Questions about Olympus E-1 Performance

[mark_baylin]

Hi, my name is Mark Baylin. I just bought an E-1 recently... So Far, I love the camera. I

think it's the best engineered body and lens that I have ever owned (I've been shooting for

over 25 years!). I have a couple of questions about it's performance.

 

1- Am I correct in saying that it's pretty much a must to set in-camera sharpness higher

than "0". The SHQ images I've been making at factory settings seem very soft. (I'm using

SHQ because I'm intending to use the camera for wedding photography and need the

speed and storage capacity of JPG's).

 

2 - I purchased the camera this past Sat. and charged the battery (it had no charge in it

out of the box). I charged it for 2 hours (as per the manual) and the green light was on

when I took it out to put it into the camera. I used it for MOST of the rest of the day AND

the next day (sunday). I probably spent more time going through the various menu

options than actually taking photos. In the end, I only shot about 60 photos or so.

 

The next morning (monday), the battery was exhausted. I've heard that this battery is very

powerful and would last for much longer than this. It's true, I spent some time going

through the menus, but I didn't let the camera sit in the menu mode all day. My question

is, should I be concerned about the battery I got with the camera? I know I will get a spare

when I start shooting weddings, but a 60 shot capacity combined with a few histogram

checks will not cut it during a 9 hour wedding day...

 

Thanks for any help or advice in this matter!

 

Take care

 

Mark

[godfrey]

<i>..."(I'm using SHQ because I'm intending to use the camera for wedding photography

and need the speed and storage capacity of JPG's)"...</i>

<br><br>

I don't have an E-1 so I can't comment directly on its image processing settings or battery

performance.

<br><br>

However,

in my experience, weddings are situations where dynamic range is crucial due to the white

dresses and dark tuxedos that abound, and particularly on sunny outdoor events.

Although the speed and storage bonus of running JPEGs is attractive, you might need to

consider saving in RAW format to exploit to obtain satisfactory quality and reduce

exposure/white balance issues. It's the only way to get the most out of what any digital

camera can do.

<br><br>

Godfrey

[basscheffers]

Yes, the sharpnes must be increased, I think +2 is what most JPEG shooters go for.

 

But I wouldn't shy away from RAW, it is worth the extra space and with it's 12 frame buffer,

the E-1 won't block up very easily. My brother shot my wedding using my E-1 and never

ran into that problem and he wasn't being shy about shooting lots!

 

As for processing your E-1 RAW files: Capture One (LE version is more than enough or

most and only $99) does the job very well.

 

At the same wedding, my brother used only about a battery and a half throughout the day.

(750 images) The reason for this is that a camera uses a lot of power in standby mode. I

experience the same when traveling. One day I might shoot 100 images and run it dry, but

shoot 200 the next day on the same full battery. And it's the same with the 300D I used to

own.

 

So manufacturers like to specify the number of shots you can take on a full battery, but

that is only part of the story. Having it on all day drains it too.

 

You should get some extra batteries, but third party ones will do just fine, no need to be

ripped off by Olympus!

[basscheffers]

PS: The above mentioned wedding: http://bas.scheffers.net/snaps/wedding/

 

All formals were shot using 50/2, all others with 14-54/2.8-3.5, with the indoors (ceremony)

ones all at ISO 400, formals ISO 100. Only for the images of the evening reception did the

FL-36 come out of the bag, the rest was natural light.

[daniel_kreithen1]

Congratulations on the new E-1. It's selling for a bargain price these days. Increasing sharpness IS necessary if you want to use JPEGs out of camera and not do any post-processing. As others have said, do not ignore RAW, it can do amazing things. I use Raw Shooter Premium and it is very good, as are other products. Lithium-ion batteries need a few charge-discharge cycles to attain maximum capacity when new, so the capacity will increase during the break-in period. Also, some power management issues: the screen draws the most power, so minimizing use of it will help. Also, turn down the screen brightness as far as you dare, and set the review default for as short a time as possible (perhaps 0 if you're using RAW - you can recover significant highlights using RAW so exposure is not quite as finicky). Good luck.

[henry_jones1]

(slightly off on a tangent) Nice wedding pictures. I've got the E-1 as well with the FL-50 and I'm very displeased with the results. My images are always bleached out. Have you had any problems with your fl-36? Were your images toned down in any way? Anotherwords, during the shot was everything full auto or did you put the flash to -1? It seems they have fixed this problem on later models such as the e-300, e-500, and c-7070. When I use the fl-50 on these cameras, I always get flawless exposures.

[basscheffers]

That's weird, Henry, most people are very pleased with the FL-50's exposure. My FL-36 has a tendency to under expose, so I usually have +2/3 of a stop dialed in.

 

I don't mind as the underexposure is very consistent and I can just leave the extra exposure dialed in all the time; I even considered setting it in camera and leaving the flash at 0! Much worse is the _inconsistent_ exposures I got with a 300D and 550EX, you never knew what you were gonna get.

[lee_bacsik]

I have noticed a tendency for the FL-36 to underexpose as well (when used on an E-10). Don't know if it's a chronic problem throughout the line. Dialing up the E/V is one solution, but I've found another to be helpful also. In my use, the FL-36 has proved itself to be EXCELLENT in normal AUTO (non-TTL) mode. I had to take a lesson from Dave Weikel's E-10 page to override the TTL mode on my camera/flash combo (I can see no reason this method won't work with other Olympus products) and achieved great results. Two other tips that have worked for me...1)I use the manual zoom setting (leaving it @ 35mm) as the in-flash zoom often tends to leave the edges of the frame too dark and 2) in really tough situations (shooting flash over longer distance) rather than dialing up the E/V I manually set the flash's ISO one camera setting LOWER than I'm shooting (being that I have already defeated TTL mode). For example, if the camera is set to ISO 160, set the flash to ISO 80 (or 100, you have to play a little to achieve your own results). Now the flash is reacting to a sensor it thinks is less sensative and my flash pictures have more "pop". Of course this begs the question "Why buy a dedicated flash and then defeat the TTL mode?" Simple, if I ever do use another manufacturer's equipment I now know I have one unit that will perform across model lines.