' and saw them taking objects like stonework and grafting it onto faces.  This was cool but I wanted to use one of my own images, not the stone samples that came with the book so I looked through and found a photo I took of a Maple Leaf.  What the heck, I can hide this fellow behind a leaf.  I got a bit lazy here and kind of went my own way with it.  I thought I liked the look of the leaf sticking out of his face, but looking at it this morning I think it would have been better as more of a texture just on the cheeks.  Not going to change it now.

After all this I went back to chapter one and decided their advice on bringing in a canvas texture to tie it all in was a good idea so I did that.  Looking at it I decided it looked unfinished so I brought it into On One Software's Photo Frame program and added one of their acid borders to it which I thought finished it off.  The book really preaches against preset things like this, but I like them so I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

So the book isn't going to change the way I photograph people.  I won't be shooting specifically to turn them into Octopus Face models.  It wont' change how I process my weddings or family portraits either (not a big market for Maple leaves coming out of cheekbones).  But every once in a while I'm going to have a quiet moment where I just feel like goofing around with an image and the techniques in this book, and books like it, are just going to help point me in the right direction.  I'm at the level in Photoshop now where I just take techniques I get elsewhere and turn them into suggestions. I kind of go my own way once they get me started and just use them for methods I don't understand.  Who knows though, maybe I'll develop a style with imaginary images that I like and people buy, stranger things have happened.  At the very least it is a creative outlet and there is never anything wrong with that.

In the meantime, I prefer the original image shot straight out of camera.  Oh well, maybe next time.

If the illustrative types of image creation is your thing I thought I'd point out some Photoshop Wizards that I found on Model Mayhem that are really making some amazing art.

• Julia Popova
• The Dark Noveler
• Purple Princess Edits
• Ni Anluain

Now I'm off Boxing Day shopping with the family.  Vistek has the Black Rapid Double R-Strap on sale online tomorrow so I'm hoping to pick that up.  I like to have two cameras on me for Wedding Ceremonies so I thought that would be a nice treat for next season.

Before I go, Dpreview has posted up an interesting article on HDR photography.  So very like Dpreview, it is pretty technical, but interesting none-the-less.  

A Christmas Tip for the Photographer

If you Google Christmas photography, photographing Christmas lights, or other such things you will get tons of photography tips online, but one little tip seems to elude most photographers, especially the gear heads like me.  I'm assuming that most of you here are the photographer nut in your home.  Whenever a photo is to be taken, you are the one with the gear.  People look to you to take photos because, well, you are good at it.  But here is what I want you to do right now.  I want you to walk over to your family photo albums (you do print your photos right?) and flip through the most recent ones.  You're not in there are you?  Maybe once or twice, but I'm betting not very often.

The biggest Christmas photography tip I can share with other photographers has nothing to do with shutter speeds, lens choices or photographing in the snow (overexpose baby, overexpose).  It is to put down the camera, put it on a tripod, use the self timer, or hand it to someone and yes....shutter...set it on auto if you have too, but be in some of those photos yourself.  Give your family the memories of you on this holiday season.  They will appreciate it.

Also, and I'm going to work on this myself this year.  Go ahead and take photos of your loved ones this Christmas, but at some point put the camera down and just relax and watch your kids open their presents, talk with your spouse and drink some eggnog.  Take part, don't just take pictures.

Have a wonderful Christmas!  Thanks for dropping by my little photography blog.

Pentax W90 Review

So a couple of weeks ago I decided that I really wanted to have a camera that had time lapse built right into the camera.  I thought it would be fun to use it for recording what happens on our shoots, and also I thought I'd like to attach it places outdoors and record a full day of happenings and string it together in a video.  I've always been sort of mesmerized by those videos of hundreds of images strung together to form a video of say a building being constructed or a tree losing its leaves.  I knew that the camera would have to be rugged and weather-sealed as I pictured myself strapping it to a tree and leaving it for 24 hours, rain or shine. Also, no expensive DSLR cameras, I didn't want to cry if it was stolen while strapped to that tree.  I hit Dpreview and did a search using their tool to compare cameras and found that only 5 different cameras fit my needs, 4 of them from Pentax and 1 from Ricoh.  I couldn't find the Ricoh for sale anywhere so I settled on one of the Pentax cameras.  The W90 seemed the most appealing to me because I wanted to play with the little LED lights around the lens, it had HD video and it kinda looked cool.

Don't mind the hole in our ceiling, we still haven't hung our paper rolls.

So one of the first things I did was do a quick time lapse of me setting up the studio for a shoot.  I did a few things wrong my first go at it.  I left it on auto white balance so it really messed up on the colour balance.  I also noticed it hunted focus a lot and I didn't really take enough photos, but I was afraid I'd run out of memory.  The time lapse feature is pretty easy to use.  You first have to menu dive to set up the number of images to be taken, and the amount of time between images.  Then you just hit the self timer button on the camera before you hit the shutter and select the Time Lapse option.  It shows you a confirmation of what you setup in the menu.  It would be better if you could change these settings here without having to menu dive first.

The camera LCD does turn off between shots which is handy as it preserves battery life quite nicely.  One thing that bugs me about the camera is that it has a rounded  shape to its body that prevents you from easily standing the camera up on its own without a tripod.  I often like to put my camera on the ground or a ledge and use the timer feature for a photo, and that isn't all that possible with this little guy.  Also, the tripod socket is off to the extreme side of the camera, nowhere near the middle of the lens.  This makes it awkward for doing panoramas and seems funny when on a tripod in the first place.

The time lapse feature does work well though and as advertised.  After it is done it shuts the camera down.  I believe, though I haven't tried it yet, that you could easily do a 24 hour time lapse (without flash) on one fresh battery charge.

Before I forget to mention the cosmetics of the camera I should say I chose the Shiny Orange version of the camera.  When I was at the store picking it out they had a black one behind the case.  The first boxed one they pulled out was orange and the clerk said "Oh that's ugly, I'll find you another one."  Unfortunately for her, orange is my favourite colour so I made her sell me it.  Its a pretty slick looking little camera if you ask me.

I did one more time lapse right away of the street outside of our studio.



After the initial novelty of the camera wore off I started using it as my walk around everyday family camera.  We decided to retire our previous point and shoot to our 8 year old daughter.  It is the Olympus 850SW waterproof camera which has served us well.



The image quality on the camera is pretty good in good light.  The colours are nice and rich and the image is plenty sharp.  Once it starts getting darker though or if you need to use the flash the images really fall apart.  Frankly that is what we should expect from a small sensor point and shoot.  I notice no improvement over my old Olympus point and shoot for image quality.  My old Panasonic LX3 still reigns supreme in image quality for this size of camera, though I sold that so clearly it wasn't a priority for me with my family point and shoot.  Frankly, with this type of camera, the feature set (things like time lapse) and the durability (waterproof, drop proof, freeze proof) are the only thing not having it replaced with a cell phone camera like an iPhone.  The whole breed of small point and shoots is in serious jeopardy with the prevalence of good cell phone cameras now, so setting yourself apart like the W90 is vital in today's market.

The flash on the camera is pretty useless and makes for some pretty ugly photos, but again that is characteristic in my opinion of all of these little on-camera flashes.  I wish the camera had a rule of thirds grid overlay.  I find it useful for getting my horizons straight when using an LCD, but if it has one I can't find it.  In fact, while the display is nice and bright it doesn't really appear to have too many customizable options.

One neat feature the camera has is a panoramic stitching mode that takes three images and automatically puts them together in camera.  It isn't perfect but it is still pretty cool.  It would be great on a vacation to say the Grand Canyon.  After to choose this option in the scene modes, you press left or right to tell the camera which way you are turning it after the first picture.  Then you take an image, and it provides about a 20% overlay to match up as you swivel the camera left or right (or up or down).  It does it again after the second photo and then takes about 2 seconds to stitch all three together.  I found it fun to use, a pleasant surprise.





The images tend to be a bit washed out I noticed, but you can fix that later on the computer.  I left these straight out of camera.  If you look closely you will see ghosting where the images don't quite match up. Still, getting a panorama of my daughter playing with her new (old) Olympus and a whole duck pond and some random tourist taking a photo on the other side of the pond is kinda neat.

As far as the video goes, I was happy with it, but also disappointed.  I suspected it would be rather bad in low light (and it is really bad) and the grain is very blotchy and poor in that situation.  The problem is that it isn't all that clear in bright light either.  I suppose that these cameras use a really heavy compression on the video so quality is bound to be lost.  The good news is that it is far better video than what I get on my iPhone and my old Olympus point and shoot (as you'll see at the end of this post) and nearly as good as what I had on my old LX3 from Panasonic.  The video is about what you would expect from a consumer camera, no better, no worse.

Pentax decided to put three little LED lights around the lens for macro shooting.  I thought that was a pretty cool idea and played with it a lot at first.   Thing is it is actually pretty gimmicky.  Fun to play with, but not really adequate for serious macro photography.  Then again, macro isn't my thing so maybe I should give it another chance.



The build quality of the W90 is proving to be excellent.  When I first held it at the store I was a little disappointed as the edges of the camera are plastic and from the photos I thought they'd be more of a tough rubber.  The front coloured metal plate seems kind of thin and flimsy as well.  But having said all that, in use it is proving to be equal to the Olympus point and shoot which always felt like a bulletproof little tank.  The guts of the camera must be well built as I've dropped it, stood on it, washed it and not noticed a single problem.  The rear lcd is nice and bright and clear and the camera feels good in the hands.  Battery life is good and certainly better than on my old Olympus point and shoot.



I'm pretty glad I bought this little camera.  I certainly will get as much use out of it as I have my Olympus point and shoot which I think is coming on about two years old for me.  At some point I'm guessing I'll pass it down to my kid again when my eye wanders to something new and shiny, but for now it suits my needs when I don't feel like carrying a DSLR.  I plan on getting a lot of use out of the time lapse feature so I'm sure a lot of those will be appearing on the blog over the next little while.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and if you like this blog please click the Facebook link on the right hand side and recommend it to a friend.  I appreciate you dropping by, comments are always welcome.

Film Days & Christmas Blues

I've been a very bad blogger lately, and I'm sorry about that.  Part of it has been that I have been hating my photography lately.  We all go through this I'm sure, times when we look at our peers and look at ourselves and come to the painful conclusion that we are a hack among geniuses and artists.  A couple of years ago Zach Arias made a video about this very feeling and every once in a while I go back and watch it.



Anyway, I was going to post some of my recent photos and put red circles around the parts of them that I hated, my composition mistakes and my lighting mistakes, but I couldn't make myself stare at my work any longer than I had too this morning. Truth is that it will all get better and I'll pull off a shot soon that will excite me and invigorate me once again I just know it.  Part of the fun and pain has been our new studio.  I've really enjoyed having it and shooting in it, and it feels great.  It also is still not done partly because we have been busy, and that is getting frustrating (not being busy, I like that, but working in an incomplete space is kinda irritating).  Also each month brings.....rent.....and it hasn't been an issue at all yet but unlike before when we ran the business out of my home, I have it in the back of my head that part of my effort each month goes to keeping a roof over our heads.

All this bellyaching isn't meant to be so gloomy.  Remember, I've watched that video in this post a good half dozen times since it was originally made.  I know it gets better, I'll hit that perfect picture that will make me excited, I'll land that big job, and I'll get that new technique down that I'll then overuse until I'm sick of it.  As Zach did I am bringing models through our studio working with them, trying to find something new in my photography.  Something exciting and inventive, and trying to discern the subtle differences between my lighting and what I like and what I don't like.

I recently had a young fellow in that wanted some photos and let me play with my film camera for a while.  He wasn't in the mood to smile, but to me it was fine, it suited me at the time.  What was cool for me was throwing a Pocket Wizard on my Olympus OM-4t with some black and white Illford film in it and using my light meter to nail the exposure on his face.  I was using a 50mm f1.8 Zuiko lens so I had to be pretty close to him for these intimate head shots, and the camera works slowly so it was a connection I don't often feel when I work digitally.  It was one step toward feeling my photography again, and a connection with photographers in the past that I admire.



I actually brought that camera around with me quite a bit this year and each time I get a roll developed I get those nice surprises of images that I love.  Film gives you that feeling of throwing the dice in the air and wondering which number, which image will pop up as your favourite.  No doubt I stack those dice with my choices in the camera, but surprises always happen, like this image I took of my Godsons at the local market this summer.

It was such a moment, a snapshot yes, but a moment and I still get all giddy about the tones and grain of film.

I had a model I worked with a couple times this year email me and ask for a shoot next week so we are going out to play with some ideas.  Spencer, a photographer friend (I know you're reading this Spencer!) had an idea for playing with an old gas mask I had (don't ask) so we are going to have some fun with that.  I know it's been done, but we'll do it better.  

I also get to deliver some portraits today that were made at our local Help Portrait  event which I took part is as one of about 8 photographers.  Come to think of it, that was the day that I started to feel that I suck at my craft.  But the reward of giving printed photos to families was really gratifying and I know I'll get a kick out of making the deliveries today for another photographer that is busy with his brand new baby son. 

So I guess the point of my post today is this, when you are feeling like a hack, when you are pretty sure you should hang up the camera for good, just push yourself through it, keep fighting and making images.  You'll eventually excite yourself again and be better for it.  Do something different, shoot film, dust off a lens you never use, shoot video, photograph models, photograph pets, whatever.  Heck, just blog, it's writing therapy and it works for me!

I'll leave you with a little time lapse I did of my setup, tear-down and shoot of a model a couple of weeks ago.  I used the new little Pentax W90 I bought.  I picked this camera up mostly for this very purpose, time lapse.  A review is coming soon, I just want to try a few other things with it first.  

Thoughts on the E5

I haven't yet had a chance to try the Olympus E5, but one of this blogs readers was kind enough to email me last week with his first impressions of the camera.  I thought I'd share here.  I did buy myself a point and shoot last week which I'm testing now, looking forward to sharing that, it is the waterproof, drop-proof, freeze-proof Pentax W90.

Anyway, here are Rob's thoughts:

Thought I would give you a quick impression of the E5 I got a week ago.  I was using my E3 in low light and I would swear that I had the Focus Assist Flash ...ON and it was having trouble.  So I tried my E5 (only in my possession for a couple hours) and right away Focus Assist Pre-Flash....Focus lock ....one after the other.  So after the evening I began to think "the E5 can't be that much better than an E3 focusing in low light....yet I remember thinking "it's pre-flashing so I know it's still hunting...".

Aside from the feeling that the focusing was hugely better then doubting my own memory, I noticed that although the menu have changed...I got used to the changes fast.  It's simply much easier to use and add to that the bigger LCD screen on the back, and I am pleased with it at the list price.  Given the difference in E3 and E5 if I had the choice again to buy a 2nd body....I'd go hands down with the E5.  Not sure yet about noise difference, but I have seen that the E5 is great with a 50mm macro. RAZOR sharp, and it is reported that hunting during macro focus in tack sharp and hunting almost non-existent.  I saw the crops on the macros and they were razor sharp.  It feels exactly like an E3 except the 4 way buttons (up down left right, and the center button) are all much softer to press.  I prefer them a bit stiffer.  That's my only gripe.  Haven't tried video at all nor have I tried the fine tune focus settings.  


Thanks Rob!

Olympus E-3 weatherproof test.AVI