Steve,
I’ve been photographing volleyball for my daughter for several years, and I’m one of those dads with more high-end Nikon gear than a non-professional should have. I’ve been taking photos of her for years, and because she’s moving far away to college, I’ve lost my main inspiration for photography. So, I decided to branch out and try something other than sports because I do love photography. Based largely on your recommendations, I went out and bought and OMD EM5 with a the kit zoom and a Panny 20mm F1.7 before we left for a vacation to the Caribbean. I didn’t get a chance to really try it out before the trip, but I managed to shoot about 1000 shots on the trip somehow. Here are some of the shots I took on the trip, and I’d like to submit them for the daily inspiration. I enjoy this camera tremendously and I plan to use it a lot. I’ll probably only pull out the Nikon when my daughter has a college sports game to shoot because the OMD is a fantastic camera. Any way, enough of the rambling. Here are the images.
All images are JPG out of the camera. I’ve done some cropping with slight exposure and contrast adjustments in LR4.
The 1st and 2nd pictures are of a shipwreck on the island of St. Kitts. Both are done with the Oly 12-50mm kit lens. The 1st photo is with the vivid setting and the 2nd is with the grainy film art filter.
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The 3rd picture is of an old building on St. Kitts with the Panny 20mm F1.7 and a circular polarizer using the dramatic tone.
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The 4th photo is a sunset in St. Kitts shot with the 20mm F1.7 in vivid mode.
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And the final photo is a shot of a bar in St. Bart’s shot with the 20mm F1.7 at ISO1600 in vivid mode.
Thanks for the opportunity to share these, and thanks for the great website.
Jason Seale
I use to like dramatic black and an white, but the ship get more dramatic on the coloured picture, may be because it got more contrast against the back ground.
Nice shots – I especially like the 3rd one of the coastline.
I truly like the third picture!
Interesting all this 4/3 action, might have to dump my NEX7 and jump right in..
My wife has a OM-D and it beats the hell out of my NEX-5N in low light, even when I use much faster lenses!
nice pix Jason. Your posting of high ISO images are really wonderful for those who are looking at 4/3 as an alternative. If ISO 1600 is this sharp then anything lower will be bonus. I keep looking at DSLR alternatives and the 4/3 systems seem to be what I keep going back to look at-the focus is super fast (hello Canon)- plus the lenses are nothing short of awesome-(thanks Steve and others who have tested them). I’ve held an OM-D just once-you love it -so does Steve and probably a million others as well. I really wanted to like the new Canon M but the AF is slow from what Ive seen on video. I got some nice images in NYC with a G10 but missed many as the camera is not quick. Looking at pros and cons with all systems the 4/3 comes out ahead every time.
thanks for posting man
Greg
Beautiful work!!
Another dad with higher end equipment than the average professional. Love it. This past soccer season I went for the Sony 70-200mm G on my a77 to shoot the boy’s games. Looked kinda weird pulling out that big white lens (and half as long lens hood) on the Manfrotto mono on the a77 with a VertGrip. But I dunno care. Those memories are only happening once and I want them with Bokeh!
Thanks, Jason for sharing.
Very nice and it seems the OMD served you well.
I am trying to decide on the replacement for my D300 and the OMD is on the list as is the Fuji X Pro.
If I choose the OMD, I will probably also sell the V1 kit. But boy do i love the IQ from the Fuji. Why are these choices so hard?
Not an easy choice. I love my X100, so I thought the XPro would be a natural fit. But when I was done with my Pros/Cons list, it came down the majority of my recent iPhoto photos; and they were kids, dogs, drag racing, and vacations. So I went with the OMD mainly due to the auto-focus speed. And there were even more pleasant surprises after I got it. And it’s a good system for lens addicts.
Ah, another drag racing fan. Last year, I went to the Gatornationals, and I couldn’t stand the idea of carrying around 7 or 8 lbs of gear for 3 days, so all I brought was my trusty little G11. And you know, it did everything I needed.
Heh, I was at this year’s Spring Nationals in Baytown (and Houston heat) when, after a day of carrying around the a77 w/70-200G, I decided I wanted something lighter but with as close of quality, which finally led me to the OMD and m43 system. I’ll see how it all works out when I go to Dallas in September.
I think you’ll love using the OM-D system. It’s fairly transparent in picture taking and versatile too. I haven’t found myself limited by it at all yet.
I was in the same bought. I photograph kids, parties, events, drifting/racing events, and landscape. I was an avid Canon shooter. My mk2 was too slow for anything of that. I bought a D700 and never looked back.
Paul, do I understand the dilemma. I just sold a Like New Canon 60D because I wasn’t using it and did not want to lug it around. (Also, I wasn’t crazy about the color rendition–I seem to be more Nikon, Sony, Fuji). After reading Steve’s reviews and communicating with him, I bought a Fuji X100, but it failed almost immediately–the battery would charge and when it did it lasted for less than 5 minutes. So back it went to Amazon. Now what do I do? V1, OMD, NEX 5N, another X100??? I want portability, easy of operation, and more saturated pictures than I got from the Canon. Any suggestions? What did you do?
I’d try another X100. After owning three NEX cameras, including the NEX-7, the X100 makes it all enjoyable to me again and brings back the basics. I’m probably going to sell my NEX-7, despite the fabulous sensor.
GH, the more I think of it, the more I agree. Get another X100.
Keep your D300.
Thanks for the comments, Paul. It definitely is a tough decison on a new camera now. I have a D300S and a lot of lenses, but I have a feeling it won’t be used too much now unless I need one of the Nikon lenses. I really like the small size and the colors on the EM5.
Jason