I had been waiting desperately for the post to arrive before last Saturday. I had ordered a used Olympus Pen E-PL1 through the Amazon Marketplace on Monday and was hoping it would arrive in time for my trip to Switzerland on Sunday.
Al + Chris (that’s Chris and I ;0) had to travel to Dübendorf on Sunday for a meeting, then on to Zürich for a photoshoot on Monday. I didn’t want to lug my DSLR Kit with me for the trip as we had a lot of clothes and other gear to take with us anyway. Having been reading Wolfgang Lonien‘s Blog for a while, I decided the Olympus Pen E-PL1 was the right camera for me.
Thankfully, it arrive on Saturday just in time for me to fire off a few test shots and to dial in the settings recommended by Wolfgang for using the camera.
So off we went on Sunday, heading South at about noon…
On the road.
We soon had our hopes of getting through without delay squashed as we hit our first tail-back. And taking the A5 was a mistake, there are roadworks every 2 kilometers.
Crossing the border.
We arrived on time though and checked into Hotel Assinello in Dübendorf for a quick freshen up.
Oh well, it's only for one night...
We were then met by our producer who took us to an interesting restaurant which sported a distinctive “Country and Western” style…
A saddle tee-light holder...unusual to say the least.
Steak on a hot stone....no, not mine!
A look at the rear of the restaurant (the front was full and we had to sit in the overflow area).
The waiters were dressed up well, too!
A strange couple.
So the picture above was the view out my window when I got back to the hotel. This was the rear area of a neighboring restaurant. Funny old couple really…
The next morning I awoke to clear blue Swiss Skies as I haven’t seen in a long time…
But the view out my window looking left didn’t get better…
Good Morning!
The dining room (and reception)
Assinello!
After breakfast, I decided to take a quick walk around the town to further test my new Pen. With skies like those and a sunrise to match, who could resist?
Those blue skies...
What a combination.
Catholic Church.
Looking Miserable.
My favourite!
Shadow
Flowers on the Couch
Another Church
Thoughtful
We then made our way into Zürich for the photoshoot.
Parking Spaces
Conversation
Shades
Beauty Retouch ;0)
Colours
Onlooker
Studio Set-Up
Checking the Results
This one?
All images are SOOC Jpegs shot in aperture priority with no additional processing, resized with Digikam to 800 pix.
I am very pleased with the results I’ve achieved with this little camera. As far as image quality, sharpness, and colours go, this beats my entry-level Nikon D3000 DSLR for OOC-Images hands down.
I shot in RAW and JPEG, so I’ll be editing a few RAWs soon to see what happens then…
Oh – she does Video, too. Did I mention?
See ya!
Al
Very nice results and report Al. Oh, and did you know that for not too high and white ceilings, you can actually point that little built-in flash up with one finger to have it bounce from the ceiling? It’s not the strongest light of course, but can add a nice fill at times.
Those studio flashes look like Hensel – very nice German flashes, a bit on the expensive side, but strong & sturdy, well worth it. I use cheaper Chinese stuff tho…
Nice blog, which I RSS-bookmarked, so I can follow your ongoing experiences with that little Pen.
Cheers,
Wolfgang
Hi Wolfgang,
ja, das waren in der Tat Hensel Blitze ;0)
Thanks for the comments, too. I found out after I got back from Switzerland that you could do that with the poppy-uppy-flash. By chance really. I also had trouble with the white balance, as you can see in the last few of those pictures in the studio.
I programmed the function button of the Pen to do “capture white balance”, you know, press function, point camera at a piece of paper or white wall or something, then press the shutter button to save the white balance of the situation you are currently in. Works great! But I can’t figure out how to delete this once it’s set.It gets reset when you turn the camera off and on again. Well, I’ll have to keep experimenting. You can see on the picture I took of Chris in the white shirt looking through the rounded doorway (before the studio pictures) I used this function and it worked really well. But I couldn’t reset the white balance (I tried using the function/shutter option inside the studio to set the white balance again but I got an error message and couldn’t delete the captured white balance from before). That’s why they turned out so blue-ish.
Your blog is also on my RSS, and Flickr feed. Nice to have found you (by chance) – I think your photos made my choice of Pen E-PL1 all the more easy to make. Thanks for that. I am very impressed with this little camera. I’m even toying with the idea of selling my Nikon Kit and buying the new Olympus OM-D….but that’s a bigger decision to make and I need some more time to think that one over ;0)
We passed by Wallgarten (or at least the Autobahn exit) on our way to Switzerland. :0)
Oh, I also use the “economy” type flashes (I don’t think “Cheap” does the new wave of gear coming from China / Taiwan / Korea any justice) – I have a Yongnuo flash and transmitter / receiver setup for my Nikon. What model do you use for your large studio flashes?
Cheers
Al
Hi Al,
schön, das es mit den Bildern aus der Schweiz geklappt hat. Kann es sein, dass Du bei einigen Bildern am Anfang mit der Sättigung ein wenig hochgegangen bist? Oder i-mode benutzt? Ich habe auch mal einen kleinen E-Pl 1 Blog gestartet. Wolfgang Lonien hat mich drauf gebracht. Wie ich die Weißpunkt Abstimmung so ohne weiteres löschen kann, ohne die Kamera abzuschalten weiss ich leider bis jetzt auch nicht. Vielleicht, indem man wieder kompliziert im Menue eine Weißabgleich Automatik setzt. Ich fand es bei meiner Tastenbelegung (Ich habe die Fn Taste zur Belichtungsmesstaste gemacht!) auch immer sehr viel leichter, das Ding einfach mal kurz ganz abzuschalten. Bei Messwertspeicherung der Belichtung zeigt einen aber immer ein auffälliges grünes Symbol, dass jetzt irgendwas anders ist, als normal. So gab es bei mir jedenfalls keine Nachträglichen Überraschungen…
http://www.totti1965.blogspot.de
Beste Grüsse,
Thorsten
Hi Thorsten,
ich hatte die Kamera für die Reise so eingestellt: Bild-Modus war auf iENHANCE mit Contrast und Sättigung auf +1, alles andere eingestellt wie in den Kommentaren auf Wolfgang’s Blog besprochen. Ich habe nach der Reise die Sättigung auf +2 gestellt, habe es aber wieder auf Null jetzt, da es bei vollem Sonnenlicht einfach zu extrem war.
Die Sache mit dem Weißabgleich kann man so ändern, in dem man auf OK drückt um diese Menu am seitenrand aufzurufen, dann zur weißabgleich funktion steuern und in der unteren Bildleiste den Weißabgleich wieder auf Auto (oder eine andere Einstellung) stellen. Der gespeicherte Wert ist aber nicht weg, bis man die Kamera ausschaltet.
Ich hatte gerade ein Problem, ich weiß nicht wie es passiert ist, aber ich bin wohl aus versehen ins Menu gegangen und habe die Mindestwert für ISO auf 400 umgestellt. Somit habe ich eine ganze Reihe schöne Bilder auf dem Reitplatz bei vollen Sonnenlicht mit ISO 400 gemacht…grrrrr…ärgerlich…. ;0)
Schön, dass du jetzt auch einen Blog betreibest, werde gleich mal vorbeischauen!
Grüße
Al
Hi Al!
Habe mal wieder etwas “verbrochen” heute nacht. Den Leuten scheints zu gefallen… heute schon an die 100 Clicks!! Gestern nur 5!
Schau mal was ich so über Portraitfotografie schreibe… und lass den iEnhance Quatsch! Deine Bilder könnten so schön sein! Grins!
Thorsten
http://www.totti1965.blogspot.de
Den iEnhance ist längst wieder aus! :0) Das war ein Missverständnis durch den Kommentaren bei Wolfgang.
Gruß