Olympus PEN E-PL8...Part One

If you touch me there again, I shall screen...

And while you struggle with that, I hasten to add that I am talking about the new Olympus Pen E-PL8 camera. It is the first of the Photokina 2016 items that has come to the Little Studio for review - and it is a delight.

The announcement at Köln this year has already been seen on some YouTube clips and Facebook pages, but it makes a considerable difference to what you feel when you hold the camera in hand. It is very solidly built for a mirror-less camera and gives an immediate impression of quality. The kit you are seeing is supplied with the 14-42mm f:3.5-5.6 EZ zoom lens and is targeted at general users and travellers. And flower shooters. And jeweller shooters...

Aww, let's face it - it's targeted at you.

The tech sheet is impressive; 3.0" LCD, 16 MPxl, 3-axis image stabilisation, 81-point AF, 100/25600 ISO, full HD video, etc. Those of us with a bent for figures will be well served by the official Olympus Australia web page for this camera - it has a full list of the specs. Those of us with a bent forefinger that is itching to try the camera out will just charge up a battery and charge out of the house...

But pause...you have to get into it first. Olympus have always been keen packers - they employ origamatic skills to find how to ship delicate devices in cardboard boxes with a minimum of plastic foam. I think it is a case of self-discipline for them, or a contest in the factory. Of late, they are making it easier for the customers to actually get into the darn box, and we are grateful.

The target audience may not read the instruction booklet that comes with the camera. With that in mind, the makers have preset the thing to an intelligent setting and put as much basic automation as they have to work. The tourist can clap the lens on, the battery and card in, and head out of the motel door within the first hour...and bring back excellent results. The more sophisticated photography readers can wander for days in the art, special effects, and manual settings and get results that are nearly as good.

Note the march of progress as evinced by the LCD screen design - it is the main view-finding and aiming mechanism for this camera and has been taken to a sophisticated level to do so. It swings up, out, back, and down under the body and makes the lens' view available at the front of the camera. This is to enable the photographer who is taking a selfie to see what they are doing.

Better yet - as the camera has haptic control - ie, a touch screen - and you can see that selfie image from the front as you grip and grin, you get precise narcissism. The addition of pathos, bathos, art, or angst is entirely up to you - the E-PL8 will capture it faithfully. It will also deliver it to your smart device - phone or tablet - through Wifi if you want to bedevil your friends with the images.

Should you wish to be an eye-level shooter, you can also purchase an Olympus electronic viewfinder that slots into the hot shoe and gives you what the lens sees...indeed, as it is a mirror-less micro 4/3 camera it gives you what the sensor sees.

But how does what some people might think as an entry-level* camera perform out in the field? Read our next weblog column.

* Entry level? Entry into a world of sophisticated design...

See the Olympus PEN E-PL8 with 14-42mm lens on the Camera Electronic website
230 Stirling St, Perth
2/324 Murray St, Perth

The Best Of Everything

We have just come down off the Photokina 2016 high and are sitting with our heads in our hands. The  lucky ones who went to see the show have hangovers, sore feet, and credit card statements to deal with. The rest of us have our hopes, fears, desires, and aversions to consider - all fuelled by the internet reports of new equipment. We'll need to keep our wits about us in the coming months.

It is not the fact that there will be new equipment coming that will stress us - new equipment is always entering the market, just as old equipment leaves it - it will be how we feel we must react to it.

Feel? React? What the heck is this? A camera column or a new-age forum? Well, follow along and you'll see what I mean. I'll be honest with you and you should be too...

Photokina 2016 will raise your level of desire. It was meant to do that. No matter what the organisers ever say, all trade shows are there to cause people to want to trade. This is natural and healthy.

Stimulating that desire is done by showing new equipment, processes, or services. If the advertisers who work for the manufacturers are lucky, they catch you just on the cusp of change - when you are about to switch cameras, lenses, flashes, or programs. Then they show you the new gear and away you go. Sale.

If you are not at that launch point they have it a bit harder - they must convince you that the goods that they want to sell are better than the goods you own. In the case of digital equipment, they do this by additional performance or new features. Again, if they can get you up the slope of desire to the tipping point...sale.

The toughest thing that the Signal Corps* ever has to do is rouse the person who is happy with the equipment they already own to some feeling of discontent. Dissing something is a tricky business if you are the same firm that sold the original camera and lens to the photographer...and are now faced with selling a replacement well before the old one wears out. Because - and make no mistake about this - the equipment lasts far longer than they wish your contentment to last.

Ouch.

Well, I told you I was going to tell the truth. Now be truthful to yourself. You really do want the best -everybody does. But the best is ever-changing. It can shift within a particular manufacturer's lineup and it can jump between different makers. It rarely, if ever, settles upon one item from one maker.

It never is the same best for every photographer. One little change in your needs, likes, colour sense, clients, or business model whisks the concept away to another perch. Likewise your training, skill, intelligence, and personality all change the best. And then there is the fiscal elephant in the corner that we never discuss...

So you really should do a bit of self-analysis in the coming weeks as the Photokina reports flesh out. Do not be too hasty to judge, and in particular refrain from pronouncing sentence upon anything until you actually see it. If it is not best for you, don't assume that it is not best for others...and vice versa.

Wait until you have the item to hand to make a decision - by all means review other people's opinions on the net, but remember that the net is the same channel that brings you alien bat children in caves and the break-up of Hollywood marriages...

Make up your own mind.

* Signal Corps = Advertising Department

Photokina OP

Just monitoring the net in my jammies...

Looks like we are going to have the pleasure of a Fujifilm medium format camera and a line of lenses dedicated to it. Think in terms of a larger version of an X-T2 and you'll get the shape.

A new OM-D EM1 MkII is in the offing as well, Very fast and packed with processor power.

Metz have made a compact TTL flash for a number of the systems - the M 400. Metal hot shoe foot - you beauty!

Three new Sigma lenses - an 85 1.4 Art, 12-24 Art, and 50mm f:4 Sport. WooHoo for the 500...

New Olympus Pen E-PL8 as a fashion and entry-level shooter. Brown leather variant with silver lens looks nice. Their new 25 f:1.2 Pro lens looks nice too, but on an entirely different plane of existence - the biggest little lens you've ever seen, and touted to be perfect. A prime the size of a medium zoom.

A new Sony a99 with 42 megapixel sensor.

A screen and a half of new Panasonic cameras.

And a "Concept Car" camera from Hasselblad. Looks vaguely like the old 500 film series but has a lot of new thinking on it. Fun to look at, fun to contemplate.

And there'll be more as the day goes on. Oh to be in Köln now that the camera fields are blooming...

Looking forward to the management's report when they return - hopefully with a carton of pamphlets from all the trade stands. You can do a great deal of reverse speculation with an advertising pamphlet from a trade fair - they often are prepared in advance and the advertising department doesn't talk to the engineering department so you can read up what might have been as well as what may come. The staff at the trade show are there in the middle with the public in their face and the facts as the actually are...

Heading image: They're nice jammies.

DP Review Pokes At The New Leica Cameras...

Deprived - as yet - of pictures of Saul, Howard, and Domenic at the Photokina, we have had to turn to DP Review to see what they make of the new Leica cameras. They have a couple of hands-on features on today's listing that are well worth the look.

Of course we have seen the Leica official site and press releases - that was yesterday - but what we miss from the official pictures is a sense of size. DP Review has real people's hands holding the gear and we can get an idea of what it really looks like. And they say things directly...

For insance: the new Leica M Series 60 camera is heavy. No wonder - it is made of stainless steel, like a MiG 25. Must have been some swearing in German in the factory when they made the steel bodies - it is a difficult material to work with. Probably also explains why they're only making 600 of them. Apart from the collectible rarity investment value...the dies and tools probably wore out after beating 600 steel bodies into shape. There are more reasons than you would think. BTW - apparently while you cannot see what you took there is a battery check button on the top plate so you are not totally in the dark out in the field. Unless it is a dark field...

The M-A has gotten a sterling review, as well it should. Surprisingly, it has also come out as the cheapest entry-level M model. As I said in yesterday's blog, this is a glorious way to go back to 35mm film, should you so desire. Clap a 50mm Summicron into the hole in the front and go out and see the world. If I were at all confident of living long enough to get value from this body I would do just this...but the Leica M will long outlive me. Look at how good the original M3 cameras are doing right now.

Final note for DP is a posting on the same day that looks at the X series Leica cameras - the new lens fitting and new cosmetic appearance. In this class of LCD camera these are certainly the most attractive and stylish that we have seen, and we look forward to seeing them in actuality when they get here.

APOcalypse Now....with Leica

I love the smell of Leica in the morning. Do you know what it smells like? It smells like optical victory...

Here's the précis of announcements as of yesterday from the folks at Wetzlar. You can go to their own website and get to see the new stuff with their promotional blurbs. Think what you wish about some of the offerings, they do seem to have got interesting concepts. These all seem to be new - and will be available now or in the near future:


1. Leica M-Edition 60...imagine a Leica M digital camera with a new jazzy covering and a lot less engraving on the top. Now imagine the back of it with the old round ISO reminder dial that we saw on the M3. No screen. No navigation wheel. Records only RAW DNG. Only 600 to be made. Very likely the same price as my Suzuki motor car. Whoa, Nellie...

2. Leica MP...pro-oriented M digital camera with no red dot but a lot of tougher features.

3. Leica M-A...ALL mechanical Leica 35mm film camera - evocation of the classic Leica M series. No meter. If you can guess exposure, sell your other gear to buy this one. It is superb.

4. Leica X...a lot like the body shape of the X-vario but with a fixed focal length lens similar the X1 and X2. Darned elegant.

5. Leica X-E...an even more fancy finished X2.

6. Leica D-Lux 6...our beloved and well-respected D-lux with a little change to the front ring. Is that a 4/3 sized sensor in there?

7. Leica V-Lux...the safari cam par excellence now has 4K video and a 25mm-400mm equivalent lens and wil shoot at 12 fps.

8. Cases...Schedoni, Aneas, and Artist and Artisan now have elegant solutions to carry Leica cameras and Leica are prepared to mention them with their premium products. How now, Herr Benser?

9. APO-Vario-Elmar-T 55mm-135mm f:3.5-4.5...T-system longer zoom in 2015.

10. Super-Vario-Elmar-T 11mm-23mm f:3.5-4.5...T-system wider zoom in 2015.

11. Noctilux-M 50mm f:0.95...Massive available-light lens now in silver finish.

12. Summilux-M 35mm f:1.4 ASPH...available light mild wide in silver finish.

13. Summarit-M 35mm f:2.4 ASPH... small light mild wide.

14. Summarit-M 50mm f:2.4...small light normal.

15. Summarit-M 75mm f:2.4...small light portrait.

16. Summarit-M 90mm f:2.4...small light short tele.

There are probably a lot more salient features about each of these new products that we will learn about as time goes on. You can be assured that Leica lenses work.

Photokina Is Coming - Start the Rumour Mills

Photokina is coming in September. Köln will be preparing now, making sure that the fire lanes are free of interference and the barricades that filter the tourists into the selling zones are properly braced. Water cisterns will be filled and the field hospital attendants will be laying out dressings.

It is not too early to rev up the rumour mills and engage the clutches. We want to make sure that the level of despair is high enough amongst the camera enthusiasts to ensure a lively trade. Some may peak early and have to be confined to a low diet and a canvas waistcoat but that happens whenever the European summer comes on any way.

Rumour 1.  Sony Will Make A Medium Format Camera based On A Minolta Autocord TLR. This is a beauty if only for the mental picture of someone peering down into a waist-level finder. Actually, that would be cool - at least with a plain old folding WL finder you got a bit of shading from side light.

Rumour 2.  Lomo will send hit squads of special troops to seize the nearest camera manufacturer on the grounds that several of the employees can speak Russian. No-one will do a darn thing about it.

Rumour 3. Krupp will issue a 100-year commemorative shell for their 420mm howitzer. It will be available in chrome or black and will have " Siege of Liege and Namur" engraved on the nose. Buyers are cautioned not to drop it on the fuse as this voids the warranty and about three city blocks...

Rumour 4. The French photographers will mount an exhibition of the decisive moment as soon as they decide when it is.

Rumour 5.  Unsatisfied still with cameras that have micro-projectors, two LCD screens, pet smile detection, and built-in schoolgirl photo-bombers, the Japanese Photographic industry will introduce a new class of camera that contains internal memory of every scene in the world. When you point it at your subject it compares what you are about to do with what a trained professional has already done and if your framing and composition is identical it allows you to press the button. If not, a spike shoots up out of the hand grip and pokes you. Photographers get better quickly.

Rumour 6.  All production of new lenses will cease until you buy all the old ones. This means you, slacker. Get out your money.

Rumour 7. Nikon will take over all Canon factories. Canon will take over all Pentax factories. Pentax will take over all Sony factories. Sony will take over all Nikon factories. Then the music will stop and we'll all have cake. Lots and lots of cake.

 I hope this will enable you to get into the mood of the summer. Those of you who plan to travel to Sarajevo looking for Austrian royalty will already be on beam. These 100-year anniversaries can really go with a bang.