4/3 - The Dead-End System

Several years ago I was a loyal Olympus OM user that felt horribly betrayed by the discontinuance of the OM line. I had purchased a Minolta A1 as a "bridge camera" until price/performance of DSLRs became reasonable. (I still use my A1 for almost 50% of my shots).
Well, it came time to buy a DSLR. I loved the Minolta A1 as well as the Maxxim D7. Well, the D7D came out and I was all set to get it. But ended up getting a bargain-priced Olympus E-1 with 14-54. The 4/3 format was OBVIOUSLY a "dead-end", but the reliability of the camera was already becoming legendary. Minolta became Konica-Minolta and now Sony. If anything, the KM(S) direction was the "dead-end".

Is the 4/3 system a "dead-end"? Maybe, but in the meantime there are a slew of outstanding lenses available and with an OM adaptor, you can use some of the most legendary lenses ever made. I use about a half-dozen all the time, including the excellent Tokina AT-X 100-300/4 zoom which I picked up for around $150.

If 4/3 becomes a "dead-end", you can always sell it and move to something else. Meanwhile, with this "dead-end" system I am taking pictures, like this one, that have HUGE dynamic range requirements with great success.

Or like this one taken with a 25-year-old Zuiko 200/4:

Or this one which is an extremely high-contrast scene, taken with the E-1 with 14-54 zoom:

Meanwhile, giving me compatibility with the old lenses which are still used on film cameras (OM bodies) to produce images like this one (35/shift lens):

If it is a dead-end system, well, I guess we're all "terminal" anyway.

Weekend that was

Some weekends tend to be busy, others are insanely busy. Saturday started out staining the deck and ended up shooting a lovely outdoor wedding along a lakeshore. Sunday afternoon involved a portrait session and interior shoot.

For the wedding, I used mixed formats, shooting both digital and film. The bride was most appreciative of that since she has a definite bias towards film. Some people appreciate grain, I guess. :)

This week's photography activities will include sending in several big reprint orders, a proof-book order and the images which will be submitted to the state fair. I'm just glad that I don't have to print them myself--I'd never have a life.

The majority of the wedding pictures were taken with the E-1 with 14-54, but I did shoot duplicates of critical shots with Portra 160NC in the OM-2S, and also used the 200/4 and Tokina AT-X 100-300 F4. The above picture was taken with the Tokina.

Choosing to learn

I was asked "what's the deal with all the Tokina AT-X 100-300 F4 images? What about the rest of your kit?" Good question. There are several reasons:

1. It's a new lens to me. With anything new, there is going to be a bit of an infatuation with it. Isn't this normal behavior?

2. I'm struggling with the lens. It isn't quite fitting me right. What I am doing is forcing myself to use a tool until I'm either totally satisfied that it was a bum purchase or I've become adequately skilled in the usage of it.

3. I'm able to take pictures using the longer focal lengths that I wasn't able to before. There's been a lot of pent-up demand.

4. I haven't bothered telling you about the hundreds of other pictures taken with the 14-54 zoom as part of normal usage.

This reminds me of the story about the sea captain and his first-officer. The first-officer was an excellent seaman and took his job seriously. Upon return to home port he was going to be promoted to captain. However, one night he partied a little too hard and the next morning was still a bit off. The captain wrote in the log "First-officer drunk today." The first-officer pleaded with him to not do that as it would ruin his career. The captain responded "It's the truth, isn't it?" Several days later, the first-officer wrote in the log "Captain sober today."

Ribbit

My nine-year-old had a special photographic project to do for an upcoming event. This afforded us the opportunity to spend quality time together with the cameras. Since her project had a water theme, we sought out local ponds and streams.

She was using the Minolta A1 and I had the Tokina AT-X 100-300 F4 mounted on the Olympus E-1. The scene around the pond was pretty good and she was taking some excellent photos. It is an incredible feeling to see your child excel and take an interest in something that means so much to yourself. We had a wonderful time. As we were walking along the edge of the water we heard a splash and looking down saw this frog. For the next ten minutes we photographed it getting closer and closer. Some of her shots were getting me a little embarrassed as she was doing such an excellent job.

I figured out what was going on--she was using the live-view displayof the A1 and was able to get right down to the water level. This was my clue--I was shooting from too high up.

Extending the Tokina all the way out to 300mm, I focused it as close as it would go. This picture resulted. (as usual, clicking on the image opens up a larger version). This is a good justification for the Olympus E-330. Live view with an articulating viewfinder would make these low-level shots much easier than sticking your ear in the mud.

Extreme Telephoto Flower Pictures

When we think of nature and flower pictures, "Macro" comes to mind. How close can we get to the subject? How BIG in the viewfinder can we make it? For that we invest in macro lenses, extension tubes and all sorts of other paraphenalia. However, there is another way.

These pictures were taken with the Tokina AT-X 100-300 F4 zoom mounted on the Olympus E-1. For those not familiar with the E-system, it is a reduced frame system with the imaging sensor about 1/2 the size of a 35mm film camera. This means that the image is essentially "magnified" 2X over the equivelent focal length in our 35mm film cameras. The 100-300 zoom now becomes the equivelent of a 200-600 F4 zoom.



The top picture is of a young maple tree. During RAW conversion in RawShooter Essentials 2006, I altered the white-balance to emphasise the greans and turned the saturation to zero. The shadow and highlight contrasts were adjusted to achieve the tonal density curve I wanted. The focal length was set to around 250mm.

The second image is of a flowering bush that had this branch sticking through the railing slats of a foot-bridge. Focal length was all the way out to 300mm.



This final image is with the lens focused down all the way to the minimum focus-distance and at 300mm.

An extreme telephoto is usually not the typical tool used for photographing flowers, but it is useful some of the time.

The Disappointment of the "New Shiny"

I'll admit that I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that "if only I had a new xxxxx" I could be a better photographer. We all probably do. This week's adventure was using the newly acquired Tokina AT-X 100-300 F4 zoom lens on the E-1 to photograph auto racing.

Before I go any further, let me just say this: This lens fills a gap in my coverage and has been much needed for a long time. The price of acquisition was low enough to not be an issue and I consider it a bargain at twice the cost. It has tremendous strengths, as well as a few weeknesses.
In auto racing, the typical problem facing most people is getting close enough to the action. Without being able to get trackside access the need for long lenses is desirable. However, in my case, I was able to get trackside access. This presents a couple of problems. One is being able to adjust focal lengths quickly and being able to handhold the camera.

My lenses I've been using have been the 14-54 DZ as well as a couple of old Zuikos, the 100/2.8 and the 200/4. Both of these old lenses are very good performers wide-open, contrasty and have lovely bokeh. They are also compact and lightweight. This last characteristic is probably the most useful feature.

I found it difficult to hold the Tokina steady. It just seemed a bit awkward to hold and get sharp images with. I know the lens WILL perform fine, the tests prove that, but getting it to perform is a function of how it is used. For the entire weekend I got only a handful of images that I'm truely satisfied with in terms of sharpness. And the bulk of those images were taken between 100 and 200mm. In comparison, the Zuikos yielded vast quantities of sharp images. The picture included with this post is one of the sharp ones. (Taken at 300mm, F5.6, handheld at night--maybe I'm expecting too much?)

On Saturday I mentioned to another photographer how I was struggling with the new lens and that I was tempted to come back on Sunday with my old ones. He discouraged me from doing so because what I most likely was suffering from was just getting used to the new lens. He was probably right and I did leave the old lenses home.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do the next race event. I'm tempted to bring my old lenses along just-in-case, but in the meantime, I probably should go photograph passing cars on the interstate to practice more.

At least the AT-X satisfies the "glass-envy" situation in the media center when the biggest lens I had was smaller than the smallest one they had.

Iowa Speedway, Part Three

This is the last installment from the Iowa Speedway weekend. The final race, pictured here, is of the NASCAR East and West championship series. The first picture is for Walt--37 was packing.

More passing action to the entrance of Turn Three. These pictures were taken with the E-1 and 14-54 Zoom.

Photographing from Turn Three. I wasn't very pleased with the tires sitting there and didn't like my options as far as "escape path" was concerned. A few minutes after this photograph was taken, a safety crew came by and shoo'd us out of the tires. Duh. Worse part is that any mass multicar accident on the backstretch would result in an impact right into that concrete barrier.

The catch-fence fully circles the track and there are several cutouts for photographers. Two cutouts are for television cameras and are quite long, but occupied by that huge lens pictured in the previous post. The rest of the cutouts have these nifty drop gates. They're just a touch small and you have to straddle the steel support braces for the SAFER barrier. When a car impacts the wall you feel it. A high-speed impact will move the barrier a foot or so. Those are styrofoam blocks between the steel wall and the supports.

This cutout was on the exit of Turn Four. The previous dayI got a few shots from here, but the debris was pelting me pretty bad because the cars were running a lower line and the tire bits had more of a chance to get up in the air. Sunday's race, they were usually right up against the wall (and hitting it too), so the debris blew a little bit differently. Still, my face was speckled. All shots here were taken while wearing safety sunglasses. The below shot was the final pass for the lead. Kevin Harvick (white car) and Joey Logano were dualing the entire race.

Oops. You can go two-wide and three-wide in the corners, but four-wide means that something ugly is going to happen.

Race winner, Joey Logano doing a Polish Victory Lap.

It was a fun and productive weekend. I got to try out the new Tokina AT-X 100-300 F4 lens. Overall, it didn't do bad (as you can see in the above picture), but the number of "keepers" from it are limited. Most of the problem is due to the length and weight of the lens makes it harder to hold steady, but the push-pull zooming action means that you are constantly fighting focus. Most successful pictures from the weekend were taken with the 14-54.

When shooting with the 14-54, I used AF-C. Since the battery-grip was installed, the tracking/focus speed was spot-on. Rarely did the camera ever have a problem with focusing. Even when shooting from turn one, where there was a barrier between me and the action right up to where I would take the picture, the lens would snap into perfect focus the moment the panning motion cleared the barrier.

Iowa Speedway Action Part 1

I've survived the first set of practices and exclusively shot with the Tokina 100-300. It is a bit of a challenge to get used to a new lens when it's of this size and shape. Small wideangles are much easier to get to grips with--especially when chasing vehicles going 180 MPH.

I'm shooting RAW+JPG (1024x768 1:8) and uploading the JPEGS to this blog without any further editing--these are straight out of the camera.

Some of the best shots are through the cutouts in the fence on the turns.

A little bit of experimentation with the zoom function of the lens.

Weekend at the Races

Saturday and Sunday I will be out at the Iowa Speedway photographing the racing action there. The ASA Late Model Series and USST (United States Super Trucks) will hold races Saturday while Sunday is the NASCAR Grand National Featherlite Series race.

I will be testing a wireless communications network so I'll be photographing and posting updates to this blog and my on-line gallery during select times during the race weekend. I do have media credentials for full access. Please check back here during the weekend for updates from the speedway itself.

Primary camera system for the weekend is the brand new Canon 1d Mark III with a Nikon D2X and D2Hs as backups.

Not.

I'll be using the Olympus E-1 with my newly acquired Tokina AT-X 100-300 F4 lens. It's not only a good setup, but it's completely paid for!

Ken

Delamination

I got a nice suprise Saturday when the Post Office delivered a package containing the Tokina AT-X 100-300 F4 zoom. It wasn't expected until Monday. I definitely wasn't complaining, though. Within minutes I gathered up my daughters and the cameras and we headed out to the prairie where there were some bison (buffalo) roaming about.

All of the bison were shedding fur, but a couple of them had that distinct "homeless" look about them.

Not trying to judge them for their appearance and obvious lack of proper hygene, we strove to get to know them a little better. Alas, no soup-kitchens out there--just a lot of grass. They seemed to be pretty content to roam. No, I won't get into whether or not they have to pay "roaming charges."

The Tokina performed remarkably well. This lens is contrasty and sharp (see test link in previous post). All three images in this post were taken with it. I did have some troubles with stabilizing the lens at first, but that's more a function of getting to know how the equipment balances in the hands. Today, I handheld the camera/lens without a monopod or tripod and was able to satisfactorily hold the rig steady enough to shoot at 1/500 without blurs.

I'm sure the bison will be much happier in the summertime heat once all that winter fur is shed. Too bad about the flies.

Tokina AT-X 100-300 F4 Lens Test

I tested the resolution of the Tokina AT-X 100-300 F4 zoom lens. This is the older style manual-focus lens with the combination push-pull focus-ring.

The Tokina is the only constant aperture 100-300 zoom made and has an outstanding reputation for contrast and sharpness. I just acquired my copy of it for use on the OM system as well as my E-1. As per my normal procedure, I test each lens upon acquisition for my own purposes to know where the lens best performs.

To access the test charts, go to http://image66media.com/Gallery/atx01a

Please do not copy or repost these images.

In a nutshell, wide-open, this lens is a touch soft, but still usable. F8 is the "sweet spot" for the lens and achieves sensor-max resolution on the E-1. F22-32 are heavily affected by diffraction. F5.6-16 would be considered the usable range for this lens.

Ken