A Familiar Face - Olympus Micro 4/3 Mirrorless Combination

Note to readers: You got a surprise yesterday if you were reading this column..the first of an Olympus series was published on Sunday. This is because the writer was adjusting the flux capacitor on his 1:18th scale model of a Delorean and it fired off - thus jumping back a day. I've taped over it and it should be safe now... Olympus Om-D E-M10 camera and the Zuiko ED 12-50mm f:3.5 - 6.3 EZ lens have been with us for several years. In the lineup of the Olympus micro 4/3 cameras the E-M10 was intended as the slightly simpler body that accompanied the original E-M1. The lens was intended as a general purpose zoom for the cameras with two surprising sets of features added - electric zoom and macro shooting. They sold, as did the original E-M1 cameras, like hot cakes. I remember pouring maple syrup over them on the display shelves as fast as we put them out and it was a right sticky mess, I can tell you. But then Canadians pour maple syrup over EVERYTHING… Coming away from that image, we have the OM-D E-M10 body and the 12-50mm lens being offered as reconditioned stock in the Camera Electronic shops. I checked out a set from the stores and went about running it through its paces at the Little Studio. I did so with gusto, I might add - I knew that the micro 4/3 system was a very good choice for my specialty and I suspected that the 12-50mm would be rewarding. As I said in yesterday’s post, reconditioned does not mean defective or limited. Quite the opposite. In the case of this Olympus combination it has as much or more capability as my standard mirrorless camera system, and in some respects is slightly better in a technical sense… The camera rewards careful study of the CD that is included with the box… ( Oh, by the way, I carefully looked to see that every piece of accessory that I would expect to get was there in the box - and it was. ) And it did not get it - I launched out cold turkey to see if it would work. The resulting JPEG shots proved that it did. In my defence, I do not have a computer at the studio to read the CD - but I did fill in the gaps in my understanding when I got back home. The chief thing to watch for is the way that Olympus split the command structure for basic things like image size and recording mode between the menu button and the touch screen. The cameras is one with a flipping screen, and this means it is perfect for the waist-level shooter. In the studio the screen was in constant use as opposed to the viewfinder since the camera sat at table level. This is a godsend for older workers as getting up and down from the floor on your knees is a sure recipe for a sore week. Note that when you are using the waist-level option there is enough clearance while you are glancing down to allow the screen to show all the time - the eye-level sensor is not always blacking out the thing when it moves close to your waist. ( Or, when you retire and your waist moves toward the screen…). The triggering of the flashes was done with the regular Elinchrom Skyport. I did try the trick of using the pop-up flash of the E-M10 to fire the slave cells but not successfully - it has the TTL pre-flash thing going and the 12-50mm lens is so long that it casts a shadow on the lower part of the subject. Note that for field use, the ergonomics of the waist-level finder and the long lens are perfect. You fire the camera with your right thumb instead of forefinger and then use that same thumb to adjust the fore and aft wheels and run the replay button. So how good IS that 12-50mm lens anyway? See tomorrow.