Farewell Olympus EP-1, I hardly knew you

The Olympus E-P1 went back to Costco today, after two months of use. I'm sad to see it go (one less toy), but it didn't satisfy my need for a small body.

I can't complain about the image quality. At low ISO, it's more than good enough. At higher ISO it starts to fall apart, but still manageable (equal to the D200). No dust spots, so the cleaning mechanism works, I was really careful when changing lenses, or it's only been two months. I enjoyed using the video, and that's one feature that I'll miss the most. I finally got the hang of manual focusing, and it was fun to use with my Nikon-mount lenses. The smaller size and lighter weight is definitely a plus, allowing me to bring two lenses in my bag yet not feel overloaded.

On the downside, AF wasn't fast, almost as bad as my Fuji F45fd. The LCD screen is not the best, and difficult to see in bright daylight. This is a major drawback since there is no optical viewfinder (side note, I tried the EVF on an E-P2 at a camera store, and it would solve that problem except for the problem that it won't mount on the E-P1). Battery life is not the best, especially when taking video (I've been spoiled since the D2H, but even the Fuji has good battery life).

I probably won't try the Sony NEX-5 as it again doesn't have a viewfinder, and there are other issues. Keeping my fingers crossed for Nikon or Canon's rumoured small bodies.

Fare thee well, E-P1, would that I had known you better before we parted ways.



Going through the backlog

Millbrae had its first Chinese New Year parade this year. The weather forecast was for rain, and it did sprinkle in the morning and remain grey the rest of the day. This caused a change in the parade route, shortening it drastically and catching me (and several other spectators) off-guard. Not many keepers from this event.



I chose the Nikon 28-105mm f/3.5~5.6 AF over my SOP parade lens (the 70-200VR) as I wasn't sure if I'd need a little on the wide end. It was a good choice: checking my shots, I didn't really need much reach. Hit rate: 7%, or 5/73 (ouch!).

I've also completed the photos from the Cherry Blossom Festival parade. Hit rate: 20%, or  74/355.

Small change to my blog: I've got the slideshow working. I had a bit of a problem, where I somehow triggered a lock on my Picasa album, preventing the blog from accessing the photos. Got that fixed but I'm unsure how it happened.

Whew

After almost a month of turtle-like speed, the Bay to Breakers photos are done. I seem to be slowing down as it shouldn't have taken more than three weeks to edit the shots. There's still the photos from the Cherry Blossom Parade, Asian Heritage Festival, Carnaval, and the surfing shots from the last Hawaii vacation to go through. Oh joy.


B2B hit rate: 36%, or 280/787

I've continued my scanning efforts, but have hit a stumbling block. My ancient Epson 2450 scanner has an intermittently dead sensel that gives a nice line across the scans. I can still scan using one negative slot instead of two, but this does slow things down a bit. For the 126mm film, I've tried using the 35mm slot, but this results in heads being lopped off. Two pieces of glass work, except for the occasional Newtonian ring. I haven't tried scanning any of the 110mm film, although I am really curious to see how well that tiny negative holds up compared to 35mm film. Who has access to a machine shop so I can carve a nice holder?

The fun part of scanning old negatives is the discovery of old photos that you've never seen before. Who would have guessed that I'd find a set of images from a beach outing with the extended family back in 1969? I've also discovered colored photos from my parents' wedding that they didn't remember seeing ever.

I still have to watch "Up." The dvd has been in my possesion for over a week now, but Netflix doesn't care.