The Wind's Under Your Wings With Olympus

A sunny morning, Jandakot Aerodrome, and the new Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk II camera. And the 300mm f:4 IS PRO lens buckled on...it's my own local air show for free.

All I have to do is brave the traffic on Karel Avenue ( and I get the easy part of it - the poor people who have to join the roundabouts from the side can be waiting for ages... ) and the grassy space in front of the Aviator's Cafe is open to all.

Light planes are an amazing variety of shapes, but unfortunately they can have a sameness about their colour schemes - white is used for most of them with a little trim. You can see them against the sky to some extent, but I find myself wanting a different hue. Fortunately this last Saturday saw several aerobatic aircraft working the runways.

The Olympus camera features stabilisation in a variety of planes ( not a pun ) to a degree that other manufacturers do not match. You can roll, tilt, yaw, and displace the camera and lens to a remarkable degree while the IS systems  - in the camera and in the lenses  - iron it out. The Olympus Pro lenses talk electronically to the computer in the camera to figure out which system does which correction.

Experiment one was to set the camera to give a continuous autofocus and to shoot with it doing a low rate of shots. I took a couple of passes at the taxi strip but found that it was just wasting frames with no real movement between the aircraft. So I took it off the continuous and selected single AF shooting.

This proved just as good, as the Olympus responds extremely quickly to the first pressure on the shutter button. When you hit it, the IS starts up instantly and the bounce or jitter of the viewfinder smooths out like a calm sea. It is much easier to find and follow the subject with the IS on. There was no perceptible lag as I pressed the button for the final exposure - I was able to freeze the selected airplane as it passed through the belts of colour in the backdrop.

Shutter speed was left at 1/1000 or 1/2000 for most in-air shots. The stopping power is awesome, though viewers will note the heat shimmer on the tarmac spoiling some shots - it was the same on the car race day out at Barbagallo Raceway. For the close liftoffs or passes the detail in the shot is phenomenal.

Two tricks with this lens: Select the 4 metre to infinity limiter on the side of the lens barrel - saves the lens hunting and losing time. Any aircraft closer than 4 metres will be engaging your attention in ways other than focus. Also unlock and rotate the tripod foot up over the top of the lens as you hand-hold it. It is a weighty combination - you do not want that metal bracket digging into your palm for hours as you stand waiting for the takeoff.

The Long Lens Inside - The Saga Of The Fujifilm Continues

If you read most of the photographic press that deals with interchangeable lenses for DSLR and mirror-less cameras you'll see much the same recommendations about choices. It's not conspiracy - it's sensible agreement. Being photographers we are free to be neither sensible nor agreeable - and sometimes it pays off big-time.

The books all talk about long lenses being the sensible choice for motor sports, surfing, field sports, wildlife, and aircraft photography. I've not gone in for a great deal of these subjects, but when I have the advice was good. You need long focal lengths to bring in lions and Tiger Moths - you also need bright light. Anything less is going to be a failure.

Oh yes? Well what if you get an assignment to take pictures at a Halloween dance show in Fremantle -at the Fly By Night hall on High street. That's a picture from the mezzanine balcony at the head of the column. Great place to prop up during a performance as you are in no-one's way, but a long way from the stage...Note: The establishing shot is a Fujifilm 18mm f:2.

Enter the Camera Electronic Rental Department and the 100-400mm Fujinon zoom lens - the big boy in their lineup. Widest aperture is f: 4.5-5.6 but it has a dynamite optical stabilization circuit inside and an extremely smooth focus. The support shoe and rotating ring are also super-professional.

I bolted the lens onto a Manfrotto 234 monopod tilting head and in turn supported that with my Manfrotto carbon fibre monopod. Sitting on a chair up there in the gods at the Fly meant that I was stable and the lens was too. I could even grip the monopod with my knees if I needed to busy my hands elsewhere and the whole assembly stayed upright. I love tripods in the studio but am starting to love the manfrotto monopod more when I am out an about - so much less hassle but still great stability.

Okay, it's dark in there, and the stage lights are good but still not the same as sunlight. ISO up to 6400 on a Fujifilm E-X2 is as high as you want to go, but fortunately it was high enough to work. Really fast dancers blurred, but slower ones came in well. And the transition from landscape to portrait orientation couldn't have been smoother - I just kept the lock knob turned off and rotated at will all night long.

The job was a lot of fun - Halloween brings out the theatre in people and if they are good actors, singers, and dancers to start with it is all that much better under stage lighting.

Note: If you've got a job that needs long coverage think about talking to the Camera Electronic Rental Department. They've got faster lenses for other systems as well, or if you would like to try the latest and best from Fujifilm, ask to see the X-T2 with this lens. You could even add a teleconverter to push it out to 600mm.

Performers, Nina, Richell, and Jenier. Thank you for a great night, ladies.

We Finally Get To It - With The Big Fujifilm Lens

I have been experimenting for the last few months with long lenses attached to my Fujifilm X cameras by means of adapters. The tests were encouraging as long as there were suitable subjects some distance away. Yet I had never gotten to grips with the long zoom made by Fujifilm themselves - now was the time.

Each manufacturer presents their material in a different way - some go for simple cases to protect their lenses and some go for quite elaborate hard cases. Fujifilm has packed the XF 100-400mm  f:4.5-5.6 RLM OIS WR lens in a sturdy box, a cardboard cradle, and a cloth wrapping...I should advise investigating a Lowepro or Promaster Lens case before venturing out into the field - the lens is superbly finished and it would be a shame to nick it up unnecessarily.

Well, it is certainly big in comparison to the other Fujifilm lenses, but small when you consider the optics of full-frame DSLRs. This would be a great deal easier to haul on long wildlife trips - even with the substantial lens hood attached it is manageable. That's a standard-sized business card there in the zoom picture.

The lens is fitted with the usual controls - dealing with the stabilising system, zoom ring, zoom ring lock, and Automatic or manual aperture. There is one additional control switch that limits the focusing travel if you are only going to play with distant subjects.

The tripod foot is quite neat but substantial.

The surprises on the lens hood come in two forms; there is a button to release the hood gently, and there is s sliding panel on the underside. This is not the cover for the waist-gunner's position, though it looks like it - it is hatch to let you reach inside and turn polarising filters to best effect. Note from the shot of the inside of the lens hood that Fujifilm have even gone to the effort of ribbing it for flare reduction - a neat finishing touch.

But what of the operations? No more fumbling with a manual focus ring with this one - and no more hastily turning a manual aperture ring to stop down just before exposure. Oh sure, you can do it...but you lessen your chances of getting a really sharp shot, really fast. Adapters are all very well, but they are still adapters. It was a sheer pleasure to point and shoot in single-frame and watch it snap into focus.

Here are some shots taken in the open air - no polariser to darken skies. The camera body was the Fujifilm X-E2 with the latest firmware update and I can honestly say the autofocus speed was as good as I could expect. There is always a fuss about this function in sports shooting from the point of view that it is not as fast as a DSLR. Well, it's a lot faster than winding it manually, and not noisy while in operation.

I should still resort to focus trapping at a motor race to ensure that I was giving the mechanism the best opportunity to perform sharply on high-speed vehicles like this one...

Oh, how I wish The RAAF would save enough money to buy jet fuel and have an air show at PEARCE. I would be willing to sponsor a gallon of avgas myself.

Longing For A Sigma Long Lens...

I rarely need to use a really long lens. Studio work for the most part is short/standard work with a few turns of the zoom lens for head and shoulders portraits. But I am sorely tempted when I see the new lens lines from Sigma.

Of course right now their lenses only fit my camera via a third-party adapter, but the world turns and I cannot say when the licensing and legal side of it will change - and I'll see a Sigma lens for my camera mount. Until then I can use an adapter to do my test shooting. I miss out on AF and automated aperture, but I can still take good shots.

The camera in the Little Studio today was the Sigma 150mm - 600mm f: 5-6.3 DG Sports lens. It's been with us for a few months but is a thoroughly modern design. Starting from the outside in, here's what you get from Sigma:

Sturdy box full of sturdy packaging.

Sigma's rectangular padded lens case.

With attached shoulder strap. You'll need it.

A padded wrap-around lens hood cover.

A lens hood that rides backwards on the barrel.

150mm closed.

600mm open.

Lock mechanism for the zoom. locks at 150mm, 250mm, 400,mm, and 600mm to prevent lens creep. One less worry for the action shooter.

Extensive multi-setting optical stabilisation mechanism inside. All customisable.

A set of big lug attachment loops at the sides of the lens. Needed - the lens is heavy and you should not rely solely on the strap lugs of your camera.

A big foot with three tripod attachment points. I would definitely use two of them at a time.

The proof of the pudding was in the shooting. Handicapped as I was by the lack of AF on my Fujifilm X-Pro1, I could still use the RayQual adapter to actuate the aperture and do my focusing in manual.

The sample pics were done at 3200 ISO to give a high shutter speed. Don't growl at the grain. It is art, and the Singapore jet was climbing at a pretty rapid rate a long way away from the studio's back yard. The subject proved hard to track but the camera responded well whenever it was on target.

 This is definitely a cannon of emplacement - it is the sort of lens that needs to be on a tripod with some sort of a Wimberly gimbal to allow it to track moving objects. Surf shooters, racetrack shooters, sports shooters will all welcome it. Wild animal shooters as well, if they are prepared to lug it into the bush.

It was superbly finished and performed well. I wish there had been more airplanes closer in to try it on.

Shop the lens online or in-store - 230 Stirling St, Perth.

When The Airplanes Are Hiding...

I was all set to snipe at the RFDS aircraft as it came over our house. I had clipped a Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 55-300mmf:4-5.6 G ED VR lens onto my Ray-Qual adapter and mounted the combo on my Fujifilm X-T10 camera. The sky was clear, the sun was up, and I needed a shot for this weblog column.

Just my luck - no-one in the bush was sick enough this morning to need a transfer to Jandakot. No RFDS plane. I even tried baiting it by putting out a pile of bandages and Dettol...but nothing.

Fortunately a local Willy Wagtail obliged by cleaning his wing-pits while sitting on the neighbour's iron-plate fence and I was in a good position to spy on him.

For that matter I could have spied on the people who live up the end of the street - some 250 mtrs away. The lens is that good. They are are pretty quiet lot up at the end of the street so there is little point in observing them...but I could.

The Wagtail was a bonus, but no surprise. What did astonish me was how well the 300mm end of this zoom lens did on the roses in the garden. Granted you are not at macro distance from the blooms, but you still get a pretty close-in view and the resolution is good. Of course you need a small aperture for depth of field but that is just the number game of optics anyway.

If I was a Nikon DX shooter of field sports, aircraft shows, car races, horse races, close surfing, or large animals, I would unhesitatingly choose this lens for my DSLR. As I was using an adapter I lost all AF and VR activity...the price you pay for fiddling around with mixed systems...but at least the RayQual adapter was able to make the aperture work. A Nikon shooter would have far more control in far easier a manner.

The would be a very fun lens with the D7200 or the new D500. It might even be worth waiting for the RFDS or the neighbours to do something scandalous.

The Blue Bird Of Happiness

Yep. I was right. You can find things to do on a damp Friday in Perth.

In particular, if you have a Fujifilm X-T 10 camera and an 18-135 mm lens and an airplane-mad daughter who in turn has a football-mad boyfriend, it can all come together beautifully.

Hauled out of the house at 1:30 in the afternoon to go to Perth Airport, I took the Fujifilm along to the viewing deck of the terminal building to await the arrival of a rare visitor to Perth - an Etihad Airlines Airbus that is painted in the colours of the Manchester City Football Club. The D and the D's BF both support that soccer club and watch their matches at all hours of the day and night. I suspect the club is owned by Etihad.

It was a bright but moist day and they were using the short runway at the airport for the takeoffs and landings, presenting the port side of the aircraft as they headed west. The observation deck is readily accessible to visitors without going through any of the cavity searches of airport security so you can wander in there and rubberneck to your heart's content. I saw several other plane spotters doing the dee and noted that they were using everything from iPhones to Canon and Nikon DSLRs with proprietary lenses and some of the longer Sigma zooms.

The deck is enclosed behind tinted glass, so the end result can be a little off-kilter for automatic white balance systems. I turned the Fujufilm X-T10 to K for the white balance and dialled it up to 5900º K and then added two blips of the magenta button. I think it worked well.

Of course there is always a need for a long lens with these aircraft shots and the 135mm end of the Fujinon lens was the setting employed most - it was a little wider when they taxied the plane in after landing. The ISO at 500, the shutter speed at 1/250th and the aperture at whatever did the trick. The image stabiliser in the lens does a nice job - you really don't need a tripod or monopod for this sort of light.

Still worth while getting close to the glass if you can to avoid catching reflections and of course if you can keep out of direct glare you get more contrast. I think that many images would benefit from an enhancement of contrast.

And it is a beautiful aircraft. The Manchester City club have won important trophies and there is one emblazoned just aft of the club name, but there will be further changes later on - they have just changed their advertising logo so that if this aircraft ever returns to Perth you may get to see a different tail.

A pity, in a way, that modern life has changed the way that people can see the planes at Perth Airport. I remember the swans in the pond and open decks above the lounge areas...indeed open gates to the tarmac. But at least there is an open observation platform out there in the boonies at the airport and a group of enthusiasts use it so it is not all gloom and doom. Winter would be the time to go as the fair-weather types would be off away home and you would not have to jostle for position. I don't believe they allow you to bring Bofors guns or FLAK 88's.

Every Single Time...

Every single time some expert writes an internet article to tell me that I shouldn't do that, I can't do that, or I didn't do that, I go out and make the mistake of doing it. And in 73% of cases I should, can, and did succeed. The victories can be very small, of no interest to anyone but myself, and sweet as summer sunshine - based solely upon the fact that I defied the expert.

The other 27% of the time I scrape the residue off the ceiling and air out the studio. Don't ask.

Case in point is the fan-boy-forum advice that you can't take successful action pictures with a mirror-less camera - particularly if you use an adapted lens and try to work in poor light. Telling me this was like Nolan telling Cardigan where the guns were...it was bound to lead to either hamburger or glory.

So I hied myself out into the twilight with my ( quote...slow, old ) Fujifilm X-Pro1...( the shame...not a new model...) and a Rayqual X-mount adapter and attached a new 50-100mm Sigma f:1.8 DC lens and waited for passing trade.

Here's the total frame capture of an Etihad plane taking off.

And here's the enlarged portion of the aircraft itself. Handheld, 1/125 sec. Focused at the start of the pass with the Fujifilm's command dial by enlarging the AF box and then refined by manual focusing of the lens - the Sigma has a very smooth action that is well damped.

I got a chance to capture PolAir 1 as it orbited the freeway at dusk - presumably some pileup near the Mt. Henry Bridge but the distance over which it was captured was such as to render it the same size on the original file as the Etihad plane. Then I was fortunate that the Royal Flying Doctor plane came in and slowed down while dropping the gear.

All this in the lousy light of dusk - about f:1.8-4. It is infinitely exciting when you consider what might be done with one of these new-generation Sigma lenses in the full light of day - or one of their longer teles as well. For real excitement, consider the idea of a Fujinon 90mm f:2 AF lens as well. Or one of their 100-400mm f:4.5-5.6 for aircraft...or cars.

And just think - the X-E2s and the X-t10 are even faster to focus than the X-Pro1...someone hold that expert while I look for a lump of wood.

Note for users of DSLR's: Nikon and Canon mounts are standard on Sigma lenses and there is nothing to stop you from going out at dusk and doing equally well. The 50-100mm is a corker of a lens.