civilized ku # 2191 ~ return to yesteryear x2
Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 11:15AM ;)
Dancing ~ Pour House / Westmont, NJ • click to embiggenThe purpose of my recent visit to South Jersey (as if the wife needs a "purpose") was to attend an inlaw's 60th birthday bash. Prior to that visit, as I was speaking to the birthday boy - the wife had suggested that I call him, as avid high school athelete, he would interested / impressed with my recent notification of being inducted to my high school Athletic Hall of Fame - he asked that I take pictures at the party. Of course, I said, "No problem."
However, what that meant for me was that I had to dust off the "old" but still trusty Oly E-3 dslr - a camera which I only use when the EPs don't fit a specific bill - which to say, I don't use it all that much anymore. Which is unfortunate and a bit of waste since the camera is built like a tank and will last virtually forever in a physical sense.
That said, and in addition to dusting off actual dust, I also had to dust off my how-to-navigate-around the camera's mechanics. Not exactly a herculean task but it is rather incredulous - one might even say "stupid" - that, in the Tower-of-Babel (proprietary wise) digital age, there is no functional standardization from camera to camera - IMO, proof positive that cameras are being designed by marketing people / non-photographers.
In any event, the reason for using the E-3 was simple - it has a built-in flash whereas the EPs do not and I don't own, or intend to own, any flash attachments for those cameras. So, for the intended picturing purpose - making pictures of people, mostly likely moving people, in a very dark place - the E-3 with its built-in flash was the way to go. But .....
.... like so many dslrs with built-in flash capabilities, the on-top-of-the-pentaprism pop-up flash was next to useless when using a lens of any physical size/length other than a very short/small length and/or a lens with a lens hood - the flash simply wasn't high enough on the camera body to avoid casting a shadow in the lower area of a picture caused by the top/front of the lens / lens hood being in the path of the light from the flash. More proof positive of the stupidity of the aforementioned camera design committees.
Fortunately for me, I have a pancake lens for the E-3 - a very small Zuiko 25mm f2.8 prime. With that lens attached to the camera, there was no problem at all.
Reader Comments (5)
I thought we were going to play golf tomorrow...what's up?
BTW, the Oly OM-D E-M5 does not have a built in flash either.
And I also don't get this retro design ethos ... sure, carry the best ideas forward but design something for 2012, not 1972.
JB - 9:30AM, Lake Placid Resort. Glad we can do it.
I quite like this image ,.. I've gone back to look at it several times. It's almost a snapshot (or at least a so-called "snapshot aesthetic") but it's elevated by being very well rendered plus the intrigue of the expression on the face of the young lady.
Perhaps a candidate for 'Single Women'?
@Sven: you get a small flash with the camera, it's just not a pop-up. It's so small that I can permanently have it at the bottom of my tiny bag. It's still the same bag as with the E-P2 (http://manessinger.com/2012/04/2009-aint-heavy.html), I only had to re-arrange the separators. One bag, the OM-D, the 14/2.5, the 20/1.7, the 45/1.8, the 40-150 and a flash, all below 1 kg. This IS a cool camera :)