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Photography
November 29, 2012
I got interested in photography back in 1973 when I
started working as a technical illustrator. My boss, John
Bird saw that I was interested in photography and he sold me
his 35mm Pentax SLR camera for a cheap price and taught me how to
use it. I got some books from the library and learned some
basic photographic principles and techniques and was off to the races.
Eventually, I sold the Pentax to someone. I can't remember who
or why. I think it was in about 1979. I guess the compact size and ease of use of the cameras coming out back then overtook the interest changing lenses, using a light meter and making manual adjustments to get a shot.
Welcome to the digital age
About 2002, my parents found an Olymbus D-460
digital camera laying on the pavement at a gas station. They
made an attempt to find the owner and having no success, gave
the camera to me (they weren't interested in learning about
digital things).
Getting that Olympus camera (purely by chance) and
taking digital photos is what started me down the road to
having a Web site - I had all of these digital photos and I
wanted a way to share them.
I've used that trusty Olympus for years. It still
works just fine. The only really major short coming is that
the shutter trigger speed and photo writing speed is
extremely slow. Successfully getting any kind of action shot
like a kid playing soccer or pole vaulting is simply a matter
of luck. You try to push the shutter button well in advance
of when you actually want to take the picture, but getting a
good shot is mostly luck.
So now it's 2012 (almost 2013) and most people's
cell phones have more functional cameras. So I decided to
upgrade.
I have been so impressed with the durability and
longevity of the Olympus that I decided to get another one.
After much research, I settled on the Olympus PEN-LP2. I
found a factory reconditioned one on Amazon for about half the normal
selling price and decided to do it. So it's ordered and I'm
waiting.
Here's a comparison of the two cameras:
| Olympus D-460 |
Olympus PEN-LP2 |
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| 1.3 megapixel CCD delivering 1280 x
960 and 640 x 480 resolution images |
12 megapixel, Four Thirds sized sensor
4032 x 3042 (12.3 MP, Other),
3200 x 2400 (7.7 MP, 4:3),
2560 x 1920 (4.9 MP, 4:3),
1600 x 1200 (1.9 MP, 4:3),
1280 x 960 (1.2 MP, 4:3),
1024 x 768 (0.8 MP, 4:3),
640 x 480 (0.3 MP, 4:3)
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Variable ISO, w/ auto or manual
selection of ISO 125/250/500 |
ISO 200-6400 |
| 3x
optical zoom (35 to 105 mm), f/2.8-f/4.4 maximum aperture |
3.00x zoom, 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko MSC |
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2x "digital telephoto" at
any focal length |
no digital zoom
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Macro focusing to 8 inches (20 cm) |
25 cm to Infinity
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1/2 to 1/1000 second shutter speeds |
60-1/4000 second shutter speeds
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Both optical and LCD viewfinders |
3" LCD screen (460,000 dots)
(no view finder, which I will miss)
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Dioptric adjustment for optical
viewfinder |
N/A
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Four recording modes, including
uncompressed TIFF |
RAW & JPEG
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Built-in flash with six operating
modes |
| Built-in flash and
wireless flash control from the camera body |
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Five user-selectable white balance
settings |
Auto, Lamp, Fluorescent 1/2/3, Daylight, Flash, Cloudy, Shade, Custom WB, One-touch WB |
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Panorama exposure mode when using
Olympus-branded memory cards |
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Direct print to optional Olympus photo
printer (P-300 and P-330) |
USB 2.0 High Speed
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SmartMedia image storage, 8 MB card
included |
SD / SDHC / SDXC - I have an 8GB SDHC |
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Power via 4 AA batteries (alkalines
included, buy a set of NiMH rechargeables!) |
Power - Proprietary BLS-5 Lithium-ion rechargeable
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| Auto Focus: |
Yes |
| Auto Focus Type: |
11-point contrast detection w/ tracking |
| Face Detection: |
Yes |
| Manual Focus: |
Yes |
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As I think about my old camera vs. the new, I think a part of wanting a new camera was that I was bored with the old. Not just bored, but I wasn't satisfied with the photos I was taking either. They seemed to be mundane. This boredom, or dissatisfaction had become so bad, that I didn't even take the old Olympus with me on
vacation to
San Francisco. I just wasn't interested in taking pictures with it. It was time for a new camera.
My birthday finally arrived and I got my new camera.
I like it a lot and at the same time I'm overwhelmed with all
of the features it has. I don't know if I'll ever really
learn everything about this camera. The good news is, though,
I can put the dial on "Auto" and just take pictures
and most of them will be good ones.
And, being digital with an 8GB memory card, I can take lots and lots of pictures and throw out the crummy ones.
Then as I learn new features, try them out and find the ones I like and can remember. So there can be a long time of playing and learning (adventure) with this camera. It should be fun.
The last time I went to use the camera a month or so ago, the view finder was totally blank. I've done everything I know to do to try to remedy the problem (remove the battery, recharge, reset) but nothing helped. Olympus wants over $100 in advance to fix it. Nuts to that. It's so ironic that I bought an Olympus camera because the previous one was so reliable. Ha.
I purchased a Nikon
Coolpix P530. It's on the way. I can't wait. It didn't cost all that much more than the Olympus PEN-LP2, but it has a much longer zoom lens (42x) and it has a decent wide angle capability. Most important, it has a view finder. I found that I really missed having a view finder. The view finder allows you to be much more stable when shooting a photo. Trying to hold the camera out in front of you so that you can look a screen and take a picture just didn't work for me. So, there were actually several things I didn't like about the Olympus, so I'm jazzed to be gettig a new camera.
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