28 June 2016

R.I.P. NX

I just visited the Samsung website, and I see nothing about cameras at all. Galaxy phones and refrigerators with cameras inside - but no NX system, no general Cameras category, not even Consumer Electronics. That's very sad. The NX system had some great concepts and very good plans, even if the NX1 and huge f/2.8± lenses was not my style. The NX300/500 were great ones though, but other than the 50-200mm they made no telephoto products for me. We've now shifted to Olympus for compact cameras with excellent image quality - but the NX300 and 16-50PZ+ois will hang around for a while.

So much for that contender in the bottom left. The white NX will definitely stick around though: with the 24-75mme lens that focuses very closely at 16mm, and the impressive Samsung touchscreen (no doubt Samsung knows how to do those!), it's a very easy camera to use and not worth much to sell.  The upper EM5 camera has been replaced by a silver/black EM10 - so the equations are quite different today.  As is quite typical for me lately, that didn't take long!


25 June 2016

the temporary trio



Interesting how the new Lumix lenses have contracted, compared to both earlier versions and the Olympus counterparts! It's decently smaller but still has OIS inbuilt. The 14-42/II shows the same reduced-cubic-inch design philosophy, and reports are great about improved IQ for both lenses.  Nice!
That 14-42/II will arrive early next week, racing the silver em10 to my door.

24 June 2016

So much for sense

Many options exist for the wide end of µ43. Tiny 12-32mm, fast 12-35 or 12-40, versatile 12-50 or 12-60 - or simple 14-42 or 14-45 kit lenses.

Of the 14-42s this makes the most sense to me:


This is 14-42/II, the 3rd-generation Lumix 'kit lens', assuming the PZ version is #4. This one has neither 52mm filter threads nor an OIS switch, but it's smaller sharper and better made than the others in this range - even the Oly IIr that I own now, according to reviews (ir, pz). Sounds like a good match for the 45-150. I'll survive with two filter sets, I have done so before.

No to go back and edit the last few posts to match up with reality. Yes i am rewriting history, again.

Equiv. focal length.     28-84mme
Optical construction    9 elements in 8 groups inc. 2x aspherical 
No. aperture blades    7 (circular)
min. focus      0.2-0.3m (max. magnification: 1:6)
Dimensions    56x49mm
Lens Weight    110g
Filter thread    46mm (non-rotating)

19 June 2016

changing direction, aka swerving

After a few attempts to get the best-value combination of micro-43 gear, I made a decision yesterday.

I bought one of the last new em10 bodies (silver like this one!) and will let the em5 go. Primarily this is a convenience move: the em10 uses epl5 batteries this shift is quite practical. I have already tried to stuff an em5 battery into the epl5, which is a problem, especially with micro-43's shorter battery life. Even more interesting are the new features that the 'lesser' em10 brings to the table compared to the elder, 'more talented' em-5* e.g. live-composite and interval shooting. Those could definitely be useful.. plus it crowds my Pentax gear a bit more with the interval modes.


OK so now the em10 and pl5 are the new dream team for my wife and I.  The 14-42 and 40-150 are the lenses of choice, though I'd prefer a smaller tele like the Lumix 35-100 or 45-150mm.  I've one of the latter coming to compare with my 40-150, we'll
monox.JP image
see how that goes.. assuming the Oly doesn't sell first. And it could, as I have posted that lens and the em5 in a sales site or two. I've also bid on a few 14-140mm Olympus bodies, but no luck so far.  That's not a bad thing, since as I've said before that Panasonic zoom rotation is more familiar to me because all my Pentax zooms turn that way.  I had already made a false start with the 12-32mm, perhaps I will need to find another - or splurge in a few months on the 12-60!  Oh what fun.



* Every camera maker has this same problem: newer bodies incorporate more features yet use parts at a lower cost, so lower-spec cameras have features before the same company's flagship bodies! In Olympus' case the em5 came out and amazed, the em1 came with the top-end specs, then the 'base' em10 came with several em1 features and a few new items that neither had. Oly quickly came out with a 5-II to address the imbalance, and an em1-II will arrive soon. No matter - tech will continue to march on and keep this game going. Pentax' new K-70 has the same problem, surpassing the K-3ii in many ways as the top APSc body.

09 June 2016

the Contestants

In the category of Most-useful Compact Camera with Interchangeable lenses in a Personal role, we now have three* possibilities.

the Big Little Three: EM5, ePL5, NX300 (clockwise from top). Image taken with K-01.


Samsung NX300. Largest sensor, most pixels (20M), a few great little lenses.. and a system whose future is in doubt. Samsung has gone totally silent, and no rumors suggest that another brand is picking up the tech.  Nobody wins with this: bad Samsung PR, poor user comfort even if they own great gear. They still have nice small primes (16, 30, 45, 60 macro), the compact 16-50 with optical stabilization and very few telephotos that are either massive (50-150/2.8) or the 50-200, a decent but not amazing lens.  So Samsung has chosen to take itself off the radar.. too bad as the NX300 is a really nice camera.

Olympus ePL5. The best micro4:3 sensor to date (this is the 16Mpix sensor, the new 20Mpx has not been reviewed much), NX size or a bit smaller, all necessary controls and an option to add a viewfinder. Very comparable to the NX300 but with a future that's more visible and reasonable.


Olympus em5. A bit larger than the ePL5 but same imaging pipeline (sensor, processing, options).  A bit taller since the eVF is built in, and weather seals too. Two control dials for easier adjustments while preparing to shoot. And at some point one might be able to see the 5-axis stabilization win out over the ePL5 and its lesser axes of correction. I don't plan to actively seek out the difference so I'm not greatly concerned.


*The fourth possibility is the Pentax K-01 that took these photos. Far larger than any, another great 16Mpix sensor but APSc / NX300 size. Also white like the NX300, curiously enough. It uses a bunch of lenses that I already own, has focus peaking (the Olympi do not) and can take decent movies.  Here's the K-01 and ePL5 matched up, the 28mm f/2 Kiron is on the K-01.




*Might as well include the fifth option, which is/was the Oly ePM2.  The red one I briefly owned was great fun and smaller then the PL5 but it has no tilt screen. The VF option is there though, and that does tilt - and images equal those from the em5 and PL5. So the PM2 is still a decent choice, really, and the bargain of the bunch. The shot at right compares the PM2 and NX300.


So how do they all compare in the real, non-laboratory world?

All are quite good at what they do, and any differences in image qualities would not impact me. I owned the Pentax and Samsung first so they are more familiar to operate, and in many ways do things in similar ways. I do wish Pentax could take over the NX technology but no news of that = no more time spent on that dream. The Olympus menus are a bit more dense than the others, but worse than that is their cryptic, non-traditional references to what is actually being adjusted.  Irritating, but ultimately one can adapt.

Having seen the various results I'd say the most recent Micro4:3 and APSc sensors are quite evenly matched - it took a few years to get there but with Sony making sensors for both sensor types that's not a great surprise.  No doubt shots above iso6400 will reveal differences, but one can fine-tune the camera before the shot and mess with images later with desktop software. Therefore the differences aren't sufficiently relevant to me that any of these cameras is rejected or required.

For basic zooms the kit 14-42mm is much smaller than the Pentax 18-55, though Pentax now has a retractable 18-50 kit zoom which I have not tried. I've found that the NX 16-50 is pleasantly small and images with it are quite nice. As to primes, all three systems make excellent primes and the 'larger' Limited lenses from Pentax are easily as good as the others. So the wider end is not as big of a deal using any of these systems for lenses that I tend to choose; it's the telephotos that show the most difference.

The Olympus 40-150mm and Samsung NX or Pentax-DA 50-200s (all 80-300mme) do similar work, but the Oly is much less bulky and therefore more likely to come along. If one must have f/2.8 telezooms those lenses for all systems will be large, and I would want a large body to hold such lenses; however I am not interested in shooting at f/2.8 above 100mm so it's not relevant to me.

Given similar enough results and both lens sizes and Samsung's uncertain future, I feel that the micro4:3 gear will serve me/us best going forward. My wife and I can enjoy the ePL5 and em5 with pretty much identical results. The issues between them are small but could become nagging, as they use different batteries. I'm tempted to seek the em10 as a swap for the em5 - I would lose the weather seals but gain a match for power source and get a slightly smaller camera as well. We'll see about that. Or the ePM2 could make a return visit and go along with either of these. In any case images will be more than sufficiently excellent for my needs and uses, and I will dare to say for my wife as well.

05 June 2016

mini tech rant: am I there yet?

I'm typing this from my ASUS Transformer 10" tablet with Windows and detachable keyboard. It's been sidelined for about a year as technology marched on.  In fact here's my note from October 2014 about it (tablet rant #2). Why was that?

The easy answer is that I've been busy as usual, as caregiver to my wife.  The correct answer however is that I updated to Win 10 for free - and the wireless subsystem promptly failed. The Broadcomm wireless b/g/n SDIO drivers that want to update for the new system just don't work - seek these terms online and wince as you count the rants from unhappy users. Mostly I see ASUS users since I'm searching for them, but I've seen many HP users commenting on it as well.


Last week I found a site where a user pointed to the old but working drivers. I unZipped the file and copied the two .bin files that were reported in the Win10 driver popup, and now the tablet is online again after Nineteen Months.  Red flags will fly in the system as the auto-update politely clobbers the functioning drivers with new/bad ones; I expect this to begin soon.  I have the two .bin files on my desktop, ready to drag to the \drivers folder as needed. Silly, but at last it's effective.

The 10" tablet runs Office 10 and all modern browsers as well as a few apps. For variety it's nothing like my Android 8" store apps but I tend to grab and overuse games - so perhaps this is my better choice in the long run! It is a bit awkward to use as I'm used to Android with phones and tablets, but nothing I cannot manage - and the 10 hour battery life will be nice.

04 June 2016

simply Wow (Kiron 28/2)

The K-01 and Kiron 28 have arrived. The 28/2 is quite impressive, and that just sent the smc-M 28/2.8 packing.  Even at f/2 it's quite sharp and contrasty, and the K-01's focus peaking means I can actually focus the thing where I intend. If wide open is good it means I can use aperture-priority setting rather than going Manual and hitting the green button to meter, which is a speed boost I can use at times. Like all lenses past the age of 20 or so, it's not perfect: the coating allows for plenty of flare to leak into the image from bright light sources, which affects the contrast at times. It's not ideal in a dark room with bright windows, for example.

I also attached the 28-80 Sigma from days past, with 1:2 close focusing.  So far so good with results there too, no surprise as I have owned this lens before a few times (both 28-80 and the Quantaray 28-90 variant).  Each time I've been impressed, yet budget forces a sale sooner or later.  Maybe those days are past - but this one cost $28 even with the K-1 now available to absorb all full-35mm lenses.

So the K-01 can now rest in its 'cabinet' (2 shelves in a closet) and meet the other K-lenses in the group. Those include the 100-300 Sigma DL, 80-200 JCPenney and primes from the 28 Kiron, 50-100-135mm Pentax, 300mm mirror and 400mm Hanimar.  Should be fun!


03 June 2016

hate when this happens

The K-01 passed over on its way from Kent to Portland. Its Thursday arrival date still shows on my Friday-morning search which shows it in Portland on Thursday morning. This is really not informative. It's probably in Longview now (24h later) and about to be 'out for delivery' - but why have a website if it cannot keep up?


Five minutes after that post.. see what happens when you complain? :^)