Welcome back Joel.
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John Hermanson | CPS, Inc.
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631-424-2121 | www.zuiko.com
Olympus OM Service since 1977
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Joel Wilcox wrote:
> I've been off-list mostly since last June as I went AWOL to deal with
> flood clean up in my hometown, mainly on my own property but also my
> mother's condo. The flood was twice as bad as the first time I went
> through this in 1993, but I was more prepared for it this go-round.
> We moved back in our home the first of August. All of my immediate
> neighbors but one are still rebuilding. My mother may get back in her
> condo by the middle of this month. I feel tired, but I also feel
> lucky.
>
> Anyway, photography. Haven't done much. I took some photos for
> insurance purposes but let others less emotionally entwined do the
> flood stories and photo documentaries. I've lived somewhat
> vicariously through a friend, work colleague, and motorcycle buddy who
> picked up an E-500 and kit lenses at a good price a while ago. I had
> been out shooting with him a bit over the past years, but shooting
> with another person involves a subtle sort of negotiation which we
> haven't quite mastered. I think he looks to me to provide prospects
> which will improve the discovery aspect of his photography and I look
> to him for serendipity. I suppose we both want to invade and conquer
> each other's creative consciousness. All that aside, it's been fun
> and a diversion to watch him develop and enjoy the craft of the
> camera, and to see the outcome especially as he documents the
> development of his beautiful family.
>
> The one bit of photography I have done has also been family related.
> My daughter has entered a somewhat competitive phase in gymnastics,
> and so I've been turning up at her meets as the "dad with the big
> honking camera." It's allowed me to explore the capabilities of my
> cameras to follow focus, fuss with WB, and generally refine the
> argument between creative planning and throwing a lot of exposures at
> the problem of a moving subject. That argument is not yet resolved,
> but this is kind of how it has gone for me:
>
> Creative planning -- After much observation and repetition, you
> develop the ability to anticipate the kinds of things you'd like to
> catch, knowing that the opportunity will probably be repeated. Case
> in point, here's one of my favorite images:
>
> http://flickr.com/photos/99378213@N00/3010832127/in/photostream/
>
> Throwing lots of exposures at it -- This is easy but not as productive
> as I thought. I found a lot of difference between my cameras (E-1 and
> E-330) on this point. In Rachel's earlier meets, I used the 330
> exclusively, trading off between AF and MF. After a certain amount of
> success and frustration with both methods of focusing, I brought out
> my E-1, which I much prefer for manual focus because of the
> viewfinder. In the end, I was chagrined to discover that despite its
> shortcomings, the camera's AF, especially on the 330, is largely
> superior to my ability to focus manually at speed, try as I may.
>
> White balance is another issue I had not worried much about before
> either, largely because I have mainly shot in RAW mode and just left
> the camera on Auto WB, changing it if I want to in PP. I prefer to
> shoot jpgs when I'm shooting multiple frames per second, so I have to
> settle on some kind of compromised WB in the various lighting
> situations inside gymnasia of all different sorts. I should have
> brought along the apparatus to do a custom white balance, but never
> did. I did something close by shooting a predominantly white
> scoreboard at various WB settings and using the best-looking one as my
> custom setting for that gym. Worked OK.
>
> In the course of all this fussing about WB and focusing, and
> anticipating my family's biennial trip to Hawaii for the holidays
> among my wife's klan, I decided to make the move to the E-3. In
> general, I really like the camera and it basically overcomes aspects
> of the E-1 and E-330 which fall a little bit short in certain
> situations. Mainly, it marries the virtues of both cameras together
> for me and adds several more. (Someone will say Yeah, it weighs the
> same as both cameras together!) Follow focus, particularly with my
> old DZ 50-200 is faster and more accurate. However, though there are
> 11 focus points available, I can't really use them all. I think I
> have found just setting the focus up like an E-1 or E-330 is best.
> For the most part, I just try to keep the subject inside the circle
> and let the camera do its magic. Anyone have a better suggestion?
>
> This post is going on forever, but I'll end with just a couple more
> comments on the E-3, a subject which is probably ancient history by
> now. Being a somewhat inveterate E-330 user by this time, I like the
> way Live View lives on in the E-3. The availability of the histogram
> in LV takes me back to the wonderful C-8080 and a feature that I have
> always felt was the most clever thing about that camera. With the
> live histogram and AE lock button, you can largely get perfect
> exposures every time with the C-8080's electronic viewfinder, which
> for all intents and purposes is the precursor of LV. On the E-3, the
> AEL button has a different purpose in LV, but my hunch is that LV in
> manual mode with live histogram will be just about as good. Anyone
> doing exposure this way?
>
> In my experience with the 330 and DZ 50-200, LV is required to get
> precise focus at the far end of the lens, so even in landscape work I
> have tended to use it a lot, and I expect to do the same with the E-3.
> The live histogram will be a great asset, I hope.
>
> Best regards,
> Joel W.
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