I got the opportunity to try out this micro 4/3 mirrorless camera. It’s an older model, so the newer equivalent will have video and other features.

 

 

I went straight to manual to see what it could do.

 

 

It has one dial on the front that is either the shutter or aperture. You just press it once to switch and press it again to switch back. That was pretty easy to pick up.  I didn’t do much manual reading to test this out, I wanted to see what I could quickly figure out.

 

 

There is an AF’AE lock button that I unsuccessfully tried to set to back button focus. I have become totally hooked on BBF and become extremely irritated when I can’t decouple the focus from the shutter.  Just last March I thought I could never learn how to use back button focus and now I’m hooked.

Changing the ISO is easily accessed by clicking the top button on the 4-way buttons on the back of the camera.

It only has one card slot. I prefer two just incase one card corrupts.

 

 

I was not able to figure out how to have one focus point that I could toggle around. Very annoying, the camera was “thinking” and randomly choosing what it “thought “ was the right thing to focus on.

Then Molly said she’d model for me, and the camera thought I’d like some hairs under her chin to be the main focus of this photo. Grrr.

Molly didn’t like the way she looked even though I promised if she’d give me another chance or 20 I might get the camera figured out. She left.

 

 

Then I tried the girls in the pasture.

It seemed soft and mushy. Might be the kit lens, might’ve been me, I’m not sure but I was at f/16 so there’s no reason anything shouldn’t be in focus.

They took one look at me and left.

 

 

So then I decided I’d try out the sunflare. Shooting into the sun, I discovered I had a lot of finger prints on the lens!! Hmm, maybe I should’ve cleaned the lens first.

 

 

This little camera brackets 5 shots! That’s better than a lot of DSLRs, I’m impressed.

 

 

I also like how light it is for a camera with interchangeable lenses.

Would I buy it?

Not unless I could figure out how to select a single focus point. Which might be possible, I’m just not sure. And properly set up back button focus.

The battery life was not impressive, but this is a rather old camera in camera years. I think camera years are like dog years.

The next camera I want to review is the Sony a6000. I think there’s a lot to that little camera. Stay tuned.

 

I got a flash. I don’t know how to use a flash. This could be ugly!

 

 

I got this inexpensive Chinese flash that works on Nikon or Canon cameras. It’s only manual. But I figured that would be good because then I’d have to learn what power to set my flash at or suffer ugly consequences.

Be prepared for ugly!

 

 

So here’s what happened. I tried under exposing by a bit and setting the flash at 1/4 power. Nope! Too much light.

 

 

Then I learned about “recycle time”. No point in rapid firing because you get a no flash photo like this. It can’t recycle that fast.

 

 

I’d already learned what “200 sync speed” was. When I tried to fire the flash with the shutter set at 1/400 sec and I got another black photo which I won’t bore you with. But if the shutter is too fast the flash won’t fire and that’s a fact.

 

 

Next I tried the flash at 1/16th power and I got closer for a head shot.

 

 

Then I stopped to pay my model with a dog biscuit.  She charges by the pose.

 

 

ISO100   85mm  f/2.2   1/160 sec    flash 1/16th power

 

 

ISO100   85mm  f/2.2   1/160 sec    flash 1/64th power

 

 

ISO100   85mm  f/2.2   1/160 sec    flash 1/64th power

 

 

 

 

 

Eek, to much light because I got closer but remember to compensate for it.

 

 

ISO 320   85mm  f/2.2   1/160 sec    flash 1/64th power

Now that’s ugly.

 

 

ISO 320   85mm  f/2.2   1/160 sec    flash 1/64th power

So I backed up quite a bit and it was a lot better.

 

I’ve heard about back button focus (BBF) for some time. A number of photographers with amazing work say once they switched their cameras over to BBF they never went back. Last year I tried it once for about two minutes, I hated it because my hands didn’t know what to do without slowly thinking out each step first and by then the moment was gone. I insisted my thumb was too short and this back button focus thing was not for me!

 

 

Then in a forum the dreaded BBF topic came up again so I decided to just read a little more about it even though I have short thumbs.

I read an article by Steve Perry and watched this video explaining it.

Setting my camera up this time seemed super easy and was done in a matter of seconds. Maybe it’s ‘cause I know my camera better now. Last time it took me forever to find the button to change the type of focus.

 

 

So the next day I took my camera out with it set to BBF and then I heard it, I only had time to point and shoot. I looked at the lcd screen and muttered “It’s not my fault, it’s the back button focus”

That didn’t make the photo get into focus but it made me feel better for a minute even though it was my fault because I hadn’t pressed the button on the back to tell the camera to focus.

Then I heard Steve Perry saying “Give it a try for a couple weeks.” So I resisted the urge to change it back to the way I was used to with the half press of the shutter to get the camera to focus.

 

 

 

So next I got some low maintenance models

 

 

They were great,

 

 

We tried a few different locations.

 

 

Meanwhile, I’m behind the camera muttering “Focus first, shoot second. Oh, my, this does work!

 

 

Then I tried some challenging models. They had the nerve to say that dreaded “You can just photoshop out all my wrinkles right?”

Um, nooo.

 

I will be giving this a serious test and will let you know  in a few weeks if I thinks it’s great or switch back and say Thank goodness I’m done with that experiment!

 

I have never cleaned the sensors on my cameras since I’ve owned them.

1. I never thought about it.

2. When I changed lenses outside I just held my breath sure that that would somehow keep any dust from getting in there.

Then I read how to see if your sensor has stuff on it by simply taking a photo at f/22 of the sky or a white piece of paper and you see dark spots or are just finding yourself cloning out spots in the sky of photos shot at f/22 or what ever your lens’s highest aperture is.

Well that was me. So I took my cameras to get their sensors cleaned.

 

 

Mike was awesome and cleaned sensors for those of us who were too chicken to do it our selves. He started out by putting on gloves.

 

 

Then he wiped everything down.

 

 

He then locked up the mirror.

 

 

Took this blower thing

 

 

And blew it out careful to hold the camera up so the dust will fall out and not back in.

 

 

Then he took this  looking thing, yeah, a magnifying glass sort of thing with a light

 

 

to look at the sensor and see if the blower thing did the trick.

 

 

Joe wasn’t chicken, he did his camera himself.

 

 

Next they got out a brush wiper thing,

 

 

sensor cleaner

 

 

and put drop on the wiper brush.

 

 

Mike carefully wiped it across just the sensor.

 

 

 

Then he used something called a lens pen that looks like it’s got a weird eraser on the end.

 

 

I think it’s sorta like a mini carpet sweeper and supposed to pick up stuff.

 

 

Got the blower back out

 

 

Then he used what looked to me to be an ordinary paint brush and brushed out any thing left in there.

 

 

 

Put the lens back on, took a look at the sky and we were good to go.

I’m still doing photoadayjuly but have added a new twist for myself. The Experimental cook mentioned that she only had a point and shoot camera, my first thought was good pictures can be taken with point and shoot cameras too, just do it. Then I decided to do this week with a point and shoot too!

This sunset was on my drive home, I had both cameras with me, I pulled over, resisted the urge to grab the big camera and just took the little point and shoot and the tripod. There are no manual options on it so I experimented with the sunset, mountain and fireworks settings. Fireworks seemed to capture the colors of the sky best.

 

Here’s the list if you want to join late. It’s lots of fun. Big camera, little camera, phone camera, any kind!

 

This is the little point and shoot that is now joining photoadayjuly.

 

Top photos are from my DSLR and bottom the P&S.

 

Uh, I never did get a finger photo with the DSLR. This two camera thing can get a little confusing.

Top:  on Aperture priority with ISO set to 200    f/4.5  1/1600 sec  ISO-200

Bottom: Point and shoot on auto  f3.5 1/25sec  ISO-64

 

I have a bad habit of over editing photos. It comes and goes, sometimes I stay on the wagon for a while and can control myself but every now and then I learn about some new fun way to edit photos and it’s all down hill from there. Here PicMonkey got the best of me. Free online photo editor, nothing to install on your computer, makes collages, add text, textures, frames, scrapbook-like overlays and borders, white balance, temperature adjustments and lots of adjustable presets. Way too much fun!

 

Top  f2.8   1/500 sec  ISO- 400

Bottom   f/5    1/25sec  ISO- 100

 

I know this one is late but I had to include it. This little yellow chair is the same little yellow chair that my aunt sat on for her picture so many years ago. My aunt is now a grandma to some  grandkids who are just a cute as she was way back then.

Top: on Aperture priority  f/4    1/320 sec  ISO-200

Bottom:  on  the macro setting with the flower symbol f/5.3 1/200 sec ISO-64

 

Looking forward to next week, hope you are too! I have no idea what I’m going to do for any of them!

What if 9 o’clock comes and goes twice and I can’t think of anything to take a picture of? AAHHH!

 

---