Wow, Wayne, so sorry to hear of your devastating news. There's no such thing as
"life insurance," is there?
I've been dealing with a different situation: aging parents. My 87-year-old Mom
is demented, and neither she nor my 89-year-old Dad could care for her, and
neither would admit it.
Luckily, she had the foresight to do a power of attorney some seven years ago,
and last fall I went and helped my siblings execute it. We put her in foster
care, against both their wishes, but consistent with two doctors' letters, in
accordance with the PoA.
The end result is that my sweet Mom, who has never harmed a soul in her life,
thinks she has done something horrible to be put "in jail," and my Dad has
vowed to shoot me should he see me again. But I and my siblings are convinced
she'd be dead by now if it had been up to my Dad to take care of her.
Here she is, taken with an OM Zuiko 55mm f1.2 and a Metabones Ultra Speed
Booster, on an OM-D E-M1.2:
https://www.mu-43.com/attachments/_a268387-2048-jpg.637134/
So, in addition to your admonition to keep joint back accounts, I would advise
to have a power of attorney drawn up, and to put the named person on at least
one account. If Mom had not done that, we would not have been able to afford to
put her in foster care. (After we did, my Dad immediately closed all their
joint accounts, and we now have to have him declared in contempt.)
> I sorely miss the feel and control of the OM4-Ti and lenses, especially the
> multi-spot metering.
If you miss the "feel and control" of the OM 4Ti, you'll love the new OM-D
bodies, which were inspired by the OM System.
Although I bought a couple "native" m4/3rds lenses, I mostly shoot my old OM
glass, which the E-M1.2 (at least) supports wonderfully. You can "program in"
up to ten legacy lenses, so that the wonderful In Body Image Stabilization
(IBIS) works properly, AND the lens information is stored in the image's EXIF
data.
Focal reducers restore some of the lost angle-of-view, and give you an
additional stop. I have the "mostly good enough" Kipon Baveyes Ultra, and the
superb Metabones Ultra. So my OM 55 f1.2 becomes a 39mm f0.84!
> My main interests are in macro and low light capability, which is what
> brought me to the OM's a long time ago.
Again, I can't recommend the E-M1.2 too much in this aspect! The "Live View"
builds up an exposure over time, showing you its progress on the monitor, sorta
like OM System OTF exposure control, except you get to watch the process.
The M.Zuiko 60mm macro lens is highly regarded, but I'm having a gas using my
old OM Zuikos, especially with the Telescoping Extension Tube. IBIS is so
totally liberating! I used to always assume I needed a tripod to do proper
macro, but now I throw the TET and some OM macros in the bag, and leave the
tripod home! I particularly find the huge reach of the OM 135/4.5 fantastic for
shooting tree flowers that would be too far away with a shorter macro. I also
put the OM 90/2 on the TET, but also use it without for "normal" short-tele
use. If I want to get REAL close, I take the OM 38/2.8 Macro.
I have permanently adapted a Nikon PB-4 tilt-shift bellows for OM on one end,
and m4/3rds on the other, for "studio" macro work. And I've hacked the T-8 and
T-10 ring lights to work with the Olympus FC-1 macro flash controller, so they
can do TTL macro flash with m4/3rds bodies.
https://www.mu-43.com/attachments/pc149600-jpg.602591/
https://www.mu-43.com/threads/converted-olympus-t-10-and-t-8-ring-flashes.92166/#post-1026296
> Not sure how easy it is to judge DOF though.
Better than you could have imagined!
There are two modes in the E-M1.2. You can set it so the viewfinder gets darker
as you stop down, and you can set it so the viewfinder maintains brightness as
you stop down. I find the latter REALLY great for using legacy manual-focus
lenses.
But it gets better! With "focus peaking," the viewfinder puts a red outline
around in-focus areas, and you can watch the outlined areas expand as you stop
down, until your DOF is "enough" for whatever you're doing. Some people deride
focus peaking as inaccurate, but I've gotten pretty good at centring the focus
peaking area to nail the subject with the sharpest focus. There is also focus
magnification (up to 14x) to do what the OM right-angle viewfinder did, but
with much more versatility.
Another thing to consider is battery life. I went shooting with a friend who
had a Sony A7 III, and his battery died in the first half-hour. We then went
back to the car, and he strapped on a huge, heavy external battery, and we went
back out. That battery died within a couple hours, and mine still showed 85%
remaining. In reviewing our shots, I'm convinced my Olympus's IBIS was worth at
least two stops better than the Sony IBIS. (Moving a bigger sensor takes more
time and energy.) We didn't try comparing the Oly 80 megapixel sensor shift
images with the Sony 40 megapixel images, but that's something to consider.
That's anecdotal, and I have my camera optimized for maximum battery life, and
his Sony might have been set up otherwise, but it made an impression on me! I
have never needed more than two spare batteries, including a week-long visit to
my Mom and other family.
A number of people will try to convince you that full-frame is the only way to
go, whether DSLR or mirrorless. The truth is that engineering is a study of
compromise, and Olympus has done an outstanding job of minimizing the "full
frame advantage." For one thing, their IBIS is simply incredible. If you can
shoot three stops slower, the full-frame advantage more than goes away. If you
can't, well, the smaller sensor means the ability to gather more light within a
given weight/size factor. In-camera HDR also tends to minimize the full-frame
advantage, as the camera automagically brackets and combines to give you a
more-that-FF dynamic range without any post processing.
Bottom line: if you miss the OM 4Ti, you're gonna love the E-M1 Mark II. Go
rent or borrow one before plunking money down.
Jan
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