OzRay
Mu-43 Hall of Famer
Someone mentioned here or somewhere else that m4/3s just isn't suitable for weddings; however, I think that it is and it works extremely well overall. I had to shoot my cousins wedding on Friday (I swore not to do weddings ever again and had passed on several this year, but I was forced into a corner with this one), so I decided to use nothing but the E-P1/E-P2/E-PL1, with the Olympus 17mm and 14-42mm, as well as my manual M mount lenses. In fact, I decided to not use flash, except if I had absolutely no other choice and I only used the built-in flash on the E-PL1 for a few shots, nothing else.
How did it turn out? Well, quite frankly it even surprised me. Having given up doing weddings some time ago, I had to get on that old bike once again, but soon worked out how to stay upright and the equipment actually worked very well. Was it quite as functional as a DSLR? Not entirely, but I have to say that the m4/3s cameras did exceptionally well and, given further development and more lenses, these could easily replace just about any DSLR for this kind of work.
I had three bodies with me and, combined, they probably weighed as much as one E3 body with battery grip. I was expecting the batteries to struggle because of the EVF being on all the time, but they held up quite well, not that I took thousands of shots. The other thing about these cameras was that they were completely unobtrusive because of the very quiet shutter. However, Olympus really needs to produce a m4/3s body with an integral EVF, so that you don’t need the expensive and potentially fragile removable EVF (I lost the carry bag and rubber cover that comes with the EVF somewhere along the line). Having a built in EVF will also allow for a flash or remote trigger to be attached to the hot shoe.
The inability to use the EVF and have a flash was probably the most frustrating issue that I have with the E-P1 and E-P2, though I can use the wireless trigger to fire off the FL-50Rs with the E-PL1, or the FL-14 with the other bodies, but then no EVF. All Olympus need do is add one of those very tiny flash units as, used on P&S cameras, somewhere on the body to fire off remote flash and things would be fine. They also need to review the way the magnification setup works on the current bodies with manual lenses. While I found the manual lenses to be reasonably easy to focus, at times it wasn’t as good as I wanted and the current implementation of the magnification system was just too slow. It should work in exactly the same was as it does with Olympus m4/3s lenses (more or less). I reckon this would be easy to implement, if Olympus wanted to do so.
There really is very little that the m4/3s cameras couldn't do, that a DSLR could. You could work surprisingly fast with the cameras and they didn't tire you out with all the weight that a DSLR involves. The M mount lenses gave me plenty of scope for shallow depth of field and with the in-built stabilisation; blurry shots were few and far between. All in all, if I had to do this again, I’d use the same gear without hesitation.
Cheers
Ray
How did it turn out? Well, quite frankly it even surprised me. Having given up doing weddings some time ago, I had to get on that old bike once again, but soon worked out how to stay upright and the equipment actually worked very well. Was it quite as functional as a DSLR? Not entirely, but I have to say that the m4/3s cameras did exceptionally well and, given further development and more lenses, these could easily replace just about any DSLR for this kind of work.
I had three bodies with me and, combined, they probably weighed as much as one E3 body with battery grip. I was expecting the batteries to struggle because of the EVF being on all the time, but they held up quite well, not that I took thousands of shots. The other thing about these cameras was that they were completely unobtrusive because of the very quiet shutter. However, Olympus really needs to produce a m4/3s body with an integral EVF, so that you don’t need the expensive and potentially fragile removable EVF (I lost the carry bag and rubber cover that comes with the EVF somewhere along the line). Having a built in EVF will also allow for a flash or remote trigger to be attached to the hot shoe.
The inability to use the EVF and have a flash was probably the most frustrating issue that I have with the E-P1 and E-P2, though I can use the wireless trigger to fire off the FL-50Rs with the E-PL1, or the FL-14 with the other bodies, but then no EVF. All Olympus need do is add one of those very tiny flash units as, used on P&S cameras, somewhere on the body to fire off remote flash and things would be fine. They also need to review the way the magnification setup works on the current bodies with manual lenses. While I found the manual lenses to be reasonably easy to focus, at times it wasn’t as good as I wanted and the current implementation of the magnification system was just too slow. It should work in exactly the same was as it does with Olympus m4/3s lenses (more or less). I reckon this would be easy to implement, if Olympus wanted to do so.
There really is very little that the m4/3s cameras couldn't do, that a DSLR could. You could work surprisingly fast with the cameras and they didn't tire you out with all the weight that a DSLR involves. The M mount lenses gave me plenty of scope for shallow depth of field and with the in-built stabilisation; blurry shots were few and far between. All in all, if I had to do this again, I’d use the same gear without hesitation.
Cheers
Ray
