epl1 as a street cam - yay or nay?

[cosmonaut]

I would have to use a tape measure to pre focus.lol

 

[cosmonaut]

Besides Garry Winogrand shot wide angle. It is a lot easier to nail focus that way. It is almost impossible for me to miss focus with my 15mm.

 

[ian paterson]

'All the shots I posted, plus almost all the rest in my flickr gallery taken with an E-P1 and µ4/3 or 4/3 glass, were prefocused using the AEL/AFL button for AFL exclusively.'

You separate AE and AF by using the AEL/AFL button for AF only for street photography Federico. Would I get the same effective result with the E-P2 by pre-focusing with the shutter button as per usual and then switching to MF by using the Fn button? I guess with your method you only need to hit 1 button to AF (the AEL/AFL) whereas I'd need to hit the Fn and then depress the shutter button again each time I wanted to pre focus.

Think I just answered my own question.

 

[Harry Lime]

All the shots I posted, plus almost all the rest in my flickr gallery taken with an E-P1 and µ4/3 or 4/3 glass, were prefocused using the AEL/AFL button for AFL exclusively.

Thus configured, I haven't needed a focusing scale when using µ4/3 glass.

Besides reading the manuals, have you used a µ4/3 camera yourself outside of a store? In the street? For more than a day?

I borrowed an EP-1 from a friend. Very nice camera, but as I mentioned the lack of scale focusing is a deal breaker for me. I'm now looking what my options are regarding a manual focus lens around 20mm. The annoying thing is that an adapter adds almost $200 to the camera.

Yes, you are right, you can prefocus with the AF, lock it and then shoot.
But ultimately that is a clumsy solution.

Apparently the old ways of doing things can't accept the validity of any alternatives. Maybe that's why GM and Chrysler went belly up...

Apparently throwing out the baby with the bath water in favor of the new shiny thing will always remain a wildly popular mindset among the dilettantes of the world.

 

[ampguy]

so...

so...

does "street photography" necessitate having a face in the image??

I must confess I've never used face detection. Normally I shoot with a preselected focus point, for compositional purposes.

Promise to give it a try in a wedding I'll be attending this Saturday. Since I'll be just another guest, I'll just focus on those candid shots the official photographer won't be paying any attention to.

Hopefully it should be very similar to the experience of street photography.

 

[ampguy]

It's funny how rampant mindless consumerism can be.

This technology of EVF, live view, separating AF from AE is all in my Lumix FZ3 from many many years ago. That lens, didn't have wild barrel distortion either, it's a Leica ASPH lens, well that's what it says... and has a fixed f2.8 zoom, made in Japan, try finding those today.

 

[count_zero]

The annoying thing is that an adapter adds almost $200 to the camera.

I haven't had any problems with $35 made in the back streets of Hong Kong adapters that you can find on ebay.

 

[Federico Alberto]

Yes, you are right, you can prefocus with the AF, lock it and then shoot. But ultimately that is a clumsy solution.

The focusing scale is a feature of the lens used. Any good MF glass of the hundreds that can be adapted to µ4/3 bodies will have it available. So prefocusing manually will be an option always with these type of lenses.

While it is true µ4/3 glass available currently may not bring focusing scales, the procedure described in my previous postings allows for prefocusing accurately and quickly.

What is rather clumsy is to qualify procedures before having even tried them. This usually happens when a debater is running out of arguments. Nothing new here...

Apparently throwing out the baby with the bath water in favor of the new shiny thing will always remain a wildly popular mindset among the dilettantes of the world.

Change is the only certainty. Preferring innovation over obsolescence may be the behavior of a dilettante. Fair enough. How's the opposite called? A luddite? :bang:

By the way, in spite of the two new models released after my E-P1 came out, it will remain a "shiny new thing" for me for a long time...

 

[Federico Alberto]

does "street photography" necessitate having a face in the image??

It'd be too boring otherwise, don't you think?

 

[emerica]

learning about scale focusing and prefocusing and it's quite fascinating but a tad tricky.

anyone ever try making their own E-PXX rangefinder with paper and lens using this technique (i suppose getting a viewfinder would help though): "http://photo.net/minox-camera-forum/003HEV"

I'm currently trying this depth of field calculator to estimate hyperfocus distance "http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html" but with a 20mm f1.7 (40mm f3.4 equiv on 35mm it seems) it makes acceptable near focus to infinity at slightly wider apertures tricky (is f8 ideal - and is this f16 equivalent on 35mm then?).

i suppose it's just as easy get acceptable near focus to infinity by prefocusing on the ground/equivalent subject using fn button for AFL say, for 6 feet away and snap away at anything else around 6 feet, as discussed here - is this what people with the E-PXX cams mostly use and do away with other hyperfocus/scale focus techniques??

yesterday i took snaps and most came out crappy using hyperfocus techniques at f/8 with hfd of 11ft (maybe i wasn't accurate enough with my estimate, who knows). today i found it easier to use the prefocus technique at something 6' using AFL and snapping away and got better results.

any suggestions for ideal prefocusing technique on MFT using MFT glass please (till i get rangefinder glass)?

thanks!

 

[Finder]

any suggestions for ideal prefocusing technique on MFT using MFT glass please (till i get rangefinder glass)?

When you work a particular situation, there tends to be a finite focus range you need to deal with. When using the Olympus 17mm, I use manual focus and focus on something on the mid- or slightly closer point in the scene and then don't touch the lens and shoot. If the object is moving, I try to maintain the same distance to it by moving as well.

To be honest, scale focusing is easier with a lens with a distance scale. You can glance at the scale and make small adjustments.

 

[ampguy]

With a large print, and more than 8 or so MP on a 4/3 sensor, you probably will be limited by diffraction by stopping down more than 5.6.

Fast shutter speeds on 4/3 cameras would be a good thing. I wish the EPL1 had 1/4000 or faster.

 

[Finder]

The E-P1 is a 12MP camera. I have made very sharp 16x20 prints taken at f/11.

 

[cosmonaut]

In the end it is what suits your needs. Can you not scale focus if you buy an adapter and shoot with Leica or Voightlander lenses. I know the X2 crop factor would be a huge factor. It looks like you could shoot with the Voigtlander 15mm on it and have a tremendous DOF. You would really be shooting at 30mm.

 

[emerica]

cosmonaut, I'm now quite interested in the 15mm CV lens, thanks. Ideally I'd like to get something for mft now that I can save and use for other formats later (tho the 15mm CV appears to have problems with the M9, but not like I can afford it!)

How would the 30mm EFL be for street and hyperfocusing? Seems a bit 'neither here nor there' but I suppose many old school PJ's used 28mm and 35mm so it falls between that range. The 21mm CV lens is quite tempting as a normal lens, but I already have the Panasonic 20mm lens.

Though a thought crossed my mind to sell the 20mm Panasonic for the 17mm Olympus (supposed works very well on E-PL1) and with the leftover money use towards say the 21mm CV lens.

Thoughts?

 

[cosmonaut]

I have been using the 17mm and love it. It focuses fast and Olympus is releasing a firmware update on the 22nd that is going to improve it more. I also have been thinking about getting a 21mm later on. I want to get as wide as I can on my M6 without distortion. I thought the 15mm would be fun on the EP-1 simply because the unreal DOF and short focusing distance. Stick it on infinity and fire away. But right now I am loving it on the M6.

 

[Rodchenko]

Despite the noise of an FP shutter compared to the leaf shutters I am more familiar with, I felt it lent itself very naturally to street shooting this morning, straight out of the box (well, with a couple of tweaks) and the kit zoom.

What's easy to hand?

Monochrome/colour? Check
Exposure Compensation? Check
Manual Focus? Check
ISO? Er, not so much.
AF area? Yes, but it isn't great
Face recognition? Check
Aperture Priority? Check

I reckon it's got everything I need on a daily basis. Just need to check it out for this fabled shutter lag* (and maybe see if there are firmware updates to download).

* can hardly be worse than my Canon G11. As a classic aircraft flew over yesterday, I hit the shutter button, and tracked, and tracked, and tracked, until the shutter fired just as the plane was behind the boom of a crane. :bang:

 

[traveler_101]

Interesting, Rodchenko, that you pulled up this old thread. The new Olympus 17mm f/1.8 with its focus scale responds to one of the big complaints about m43 cameras for street shooting.

 

[Range-rover]

I did have a EPL-1 but sold it for a better I think E-P3 it's faster and has a
better screen. I know it's a old thread but still the newer Olympus cameras
are the way to go.