I will write more about this but
I just got back from a company sponsored cruise (thanks Insomniac!)
where I was the "company photographer" pretty much. I had ample
opportunities to test my 14-54mm and 50-200mm tele with my Oly e-300.
Also to my very surprise I talked *extensively* with
two photographer on the cruise (their equipment is all E-1's! in the
cruise!) and the husband of a co-woker which is a professional art
photographer.
I will write more on this but here are some thoughts:
On the E-1 & Olympus in general (from the three photographers):
* It's all right but "I have never seen high-end pro
photographers use Olympus glass. It's either Nikon or Canon due to
quality. Nikon is better at short range, Canon is better at tele."
(husband of co-worker, he wasn't dissing the E-1/e-300 at all, just a
"random" comment on the lenses)
* "I find the E-1 auto focus a bit slow" - cruise
photographer- I stressed the 1.4 firmware.. supposedly he has it but we
couldn't find the menu to verify it.
* "... But I am looking to buy the E-1 because I
need an affordable pro camera and it's the better value compared to
Canon/Nikon. Lens are pro enough and cheaper too (4/3rds) .... also I
have shot in -25 degrees and in hot weather (he's from Romania) and the
camera did it without a problem. I like it'w weather rugged..."
On the e-300-
* definitively focuses faster than E-1 (I loaned it to them)
* One of them fell in love with the 50-200mm ...
borrowed it, did some portrait shots with clients and told me I damaged
his brain.. he may have to work 1 more month now in the cruise to get
the lens because he really wants it :-)
On my experience with the e-300, Fl -36 flash:
* I shot in a wide range of conditions-
+ indoors Karaoking
+ random shots in hallways, inside ship
+ Ensenada, Mexico (just a couple though)
+ basketball game on the Cruise (sports type photography)
+ Some "abstract" shots on the Cruise
Total shots- between 800-950 shots (haven't done the final count, maybe reached 1,000).
This was a Cruise from Friday to Monday (Monday is early morning - 8:00 am)
* Used a pro-manfotto monopod
* Discovered I don't know the camera too much yet.
Some shots came a bit unpredictable at times (I believe this is more
due to me than the camera)
* Learned more about when to use the bounce-off-wall feature of the FL-36... sometimes I made some quite flagrant mistakes :-)
* Some shots were out of focus. I think this is
because I accidentally left continuous focus on and the camera wasn't
locking focus down in the darker areas, and I didn't pay attention
* Some basketball shots at ISO 400 in plain daylight had noise. This surprised me. Bummer!
* Capturing in RAW allows for tons of more dynamic range in many shots... I am using RAW Essentials
* The monopod really made my life much easier
* I did take some shots at ISO 1600 at times as a compromise/experiment. Some of them work.
* At one point I switched to jpeg. I really believe
that I would definitively consider shooting mostly jpeg if it wasn't
for the issue we have talked about though it's not too bad (on the
e-300 jpeg detail processing).
Ken Rockwell's article on this made me think about
one very important thing: it's a matter of time. I just don't have much
time to tweak and hand edit every single raw file
Talking with the husband of my co-worker I realized or talked about three important things:
* Real good photographers don't take "hundreds and
hundreds of shots" and "get the good ones out of the billion"- they
usually compose, wait for the moment and fire usually getting what they
want *not having to look at the LCD post the fact* Ken Rockwell alludes
to this too.
I think that this is not entirely 100% possible all
the time but I can see his comment and it makes me think about what I
am doing much more.
* Thinking on the comment above, it makes me realize
that one of the problems with digital cameras is that they are far less
predictable than film (on average). You can get one that is predictable
but this predictability will vary model by model and brand by brand.
You really have to know your camera (my comment).
* He teaches photography and we talked how people
want a better camera to become a better photographer- which is totally
retarded & wrong. He even mentioned he has a student that upgraded
his digital gig and became *a worse* photographer. "Learn with less" is
his message. Ken Rockwell also echoes this in some of his writing.
***************************
I have to say that this experience of shooting such
volume photography has made me learn quite a few things.. If you have
the chance to do this at some event, even if for free, and you want to
become a better photographer I highly recommend it.
(more to come after I sleep and whatever. I am *SO TIRED*)
- Raist
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