Sony To Olympus And Back Again
Derek Smith • 24 April 2020
Or why I switched from the micro four thirds format.
Butterfly - Olympus OMD EM-10 II
Photo By: Derek Smith
Harvestime - Sony A6000, 16-50mm kit lens
Photo By: Derek Smith
In 2014 I purchased a Sony NEX 3N APS-C mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera. The camera worked very well, and I obtained some incredibly good images with the camera, the main drawbacks with this camera were the lack of a viewfinder, command dial, or a mode dial, all of the settings were adjusted via the control wheel at the rear of the camera.
Eventually I outgrew the camera, I wanted to develop my photography hobby, and not being able to readily adjust the camera settings was a big drawback. My direct upgrade path was to the Sony A6000, but the cost of the camera was some £800, and the paucity of APS-C lenses for the Sony system was also an issue, as Sony at the time seemed to have diverted resources to developing the full frame Sony A7 camera, and lenses.
I had seen some particularly excellent reviews for the Olympus OMD EM-10 II, and I was able to purchase this camera for a shade under £600 with the M.Zuiko 14 – 42mm kit lens. The camera handled excellently, having twin adjustment wheels, a mode dial, and a viewfinder, with several other control buttons as well. The lens selection for the Olympus system was, and still is, wide ranging, I’ve previously mentioned the outstanding M.Zuiko 17mm prime lens, and the 60mm macro lens was simply amazing, the depth of field on the micro four thirds system is greater than APS-C or full frame sensors making the camera system ideal for macro photography. As the micro four thirds sensor is smaller than APS-C, the lenses can be correspondingly smaller, the M.Zuiko ED 75-300mm lens, with a full frame equivalent range of 150 – 600mm, weighs just 423g, and I’ve taken some wonderful photos of puffins at Bempton Cliffs with this lens. However, no camera is perfect, and there were two drawbacks with this camera; the small 16 mega pixel sensor with an image size of 3456 x 4608 leaves very little margin for cropping, and the camera auto focus is contrast detect with only 81 focus points. Olympus cameras, and lenses are very well designed, constructed, and a joy to use, the company ethos is exceptional in that you feel as if you belong to an Olympus “family”, I also liked the 4:3 aspect ratio of the images, which I thought was very suitable for portraiture.
So it was that I spotted a Black Friday deal for the Sony A6000, body only, at £299, which was a giveaway price, simply irresistible, and so at a stroke I was back in the Sony fold again. I bought a second-hand kit lens the Sony 16-50mm PZ for £99 and sold all my Olympus gear to finance the purchase of further lenses for the Sony system. The Sony A6000 has 179 phase detect AF points, which with the 11fps continuous shooting speed make the camera ideal for capturing moving subjects. The image size of 6000 x 4000 pixels allows plenty of room for cropping with the 3:2 aspect ratio, and the image quality is superb, as can be seen from the combine harvester image.
The range of lenses for the APS-C E-mount has drastically improved with third party lens manufacturers such as Sigma with the 16mm, 30mm, and 56mm prime lenses being highly rated by reviewers. Sony have also produced some fantastic lenses the 35mm f/1.8, the 50mm f/1.8, the 18-105mm f/4, and latterly a f/2.8 constant aperture 16-55mm G lens has been produced.
The Sony A6000 is still available as a new purchase, however purchasers may well be advised to consider the newer Sony A6100, the A6400, or the range topping A6600 all APS-C cameras with 425 phase detect AF points, improved image colours, and class leading “Real Time Eye AF”.
Louth Photographic Society
Last night, Steve West gave a fascinating illustrated presentation on the long history of cinema, and stage plays in Louth. In the late 1890s some films were shown at various locations, in 1910 a “tent” cinema was showing films on Westgate Fields. During 1913 a site was purchased of 2 retail units, on Eastgate, the retail units were demolished, and the Palace cinema / theatre was constructed on the site ready for opening in 1914. During the interwar years many plays were staged at the Palace, and Steve has collected many of the original programs from this era. The current Playhouse was constructed in Canon Street in 1921 in the “art deco” style, some poor quality housing was demolished to make way for this new cinema. The Playhouse, and the Palace both continued in operation until 1960 when the Palace was sold, and the building was converted into a Fine Fare supermarket. During the 1970s when Bingo became popular, part of the Playhouse was used as a Bingo hall, with the reception area restyled to suit the new usage. The Playhouse was converted into a multi-screen cinema when purchased by the Parkway Cinema group in the mid 1990s. Louth is extremely fortunate to have retained a viable cinema in the town, many thanks to Steve West for a very polished presentation.
Good Morning All Sand racing starts again this week at Mablethorpe, this Sunday is practice day, times are on their website. Last week at the club we held a local competition, with the categories of: "Straight out of the camera" and "Open", there was a very good entry in each subject with Tony Gaskins having the task of judging the unedited ones and Robin Begley judging the Open. There is a full report on our website but well done to Harry for first place in the Straight out of the camera and Keith Rossington for first place in the Open. This week, Wednesday 14th, Steve West will be our speaker, talking and showing PDI's on the subject of the Louth cinema. The following week will be a print competition, with the categories of "Mono" and "Open", you need to bring your prints in this week and send an email to Dave Turner with your titles. Regards Graham
At our meeting last night we held a PDI (printed digital image) competition, with the categories of "Local Unedited", and "Open". As this was a members competition one of our members judged the competition, Tony Gaskins was our first judge for the "Local Unedited" category, these were .jpg images taken straight from the camera, without any editing, apart from the resizing for projection. Presenting an image such as this in a competition is quite a difficult task, the photographer has to ensure that the correct exposure is chosen, the composition, and subject matter has to be precise, everything done in camera. Normally for competition entries, a degree of post processing would be involved, simple edits like toning down highlights, or even removing extraneous objects from a scene, emphasising a moody sky, all not allowed. Tony Gaskins did an excellent job with his judging, providing clear and concise critique of the images presented, he "held back" 8 images for further consideration, awarding higher points, and finally choosing the top three placements. After the break it was Robin Begley's turn to judge the "Open" category, as these were post process edited images the standard was higher than the unedited images, but surprisingly not markedly so. Robin is potentially hoping to become a N&EMPF approved judge, and he had a different style, able to suggest edits that could have improved an image, again his critique was clear and concise communicating well with members. Robin chose 8 images for further consideration, awarding higher points, and finally selecting the top three placements. It was a fabulous, and interesting competition with excellent images, many thanks to both our judges, it's not an easy job, probably nearly as bad as being a referee in a football match!! Many thanks to both our judges, well done.
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Roger Hance Memorial Lecture 16th October
Last night Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club gave his first ever presentation to a camera club, which we were privileged to view. His presentation consisted of portraiture, creative, and his genre of choice; wildlife. Lee is an extremely talented photographer, with a highly creative portfolio, his portraits are quite atmospheric, unusual, and capture the essence of the model, and scene. For Lee’s creative work, he buys props from charity shops, often very cheaply, reusing those props in various scenes. For his composite work he will often take one of his photos of a room, and blend it with a subject in Photoshop using “blend” modes. For wildlife he visited Lake Kerkini in Greece to photograph the Pelicans, if the sky is a little on the bland side, Lee will often over expose the image resulting in a striking white background to the subject. On safari in Africa Lee showed us some amazing images of the wildlife, the close-up images of elephants, the wildebeest migration, and this stunning image of a cheetah. Lee was ably assisted by Mike Bennett. More of Lee’s work can be found on his website: https://leedixonphoto.co.uk/ Lee his kindly given permission for his images to be used in this post. Many thanks to Lee, and Mike for an amazing evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", there was a very high-quality entry in both competitions and judge Mike Bennett had quite a job on his hands scoring the entries. Well, done to Dave Turner for first place in the Objects in the Air and Tony Gaskins for first place in the Open. All the results are on our website. This week, Wednesday 30th September, our speaker will be Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club showing us his natural history, Creative and many other photographs he has taken. It will be the first time Lee has shown his photographs at our club. If anyone else wants to enter PDI's in the 2027 N&EMPF Exhibition, the deadline is this Wednesday at midnight. Harry is still taking entries for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight from Camera" (unedited .jpg), and "Open", to be held on Wednesday 7th October. Regards Graham
At the meeting last night Mike Bennett judged our competition with the categories of “Objects in the Air”, and “Open”. The standard of entries was excellent, and it gave Mike a tough task of judging the images, Mike gave some very good critique of the images displayed, the feedback helps members to develop compositional skills. Dave Turner was awarded first place for his image of the “Tiger Club Display Team” in the “Objects in the Air” category. Tony Gaskins was awarded first place for his image of the “Spectacular Rustgill” in the “Open” category.
Good Morning All, Last week at the club we watched the N&EMPF PDI Exhibition for 2026, it was a very good evening viewing very high standard images from all over the East Midlands. Dave Turner and I did manage to get images accepted; there is a full report on our website. This week, Wednesday 23rd September, we will hold our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", please send entries to Harry by midnight tonight. Harry is also accepting images for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight out of the Camera (only resizing permitted)" and "Open". Regards Graham
Members were shown the 2026 N&EMPF PDI Exhibition video last night with all of the accepted PDI images in the first part, and after the break the awarded PDI images. There were some stunning images on view, and Louth was successful in having 3 PDI images accepted, Graham Harrison with his image of a Stonechat, and Dave Turner with his portrait of Paul Rudd, and his monochrome image of Kings Cross railway station "Going Down". Overall it was a good inspirational evening.
