I have had my Olympus E-510 for over a year now, and I can say it has served me well. From time to time people ask me why I chose to go with Olympus for my DSLR purchase. There were a couple of factors at work. The kit I purchased (E-510 with two lenses) was very competitively priced compared to what Canon and Nikon had to offer. To get comparable equipment from the other two would have cost me a few hundred dollars more. Sensor resolution (10MP) was the same as the other two manufacturers. And then there was the big deciding factor - image stabilization. Olympus was the first with IS for their DSLR cameras. You had to buy the 510 to get it, but it was there. Even better, it is in-camera. That means the lenses don’t cost extra if you want IS (or VR) in them. That really helped frame my opinion up front. But this wasn’t (to me) a small purchase.

Wolf Camera, in conjunction with Olympus, had a special deal going where you could “borrow” a camera (E-400 or E-510) for a weekend to take some pictures and see what you thought. I jumped at that chance. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, they were out of the 510s. I took the 400 home for the weekend and really enjoyed shooting with it. I must admit, I was intimidated by making the jump from my P&S (Canon Powershot G5) to a full on DSLR. But I had a good weekend of shooting, and decided what the heck.

I then started doing my research online. I found the 510 for an even better price from B&H Photo/ Video. Fortunately for me, the manager at Wolf decided to match the prices I found at B&H when I was ready to walk out the door. That willingness to eat the margin a bit also meant I will buy from them in the future - mostly prints and stuff I think.

Now that I have had this camera for roughly a year, I naturally have my list of likes and dislikes about it.

Likes:
- Lightweight (in my camera/ laptop backpack, this hardly adds any weight)
- Great image quality (never had an issue with the image quality)
- Sensor cleaning (the sensor cleaning system seems to work well, don’t see any problems in my images)
- Kit lenses are good quality (I wouldn’t know what ‘great’ glass is, but these do everything I ask)
- Live view (even if I never use it)

Dislikes:
- Limited EV bracketing (3 shots, in one stop increments)
- Unique Olympus USB connector (cables are more expensive and harder to find)
- No tilt/ swivel LCD (was useful on my G5)
- Requirement of Oly xD card for pano mode (I can take panos manually and stitch in something else though)
- “Live capture” software has additional $$ cost
- FL-36 (seriously, why did they even build/ sell this?)

All in all, I can’t say I made a very poor decision in buying this Olympus. It continues to serve me well. That said, Olympus as a whole doesn’t seem to be very innovative at the moment. This worries me. I don’t have a huge investment in Olympus glass and gear, but it would be nice if they had an upgrade path that looked enticing. Compared to what I am seeing from Canon and Nikon, Olympus has a lot of catch up to do. I am not ready to upgrade just yet, so this isn’t of immediate concern. Who knows, maybe they do have something impressive in the works. They need to. The E-3 is outdated now, and the E-30 is not even close to being an evolution.

What I love about portrait sessions is getting past the pretentious faked smiles and into the real personalities of my subjects. If doing portraits was just about collecting evidence of the existence of, and relationship between a group of people I would not be involved. Goofing off also has its place in the process as well, making the smiles they share more genuine than pretentious.

While having fun certainly has it’s place, you do have to remember the ultimate objective of the portrait sitting which is to come away with the physical evidence of the relationship. But I still prefer having fun with my subjects, and capturing the outtakes as much as the evidence. 

Photo by Karl Zemlin
Ever since I got an external flash for my Canon Powershot G5, I have been researching and building home made light modifiers. Some are more elaborate than others, some look better than others, but they have all had the desired effect. Here is a rundown of the ones I have tried, with links to instructions (some might go to videos). The DIY softbox above is one I have not made yet, but you can get the plans here.

Milk Jug Diffuser

The milk jug diffuser is one of the simplest ones to make. Lop off the end of a milk jug, slot the edges so it will wrap around your flash head, and presto chango - instant diffuser. Not as pretty or professional looking as a Gary Fong Lightsphere, but it will get the job done. I haven’t made one of these yet. We have our milk delivered, and their jugs are much heavier gauge than the store bought ones. Hmm, that might make for better diffusion though. I’ll have to see if they are so thick as to not be pliable enough to fit on the flash.

MuzzBounce™ Ghetto Flash modifier

The MuzzBounce™ Ghetto Flash modifier is similar to the milk jug diffuser in that it uses a translucent jug (mine was from windshield wiper fluid). The effect is different though. It is designed to redirect (bounce) the light from a flash, while at the same time diffusing it. It works quite well in portrait and macro photography. I built my first one shortly after I got my new Olympus E-510 and FL-36 flash. My wife made a comment immediately, something about spending so much money on a camera only to put a jug on it. I thought it was a funny comment, but it didn’t stop me from using it around the house. Certainly doesn’t project a professional image though. Not really sure what the “professional” (store bought) equivalent would be, but if you spent enough time on this one, you could make it look professional.

DIY Reflector-Diffuser

I have a slightly different version (cannot find the site it was on now) of the DIY Reflector-Diffuser. It is on;y slightly different, and the results are pretty much the same. I like it so much, I keep it in my camera backpack all the time and use it fairly frequently. Construction is very easy, using craft foam from a hobby shop. The DIY Reflector-Diffuser site also includes plans you can print and use as templates when cutting the craft foam. This is a “must make” for the do it yourself light modifier. Other alterations I have seen include cutting a honeycomb pattern (with large hexagons) into the modifier to let more light escape vertically.

A Better Bounce Card

This was one of the first thing I tried. A simple bounce of light from my flash, that allowed enough light loss to spread the remaining light out properly. It worked OK, but I certainly liked the results from my Muzzbounce better. The plans for A Better Bounce Card have been updated to use craft foam. I think the original may have been something else, as simple as copy paper. It certainly served it’s purpose though.

The Finn Bounce

For those of you with a P&S camera that has a pop-up flash (or even a DSLR like my E-510 that has a pop-up), the Finn Bounce is an easy to make light reflector (bounce card) that, given it’s size, has a tremendous impact on the quality of your pics. Don’t take my word for it, find a piece of cardstock, rubber cement and aluminum foil, then follow the 9 easy steps to make it. You will be glad you did.

This covers the ones I have tried. Below is a list of ones I want to try, along with the softbox that led this article. Hope this has been worthwhile to you.

Miscellaneous Others I Have Not Tried

Here are some highlights of projects I plan to try at some point:

• DIY Softbox
• DIY Ringlight (Flickr groups, particularly the Strobist one, are a great resource for DIY light modification projects.)
• A different ringlight idea
• Homemade lightbox for product photos
• Inexpensive Light Tent for product photos

spartans-9-flickr, originally uploaded by Dizzle @ 2*3 Photos.

Joey scores his second touchdown on the day in a 25-6 victory for the Aurora Spartans over the Montbello Falcons.

Over the summer I picked up a Canon 55-250 IS lens. It was relatively cheap (~$300) and came highly recommended. There are a few (well a lot actually) of photogs out there who say that the IQ on this lens rivals the much more expensive Canon 70-200 IS lens. Canon’s “L” glass.

I picked it up because it was cheap and had that bit more reach I was looking for to get some decent baseball shots.

Well yesterday I had the chance to test it out with some actual action during my sons football game.

Color me very surprised and very happy with this budget lens. It took me a bit to find that sweet spot for the lens, but once I found it and hit the settings right I started getting some very nice images.

I don’t know if this will keep me from plunking down the coin for the 70-200 at some point, but at least for right now I find it a very good alternative to it.

Now that new “high speed” transcend 8GB card I picked up…that is a whole ‘nother story…see my post this coming Wednesday for more on that.

I have been patiently waiting for Canon to reveal the specs of the 5D MKII with baited breath. I was hoping that they would drop something that just totally blew the latest Nikon offerings out the water.

Sadly, no. The specs were relased a few days ago and while they are impressive, they are not what I was hoping and looking for.

This 21 megapixel DSLR (CMOS full frame sensor) has an ISO range of 50 to 25600, HD movie recording (seems to be the way we’re going), Live View framing of images on it’s 3.0 inch LCD (920,000 pixels), burst mode of up to 3.9 frames per second, DIGIC IV processor and sensor dust reduction.

This beauty will set you back $2699 USD (body only) when it hits stores in November this year.

Nicely decked out. But 3.9 frames per second? C’Mon! My 40D is 6.5 fps.

Now take a look at it’s main competitor, the Nikon D700. I was so hoping that the 5D MKII would be at least in line with this…

The Nikon D700 is a 12.1 megapixel full frame (FX), professional DSLR. It’s bundled up in a body that is virtually the same as the Nikon D300. In essence it’s the Nikon D3 feature wise (with a few modifications) in a smaller magnesium alloy body.

The Nikon D700 features five frames per second shooting, image sensor cleaning (vibration cleaning) and the first professional DSLR to come with an in built flash. It has an ISO range of 200-6400 (boostable up to 25600 and down to 100), support for DX lenses, a viewfinder with 95% coverage and a 3.0 inch LCD.

The Nikon D700 will have a retail price of $2999 USD (body only).

5 fps and can hit 8fps with the battery grip. Now I am sure many will jump and say well the 5D MKII is 21mp and the D700 is only 12mp. Really? Are we still only looking at megapixels? That is such a entry-level consumer selling point on a pro level camera.

Right now I am having a hard time deciding if I should:

1. Stick with my 40D setup
2. Test the waters of the 5D MKII
3. Make the switch to Nikon and get a D700

Decisions, decisions…

So you were blessed this holiday season with a new digital camera, but you don’t have any idea how to make it work? Local camera-specific instructional classes and web forums have got you covered no matter what brand you are packing. Read the rest of this entry »