December 30, 2006
Gallery Update
New photos added to galleries on Saturday, December 30, 2006 2:35:39 PM: Riale d\'Efra waterfall added to Ticino Gallery Riale d\'Efra waterfall added to Ticino Gallery Riale d\'Efra waterfall added to Ticino Gallery Riale d\'Efra waterfall added to Ticino Gallery Riale d\'Efra waterfall added to Ticino Vald hamlet, upper Verzasca...December 20, 2006
Gallery Update
New photos added to galleries on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 5:26:39 PM: Blue bulge added to Ticino Gallery Trailing edge added to Ticino Gallery In the balance added to Ticino Gallery Wake added to Ticino Gallery Wings added to Ticino Gallery Lone Star added to Ticino Gallery...December 6, 2006
Iceland 2007 Calendar
Following the vast success of my Iceland 2006 calendar, I have repeated the excercise this year, with a slightly longer print run. All landscapes this time. The principal purpose of this calendar is self-promotion, building up to a commercial distribution, hopefully next year. However, this year we are selling them...November 23, 2006
Practical Photography
Fountain Originally uploaded by snowhenge. Since my only spare time at the moment co-incides with darkness, for practical purposes if nothing else, I've decided to experiment a bit with nightime long exposures. This being totally experimental, I'm also combining it with another experiment, which is to use Flickr alongside...
Posted by davidrm at 12:58 PM
November 8, 2006
Rub me RAW
"Oh Lord, those blues are gonna rub me raw" - Warren Zevon RIP Here follows a veritable orgy of pixel peeping. I was playing around with Aperture 1.5 earlier today, since Apple has finally decided to let people try it out for free. I might write further about Aperture later,...October 26, 2006
Panasonic more marketable than Leica ?
I just received the latest Olympus E-Spam, er sorry, E-News, and apart from the fact that after over 2 years, they have finally relented and sent to me in English rather than German, it also contains a link to the 4/3rds consolidated lens catalogue. And the interesting thing there is...October 18, 2006
Olympus E-400 and other things
The last year has seen some considerable changes in the evolution of the 4/3rds world. We have a number of new cameras, nominally from 3 manufacturers, although 1.5 would be more truthful, and lenses from 3 companies as well. Up until now, I haven't found anything of much interest beyond...October 5, 2006
Quattroterziphoto
I recently noticed that I get quite a lot of traffic to this site from a domain called quattroterziphoto.it - or "fourthirdsphoto.it". Finally, I've investigated, and discovered this very nice site dedicated to the 4/3rds system, in Italian. They also have a very active forum, and they have a prominent...August 29, 2006
Whistling in the wind
Well, the speculation is ramping up on what Olympus will or will not deliver at Photokina. I don't particularly care, as I can't afford it anyway. But it will be interesting to see if Olympus are still interested in anything approaching the pro DSLR market. There's a lot of talk...August 16, 2006
Panasonic Lumix L1 previewed
The new Panasonic L1 has been previewed by Reponses Photo (excellent French print magazine). As they say, on paper, a collaboration between the makers of the Lumix compacts, Leica and Olymous should be something special. But they're disappointed. Whilst they are quite enthusiastic about the general concept, the build quality,...August 3, 2006
A RAW Workflow
Since I have a received a good few questions about my workflow, particularly from Olympus E-1 owners, I though it was maybe time to write something about it. Note, I do all of my digital photography on Macs, so I'm afraid this workflow is Mac specific, or at least the...July 3, 2006
Zuiko 8mm Fisheye for Landscape
For some time I've been meaning to write something here about using the Zuiko Digital 8mm Fisheye lens, specifically for landscape. This is the first true fisheye I've ever used. Many, many years ago, I used a fisheye adapter on Canon FD lenses, a combination which puts most Holga photos...June 27, 2006
Gallery Update
New photo added to galleries on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 11:11:23 PM: - Hurricane survivors added to the Miscellaneous collection. Just a token update, but interesting (in a techie way) because it is the first photo I've processed in Iridient RAW Developer for upload. I found that after mild DoG...
Posted by davidrm at 11:17 PM
June 18, 2006
Switching to RAW Developer
Following earlier posts about this, today I managed to find time to evaluate Iridient RAW Developer 1.5.1 against CaptureOne Pro 3.7.4, for Olympus E-1 RAWs. The results are clear: RAW Developer is extracting more detail and more neutral colour than CaptureOne. As a long time CaptureOne user, I'm a bit...May 20, 2006
Tetris Round 2
Following Bernard's comment to the previous article, I tried giving RAW Developer and CaptureOne a better chance. Here is the IRD version, using the new R-L deconvolution sharpening (aside, I wonder if this is what FocusFixer uses ?), set at radius 1, iterations 10, as Bernard suggests. Noise reduction is...May 18, 2006
The Great Tetris Challenge
This is just a quick post, prompted by the release of Iridient RawDeveloper 1.5, and various writings over at the lair of the auspicious dragon... This is NOT a test. I try things out, but I don't test them. I rarely read the instructions properly, I am not methodic, and...May 15, 2006
The inflexibility of infinite options
This is a diatribe about getting locked into RAW converters. Take it with an even larger pinch of salt than usually recommend for my rants. Yes, I know: RAW liberates us. We can fix anything in the mix. We can change the exposure, change the colour balance, obtain radically different...February 27, 2006
California, er, sorry, Florida Dreaming
So the annual feeding frenzy is underway, as lots of men in suits or corporate t-shirts show lots of other men in t-shirts and baseball caps what gadgets (possibly draped over women) (the gadgets, not the men) they can start dreaming about for the next few months. Yes, it's PMA...
Posted by davidrm at 6:21 PM
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January 26, 2006
More Lensbaby fun
Just an excuse to post a photo this time. This was taken last week in Samnauen, on a "no chance" skiing day. In to the trees... This was produced direct from CaptureOne, following Colin Jago's further experiments on sharpening. The Lensbaby is fun, but it is a right bug*er to...December 23, 2005
Lensbabies
I was pleased (and a little surprised) to recently discover that the Lensbaby "creative" lens is available for the FourThirds mount. I just had to try it. The idea of putting a bad-by-design lens on the front of an expensive DSLR is too appealing to pass up. Although, to be...
Posted by davidrm at 6:13 PM
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November 13, 2005
Zürich Zoo
Finally got around to visiting Zürich Zoo today. I'm not totally sure if I approve of zoos. The good ones do a very good conservation and education work, although it would be disingenuous to pretend that their main role is not entertainment. Zürich Zoo has good points and bad points...
Posted by davidrm at 10:45 PM
October 6, 2005
Capture Sharpening for the E-1
After nearly two years with the E-1, I think I have finally made some progress on how to extract maximum sharpness from RAW files. It is often said that E-1 RAW images can take a lot of sharpening. Exactly why this is the case I guess depends on several factors,...
Posted by davidrm at 6:59 PM
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September 17, 2005
RAW deal (again)
Following the never ending, evolving debates on various web fora about E-1 RAW conversion, I've decided to not stick my head in the sand but to have another look at my choices. As far as I know, the major options are: Olympus Studio Adobe Camera RAW PhaseOne CaptureOne Bibble RAW...
Posted by davidrm at 1:19 PM
August 6, 2005
Infrared with the E-1 (again)
A few weeks back I was photographing the basalt cliffs at Arnastapi in Iceland. I wanted to try to get a long exposure, to get that silky, ethereal look to the sea, but at ISO 100, fully stopped down, with a ND 4 and polariser filter, I still was not...
Posted by davidrm at 4:25 PM
April 18, 2005
RAW Converter Bonanza
Hot on the heels of the announcement of Photoshop CS2 with its new separate RAW processing features, came the "release candidate" of CaptureOne Pro 3.7, and Olympus Studio 1.3. Studio 1.3 comes with a lot of interesting new features and options, so I thought it would be interesting to try...
Posted by davidrm at 5:27 PM
April 3, 2005
Go to meet thy Maker
Well my E-1 went on a ride to Olympus Switzerland last Thursday. Hopefully it will return soon, with a new rubber coating for the grip, which as seems to be common with E-1s, was coming loose. I also asked them to look at the card compartment door which is sometimes...
Posted by davidrm at 10:32 PM
February 16, 2005
One year (and a bit) later
So I've had the E-1 for just over a year. I've taken about 6000 frames with it, I've made my first commercial sales as a photographer with E-1 photos, and I've probably progressed a great deal as a photographer due to the freedom that digital brings. So maybe it's time...
Posted by davidrm at 12:51 AM
February 8, 2005
ZD Lens Magnification
For a long time before I bought the Zuiko ED 50mm macro lens, I (and others, I think) was intrigued by the apparent fact that the 14-54mm zoom actually focusses closer than the 50mm. How could this be ? There was plenty of comment on forums such as DPReview about...
Posted by davidrm at 6:52 PM
February 7, 2005
Pixel mapping
So, about 1 year on from buying my E-1, I suddenly noticed...... ARGHH! a STUCK RED PIXEL!!! the stuck pixel The world is ending! I need a new camera! I have to search the web for horror stories about hot pixels!!! And then, I remembered: a quick trip to the...
Posted by davidrm at 8:11 AM
Silverfast DC-Pro for E-1 RAW
Lasersoft Imaging is a company with an impressive pedigree in digital imaging. For years, their Silverfast software has been the gold standard in scanning software, supporting a huge range of scanners with a sometimes bewildering variety of options and configurations. From low end consumer devices to high end drum scanners,...
Posted by davidrm at 7:37 AM
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January 17, 2005
Coot of the day
Another day, another batch of lake bird photos. Again I used the 50-200mm lens, again with the teleconverter. This time I had little trouble with AF in C-Mode. Today's photo is a close-up of a coot. Trying to optimise the exposure, I used center weighted averaging centered on the head....
Posted by davidrm at 9:57 PM
January 15, 2005
Not so boring ?
Today's "boring bird" is a greater crested grebe, caught in unusual light. This time I used the 1.4 teleconverter, and found that auto focus was much worse. In some circumstances, for example standing on a floating, but almost still, pontoon, trying to focus on a also floating, but practically stationary...
Posted by davidrm at 3:23 PM
January 13, 2005
Making the mundane interesting
In the last couple of days I've shot around 280 photos of common (mallard) ducks and associated waterbirds. These are not what you'd call challenging wildlife, simply pretty placid birds on a tranquil lake - say one step up from a park, but not a very big step. However, it...
Posted by davidrm at 9:25 PM
January 11, 2005
Thinking about Flash
(This entry is duplicated at the DPReview Olympus SLR forum) Although I've been photographing for many years, I've never been a flash user. I've only ever used flash on point&shoots for family-type photos. During the last few years I've been getting more interested in wildlife photography, and can appreciate the...
Posted by davidrm at 11:04 AM
November 18, 2004
Infrared photography with the E-1
Ok, I haven't written anything in this so-called blog for ages, but actually I've got a few things in the queue. The first is a brief write-up on using the E-1 for infra-red (IR) photography. Why IR ? Well it certainly gives a different perspective on things. Infrared photography uses...
Posted by davidrm at 9:28 PM
September 3, 2004
Calibrating Adobe Camera RAW
Following the less than perfect support for the E-1 in PhaseOne CaptureOne, I decided to go back to ACR, and, armed with Bruce Fraser's Real World Adobe Camera Raw, and his earlier Creative Pro article, I tried recalibration ACR for my E-1. I photographed a 24 patch Macbeth Color Checker...
Posted by davidrm at 11:14 AM
August 4, 2004
Capture One
Well it's finally here: PhaseOne's Capture One SE with Olympus E-1 support (or C1SE for short). I've been watching PhaseOne's web site like a hawk, waiting for this release, which feels long overdue. C1SE is reputed to be the best raw developer on the market, and with the shortcomings of...
Posted by davidrm at 6:09 PM
July 23, 2004
E-1 in Iceland
For most of the past four weeks I have been travelling around Iceland with my Olympus E-1 (and Hasselblad Xpan). I shot 2700 frames, about 26Gb of Raw files, and used all 3 E-System zoom lenses. The camera behaved perfectly all the time, and stood up to rough handling and...
Posted by davidrm at 10:50 PM
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June 15, 2004
noise reduction
Since Noise Ninja 2.0 has been released as a public Beta for Mac OS X, I've been trying it out on some ISO 3200 photos, and comparing with the Olympus post-processing tools (not in-camera noise reduction). The following sequence of 100% screenshots shows various combinations: This is the raw image,...
Posted by davidrm at 9:34 PM
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May 26, 2004
RAW conversion re-examined
Following a current thread on DPReview, and based on some recent observations, I've revisited the "Olympus Studio" vs "Photoshop Camera Raw" question, with some alarming results. I've been using Camera Raw routinely for some months. It is fast and intuitive, and apart from high ISO images, seems to be close...
Posted by davidrm at 9:47 PM
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May 25, 2004
hey - time lapse!
Whoops. I seem to have forgotten to post here :-) Well it has been a long road, paved with good intentions. My E-1 has clocked up thousands of shutter cycles, and produced about a Gbyte of photos, of which at least 2 are sort of ok. In the meantime I...
Posted by davidrm at 6:58 PM
April 6, 2004
self-portrait with photographer
Currently in Lugano there is an open air sculpture exhibition, showing works by Arnaldo Pomodoro. The works are highly reflective and have many interesting shapes. I thought it would be interesting to play around with them a bit at lunchtime. I wasn't the only one......
Posted by davidrm at 10:05 PM
April 5, 2004
Magnolia Season
Hmm. For the last couple of weeks, the weeks have seen wonderful weather (in both "normal" and "photographic" terms), and the weekends have had dull skies. A bit of a shame because it is magnolia season here and whilst I'm not usually much of a flora photographer, I like magnolias....
Posted by davidrm at 12:27 AM
April 1, 2004
Flat spot
I'm not very enthusiastic about photography at the moment. Or more accurately, I'm not very enthusiastic about my photography, or taking photographs. Partly due to a recent flame exchange which I found depressing in the extreme (but I do keep reminding myself that the vast majority of Americans are not,...
Posted by davidrm at 12:17 AM
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March 23, 2004
Creative ISO
This is another accident... Had I not been at ISO 800 I could not have captured this combination of frozen motion and shallow depth of field. Normally I would have been at 100 or 200, and as my brain is still more or less set in the film world, I...
Posted by davidrm at 10:45 PM
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March 15, 2004
Misty morning
I managed to do it again. This time I shot 18 pictures at ISO 400 when I could, and should have been at 100 or 200. Oh well. Hopefully I'll learn one day. Here's one of them, an alternative to the one I posted at myfourthirds.com today. This one has...
Posted by davidrm at 11:50 PM
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March 14, 2004
Honour thy mistake as a hidden intention
There's been a lot of talk about how Olympus should add instant histogram review in a future E-1 firmware upgrade. Actually, whilst I would not mind seeing this, I don't find the two-click approach need now terribly inconvenient. What I do think is a problem is the lack of a...
Posted by davidrm at 8:42 PM
March 3, 2004
Images online
Well I haven't posted here for a long time. Partly because I was away in Cannes, attending the 3GSM Conference - basically the most important 4 days of the year, work-wise. But also because I've been concentrating on web site updates. I've now completed revising my online photo galleries, and...
Posted by davidrm at 1:56 PM
February 22, 2004
ISO 3200
Guggenmusic group, Bellinzona Carnival, February 2004. An example of a photo taken at ISO 3200 - in camera noise reduction, RAW noise filter, and Olympus Studio noise filter applied. It is hardly perfect, and possibly other cameras do better, but nevertheless it at least matches any colour slide film rated...
Posted by davidrm at 11:53 PM
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February 21, 2004
All a matter of choices
I've just been converting some high speed (ISO 1600) photos taken last night at the carneval in Bellinzona. The differences between Adobe Camera Raw and Olympus Studio are really quite striking. I think I prefer the colour from Olympus Studio - I think it is more accurate. But ACR has...
Posted by davidrm at 3:19 PM
February 18, 2004
Really Right Stuff
With all the talk of accessories and rumours of 3rd party E-System components, it is worth mentioning that one already exists: the Really Right Stuff Arca Swiss style plate for the E-1, model number BOE-1 A. This is a really worthwhile addition to any E-1 system. I use a Acratech...
Posted by davidrm at 11:05 PM
4-3system.com
Quick post for today: Jon Ragnarsson has updated his Four Thirds System web page. Well worth a visit for E1 fans....
Posted by davidrm at 12:04 PM
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February 17, 2004
I've had a chance now
I've had a chance now to evaluate the differences between the Olympus Studio RAW conversion, and the new Photoshop CS Camera Raw 2.1. So far it isn't an easy choice. (an inhabitant of Novaggio, Ticino, taken with the 50-200mm lens, handheld) ACR has the big advantages of histogram display and...
Posted by davidrm at 10:33 PM
February 15, 2004
the next morning
well I did manage to drag myself out of bed but it wasn't easy! This is the first photo I processed out of about 60. Taken with the 14-54mm lens at 14mm, manual mode. Now at ISO 100 with noise reduction on. The results are much better, but still the...
Posted by davidrm at 10:41 AM
Early morning onwards
Well I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning at 6am to catch the sunrise. I managed to fill up a 512Mb CF card remarkably quickly, and cursed myself for leaving the new 1Gb card I'd bought at home. So out of 47 or so photos, one of...
Posted by davidrm at 12:30 AM
February 12, 2004
Late post ...
I'm being very slow at adding updates here - partly because I'm spending a lot of time totally rebuilding my web site. I have started using the E-1 quite extensively, although not routinely yet. However, I have not shot a single frame of film since I bought it! Fuji stock...
Posted by davidrm at 5:25 PM
February 7, 2004
If I was a swan, I'd be gone...
The wonders of digital. On film I'd never have bothered scanning this obvious mistake. But in digital... ...I started playing around in Olympus Studio, added a medium red filter, cropped a bit, and, presto -- quite an atmospheric result!...
Posted by davidrm at 11:53 PM
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40 x 30 printing
Just a quick note today. I've just printed my first full A3 borderless print from an E-1 photo. This was the big test... ...well it is certainly up to 35mm 4800dpi scan standards. I simply enlarged to 30 x 40cm at 200dpi in Photoshop CS, using one step with Bicubic...
Posted by davidrm at 11:32 PM
February 6, 2004
At Last!
Finally I managed to get out to take a few photos. I hoped that the weather would work for me, but finally it was a bit bland. Anyway, I got a bit of real-world experience using the E-1 in evening light. This photo was taken using the 14-54mm lens with...
Posted by davidrm at 7:01 PM
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February 5, 2004
Hello ? Anybody here ?
I've been a bit quieter than planned this week. Unfortunately the aftermath of a mega-party last weekend (not that I'm complaining) and a workload from hell this week (yes, here I am complaining) has kept the E-1 very unused. However, one small development: I ordered the Studio software (I can't...
Posted by davidrm at 10:47 PM
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January 30, 2004
Changing the focusing screen
...well it may just be me, but this is far from easy. Olympus supply a really bizarre tweezer tool which seems to be mainly designed to make life difficult. First of all, if you're going to try this, read the instructions. But not too carefully, because they're not very helpful....
Posted by davidrm at 9:59 PM
January 29, 2004
Oh so that's how you post images...
Just worked out how you post images in Movable Type blogs. This was taken this morning just after I got out of bed.... sunrise over Monte Generoso. Taken with the E-1 at 400ASA, 14-54mm lens, ESP metering, only 1 coffee. Every morning I think if I was a real photographer...
Posted by davidrm at 6:17 PM
January 28, 2004
Studio RAW conversion
I've just done a test of RAW conversion using the High Function and High Speed options. I applied zero sharpening in Olympus Studio, and then used PhotoKit to apply capture sharpening. I read RémiG's article on sharpening. I can't reproduce his results: In my case (a winter landscape, similar in...
Posted by davidrm at 10:50 PM
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Web Site Story
Just for fun I thought I'd register my E-1 with Olympus. Seems like a good idea, doesn't it ? Of course you'll only know you can do if you've managed to find a link in the twisted maze of web sites that Olympus has managed to publish so far. Starting...
Posted by davidrm at 12:00 PM
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January 26, 2004
E-1 Software
With the first photos comes the first photo-processing. I've installed both the Olympus Viewer and the Olympus Studio Trial software on my desktop machine, which is an Apple Macintosh G4 867Mhz "Quicksilver", with 1.5Gb of RAM and as much disk space as my whole University had back in 1983 :-)...
Posted by davidrm at 9:13 PM
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Posted RAW file
For anybody wanting to experiment, a RAW file and associated JPEG of a Swiss mountain peak can be found online here. The blue sky was very transitory... The photo was taken handheld, at 100ASA, 54mm, 1/250th, F9, using ESP metering. The metering coped pretty well....
Posted by davidrm at 9:03 PM
First photos
So, no post yesterday. Circumstances, for example shovelling snow, kept me away. Today, however, the E-1 has leapt into action. Taking advantage of a business trip over the Alps, I stopped off at a few places to try it out. The weather was still both foul and boring, but there...
Posted by davidrm at 8:24 PM
January 24, 2004
Not much news
Well I promised to post everyday, so here it is... but, due to horrible weather and saturday domesticity contraints, the E-1 has been untroubled... One thing that might be interesting - it would have been for me - is what is actually in the box. Well the Europoean E-1 kit...
Posted by davidrm at 8:02 PM
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January 23, 2004
very first unpowered impressions
Well, I'm at home surrounded by boxes. I haven't charged the battery yet, so all I can do is read the manual. But I have had a peek through the viewfinder, and, well, I'm amazed. It just feels right. It doesn't have the tunnel vision feel of the Canon 10D...
Posted by davidrm at 9:55 PM
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The Long March
Ah, if only people knew the hardships of living the other side of the Alps to everybody else in Switzerland. Everybody else including Olympus Switzerland, for example. Doubtless somewhere near Zurich, over the 3000m high Gotthard Pass. Just think... some poor courier guy has got to struggle through howling winds...
Posted by davidrm at 4:43 PM
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January 22, 2004
New review posted
Not much to say today as (a) I'm still waiting and (b) I've got a lot of work to do. However I did see a new review posted today at dcresource, which seems to be pretty positive. It certainly looks promising......
Posted by davidrm at 1:03 PM
January 21, 2004
Why the E-1 ?
So why choose the E-1 ? Well first of all, I defy any photographer to pick one up and not instantly recognise that it just feels right, in a way that no other DSLR - and very few film SLRs - does. I don't believe this is an accident. It...
Posted by davidrm at 10:16 AM
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January 20, 2004
No turning back
Well I've done it. Today I placed my order for an Olympus E-1 and various accessories. It should arrive in a few days. Since the E-1 is quite new, and it's all new to me, it seemed like a good idea to maintain a diary of my progress. At the...
Posted by davidrm at 6:21 PM