One of the criticisms of cropped-format cameras such as the Olympus and Panasonic Four-Thirds and Micro FourThirds offerings is the inability to control DoF and backgrounds. It isn't just an issue of sensor size, though. It's more about optics. The following picture illustrates this. This picture is taken with the Zuiko 50mm F1.4 lens stopped down to around F2.8 mounted on the Panasonic L1. Image has been resized only from the original in-camera JPEG. Exposure was determined using a Sekonic L-508 light-meter and white-balance manually set for stage lighting.

Panasonic L1, Zuiko 50mm F1.4 at approximately F2.8.

Bokeh Guitar

Bokeh Guitar, Olympus OM-3Ti, Zuiko 50mm F1.4 at F1.4, Fujifilm NPZ

The following is a 100% crop of four identical pictures showing out-of-focus highlights using zoom lenses set to 50mm and F4.0. All four lenses are expensive Olympus lenses--one discontinued, one is a Mk1 version, and the other two are current. All four would be considered "High-Grade" lenses. These are no slouches. Care to guess which is which? The yellow blob is an out-of-focus dandalion. The white-highlights are just sunlight reflections sparkling off of the grass.

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This week's picture was the shot that inticed me to finally get the new 50mm lens. This shot was taken long after sunset using a Zuiko 35/2.8 on the OM-2S with Kodak Gold 200 film. I used a monopod to support the camera, but even with -2.0 exposure compensation the exposure was approximately two seconds. In spite of the lack of support, the planet showing in the sky is sharp and shows no movement. Because of the extremely long shutter times, I shot about half a roll of film to get the picture.

I just acquired a lens which I haven't had in years--the Olympus Zuiko 50mm F1.4. Unlike my original, this one is of the final series manufactured and is considered one of the sharpest Zuikos made. I can't confirm or deny that, but will say that my sample is among the sharpest lenses I've ever used. Here are several photographs from the first weekend of use.

Tree Reflections in silty pond, Olympus E-1, Zuiko 50mm F1.4

A while back, I had the "pleasure" of visiting the local camera proprietor in another city while on a business road trip. Had I realized what I was in for, I probably should have not bothered.

Viewfinder displays get more complex all the time. More and more data is being displayed, but all that information has to be looked at, read and interpreted. What we are missing is the display which can be seen in your peripheral vision and interpreted without looking directly at it.

A visit to past viewfinder displays can be used to direct today's camera designers into providing meaningful and highly useful viewfinder data readouts.

The following illustration is what I would like to see in my next digital camera. If the display looks familiar, it's because the left portion is similar to that of SLRs not using Canon's data display model. For this illustration, all LCD information is presented. The bottom display information is as seen in the Olympus E-30.

On the left side of the display are all of the whole-stop shutter speeds from one-second to 1/4000 of a second. The bar-graph is a dual-color display and the red bar indicates the slowest shutter speed that can be used without vibration-blurring. This is calculated based on the known focal-length of the lens and the status of the image-stabilization.

On the right side of the display is a bar-graph version of the histogram. The exposure range of the image is calculated in real-time and the highest and lowest value is plotted out on the scale. The red-zones indicate exposure values that are clipping or falling down in the noise-floor of the sensor. These limits can be user-defined.

One of the problems I run into is too much information in the display itself. I prefer to keep the display as clean as possible to eliminate distractions within the viewfinder. There are usually plenty of opportunities to read the information on other status displays or with a press of an "info" button.

In usage for the shown picture, the following screen would show up.

I'm shooting at ISO 100 (not shown), and with the lens' focal-length and Image-Stabilization turned on, the lower-limit of stability is just under 1/15 of a second. The lens is set to F8.0 and the shutter speed is about 1/100 of a second. The total dynamic range of this scene is 9 stops, which is indicated on the display to the right. Since the nine-stops are within the limits of the sensor, no red is visible.

If exposure-compensation was adjusted, you would see the shutter-speed indicator bar rise or fall and the dynamic-range bar to the right would shift upward or downward. In an "expose-to-the-right" situation, you would adjust the exposure-compensation until you see red.

The primary benefit of this kind of display is that you can see the movement of the displays and sense the position of the bars without looking at them. You can know what generally is your shutter-speed without looking at it.

An added benefit of this display is that it would support OM-3Ti/4Ti Multi-Spot Metering. Anything possible with those outstanding cameras could be duplicated here.

As long as you keep the bars out of the red, you are assured a proper exposure.

Ken Norton

March 26, 2010

It's happened to all of us one time or another. We photograph a lovely purple flower and the end result is a blue flower. We wedding photographers have to deal with it when the bride goes ballistic on us because the purple or lavender dresses that she so carefully matched to the flowers at the wedding don't match in the prints.

Why does this happen and what recourse do we have?

Zone-10 Color Test Fixture with purple flowers. Olympus E-1

Yesterday, several rolls of Fujichrome Provia 100F returned from the lab. Included in the shipment were two rolls of film that I neglected to have processed back in the fall. This picture was among them.

Fall Leaves - Olympus OM-3Ti, Zuiko 35-80 F2.8 Zoom, Fujichrome Provia 100F

The picture has been scanned with the Nikon Coolscan V-ED using the Nikon software. Curves and saturation adjustments in the Nikon software was performed to approximate the slide as closely as possible to my desired visual perception of it. Other than scaling and post-scaling sharpening, no further adjustments performed. Absolutely no white-balance correction or warming was done on this picture. Exposure was determined using the OM-3Ti's multispot metering.

Ken Norton

Just how much dynamic range does the venerable Olympus E-1 have? Zone-10 gives you, the reader, the ability to see for yourself with these worse-case sRGB, Olympus converted files.

Zone-10's Color checker exposed at flash-meter calculated exposure