[Wired]

I'm torn on whether Pentax needs to upscale the Q and release some premium lenses to give it some more cache with pros and wealthy hobbyists or if they should keep with their sort of whimsical (and I mean that in a good, Pentaxy sort of way) direction for the camera that is based more on having fun. I am interested in seeing what they do if they ever release a HQ wide angle and their upcoming macro.

I think they kind of need too. I would love them to go and design some high quality primes, put on a tilty screen, and a slot for an EVF would be nice. Sort of like a mini-m4/3 setup. But that may be asking too much of the tiny system. A set of high quality, fast primes would be awesome. I'm so disappointed the 01 Prime is pretty much discontinued now, as it was and still is the best part of my Q kit.

Oh geez, a digital LX would be amazing, although I'd love it if they could keep an OVF. I'm not sure if any company besides Leica can get away with having no autofocus in their premium bodies in this day and age but I'd still probably be really tempted if the price was right. This might be what an eventual FF NEX system will be for a lot of people, practically, especially if Pentax dawdles too long on bringing out their FF solution.

Interesting about possibly going MF on an LX Digital system, but I think I'd rather keep fly-by wire AF and them abandon screw drive if it meant keeping the body compact. sacrifices for the greater good so to speak. I have no idea how large a screw drive motor is though. The FF NEX is going to be pretty amazing, its too bad I don't like the look of the NEX bodies, nor do I enjoy the overall user experience of Sony products, be them cameras or TV's.

I think you'll like the 25 mm f/1.4 quite a bit. One of the nice things about it is that with the EM-5's autofocus and greater DOF you can shoot at f/1.4-f/2.0 pretty much all the time and feel safe that it won't miss its mark without worrying about things like "did I get the eyes in focus, or was it on the tip of their nose?" Of course the DOF isn't as narrow as a "real" 50 f/1.4, but I find it to be narrow enough to still really enjoy the creaminess of the bokeh and quality of the rendering.

I can't wait, I think its going to be the ultimate street photography kit. I love my Q, love my Q, but I think the OMD is a better tool for street because of the tility screen and viewfinder. the Q is small and compact take everywhere, and more suited to crowded locations, or taking along when space and weight is a massive consideration. Right now my Q, 01, and 06 lenses live in the diaper bag.


One more sleep until I shoot another live band. Tomorrow I'll take the OMD and 45mm f1.8 out and pit it against my K5 for stage supremacy. If I was still had that 15 year old back I would take the D800 with me too and give all three cameras a live music shoot out. but I wanna be able to walk in the morning.

[Wired]

more OMD!

I shot a few bands last night, and used the OMD, D800, and K5. So far I've only gotten through the OMD files. But what I can tell you is that the OMD files may got better color and better contrast than Pentax files, which I thought was impossible and one of my main reasons for staying with Pentax for all these years. That and the lenses... The Autofocus is a joke though when it comes to shooting live bands. It's all over the place. I didn't get one decent shot of the singer with the OMD. Noise control seems pretty decent, and the frame rate for burst shooting is perfect for shooting live music.



















it's too bad the drummers were in such darkness at the venue. I think I got some good ones on the D800 of the drummers, as the D800 has better noise control. However, at websize, there is nothing wrong with these OMD EM5 files shot between 800 and 1000 iso. no noise cleanup was done in post.

[Urkeldaedalus]

more OMD!

I shot a few bands last night, and used the OMD, D800, and K5. So far I've only gotten through the OMD files. But what I can tell you is that the OMD files may got better color and better contrast than Pentax files, which I thought was impossible and one of my main reasons for staying with Pentax for all these years. That and the lenses... The Autofocus is a joke though when it comes to shooting live bands. It's all over the place. I didn't get one decent shot of the singer with the OMD. Noise control seems pretty decent, and the frame rate for burst shooting is perfect for shooting live music.



















it's too bad the drummers were in such darkness at the venue. I think I got some good ones on the D800 of the drummers, as the D800 has better noise control. However, at websize, there is nothing wrong with these OMD EM5 files shot between 800 and 1000 iso. no noise cleanup was done in post.

Some nice shots!

I'm not surprised that you had some trouble with the lighting conditions. The EM-5 doesn't quite cut it in three AF areas: continuous AF, objects coming toward you AF, and dark conditions AF. In those conditions I generally rely on my K-5IIs, which finally has good low light focus for Pentax, although it could get better with continuous AF and smaller/more focus points. We'll cross our fingers for the next Pentax model on that one The nice thing for you is you can just switch to your D800 in that situation.

I'm wondering if the new EM-1 will improve on some of these weaknesses since it has phase detect on its sensor. I am taking a wait and see attitude with that one though since I could see future model building on its improvements and I'm pretty pleased with the EM-5 AF in situations where it excels.

[Wired]

Some nice shots!

I'm not surprised that you had some trouble with the lighting conditions. The EM-5 doesn't quite cut it in three AF areas: continuous AF, objects coming toward you AF, and dark conditions AF. In those conditions I generally rely on my K-5IIs, which finally has good low light focus for Pentax, although it could get better with continuous AF and smaller/more focus points. We'll cross our fingers for the next Pentax model on that one The nice thing for you is you can just switch to your D800 in that situation.

I'm wondering if the new EM-1 will improve on some of these weaknesses since it has phase detect on its sensor. I am taking a wait and see attitude with that one though since I could see future model building on its improvements and I'm pretty pleased with the EM-5 AF in situations where it excels.

Yea, the AF on the EM-5 is a huge let down in this situation. It's amazing that out of the three cameras the K5 had the best "one hit lock on" AF accuracy out of the three cameras. I use Constant mode on the K5 and D800, because constant on the EM-5 just was confusing the camera like no tomorrow. the D800 hunted like mad with the AF, but once it locked on it was solid and tracked quite well, unless there was a sudden dramatic movement.

I finally finished going through all the photos, and uploaded them all to my flickr, an amazing bunch I think. the K5 at the end of the day wins for this kind of situation, it's was just more accurate for AF, and it's relative speed compared to the D800 just makes it the perfect tool. To top it off the dynamic range you can pull from the files is just the icing on the cake.

I will have a full write up comparison between the three cameras on my blog link from last nights event.


I still see it like this for me:

D800 - Weddings, formal portraits, land scapes
K5 - live music, walk around, rainy days, and general photography
EM-5 - street photography, impulse photography
Q - impulse photography, street photography, re-energize creativity device.

[tuco]

...
I finally finished going through all the photos, and uploaded them all to my flickr, an amazing bunch I think. the K5 at the end of the day wins for this kind of situation, it's was just more accurate for AF,

Does not the K-5 (original) have the same focus system as the K-7? If so, I have to seriously wonder what's up with that. My K-7 could not focus worth crap in low light using my strobe's modeling lights and pushing the shutter button was so sluggish - to the point of frustration - taking a picture with a DA* 16-50mm compared to the D800. Have you focus tuned your lenses on the D800?

[Aegon]

I'm curious to know what AF settings were used on the E-M5.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the E-M5 is great at low light. But if you use face detect there you are going to have a bad time. If you select a tiny box it should work better, I think. Same for the touch shutter (which uses a tiny box).

[Wired]

Does not the K-5 (original) have the same focus system as the K-7? If so, I have to seriously wonder what's up with that. My K-7 could not focus worth crap in low light using my strobe's modeling lights and pushing the shutter button was so sluggish - to the point of frustration - taking a picture with a DA* 16-50mm compared to the D800. Have you focus tuned your lenses on the D800?

See thats what I found too. Using modeling lights in my studio the K5 hunts like crazy, especially with the DA*16-50 and I often manual focus. The exception being the DA*50-135 which rarely hunts for me ever. Which for controlled lighting makes no sense when I find the complete opposite for shooting live bands with some of the most difficult lighting conditions ever.

I'm curious to know what AF settings were used on the E-M5.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the E-M5 is great at low light. But if you use face detect there you are going to have a bad time. If you select a tiny box it should work better, I think. Same for the touch shutter (which uses a tiny box).

I'll do you one better:

K5 - AF-C with AF disabled on the shutter and using the AF button to enable the AF

D800 - same as K5

EM5 - single point AF, tried both C and S modes.

[the swede]

Wired... wow, you lucky bastard, trying different systems must be fun. The Oly EM5 is a great cam!

What next? Fuji?

[Wired]

Wired... wow, you lucky bastard, trying different systems must be fun. The Oly EM5 is a great cam!

What next? Fuji?

Naw. I think I'm at my limit for now.
I want 645d next...but that's gonna be a while

[Wired]

Grabbed the 50mm f1.4 Panasonic leica lens yesterday. Gonna take it for a spin after work today. Let's see what the little bugger can do!

[Raffwal]

Grabbed the 50mm f1.4 Panasonic leica lens yesterday. Gonna take it for a spin after work today. Let's see what the little bugger can do!

50mm? Or 25mm? The 25mm PanaLeica is a very capable lens.

[Wired]

50mm? Or 25mm? The 25mm PanaLeica is a very capable lens.

Yes sorry the 25. That produced a 50 fov

[tsammyc]

I have used both the OMD and NEX 5N ever since they were released and have long sold my K5 due to my preference for a lower carrying weight. The OMD is an excellent camera although I can't stand some of the ergonomics like the tiny rubbery buttons and some other issues. But it's my go to camera for two things - extreme telephoto and macro. For extreme telephoto, I use the Panasonic 100-300 at 600mm EFL and for macro, I use the Olympus 60mm F2.8. Basically, you can't get high image quality, stabilisation and 600mm EFL in an equivalently light package from anyone else. At 600mm EFL, the Panny 100-300 isn't tack sharp, but it's good enough for me. I simply will not carry a 2.5kg telephoto lump and tripod around anymore.

The OMD with Olympus 60mm lens is also a relatively useful 120mm EFL macro that autofocuses very well. In fact, it's the only macro lens that I have used autofocus to shoot jumping spiders because it can focus fast and accurately in decent light with the 60mm macro. Every other macro lens system I've used, I've had to manual focus. Furthermore with APS-C or full frame, getting a high quality 120mm EFL macro at the level of the sharpness of the Oly 60mm means a 1-1.5kg lens.

The OMD with the 45mm 1.8 is a wonderfully sharp portrait lens with nice bokeh, but my preference is still to get closer and manual focus with the NEX 5N and Zeiss Biogon 35mm F2 in M-Mount with an adapter. I just prefer the Zeiss rendering for portraits. If I need more reach, I have my trusty Pentax FA77 1.8 with an adapter. It's bokeh is a bit harsher than the Oly 45mm or Biogon, but I still love the look. Here are some samples:

OMD with Panny 100-300 both at 600mm EFL



OMD with 45mm comparison with a NEX 5N & Sigma 30mm


Lastly, NEX 5N with Pentax FA77 to show the relatively harsh bokeh