Some rather random observations:
1. We were wandering around downtown Belfast, ME a few days ago when Carol
pointed out to me the interesting
light/reflection/shadow things in/on a restaurant across the street. The
resultant image is nothing too special,
although moving the car would help.
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=Travel/NorthEast_2012/Miscellaneous&image=_9171055oof30.jpg>
What was noteworthy was my reaction to her comment, I was momentarily puzzled,
then started to reach for the S100 on my
belt before conscious reason took over to point out that I had the E-M5 with
14-150 hanging around my neck. The camera
and normal lenses are simply light enough to forget I have them on.
Where I required a hand strap for previous DSLRs, I find I don't need one with
the E-M5. And I've gone to a simpler,
lighter neck strap, too.
2. The EVF is hopeless for fall colors; the bright reds and yellows just don't
show up. It's disconcerting to see a
shot, put the camera up to my eye, and see something flat colored. The rear
screen is better, but with only the little
netbook+ along, I'm not entirely convinced I caught what I hoped to catch, and
won't be until I see them at home.
3. Battery life is an issue. I've had to switch in a spare three times, I
think. The Oly battery pooped out at about 250
shots one day, and after about 200 and some video clips another day.
I can certainly understand both why battery drain is high, both the usual live
view power consumption and the five way
IS. I can also understand the decision about battery size; I don't see any way
to maintain the lovely form factor with a
bigger battery.
I wouldn't want to do without any of those things, but the price is the need to
carry a spare battery. When I bought the
camera, spare Oly batteries were not only rather expensive, but out of stock
everywhere I looked, including the
OlyAmerica store.
I don't have a real sense of how the life of the two Wasabi batteries I bought
compare to the Oly. Most days, I start
with the Oly. The one day I started with Wasabi wasn't a heavy shooting day,
and didn't push it. Oly's insistence
unpublished coding of battery communications with camera and charger meant
'decoded' batteries weren't yet available. So
I need separate chargers for the two different sorts of batteries.
More an issue of retraining myself than a big problem. Spares are small, light
and easy to carry in pocket or bag. Sure
glad I bought and brought them. :-)
4. I like the form factor and overall ergonomics of the camera. The two buttons
above the screen are a little fiddly. I
don't like the on/off switch. If it protruded just a little above the camera
back, I could switch it with a quick
movement of my thumb. As it is, I have to make a more careful movement that
digs down to catch it.
I've recently turned off Auto Off, as I would find the camera wasn't ready at
inconvenient times. But that means using
the power switch more often to save battery power. Maybe I can just ignore it
and leave the camera on all the time,
relying on Sleep Mode to save battery power, as I have done on the 5D and 60D
5. AF and AE in video mode are less than perfect with tricky/complex subjects.
6. Body memory is finally adjusting, most of the time, to the reverse direction
of the zoom ring. The fly by wire focus
direction is a menu setting, but the physical zooming action is reverse to the
Canons.
7. I tried putting AF on a button separate from the shutter half-press. But the
physical layout of buttons just wasn't
working for me the way it does on the 60D. I've now got AF on the shutter
again, and the Fn2 button next the the shutter
release set to switch between AF and MF, and that's working pretty well for me
so far.
Ramblin' Moose
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
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