The Results. The Olympus Zuiko 50-200mm on my OMD EM5.

Posted on May 21, 2013 by

Last week and over the weekend I spent about 4 days shooting images with the Olympus Zuiko 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 ED SWD Zoom Lens in Colorado. I rented this lens for wildlife and some landscape photography from borrowlenses.com and did it ever pay off. After the last 5 days with this lens, I want to buy it.

This is by no means a comprehensive review of Olympus’s 50 – 200mm f2.8 lens. It is a hands on review of this lens paired to my Olympus OMD EM5 using the micro 4/3 adapter for the lens. To keep things simple and to the point I am going to break down the pros and cons and post a few sample images with a brief overview.

150-mm-at-4-feet f 2.8

First things first. If you rent this lens, or buy this lens make sure the firmware on your camera is up to date if you are using the micro 4/3 adapter. It will make all the difference with autofocus speeds with this lens. I found autofocus to be speeds to be adequate in bright light and open spaces. Where autofocus didn’t hold up was when I was shooting a subject where there were objects close to the subject or breaking into the frame. The lens simply couldn’t make up its mind on where to focus. This was really the case when the lens was zoomed all the way in. For most of my shooting I switched to manual focus. It was simply more accurate, and easier. If I had updated the OMD before I left, autofocus probably would have preformed better.

315mm-at f2.8

Second. This lens is big and heavy. It weighs in at two and a quarter pounds. If you are not used to using a lens that ways this much you’ll be in for a surprise. Collapsed it is almost seven inches long. Zoomed out, it is closer to ten. The lens hood will add another three. Be prepared to carry around a large, heavy lens.

250mm f2.8

Now with that said, the weight and size are a tribute to the quality of materials used in this lenses construction. It is a high-grade lens with a hefty amount of glass in it. Your payoff for all the weight and size is crisp, bright images with creamy bokeh when the aperture is fully open.

elk-at-350mm

The minimum focus distance is just under four feet. When zoomed out and focused this close, the lens takes incredibly sharp macro images. When using it for distance shots, the zoom has incredible reach with the same level of detail found in those images as well.

400-mm f2.8

 

Over the course of five days, half of the images I shot were with this lens. It provided me with a solid zoom that could be used to dial in on wildlife subjects that I just couldn’t get close to. I found this lens to be optically fast, precise, and accurate with sharpness and detail across the entire zoom range. In short I fell in love with it, even though I didn’t upgrade my camera firmware before putting it to use.

200-mm 4 feet f4

Pros:

  • Sharp images
  • Fast aperture
  • Bright
  • Great zoom reach

Cons:

  • Weight
  • Autofocus speed with 4/3 adapter

400mm-at-75-yards lone-aspens-w-cokin

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OpenSignal is Helping You Stay Connected.

Posted on May 21, 2013 by

iconAfter spending 5 days in the Colorado Rockies, and driving across western Kansas I can tell you that cell phone coverage pretty much sucks in rural America. I know that some of the issues are geographical. Cell signals can’t travel through mountains, and if cell towers are a hundred miles apart you might drop service. None the less almost every cell provider in the lower 48 will tell you that you will have uninterrupted service as you drive west on I-70.

OpenSignal in the UK (winner of the UK’s most innovative mobile company 2013) realized this problem is universal on both sides of the Atlantic and the startup has introduced an app  that allows cell users to report their coverage in real-time. This means that cell users can cut through clutter to find honest, crowd-sourced information about signal strength and reliability. App users can track signal coverage across maps, that also display nearby wi-fi networks.

“The most innovative aspect of our project is that every app user shares signal information with us, meaning that we have built up the most complete database on carrier performance in the world, much of which is viewable in-app or on our website opensignal.com. We’re trying to build a community to help dispel some of the mystery associated with how carrier’s networks perform.” Samuel Johnston, brand strategist, OpenSignal.

Oh and it works here in the United States as well as Europe.

3-up

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Big Horn Sheep

Posted on May 19, 2013 by

On the last day of the mini photo vacation, we ran into 5 or so Big Horn Sheep in Big Thompson Canyon. This is why I’m glad I rented the 50mm to 200mm lens for the OMD. I’m going to write up a review for the lens and using it with the OMD when I get back home later this week. Lemme just say, I think I might have a purchase coming in my future.

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Portland Press. A French Press in Mason Jar.

Posted on May 17, 2013 by

Sitting in Estes Park this morning while drinking a cup of vacation coffee, and surfing the internet I came across this French press coffee maker from Portland Press. Designed and made in Portland Oregon from all natural materials, Portland Press wanted to create something that would improve your coffee making experiences with quality materials as nice as the coffee you’re drinking.

The Portland Press is a french press designed to work with a Mason jar, out of materials sourced in the USA. This is a simple, clean, practical design made out of basic materials like: glass, wool, steel, and wood. Oh one nice thing, if the Mason jar is easy to replace if it breaks, and the rest of the Portland Press is backed with a lifetime warranty.

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A Little Vacation.

Posted on May 16, 2013 by

I’m on a mini vacation in the Rocky Mountains snapping photos and video with the Olympus OMD for the next few days. That means fewer posts thanks to limited connectivity to the interwebs. One thing that I will be posting about when I get back is shooting with the Olympus Zuiko 50 to 200 mm f2.8 lens that I rented from Borrow Lenses. I’m using it on the OMD so it is the equivalent of a 100 to 400mm lens. So far so good but it’s to early to really tell.

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Life After Death. Reinventing Funeral Services Advertising.

Posted on May 15, 2013 by

The subject of death and funerals in most of the world brings up somber visuals in monochromatic shades of black. Japan, is no exception to this with funeral services being viewed as a largely a black & white affair, with any deviation from the code being considered taboo and disrespectful to the deceased and the family.

The March 11th Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami had a traumatic effect on Japan where so many people died as a result of this tragedy. Issues of life and death, hope and despair, beauty and tragedy became an all too real part of people’s everyday lives in Japan.

In the months that followed the tsunami, funeral home Nishinihon Tenrei approached Tokyo-based ad agency I&S BBDO and asked them to create an ad for funeral services that broke from the standard mode of operation. The request understandably posed several challenges for I&S. The challenge became how to communicate the funeral home’s new role of remembering and celebrating the beauty of a lost person’s life. The result is the spectacular image shown below.

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Creative director Mari Nishimura decided to create a real-size human skeleton made from pressed flowers. The image is both beautiful, as well as celebratory, expressing through flowers what remains after death.

A2board_ol

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Dynamo in Paris.

Posted on May 15, 2013 by

A couple of my work colleagues are going to Paris later this month. I wish I was going to Paris so I could see this new installation “Dynamo”, by Swiss artist Felice Varini. This latest piece by Varini is at the Grand Palais in Paris. The piece uses projectors and stencils so that the artwork that only appears proportional when seen from a specific viewpoint. ”Dynamo” is on display through the summer and went up about a month ago.

The video below shows how the piece works.

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