New Camera
Derek Smith • 9 June 2020
Old Market Hall, Louth
Photo By: Derek Smith
Old Market Hall, Louth (centre weighted metering)
Photo By: Derek Smith
St James' Church, Louth
Photo By: Derek Smith
St James' Church, Louth (close up)
Photo by: Derek Smith
As many readers will know I’ve recently bought a new camera, the Olympus OM-D E-M5 III, this is a Micro Four Thirds system camera with a 20mp sensor. The camera is moisture, dustproof, and will work to -40c (although I most certainly wouldn’t).
As any reader will know having a new camera entails a steep learning curve, getting acquainted with the camera, and customising the controls takes quite a while. As an example on the front of the camera, beside the lens, is a “Preview” button, I have reprogrammed this button to control the “AF Points”, one push of the button now displays the current AF point setting, and using the front dial allows me to scroll through the options. As an example of this I was recently trying to photograph young grandchildren, as anyone who has ever tried to photograph young running children, it is very difficult to get accurate focus. Initially I was in C-AF, with a single focus point, and missing focus on a lot of shots. Using the reprogrammed “Preview” button I was able to switch the focus points to a 3x3 centre grid and select C-AF TR (continuous tracking AF) from the Super Control Panel, a simple change of settings which enabled me to improve my focus on the moving subjects.
Another feature that I’ve learned about the camera is the light metering. On the Sony changing the metering from evaluative to centre weighted metering never seemed to make much of a difference, on the Olympus so very different, a dark subject against a bright sky, birds in flight, buildings with a bright background will look brighter with the centre weighted metering, and a helpful circle is displayed onscreen to display the metering area.
In use the camera feels great in the hand, with all the controls readily accessible, the shutter action sound is quiet, a soft “click click”. The flip out screen is so helpful, most of the time I have the screen folded back to the camera and I use the viewfinder, but when I need to use the screen for photographing close to the ground or above my head the flip out screen is invaluable.
The PRO zoom lens for the Olympus cameras are some of the sharpest lenses that I’ve ever used, with a constant aperture of f/2.8 throughout the zoom range, and solidly built in metal, usefully the lenses allow close focusing to the subject. The 2 prime lenses that I have for the camera are the 17mm f/1.8 (35mm full frame equivalent) which I use as a “walk about” lens, and the 45mm f/1.8 (90mm full frame equivalent) which is ideal for portraiture.
All cameras have some drawbacks, the smaller Micro Four Thirds sensor can exhibit noise in low light situations, this can be alleviated by using a wide aperture, slower shutter speed (the 5 axis IBIS will help), or adding light with a flash, or LED panel.
I have learnt a lot about the features, and camera settings from YouTube videos, time spent getting to know a new camera will always pay dividends and result in higher quality images.
The darker photo of the old market hall used evaluative metering, and the lighter image used centre weighted metering. St James’ Church at 12mm (24mm ff) and 210mm (420mm ff) all images .jpg straight from camera.
Article, and photos: Derek Smith
As any reader will know having a new camera entails a steep learning curve, getting acquainted with the camera, and customising the controls takes quite a while. As an example on the front of the camera, beside the lens, is a “Preview” button, I have reprogrammed this button to control the “AF Points”, one push of the button now displays the current AF point setting, and using the front dial allows me to scroll through the options. As an example of this I was recently trying to photograph young grandchildren, as anyone who has ever tried to photograph young running children, it is very difficult to get accurate focus. Initially I was in C-AF, with a single focus point, and missing focus on a lot of shots. Using the reprogrammed “Preview” button I was able to switch the focus points to a 3x3 centre grid and select C-AF TR (continuous tracking AF) from the Super Control Panel, a simple change of settings which enabled me to improve my focus on the moving subjects.
Another feature that I’ve learned about the camera is the light metering. On the Sony changing the metering from evaluative to centre weighted metering never seemed to make much of a difference, on the Olympus so very different, a dark subject against a bright sky, birds in flight, buildings with a bright background will look brighter with the centre weighted metering, and a helpful circle is displayed onscreen to display the metering area.
In use the camera feels great in the hand, with all the controls readily accessible, the shutter action sound is quiet, a soft “click click”. The flip out screen is so helpful, most of the time I have the screen folded back to the camera and I use the viewfinder, but when I need to use the screen for photographing close to the ground or above my head the flip out screen is invaluable.
The PRO zoom lens for the Olympus cameras are some of the sharpest lenses that I’ve ever used, with a constant aperture of f/2.8 throughout the zoom range, and solidly built in metal, usefully the lenses allow close focusing to the subject. The 2 prime lenses that I have for the camera are the 17mm f/1.8 (35mm full frame equivalent) which I use as a “walk about” lens, and the 45mm f/1.8 (90mm full frame equivalent) which is ideal for portraiture.
All cameras have some drawbacks, the smaller Micro Four Thirds sensor can exhibit noise in low light situations, this can be alleviated by using a wide aperture, slower shutter speed (the 5 axis IBIS will help), or adding light with a flash, or LED panel.
I have learnt a lot about the features, and camera settings from YouTube videos, time spent getting to know a new camera will always pay dividends and result in higher quality images.
The darker photo of the old market hall used evaluative metering, and the lighter image used centre weighted metering. St James’ Church at 12mm (24mm ff) and 210mm (420mm ff) all images .jpg straight from camera.
Article, and photos: Derek Smith
Louth Photographic Society
Good Morning All Last week at the club I gave you a PDI (Projected Digital Image) presentation showing photographs I had taken on my travels last year, following up with some past and present photographs of Binbrook. I hope you all enjoyed the evening and maybe saw parts of England you hadn't seen before. This week, Wednesday 4th March, our member Steve Chapman will be showing us photographs he has taken. This is Steve's first time showing the club his work so will be a very good night. Harry is now accepting your PDI's for the next competition, with the categories of "Architectural Detail" and "Open". The closing date is Friday 6th March. Regards Graham
The N&EMPF Exhibition will be on display in Cleethorpes from 3rd March.
It was "President's Night" with Graham Harrison showing some of his images from short breaks, and holidays around the UK. Graham rented a holiday cottage in Newbiggin, Northumberland, and showed many of his photos from that area, including a visit to Lindisfarne, where the castle on the rocky outcrop made for an impressive photo. In Suffolk, Graham visited Pakefield, and photographed the colourful beach huts at the top of the shingle beach, he also showed several photos from the Lake District. One of my favourite photos from last night was St. Mary's Lighthouse, Whitley Bay, with the groins in juxtaposition. Thank you Graham for a very interesting evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club Harry and Chris gave us an insight into how our exhibition preparation is going, we have a lot of historical photos to go on show and there may be room for some more up to date ones but Harry and Chris will see how much room we have left when they start putting it all together at the museum. I also took the time to find out what you wanted in the new program, filling in the competition subjects and outings. This week, Wednesday 25th February, it is the Presidents night, so that's my night and I will be showing you what I got up to in 2025. The rainbow at Brough castle gives you idea of one area I visited. Harry is now accepting entries for the next PDI competition, with the categories of "Architectural Detail" and "Open". The new program is nearly done and to give you a chance to get ready for the first two competitions in May and June the subjects are May, PDI comp - Landscapes with water and Open and June, Print competition, Trees and Open. Regards Graham
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our Print Of The Year (POTY) competition, it's one of our highlights of the year and judged by Grahame Dunkin, it proved to be an excellent night with some very good prints on show. The results are on our website under competitions but the highlights were Dave Turner being placed first in the Pictorial, landscape and best Mono print in show; Robin Begley, First in the Record section, Keith Rossington first place in Portrait, Harry Kerman first in the photo/journalism (including Street) and myself taking first place in the Nature as well as overall Print of the Year. My photograph of a Hairy Shield bug was taken at Chambers wood on a camera club outing. This week, Wednesday 19th February, we are sorting out Prints for our 70th anniversary exhibition at Louth Museum. Please bring along any local prints you may have and maybe a few further afield for selection. Please also bring along any prints you may have that you think will be ok for the LPA Foster challenge and LPA Battles. They need to be mounted on a 500mm x 400mm mount and a maximum print size of A3. Don't forget to take a photograph of water if you are doing this years project, no real excuses at the moment. Regards Graham
Our highlight competition, Print Of The Year (POTY) competition was held last night, with our judge Grahame Dunkin giving his experienced critique on the excellent images submitted. Congratulations to Dave Turner for his Monochrome image of the year: West Pier Watchtower - Whitby, and Graham Harrison for his Colour image: Hairy Shield Bug.
Good Morning All Last week we went to have a look at the Lancaster sculpture at Norton Disney, it is open for visitors at certain times and although work is still ongoing the main Lancaster is finished and a car park in place. The sculpture is full size weighing 100 tons and honours WW2 RAF crews. Last week at the club Derek Smith ran an editing night, members were asked to bring their laptops in and Derek gave us all an SD card with some images to edit and information regarding the free editing software. A different and interesting night and hopefully we all learnt something and anyone new to photography would have learnt quite a lot. Thank you Derek for running the evening. This week, Wednesday 11th February, we have one of the clubs yearly highlights, the Print Of The Year (POTY) competition to be judged by Grahame Dunkin, all the entries are now in and you should have checked the scoresheets to make sure yours are included. Dave Turner is also asking for prints to enter into the Foster Challenge and LPA Print Battles. He will ask to use prints that are in the print of the year but if you have any prints that you think would be good to enter in the two competitions please bring them and hand them into Dave Turner. The following week we are having an evening collecting everything in for our exhibition at the Louth museum, if you can sort out any prints especially local prints that could go into our exhibition please bring them in on the 18th February. Regards Graham
Last Sunday I was in Stockton on Tees working with Izzy, a favourite model of mine she enjoys cosplay, that’s dressing up as a character from Marvel, Hasbro, or film titles. This photo is of Fey, a woodland sprite, pictured against a woodland backdrop that I bought for the photoshoot. I stayed overnight at a Premier Inn, and in the morning drove to Staithes, as I had always wanted to visit this fishing village, Staithes in the February rain wasn’t much fun, and the tide was out, but I did manage to take a few photos, and I captured one for the “Water” project so I was pleased with that. I was quite surprised how vibrant the colours were in the drizzle, and misty light. Driving back over the North Yorkshire Moors in rain, and fog, didn’t allow for much photography either. Yesterday, walking along the harbour front in Bridlington the high tide, and strong winds had thrown lots of debris onto the promenade, seaweed, nets, tree branches, and cuttlefish kept council workmen busy clearing up the mess. With the right clothing, and a weatherproof camera photography can still be enjoyed even in poor conditions.
A photo editing workshop was held last night, with members bringing in their laptops, and post processing sample images. Members were able to practice processing bracketed, and focus stacked images. Simple editing tasks of cloning unwanted items from images, cropping, and resizing of images were shown. The excellent FastStone photo viewer, and editor was able to accomplish most tasks apart from developing of RAW images, this free software is a “must have” for those with Windows computers. The Affinity photo editor has now been acquired by Canva, and the changes applied by Canva have made the software very confusing to use, and on my 14” Lenovo Thinkpad, it was very difficult to view the master layer to apply adjustments. PhotoScape X is a simplistic photo editor, for all that the software was easy to use, and the RAW processing was seamless. It was an interesting evening, and hopefully members will have attained some new skills in post processing, some of the images edited are shown here.
Good morning All I did manage to get to visit Gibraltar Point last week, very few birds to photograph at this time of year but I took a few and a Grey Squirrel. Last week member Dave Mann showed us photographs from his visit to Beamish, it's a great day out and Dave went round most of it and showed us some photographs from the new 1950's town as well as the farm, pit village, town and trains. Thank you Dave, and Harry for helping out with refreshments. This week, Wednesday 4th February, Derek is running an editing night, he has sent us all information on what we could download, if you have a laptop remember to bring it along. Print of the year is fast approaching, if you are entering make sure you send Dave Turner a list of your entries with which subject they are in and bring your prints along this week. Regards Graham
