[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I bought this book, very useful to quickly get up to speed on this camera

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide...AGary+Friedman
Enjoy your new camera.

How useful is it for somebody who is in the Olympus 4/3 camp for nearly a decade? It has no rating/reviews and costs $27, so I am bit hesitant to order it.

PS: I own EM5 since Dec 2012 and EM5-II since Feb 2015.

[joe1980]

I was looking for some in depth books that would help me to get around with the OMD and I found this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Olym.../dp/B013FWFVEE

Looking at the reviews, it seems to be worthy to invest!

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Samurai

PS: I own EM5 since Dec 2012 and EM5-II since Feb 2015.

I got my EM5 September 2012 and the mkII about 2/3 months ago. The same author also did a book on the EM5 which I also bought.

I find these books very useful. Nearly 450 pages or so. These cameras have so many features and settings it is near impossible to figure out by yourself. I bought it from his own website and you get a two weeks trial period, so why not try it? It's also slightly cheaper if you decide to buy from him then from Amazone

http://www.friedmanarchives.com/OlympusE-M5-2/index.htm


Always on my iPad in iBooks so I often browse it when I'm travelling/waiting at the airport.

Jeroen

[joe1980]

My OM-D EM5 does a wierd thing of switching off the SCP after 2 seconds. I have to then press the shutter release half way to turn it on. It is a bit annoying. How could I increase the SCP to stay awake for at least 1 minute?

[joe1980]

When I had my NEX-6, I did not bother to get any bag to lug it around. I just used my rucksack. This time around with my OM-D, I decided to get a small messenger bag that would fit the OM-D with the 12-40mm lens, battery charger and cable, SD cards, filters, flash. I managed to get hold of the Tenba DNA 8 Messenger in Olive green:

http://www.tenba.com/de/Products/mes...a-8-olive.aspx

It fits the OM-D and the 12-40mm with precision. It is not so bulky and has got a decent amount of compartments for Organization.

[SPARKled]

I am looking to upgrade my Lumix GX-1, but have seen that m43 gear has absolutely no resale value in the used market unlike the DSLR market. Also am unable to get a sanely price EM-5 Mk2 in India :(

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by SPARKled

I am looking to upgrade my Lumix GX-1, but have seen that m43 gear has absolutely no resale value in the used market unlike the DSLR market. Also am unable to get a sanely price EM-5 Mk2 in India :(

M43 has very good resale value, just not in India because Indians are still stuck in dSLR mode. I have sold many m43 gear without incurring much loss, even made profit in one lens. But you have to sell in USA, there are no takers in India. Pack it nicely and sent it to USA with some relative/friend. Nobody minds taking electronics back to USA, no customs hassles. Then list it on Amazon.com for sale. Amazon takes 8% commission, but the sale is very quick. The moment you get a sale notification, ask your relative/friend to ship it to the address of the buyer.

All the underlined items are the gear I sold. The rest I still own.

Micro Four Thirds
Olympus OM-D E-M5
Olympus M. Zuiko 12-50mm F/3.5-6.3
Olympus M. Zuiko 40-150mm F/4-5.6

Olympus OM-D E-M5 MkII
Olympus M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO
Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm F/1.8
Olympus M. Zuiko 25mm F/1.8

Olympus M. Zuiko 17mm F/1.8
Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 9-18mm f4.0-5.6
Olympus PEN E-PL1 Micro 4/3 Mirrorless camera
Olympus M. Zuiko DIGITAL ED 14-42mm f3.5-5.6


Four Thirds
Olympus E500 8MP Digital SLR Camera
Olympus 40-150mm F/3.5-4.5 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens
Olympus 14-54mm F/2.8-3.5 Zuiko ED

Olympus EC-14, 1.4x E-ED Digital Tele Converter
Olympus E-3 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera
Olympus Zuiko 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 Digital ED SWD Lens
Olympus 50-200mm F/2.8-3.5 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens
Olympus 50mm f/2.0 E-ED Digital Macro Lens
Olympus EX-25, 1:1 Macro Extension Tube

[Jeroen]

Wow, thats a long list of kit you have sold. Do you have time to actually take pictures or are you mostly buying and selling gear?

Im the exact opposite. I buy a camera or a lens and I will use it for many years. By the time Im ready for something new, my current kit is so old that it is worth next to nothing and I keep it for sentimental reasons only.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Wow, thats a long list of kit you have sold. Do you have time to actually take pictures or are you mostly buying and selling gear?

That's rather callous assumption... why can't you just ask what I do with it?

This is my Olympus dSLR/mirrorless gear history for 10 years. To see what I have done with it, you can search for threads started by me in 4x4 Excursions and Travelogues sections. Apart from that I use this gear for official Team-BHP reviews, my office and family events very regularly.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Samurai

That's rather callous assumption... why can't you just ask what I do with it?



.

No offense intended, so let me try again. Why do you keep buying and selling so much gear? Does it help you take better pictures, or do you just enjoy new kit all the time?

Jeroen

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Why do you keep buying and selling so much gear? Does it help you take better pictures, or do you just enjoy new kit all the time?

It is not like that at all.

I bought my first dSLR E-500 in March 2006, along with two lens. Since I live in a place with heavy monsoon, I found myself shooting in low light and in wet environment. So I desired to switch to a body with image stabilization and weather protection. That is how I bought E3 in 2008. By 2012 my lens had collection had grown a bit and I hadn't sold a single item in 6 years.

Since I was heavily into offroading, I was also growing tired of carrying heavy dSLRs and big lenses in the field. I needed something light without losing the quality. So I bought my first mirrorless E-PL1 in Jan 2011. But the m4/3 lenses were nowhere as good as 4/3 lenses yet, although E-PL1 could also shoot video unlike the E3. So I started carrying both E3 and E-PL1 to offroad events. It was really a pain to carry two systems all the time.

By 2012 OMD EM-5 was released and by now some excellent prime lenses were available in m4/3. It was finally practical to switch completely to m4/3. So I sold all my 4/3 gear except the initial gear bought in 2006, which was too obsolete.

I bought the OMD EM5 in Dec 2012. I mostly shot with primes and rarely used the kit lens. When the 12-40/F2.8 finally hit the market, I decided to finance it by selling 2 of my m4/3 lenses (9-18mm,17mm). Early this year my wife demanded a camera for herself. At first I was looking at Sony A6000 for her. Later she agreed to settle for my two year old OMD EM5 with kit lens. So I gave her the EM5 and I got the EM5mII for myself.

Now that we had two OMD bodies, there was no reason to retain the old E-PL1 + kit lens. So I got rid of that recently.

My wife shot the Serengeti Safari with OMD EM5 + 40-150mm F/4-5.6 combo this year. So she put it into good use too.

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

No offense intended, so let me try again. Why do you keep buying and selling so much gear? Does it help you take better pictures, or do you just enjoy new kit all the time?

Jeroen

What's wrong with upgrading on an ongoing basis? It is like starting from a small hatchback and then eventually going to a nice SUV or performance sedan.

I realized that I want (not need) to upgrade my dslr body every few years

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

What's wrong with upgrading on an ongoing basis? It is like starting from a small hatchback and then eventually going to a nice SUV or performance sedan.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that as such, I would say. I think this debate came up in an other thread as well. How you enjoy your hobby or interest is a personal thing.

The one thing with photography is that it is impossible to determine what camera was used to take a picture. Especially if your pictures are displayed on the internet on a blog, website or Facebook etc.

You might guess some generalities about type of lenses and such. But determining with what brand and type camera a picture was taken is really not possible.

Never the less it can be very satisfying buying and changing out a lot of your gear all the time. I keep buying all sorts of tools all the time, doesnt necessarily make me a better mechanic, but I still like doing it.

On photography once my current camera is really worn down, I spend time on research, I rethink my requirements, buy the camera and maybe the lenses and then for the next years dont worry about the kit anymore. All I want to do is use and try to improve my style. So I will spend money and time on books, courses, seminars etc.

Oen approach isn't better or worse then the other, its just whatever takes your fancy. I got into 4/3 after my Sony DSC R1 started giving me problems after many years of service. I started looking for a new camera, this was 2012, the Oly OMD-EM5 came to the market and I really liked it for similar reasons as Samurai.

Unfortunately, the EM5 broke down a few months ago and was going to cost a lot to get repaired. I happened to be in Singapore, I needed a camera and I went straight for the MKII.

Although I do like the MKII over the original EM5, I'm actually still sort of pissed of, because I was expecting my original EM5 to last at least 5-6 years and I wasnt really ready to get a new body, but was forced into it so to speak.

I still have all my cameras:
- Praktica LTL3
- Minolta X700
- Sony DSC ??
- Sony DSC R1
- Olympus OMD-EM5
- Olympus OMD-EM5 mkII

(note I never owned a DSLR, only analogue SLRs, the R-1 might look like one and at the time gave near DSLR performance it's not a DSLR)

I've got the two pro-lenses (12-40 & 40-150) and the lens cap fish eye, polarizer ND fitlers, trigger trap and a tripod. I hope to be good for at least five years before I would consider getting new gear. But during the last three years with my Oly kit I have been at some 7-8 photography courses in a few countries and 2-3 editing courses as well. Must have bought and read 10-12 photography books.

I like to think my photography is still improving, but only partially of the kit I have. Mostly because I like to think my photography and post processing technique is improving.

I have found that I need actual courses, seminars to improve my photography. Without it, I feel it just plateaus out. Only so much you can learn from watching the youtubes and reading the various blogs on Facebook. Nothing will improve it, also new kit doesn't change your style. It might open some new possibilities.

I have just updated the firmware on my MKII and my lenses. The new Olympus firmware introduces focus bracketing. Nice function, but I dont see myself exploring it yet because I've got plenty to explore on some more basic stuff.

Each to its own, enjoy your own way of photography to the max!

Jeroen

[sdp1975]

Jeroen, how did the EM5 stop working ? Did it fall down, or just stop working ?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

Jeroen, how did the EM5 stop working ? Did it fall down, or just stop working ?

I was hiking around Singapore when it essentially stopped working. None of the functions worked properly. Garbage info on the screen etc. So I took it first to a reputable camera repair shop near my hotel. He had a go at it and told me he suspected a cracked motherboard. Told me would cost at least $300 to get it fixed and part availability was an issue too. So for a second opinion I took it to another official repair place and they gave me the same diagnosis. What do you do? A new EM5 body retails for less then $500. I was in Singapore, with still a few more days to go and no working camera. So I got the MKii. Very nice camera and an improvement over the EM5 with the exception of the display. I preferred the original versus de MKii display.

Im returning to the Netherlands in a few days and I will take the old EM5 with me. The Olympus repair centre in the Netherlands is pretty good and I ll let them have a look at it too. If it turns out they can fix it for less then say Euro 100, I might consider it, so I have spare/back up body.

Jeroen