Leave the Big Gear at Home
Back in October my newly married wife and I headed for western Alberta for our honeymoon. We were staying in Canmore, AB about 20 minutes from Banff. Knowing and planning this trip for months, it was difficult for me to realize that bringing all of my camera equipment would be pretty selfish, and not to mention having to make room in the car for a camera bag, tripod, and a hotel room filled with charging cords. My final decision was to bring my Olympus EP-2 with the kit 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 lens.
I've had this camera for quite some time now, but I haven't used it all that much. I'm not too sure why as it produces very nice images, shoots raw, and has a very good build quality surrounding a very capable 12 mp micro four thirds sensor. It was also compact, quiet, had a retractable lens, and had a nice Program mode. Yes I said it, Program mode. In the end, all that I wanted were good, memorable images to remind my wife and I of our honeymoon. You can imagine our spirits after driving nearly twenty hours from eastern South Dakota all the way to the Canadian Rockies. After nothing but open prairie on the Trans Canada Highway, we were finally greeted with a wonderful sight:
The EP-2 is a wonderful little rangefiner style mirror-less camera. It's since been replaced, but it is none the less a very capable little camera. I wasn't planning on taking any serious photos, however I came back home with some very nice images. My wife fell a little ill during the trip and there were a few times she elected to stay back at the time share we were staying at, leaving me to go explore the areas surrounding beautiful Canmore. Needless to say, it was time to put the Olympus to the test.
The camera really surprised me. I had some beautiful scenes to capture, and boy did it deliver. Sometimes I left the camera in Program mode, other times I had it in Manual. I played with lower shutter speeds which usually were hand held, or propped on a rock. I could do a 1 or 2 second exposure thanks to Olympus in camera stabilization. A lot of walking around images were shot with jpeg, but I when I went out on my own I switched to RAW. This trip was another reminder that camera angles and lighting are so much more important than sensor size or megapixels.
The kit lens that came with this camera is decent. It is plastic construction, including the mount, but delivers plenty sharp images. It is a glacially slow lens, but thanks to the wonderful Olympus image stabilization, I can take photos hand held down to 1/2 second, no worries. The image below was actually taken on the return trip through Glacier National Park in Montana.
I wanted to get water movement, but I couldn't completely blow out the sky. I set the aperture to f22, set the camera to 1/5 second, balanced the camera on a rock, set a 2 second timer, and snapped the photo. Is it the sharpest photo ever? No (pretty good though if I do say so myself). Did the sky get blown out? Yes. Could I have taken this image with my Fujifilm or DSLR's? Yes, however I would of certainly needed some kind of tripod, or multiple attempts until I got one that wasn't shaky. I took this image once and moved on. My wife didn't even notice I had wondered off and snapped a photo.
Micro four thirds sensors are not known for the greatest dynamic range (DR), especially from 2009 when this camera was released. I will have to say while my larger sensor Fujifilm most certainly has more DR, I was thoroughly pleased with this old Olympus. The photo below was shot in Program mode. The camera did an excellent job dealing with the sky and the darker trees. The lens even pulled out some great detail in the distant mountains.
Another thing I love about Olympus in general is the color rendition. Even when shooting RAW and the color isn't as important, I still like the color renditions from the Olympus and dare I say I even prefer them to the Fuji's color. The below image was taken at Lake Louise and this was a jpeg. I did tweak the sky a bit to bring down the highlights, but other than that, this is what the Olympus captured. I love the colors in the rock and the grass because it is very close to what I saw in person, but with a bit of Olympus magic added. Of all of the cameras where I have edited photos, I usually edit the Olympus files the least, just because I am so pleased with how they look out of camera.
My favorite thing about the Olympus though is its ease of use. I can hand this camera to a stranger to take a photo of my wife and I and I don't have fiddle with any setting, or explain how it works. You can just point, and shoot if you want to. My wife knows how to use a DSLR, but when we are on vacation she wants nothing to do with me lugging around a big brick, and to honest, neither do I now. She snapped this photo of me with the Olympus at Lake Louise.
In summary, I was so glad I didn't bring a big camera with multiple, big, heavy lenses. The only time I wanted the 8 FPS of my Nikon D2H was when the tour buses would unload their eager tourists, who would literally ruin any point of interest. Most of them had very expensive "tourist" type cameras and I wanted to go stand among them and "mow them down" with my 8 frames per second. I mentioned this to my wife and she suggested I go sit in the car. Anyway, the little micro 4/3 camera was more than capable and blew me away with the images it captured. I never was impressed with it before, especially the lens, but when I focused more on the image, and less on the camera, that all changed. There was no lugging around pounds of gear, and in the end I enjoyed the trip so much because I was taking photography that seriously. Because of that, I had more fun, and that's what it's all about.
I've had this camera for quite some time now, but I haven't used it all that much. I'm not too sure why as it produces very nice images, shoots raw, and has a very good build quality surrounding a very capable 12 mp micro four thirds sensor. It was also compact, quiet, had a retractable lens, and had a nice Program mode. Yes I said it, Program mode. In the end, all that I wanted were good, memorable images to remind my wife and I of our honeymoon. You can imagine our spirits after driving nearly twenty hours from eastern South Dakota all the way to the Canadian Rockies. After nothing but open prairie on the Trans Canada Highway, we were finally greeted with a wonderful sight:
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| Trans Canada Highway about 20 minutes east of Calgary, AB |
The EP-2 is a wonderful little rangefiner style mirror-less camera. It's since been replaced, but it is none the less a very capable little camera. I wasn't planning on taking any serious photos, however I came back home with some very nice images. My wife fell a little ill during the trip and there were a few times she elected to stay back at the time share we were staying at, leaving me to go explore the areas surrounding beautiful Canmore. Needless to say, it was time to put the Olympus to the test.
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| Bow River in Canmore, AB |
The camera really surprised me. I had some beautiful scenes to capture, and boy did it deliver. Sometimes I left the camera in Program mode, other times I had it in Manual. I played with lower shutter speeds which usually were hand held, or propped on a rock. I could do a 1 or 2 second exposure thanks to Olympus in camera stabilization. A lot of walking around images were shot with jpeg, but I when I went out on my own I switched to RAW. This trip was another reminder that camera angles and lighting are so much more important than sensor size or megapixels.
The kit lens that came with this camera is decent. It is plastic construction, including the mount, but delivers plenty sharp images. It is a glacially slow lens, but thanks to the wonderful Olympus image stabilization, I can take photos hand held down to 1/2 second, no worries. The image below was actually taken on the return trip through Glacier National Park in Montana.
I wanted to get water movement, but I couldn't completely blow out the sky. I set the aperture to f22, set the camera to 1/5 second, balanced the camera on a rock, set a 2 second timer, and snapped the photo. Is it the sharpest photo ever? No (pretty good though if I do say so myself). Did the sky get blown out? Yes. Could I have taken this image with my Fujifilm or DSLR's? Yes, however I would of certainly needed some kind of tripod, or multiple attempts until I got one that wasn't shaky. I took this image once and moved on. My wife didn't even notice I had wondered off and snapped a photo.
 |
| Glacier National Park |
Micro four thirds sensors are not known for the greatest dynamic range (DR), especially from 2009 when this camera was released. I will have to say while my larger sensor Fujifilm most certainly has more DR, I was thoroughly pleased with this old Olympus. The photo below was shot in Program mode. The camera did an excellent job dealing with the sky and the darker trees. The lens even pulled out some great detail in the distant mountains.
 |
| Banff National Park |
Another thing I love about Olympus in general is the color rendition. Even when shooting RAW and the color isn't as important, I still like the color renditions from the Olympus and dare I say I even prefer them to the Fuji's color. The below image was taken at Lake Louise and this was a jpeg. I did tweak the sky a bit to bring down the highlights, but other than that, this is what the Olympus captured. I love the colors in the rock and the grass because it is very close to what I saw in person, but with a bit of Olympus magic added. Of all of the cameras where I have edited photos, I usually edit the Olympus files the least, just because I am so pleased with how they look out of camera.
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| Lake Louise |
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| Lake Louise |
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| Canmore, AB - This was right outside our time share on the edge of town. |
My favorite thing about the Olympus though is its ease of use. I can hand this camera to a stranger to take a photo of my wife and I and I don't have fiddle with any setting, or explain how it works. You can just point, and shoot if you want to. My wife knows how to use a DSLR, but when we are on vacation she wants nothing to do with me lugging around a big brick, and to honest, neither do I now. She snapped this photo of me with the Olympus at Lake Louise.
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| Mug shot at beautiful Lake Louise. |
In summary, I was so glad I didn't bring a big camera with multiple, big, heavy lenses. The only time I wanted the 8 FPS of my Nikon D2H was when the tour buses would unload their eager tourists, who would literally ruin any point of interest. Most of them had very expensive "tourist" type cameras and I wanted to go stand among them and "mow them down" with my 8 frames per second. I mentioned this to my wife and she suggested I go sit in the car. Anyway, the little micro 4/3 camera was more than capable and blew me away with the images it captured. I never was impressed with it before, especially the lens, but when I focused more on the image, and less on the camera, that all changed. There was no lugging around pounds of gear, and in the end I enjoyed the trip so much because I was taking photography that seriously. Because of that, I had more fun, and that's what it's all about.
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| The Competition |
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| My "art" shot. Should of moved the leaf next to it, but I remembered I was having fun and I didn't care about photographic "odds" rule. These are 'Merican leaves, in Glacier National Park. |
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| "Oh Canada" -Banff National Park |
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| One of my favorite types of landscape photos are up close objects, with a big, blurred background. The small m4/3 sensor lets me get a good depth of field on the subject while getting pleasing background blur. All while shooting mostly wide open to let more light in for a faster shutter speed. |
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| Canadian Rockies near Canmore, AB. |
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| Mountain in the mist |
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| Bow River in Canmore, AB |
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