Technical Writer Wanted For The Glue Company

No special skills needed - it's a cut and paste job...

If you have a Facebook feed or other social media connection you'll have had any number of people passing on information from others by simple means - they have pressed a hashtag key or a forward button and flooded the computers of their friends with another political meme or picture of a cat riding a motor mower.

It is the civilian version of what used to be the rip-and-read radio news service that interposed itself between you and a teletype machine. It kept you up-to date, but generally the date was July 8, 1959. Still, it was better than waiting for the newspaper to be thrown into the rhododendrons at 5:00AM next morning, particularly if the news was not what the editor or the owners of the paper wanted you to read...'cause then you didn't read it and never even found out that you didn't read it until much later.

Nowadays we instantly read, hear, see, and possibly taste darn near everything over the computer and a juicy news story will be available over dozens of feeds...but if you look carefully, the dozens of feeds are all saying the same thing. Because most of the writers of the various posts are sitting down by the teletype machine with a pair of scissors and a pot of glue.

It's the same for the technical photographic writing. You may see a dozen reviews of a new camera or lens but eleven of those will say the same thing because they have been derived from a press release or product sheet. It is only No.12 that has anything new because in many cases only No.12 has actually had the camera in hand and pressed the shutter button. Don't be too cynical about the other 11 - there may not have been enough of the new cameras in the country when the call for a tech report came out and the writers have just had to wing it.

You can have confidence to a certain extent in the eleven other reports. If they have not been typo'ed too badly you will get the basic information you need. But if you want to really find out the valuable bits, look for that twelfth piece. It is only the people who have handled the equipment* that will be able to let you have a human view of it.

And then come down to the shop and pick it up and form your own assessment. Judge as carefully as you might, and remember that you are as free to have a good opinion about new equipment as to have  a bad one.

*Sometimes with sticky fingers.

Images: farming on a small scale at Cannington Showgrounds.

The Digital Shotgun - Or The Art Of The Bracket

A recent weekend spent playing with the new Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk II showed me how useful it would be for macro work and studio product illustration. This column showed some of the ways that the focus bracketing and focus stacking features helped to tame the problem of depth of field. Kudos to Olympus.

Also, my foray to Jandakot airport showed their long telephoto lens and their superb image stablising systems making short work of long-distance coverage in bumpy conditions. Instant desire to own one...and a very successful DIY job done.

But like every successful DIY job, once the thing has been accomplished, you should put away the tools, clean the workbench, and throw away the rest of the pot of red paint that you bought to do the project. But we never do - we look around for something to use up the paint on...

Olympus have lots of buttons on their new mirrorless camera that attract the idle finger. One of them is the one that sets up bracketing - in this case art effects bracketing. One press on the shutter button and the device takes off into a series of interpretations of the scene, stacking them into JPEGS.
Hi-Key, Low Key, Dramatic Contrast, Sketching, Soft Focus, Hard Focus, Monochrome, etc. etc. I think there was Diane Sauce and/or Ennui there in the settings somewhere...

Here are some of the results. I offer them with no comment, other than to say they are well done. If I understood Art I would probably appreciate them more. If they remind you of the results that a bored teenager gets with a mobile app and Instagram, reflect that a bored retiree would be even worse.

There is a good side: If one of these artistic decisions accords with your own vision of the world, you are onto a winner. In that case the camera will do what you want to do consistently and will show you what the results are going to look like out there in the field while you are still shooting. You might be the sort of person who revels in vast long sessions of Photoshopping your images to produce the same effects - in which case we suggest that you shoot RAW and then beat the thing to death yourself. But if you just want it now, this Olympus feature is a good one.

Note: I am also guilty of two-hour Photoshop sessions with forays off into Alien Skin and Nik plug-ins to alter the images. I've got some corkers - but some of the best ones have far exceeded the history feature of the program and I cannot reproduce them again. At least if the Olympus camera gets you into the artistic ballpark, you'll have less smearing to do in the end.

The Personal Pick - Part Three - Which To Choose...

Which to choose...Oh to be in such an enviable position...

This pleasant reverie is brought to you by the Olympus shelves down at Murray Street - for a good reason - right now the shop can offer you the choice of a cutting edge new camera in the Micro 4/3 format or a range of refurbished Olympus mirror-less equipment at remarkably low prices.

This is not an apples vs oranges question - a keen enthusiast will find that this brand and this format is one of the very best choices for close-range and macro photography. Also for touring and for family shots. Sound like you could use something like that...?

First alternative. The Olympus Pen F. In the view you'll see it has a silver-coloured 12mm lens attached. I should say the photographer intends this to be used for architecture or a landscape. Perhaps a big wedding party in a large building. If the lighting is a little lower the result will still be superb - that is an f:2 lens.

It will also be a sharp shot - Olympus have designed their new cameras with more image stabilisation modes than most of the other makers. As a result you get a chance to work under dimmer light and at longer shutter speeds than ever before. In the course of some experiments with the newest of the OM-D cameras I saw for myself results down at 1/2 and 1 full second that defied belief - but I had taken them myself.

The experimenter is also well catered-for with this camera. It has a full suite of custom programs and art effects that can be called into play with adjustment dials. Some of the art this produces may be a little inadvertent, but that doesn't lessen the charm - it just presents it at surprising intervals. I should proceed cautiously at first with a finger ready on the reset button lest you get so far out in the swamp that you cannot get back...

So...what is the second alternative. Well, it is actually alternatives. There's are more than one temptation in the cabinet next door to the Olympus Pen F. Camera Electronic have secured a solid supply of refurbished Olympus mirror-less camera and lenses for sale at much-reduced prices.

Refurb is not a term to be sneezed at, nor is it a risk. These cameras and lenses carry warranties and you are protected against failure.

You'll see only a small portion of the choices in the picture, though you'll see that three main bodies are featured; the Olympus OM-D  E-M1, E-M5 Mark II, E-M10 and E-M10 Mark II. I note that there are some 12-50mm and 12-40mm f:2.8 PRO lenses on offer. Different horses for different courses, but look at the sign work behind the cameras for the price reductions!

My own choice in these would likely be the OM-D E-M1 with the 12-50mm lens...because I have seen how phenomenally well it copes with macro and close-up subjects. I used the combo for shots of my model petrol station and I don't think they could be bettered with anything at twice this price.

The Pukka Pack For Particular Persons

Choosing a back pack for exploring the less developed corners of the empire is a delicate task. One must accurately assess the opportunities that will be presented as well as the risks that will be run. This is why our featured article - the Think Tank Trifecta 8 -  will be on the short-list of many adventurers.

The basic idea of the Trifecta 8 is to take enough equipment onto the wild to enable you to capture images of the savages whilst not weighing you down in case you need to make a run for it. Modern thinking has provided us with mirror-less cameras and lenses of reduced size and weight and this is all to the good. Now we have a way to carry them about the person.

Just as Kipling’s cavalryman spent the winter preparing his spring campaign - paring an ounce of weight where he could to extend the range of his mount - so we can reduce the amount of gear we carry. But it still needs to be accessible at short notice when we come across a herd of wildebeest or porcupines.

The Trifecta 8 accomplishes this by maximising the main openings in the case - two lateral flaps and one ventral opening. The two former features allow the user to access either side of a central divider whilst the pack is worn on the back. If it is taken off, the ventral opening gapes wide to allow access to the entire equipment compartment.

Security amongst troublesome natives can be increased by cable-tying the zips of the side panels tighter and only using the ventral access panel.

Note that there is also a dorsal panel at the top of the pack that opens to allow storage of watercress sandwiches and bottles of cold tea.

So the next time you are headed out past the perimeter of the camp - or the range of the Gardner guns - remember to pack your mirror-less camera and lenses in this splendid case. It is professionally - made and will give years of sterling service.

Pip Pip!

Who In Their Right Mind Would...

a. Give their credit card details to an unknown person on the other side of the world for a small camera accessory that they could just as easily buy in Perth?

b. Air-freight a small camera accessory half-way around the world to Perth?

c. Think that they support the conservation of the ecology of the planet while compelling someone to fly a jet aircraft halfway around the world to deliver a small camera accessory?

d. Need a small camera accessory - since the cameras we use have every conceivable function built-in?

e. Stock a small camera accessory that yields about $ 2.00 profit if it sells immediately and $ 20.00 loss if it sits on the shelf for six months?

f. Take pictures that are never again looked at - sitting as they do on hard drives or in computer bodies - with expensive small accessories that have come half-way around the world?

g. Enter pictures taken with small accessories into photo contests that are destined to be seen only by other people who are willing their competitors not to win?

h. Put up photo contests that revert to a fight between users of two different camera systems...and their small accessories from America?

i. Agree to act as a judge at such a contest for the price of a glass of cask wine and some cheese on a stick?

j. Read lists like this?

The answer to these questions is " pretty much everybody I know..." in one way or another.

I have just completed the exercise of pricing up items from international firms for one of my hobbies - building miniature scenes - and then calculating the shipping, postage, handling, and enchilada fees for them. Then I went round to the lady in Myaree who runs Miniature World and bought the little furniture over the counter for less than it would have cost imported. I call that a win - and I suspect that clients of Camera Electronics might be fooling themselves if they indulge in late-night forays with their credit card onto overseas sites. They would do far better to come down to the shop and get the goods in hand right now.

As far as taking pictures and never having them seen, Instagram and Flicker solves that problem, though sometimes the feedback is not quite what we would desire. I'm still debating whether offering images to locally-produced publications is productive or not - so far the only thing it has produced is silence from the editors. This would not bother me so much if it were not for the fact that every time I call round the editorial office they turn off the lights and hide behind the couch. I am starting to get a feeling...

PS: Don't feel bad about reading internet lists. We all do it, and it is forced on us. It is a social media trick they teach in the lectures. At least we are not giving you pictures with dead whales on freight cars...

Tune-Up Time With Manfrotto

How many of us get a tool kit with our new digital cameras these days? In the old film days it was common for the box containing the SLR or rangefinder camera to have a complete tool pouch including a stilson wrench, set of spanners, lens brace, film jack, and a bottle of optical antiseptic. In the case of some Kodak cameras you got a 8-round clip of .30-06 ball ammunition and a toothbrush.

I think we are being done - nowadays you're lucky to get a battery charger and a squidgy little lens cloth with some. Even the instruction manuals are on a CD...or are a web address.

Well, all that having been said, it is refreshing to see that Manfrotto, the famous Italian tripod and lighting accessory manufacturer, has realised that users of their equipment still like to be able to maintain the goods. Their recent carbon-fibre monopod model is a...well... a model of a good product. It works and will keep on working.

The monopod idea is brilliant for anyone who is toting heavy cameras or lenses and needs some relief from the weight. I spend 4 hours shooting dancers on WA Day with a long zoom and a heavy little camera. The Manfrotto monopod I use - an early cousin of this one - takes all the weight out of my arms and puts it down, while not occupying a big triangular patch of floor. Makes the difference between an easy job and a arm breaker.

Well, like some older Manfrotto CF tripods, this one has three lever claps to adjust the sections. Far faster than screwing the sections together like some cheaper monopods. As they are acting on springs, there will come a time when they grow weaker, and need to be adjusted. This is where Manfrotto have been smart - they moulded a plastic box spanner onto a grip and clipped it to the shaft of the monopod.

If the weather changes or the equipment ages, you just tighten up as you go.

Brilliant. Combine it with the Manfrotto 234 or 234RC tilt top and you've got the smartest quick support in town.

The Translucent Mushroom vs The Poop Scoop - A Studio Battle

I was conscious of the anomaly of what I was doing but it was all for a good cause; I was trying to determine which of the new Mag Mod light shapers would be the best for event coverage. I had inveigled Chelsea Bunz - the Steampunk Absinthe Fairy - to come in and pose for head and shoulders shots with the IceLight 2 and Promaster LED 120 portable lights and I thought to take advantage of the chance for some Mag Mod experienmts. They were duly conducted but I am still in a quandary.

For those who came in late, the Mag Mod light shapers are designed to attach firms to portable speed lights and to give either colour, diffusion, or concentration for the flash. I want something that will let me front up to Steampunk patrons of Rigby's Bar in St. Geo. Tce when they have one of their Steampunk Balls and take well-lit portraits in a flash. I need to do full-length, half torso, and head and shoulders.

I most definitely don't want to do it with a tripod light stand or strange umbrella rig. I know this because I have tried it before and found out that in a crowded venue of people having fun, that kind of gear makes me a social menace. I need to be light, bright, and no tripod legs to trip up the dancers.

The Mag Mod Dome is the translucent mushroom. It attaches magnetically to any speed light and provides what can best be described as a bare-bulb effect. Gorgeous in a small room - the light goes everywhere and nothing gets too much of a hot spot. I would choose it unquestioningly for areal estate coverage. The pros in that game know their own lighting better than I do l but I still think the bare-bulb is the way to go.

The other choice - the Poop Scoop - has a more dignified name; Mag Bounce. I know my readers, and I am willing to bet a number of you will ask for this product by the name Poop Scoop. The manufacturers can gnash their teeth...Australians are Australians and this sort of thing happens... It does not detract from the useful nature of the device.

I find it delightful. Bigger than the translucent mushroom, and slightly more daunting in appearance, it casts a harder front of light out to the subject - witness the slightly harder shadow behind Chelsea - but there is still a some illumination that escapes upwards and backwards through the white silicone shroud, and this bounces off walls and ceilings. If the Stay-Puft man was a photographer, it would bounce off him. The fact that it projects more may be the deciding factor for open events.

The joyous thing about the Poop Scoop is the fact that Mag Mod have put two sets of samarium magnets in it at 90º to each other. You can run the speed light sideways and still project out the front of the camera. This means you can alternate between portrait and landscape orientation with a twist of your left wrist. If you're shooting a prime lens with auto focus you never need shift hands to fumble for anything. Just run and gun.

The other joyful thing is that if the event you are covering - Steampunk Ball, family dinner, or wedding - turns violent, and you have to make a run for it...The Mag Mod accessories are mostly made of soft flexible silicone rubber. You can squash them up and stuff them into your pocket as you scuttle for the door.

Olympus Week - Addendum To Stacking

I was wrong when I thought that I could not use the focus stacking facility in the new Olympus camera I played with - you can indeed stack close-up images in Photoshop Elements 14 - but not automatically, and not neatly.

The process involves using the panorama maker to throw up 3 to 5 separate images - the ones taken in the Olympus OM-D E-M1 mk II as a focus bracket sequence do very well. You then click the mask section of the layers and use a white brush to reveal the sharp section of each layer. It reveals the best of each and then the whole can be melded together at the end of the process. The full Photoshop program does this automatically, but the Photoshop Elements compels you to do the masking.

There is also a Photomerge™ guided edit in PSE 14 that incorporates different versions of a group shot into an improved one. It also will do the trick, and does not require you to paint anything out.

This means that you need not use a PRO lens in the Olympus range to get your initial folder of images - any lens is usable. I did have a 17mm Zuiko in the loaner outfit this last weekend but it had been over-scrubbed in the centre of the front element and was a little inclined to fuzz out. Fear not - the fresh 17mm lenses are a treat to use.

The pamphlet accompanying the loaner - an interim production as they are going to make a much more detailed one - listed a number of features that I did not exercise - the 4K recording for video and the 121 AF points in the viewfinder. The 25,600 ISO sensitivity would have been far outstripped by the studio lighting. I have no idea what to use a 1/32,000 second shutter speed on, though the idea of filming my tax refund before it is spent would be one thought. You have to be fast...

I do think the ideal lens choice for most people with this new camera would be the equally new M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-100 f:4 PRO lens. You could use all the features on the camera and really never change it for all your shooting.

Notes about studio use - getting older is the pits when you have to climb ladders and sink on your knees to the floor to frame picture shots. You pay for it next day big time. Young readers may laugh now but we seniors know that revenge is coming...One feature of many modern cameras that reduces this trauma is the folding LCD viewfinder. You can tilt or swivel it out to let you see the framing of the shot without having to stoop or peer. But some movable screens only tilt out flat.

This is fine as a substitute for the old waist-level finder, but does not help the shooter when they revolve the camera into vertical orientation. And remember that portrait framing is what most magazine illustrations run to.

The screen of the Olympus can be out sideways and flat and you essentially have a vertical waist level finder. Very civilised of them. I should add a dedicated L-Bracket ( Really Right, Kirk, or Nanking Knockoff...) plus the appropriate Arca-Swiss mounting block  for smooth operation.

The 25mm f1.2 is no slouch at illustration when you just run it flat at f:16. There is a circuit in the camera that reduces the native 200 ISO sensitivity to cope with over-bright lights and it does not seem to harm the dynamic range of the rig one bit.

Stacking It In the Studio - And not at the Motorcycle Races

I mentioned earlier in the week the unending quest for depth of field with studio tabletop illustration. In most cases of products or packs, we can shoot from such a distance that we avoid running out of depth of field. We select medium focal length lenses and stop down enough to get the thing sharp from the front of the product to the back.

 I do not know if anyone uses the facilities of the older monorail large format cameras to gain this sharpness - perhaps they would if there were an affordable digital sensor that you could slot into the back of the camera. But there isn't - no great new discovery of a 4 x 5 digital back has appeared.
The pack shots take care of themselves - people also have the option for tilting and shifting if they use the larger full-frame cameras. For an amazing amount of money they can get tilt and shift lenses for their DSLR. Few give way to the need for amazement and many save their money...

Well today I tried the Olympus solution to this problem - the focus stacking program inside the new OM-D E-M1 mk II camera. Thanks to YouTube I found out the difference between focus bracketing and focus stacking and watched the camera do both things.

 Focus bracketing is the automatic process of shooting slices of an image with different focus points and then having them ready to present to a suitable external processor - Zerene or Helicon or Photoshop - for combination. You get to specify how many slices and how deep they are, and once you press the go button the thing is automatic. You can apparently use it to fire flashes as it works, though I did not achieve this. In any case you can watch the back LCD screen as it shoots and see the focus travel back from the start point.

Focus stacking is similar, but you don't get to choose how many slices - just the depth.  Compensation is provided by the fact that this Olympus program does the processing in-camera after the final shot and presents you with a final result.

Here's an illustration of the basic problems - this Soviet motor bus is 1:43 scale, and ends up being about the length of your hand. A conventional shot with a macro lens leaves soft edges at the front and back bumper.

You don't have this sort of problem with a shorter model such as this taxi.

I was unable to get the 25mm f:1.2 lens to work with the focus stacking, but the 300mm f:4 lens did go very well. It meant retreating to the back of the studio to get the thing in frame...not a practical way to shoot... but look how well it stacked in front and back.

Perspective is different as it is a tele lens. But the fact that it has a much shallower intrinsic depth of field due to the focal length - but still renders the thing sharp - means that with one of the smaller Pro zoom lenses you could get even better backdrop. The smaller sensor size, allowing a shorter focal length for the same angle of view, scores here. The Focus stacking is the sweet icing on the cake.

Can it pass the Pontiac Test? The 60's Pontiacs were some of the longest American cars available to the general public and the 1:18th scale models of them are nearly impossible to adequately illustrate with a standard lens - they run out of focus front and back. But look what happens with the 300mm Zuiko and the focus stacking....

I see a few shiny blob artifacts where the lights bounce off the chrome but the overall rendition is sharp. You see the same compression of perspective in the heading image round the studio Muzz Buzz bar.

The process of the stack is very fast, but you need to have the camera on a tripod, as well as constant lighting. I selected Incandescent WB for the strobe modelling lights and it all worked well.

  

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.

Don't Be Shortsighted -Try A MIOPS Pic...

I have waited a decade for a straight line like that...you may also have been waiting a similar length of time for an easy way to make special effect shots with your digital camera. Well, the time has come - the MIOPS is here.

Over the last few years there has been increased interest in doing spectacular shots - capture of lightning as it strikes - lightbulbs and balloons shattering - time lapse sequences  - sound and motion activated photography - etc. Some of these images have always been possible - even in the film era -  but the amount of equipment and specialised knowledge to arrange them has been staggering.

As an example, most photographers have seen Dr. Harold Edgerton's stoboscopic pictures and experiments with flash in history books. Or they have seen Muybridge's studies of animal motion. The results are pedestrian now but were revolutionary at the time, and the amount of grear and mechanical setup that was needed to get them was far beyond what you could carry or afford.

Lightning shots have been done for over 100 years, but not reliably and not easily. You generally had to stand out in an open field while Ben Franklin got his kite in the air...Climbing to the top of the church steeple with a metal umbrella in the middle of a thunderstorm was also a possibility but generally it was the sort of thing you only did once...

And chasing pictures of elusive wild animals in the woods? Baits and blinds and trip wires and telephoto lenses and crawling around in a ghillie suit to change the glass plates...The only simple way to get wild animal shots was to sit in a tree during bear season and make a noise like a bucket of blueberries.

Okay. Now it is the 21st century and you have a digital camera with an electronic trigger port. Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Olympus, Fujifilm....whatever. If it has a socket for a cable release you are in business. You also need a mobile phone - iOS or Android - and a teenager* to show you how to get an app to work on it.

You also need the MIOPS controller. This little box contains the ability to do sound and light triggered exposures  ( There's your lightning and pistol shots taken care of. ) and it will sit there and do the multiple shots over a very long period of time that the time-lapse photography requires. You don't need to sit there and fire the camera every 5 seconds or so - you can go about your business while it does the monotonous task.

You can get it to respond to laser beams of light or to the sudden interuption of a light beam - here's your chance to leave it in the woods for those wildlife shots without sitting up the tree. You can set up a light trigger beam to capture images of intruders. You're only limited by your imagination and several inconvenient statutes...

The MIOPS is powered by a good - sized lithium rechargable battery so that it can be on duty and responding for a long time. It is equipped with a shoe mount as well as a 1/4" tripod screw socket so you can securely couple it to the camera. There are dedicated connection cords for a number of popular camera makes - the one you see in the illustration is for Canon. Bless them, they have made the cord as well as the controls and port covers in bright orange so that you can see them when you are out the back of Doodlakine at midnight on a astro-shoot and it is as black as the inside of a cat. Would that ALL manufacturers of cords, wires, and connectors for studio use followed the same lead.

As far as controlling the controller, that is where your mobile phone comes in. The days of complex codes and strange computer words are gone - Bluetooth couples the MIOPS to your phone and as soon as the teenager gets the app into the phone, you can use it.

Expensive? No. About 60% of what this sort of thing used to cost and about 600% easier to use. And in-store right now - no need to try to find something on the internet. Save your internet time for reading this column...

* Or you could get the Camera Electronic staff to show you how to do it. They are like teenagers but without the sarcasm and eye-rolling.

Pixel-Shifting At The Coffee Stand - Olympus In The Studio

Ever since the Olympus company announced that their new cameras could make images with more pixels in them than were on the sensor, I have been longing to try it out. The literature made it sound like they were lifting themselves up by their electronic bootstraps...

The trick needs a studio with constant lighting...which I can organise. It needs a camera on a sturdy tripod...my Gitzo Studex 5 certainly qualifies. It needs subjects that do not move at all...and my collection of miniature cars is ideal for this.

The function revolves around the fact that the Olympus engineers have made the image stabilisation mechanism on the sensor for the new OM-D E-M1 mkII move sideways and up and down by extremely small amounts - pixels - and with great precision.

This allows the camera to present a slightly different portion of the Bayer array to the incoming light over a series of exposures. Multiple images are put into the buffer with slightly different colours for each shot, plus a shot taken to allow the camera's computer to subtract electronic noise. Then they are recombined into one image that contains far more information than could be packed into it with one shot.

The multiple shots are not spaced out much in time. When I pressed the button down on the camera it was done in about a quarter of a second - the electronic shutter inside doing the 5 shots in that time. The lighting was simple tungsten modelling lamps from the Elinchrom studio lights and the camera was left to decide an effective white balance. After the shot went off it needed a couple of seconds to do the computer work inside.

Does it work? Yes it does. Here are two shots of the dashboard on a small Maisto model of a 1961 Volkswagen ( Yes children, dashboards were really that simple...no LCD screens and MP4 players... )  Shot A is the multiple detail shot while shot B is a standard exposure at 1/160 second.

One thing I did notice, though... when I shifted to the detail mode the manual aperture selection for the 25mm f:1.2 lens would not close down past f:8. Normally it can go to f:16, and this is desirable for the extra depth of field it gives. I suspect that it is deliberately limited to prevent diffraction effects through the lens masking the gains produced by the shifting mechanism.

This would make for a real balancing decision when doing close-up shots - they always need more depth of field. Fortunately Olympus also have another technical triumph in their camera to deal with that. Where the current pixel-shifting would be most use would be with setups at a moderate distance. or perhaps even with flat art copying of extreme detail.

Note: the only chance you are going to get to use this feature will be when you are using Pro-grade glass on the front.