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SLR-Gear Reviews Canon 70-200 f4 IS and Olympus E-520 IS

SLR Gear, the reviewing arm of Imaging-Resource for things other than bodies, has apparently begun reviewing IS systems. So far, they’ve hit Canon’s budget L classic, the 70-200 f4 IS, and Olympus’ rather successful E-520 with its in-body IS. Two different IS systems, both toting great and wonderous amazing things. Their conclusions? Neither live up to their full marketing hype, but both seem to do the job they set out to do admirably nonetheless, pulling up to 2.9 (let’s call it 3) stops of sharpness back.

Again, we’d like to remind those of you without much IS experience that it works by countering for how your hands naturally shake at long expsures, IS can’t restore sharpness lost to moving subjects at long shutter speeds. Its use in low light is primarily architectural, if you’re looking to shoot parties and bars you’ll still need higher ISO, faster lenses, or a good flash gun.

Read their findings and whitepapers on IS testing here: http://www.slrgear.com/articles/index.html



“The Wonder of it All” or “Un-Color My World”

I sat down last week and uploaded images, then it got really busy. Really. The next time I got to work on this most impressive post it was almost 5:00 on Wednesday and I had only a minute to get back to it. Really busy, was there a race and 440,ooo extra people in town or what?!?

Anyway, the week before last I went to Florida on vacation and I took both of my Olympus cameras with me. The point and shoot SW1030 was on my hip the entire time I was not sleeping, the E520 and several lenses were brought out several times, but a DSLR is just not as easy to have on you all the time. Both cameras have their unique qualities. The SW1030 (and it’s newer brother the Tough 8000) is a little photo-tank and submarine and can go underwater as far as 33 feet and is still small enough to have on you all of the time. Then there is the interchangable lens DSLR series fron Olympus.color-wheel

My E-520 is a DSLR and takes interchangable lenses and external flashes. One of the features I used the most on vacation is its ability to shoot in B&W. I know, lots of cameras can shoot in B&W, but I don’t know of too many that have Red, Orange, Yellow and Green filter modes built into the software. Here is where Derek would give you a lesson on the old fashion B&W filters and how they affected film images. Suffice it to say that using color filters on B&W film causes the tones closest to the filters color to get lighter, and tones opposite of those colors (on the color wheel we all remember from grade school art class) To get darker). Example, Orange filters will make blue sky darker, green filters will make red items darker (and green ones lighter). There having said that here is a photo I shot using Orange Red and Yellow filters in the Fanning Springs National Park on the Suwannee River in Florida.

Left to Right: Orange filter, Red filter and Yellow filter.

Left to Right: Orange filter, Red filter and Yellow filter.

The differences are subtle but notice how the sky and leaves are much lighter in the yellow, and the darker sky and leaves in the Orange filter.

Now if you have one of those other brand DSLR’s that don’t have built in color filters (for B&W shooting) you can still purchase a screw on filter at you favorite all-purpose camera store like, say Roberts from your favorite sales person like…

Like Sean Connery said in Highlander, “Here endeth the lesson.” Go be happy and make beautiful images. That’s an order.



May Olympus Money

If you have ever read a Roberts Blog, you know that we have a few Olympus Camera devotees here. I have both types of Olympus Digital Cameras myself, one of the Stylus 1030SW shock and waterproof models and one of the DSLR Digital Camera kits as well. My Olympus DSLR is the E-520 and I have several camera accessories as well (macro lens, 40-150 zoom and 75-300 zoom as well as the wireless remote capable F-36′R’ Flash).

If you thinking about buying a new Olympus Digital SLR camera May is the month to do so. Starting Friday May 1st and continuing all month Olympus is offering $100 to $200 instant savings on Olympus bodies and kits starting with the E-520 models all the way up to the Professional E-3 flagship model.

If you have read many Digital camera reviews you already know that Olympus has incorporated many ground-breaking features in their recent model lines. Again if you just search our store blogs for Olympus you will see many of the innovations I mentioned.  With the opportunity to take an additional $100 or even $200 off this could be the extra motivation you need to get a spiffy new Olympus Digital SLR like mine or even better a E-3 like Derek’s.



High ISO vs Image Stabilization

I guess the debate between high ISO (championed in cameras like the D700 Nikon digital SLR cameras or the new 5D Mk II Canon digital SLR cameras) and built-in image stabilization like in Olympus digital cameras (well, the 510/520 series and the E-3, at least), Pentax cameras (like the and Sony digital cameras like their Alpha line) is more important to the enthusiast market than I’d given it credit.

To that end, this is one of the more level-headed articles I’ve read about the two that basically boils down to “they both do their jobs for static subject”. (whether or not you want to stop motion blur is a different and artistic decision, and in that case there’s no substitute for higher shutter speeds via high ISO if you want to counter-act it). Nikon users, don’t write the article off until the second example where he does the test more empirically. The first test is good for showing how different factors contribute to overall image quality, however.

http://theonlinephotographer.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html



This Isn’t Official

This isn’t official, or at least it hasn’t been confirmed as such with us yet, maybe I’ll have a chance to check here in a bit, but I picked this up on the DPReview forums and found corroborating info at Engadget and Gizmodo. It’s the fairly long-awaited mid-level Olympus digital camera, reportedly called the E-30, designed to slot in between the E-3 and the E-520, and compete against the 50D Canon Digital SLR camera and Nikon’s D90 digital SLR camera.

Olympus E-30

Again, I have no official news of this, so I’m with-holding my own comments on it until Roberts gets official word. But, it’s nice to see the announcement scuttle isn’t yet over for the year.



Niftiness Built In

This is the age of feature-lust. Every forum I look on seems to be people bemoaning the absence (or in weird cases the inclusion) of various features which are apparently the Single Most Critical Feature in the World (at least until the next camera comes out with something new). And, if you ask me, the whole sensor noise debate and high ISO has started getting in the way of a lot of casual shooters getting out and getting shots they never would have gotten as little as ten years ago anyway. But, while composing over recording a picture is a post to itself (and one I’m likely to write sometime soon), what I’m trying to get to is instead a mini-summary of all the amazing little joys the digital age has given us which tend to get overlooked in the megapixel/sensor-size race.

Hyper-Program: Easy Quality1. Pentax’s Hyper-Program. Pentax is not exactly the first company to come to most people’s minds when talking cameras, but they certainly have some neat features the rest of the world is missing out on. Like Hyper-Program. It starts out like any other program mode, you select everything except aperture and shutter, the camera picks those. But, that’s where similarities end. Normal cameras have program shift, the Pentax can instead drop you out of P and into either aperture or shutter priority (so you get to decide how to shift the program line.) Push a button and you’re back in program, easy-peasy. And, it gets better: You can pick your program line. It can be normal old vanilla program, or you can pick a mode weighted towards hi-speed, high depth of field, or MTF (maximizing lens sharpness).

Super-Control Panel, My Old Friend2. Olympus’ Super Control Panel. Yes yes, we all know by now I’m biased on this one, but in my defense this feature is why I bought an Olympus digital camera for my first DSLR, and not the Alpha 100, D40, or Rebel XSi. Most cameras will show you your settings on the back LCD. Fewer of them will let you just hit the “OK” button and edit them right there on the spot. (DCResource has a wonderful animation of how this works, go here and scroll about halfway down the page). Coming from the rather-dated Canon AE-1 Program I used in college, the variety of advances present in even entry-level DSLRs was a bit dizzying, and being able to see the setting and change it right there seemed more intuitive than diving through menus for it.

3. Nikon’s In-Camera Processing. Many new Nikon digital cameras, including the new Nikon Coolpix cameras and the D60 and D90, have a wealth of software-driven in-camera editing features. These range from the pedestrian enabling or disabling of their D-Lighting curves to such wild-and-crazy gimmicks as star filters (those of you familiar with the Cokin filter system will remember these). The big write-off for these is that you can do all of this stuff on your computer. Sure, true, but sometimes I don’t want to wait that long, or need to show someone how the picture can be tweaked right there in the field. It’s still definitely something we, collectively as digital shooters, should appreciate more.(I’ll point you towards DPReview this time, look here under “Playback retouching” to see these processing options)

Alright, I know I can write some rather long posts, so I’ll stop there for now. I’ve got another of my (in)famous bokeh posts coming up next, then we’ll talk about more digital goodies and why we should appreciate them more.



Sony Alpha A300

Sometimes cameras come out that suprise you.  Canon and Nikon make amazing cameras and will probably always be “The Big 2″; but there is definitely some competition brewing in the SLR market these days.  Olympus has some fine cameras out there, especially their new E-520.  A great camera for not a lot of bank.  But a big name in the consumer electronics business is trying to make a name for itself in the consumer SLR market.  Here comes Sony.

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