tullio_ff

<p>At f2.8, you are comparing one lens at it's widest aperture vs. a lens that's stepped down a step. Even though you have both lenses at the same aperture, a more realistic comparison would be the Sigma at f2.8 vs. Lumix at f1.7. I've had the Lumix 20mm and although it's a sharp lens, IMO it tends to overexpose in high contrast situations. The 14mm is handles high contrast much better and from what I hear, the Sigma 19mm does a pretty decent job in that department as well. </p>

<p>As mentioned previously, The Panasonic LX3 is the way to go.</p>

I have a Tamron 70-300mm Pentax K mount. The lens is AF but it also has an aperture ring. I bought a Fotodiox Pentax K to 4/3 adapter on eBay and the was amazed by the image quality I obtained from the E510/Tamron combo. The only negative is the fact that the lens becomes fully manual (focus and aperture). However, if you set the camera to Av mode, then it will adjust the speed based on the aperture you choose on the lens. With firmware 1.3 installed, the E510 IS system will work with the Tamron, which is a big help in preventing camera shake from ruin your pictures.

The E510 accepts 8 Gb CF cards. Personally I'm not too fond of large capacity cards. You loose a full one and you are screwed. I use a 4 Gb Cf + 2 Gb xD. That way, I have up to 6 Gb in camera w/o having to switch cards. Then I have a spare 4 Gb CF in case I run out of space.

Despite what the Olympus site states, the camera's USB mode must be set to STORAGE, not CONTROL. I've performed the various firmaware updates on 2 E510 cameras w/o any problems at all. Open OLYMPUS MASTER 2, connect the camera to your PC's USB port (after setting the USB to STORAGE) and follow the instructions. Make sure the battery is freshly charged so it won't die during the update operation. Also, check the Olympus site for any lens F/W upgrade as well in case your lens has one. The 70-300mm is new and already have e f/w upgrade. However, I just bought myself one and it already came with the upgrade.

The att photo was taken with the E510+Tamron 70-300mm (Pentax mount) @ 300mm handheld.

The new firmware 1.3 provides IS support not just for OM legacy lenses but for all legacy lenses. I have a few Pentax lenses I use with my E510+adapter and the images are very sharp indeed.

Yes, the Fn button can only be assigned one function to. I have mine assigned to Picture preview (I had the K100D prior to the E510 and I really liked that feature, called digital preview on the K100D). It tells me how well exposed the image is before I record it. Depending on how I have the display setup, it shows either highlights, grey histogram, RGB histogram or dark highlights. I can change the settings as needed (i.e. increase/decrease Ev, use a smaller or larger aperture, etc.) and then shoot once I have a well balanced image. I tried to have it set to display WB but it did not quite work to my liking. The image on the LCD is not big enough for me to differentyiate between WB settings unless the change is very drastic. But, I think the choice is simply a matter of personal preference.

Hi Andrea,

 

I don't have this particular lens but I believe it operates just like the kit lenses I have with my E510. These lenses do not have an aperture ring so the camera controls the aperture electronically. By shutting the camera off while the camera was communicating with the lens could potentially damage the circuit that allows that communication to take place. The first thing to try is to attach a different lens, set the camera to A mode and play with the aperture values to see if the S value changes at all. If it does, that means that the camera is OK and the problem is with the lens. If it doesn't, then the problem could be with the camera or both. The camera probably is not sending the signal to the lens and/or the lens is not able to act upon the signal. If you don't have another lens, take the camera to a local camera shop and use either a display lens with your camera or your lens with a display camera or both. That will rule out whether the failure is with the camera, the lens or both.

 

If none of this is possible, then I'd contact Olympus. However, I would not mention the fact that you turned the camera off during the exposure. I'd simply say that you were taking a long exposure shot and the lens locked up. Sometimes, even if the camera/lens is out of warranty, the manufacturer will fix it for free (if it's recurring issue). It's certainly worth a try. The only thing I would not attempt is to try to fix it yourself. This lens is not constructed like the old ones, where the parts were all mechanic. This lens has electronic sensors and I doubt you'd be able to fix it yourself, unless of course, you know how to do it and have the proper tools and equipments to assure accuracy once you put all the various components back together. I also agree that spending $200 to fix a $300 lens is not worth it. One last thing I failed to mention, make sure the battery is fully charge. That may give the camera an extra boost when trying to communicate with the lens. Good luck.

The R1 is probably the best camera I've ever had (and I've had many, including dSLRs). I will never sell it. I bought mine from Crutchfield under the scratch and dent department for $675 with the original box and accessories (no extra battery or camera case). I think you can get one on eBay for a bit less but it's a hit and miss and you certainly take your chances. I'd say go for it. There is a free product called opanda, which checks the picture count.

Hi Ken, the first question you should ask yourself (and obtain an answer for) is "what is my budget?". You mentioned three possible cameras: D40(x), K100D and K10D. The first two are in the same category. They are both entry level dSLRs around the same price range (the D40x is a bit more expensive). However, the K10D is one level up and it costs close to $1K as opposed to the $500-700 the other ones cost.There's also the Canon Rebel XTi (400D), which costs about the same as the D40x. I had the D40 and I switched to the K100 for various reasons: built in SR system was the primary reason (the D40 and XTi don't have it); built in AF system (the D40 does not have it, so you have to buy lenses that have AF on them. These AF-S lenses are not cheap); lens cost (you can find lots of very good affordable lenses for the Pentax, not as many for the XTi and certainly very few for the D40, unless you buy manual focus lenses). Now, two other things to consider: weight (the Pentax is much heavier than the XTi and D40, perhaps becuase of the SR system and the fact that it takes 4xAA batteries and they are heavier than the prop. batteries). The D40 is a very light and compact camera and the kit lens is also light and compact; noise (the K100 is much noisier than the XTi and even more so than the D40, which is very very quiet and it oporates very smoothly. The K100 is loud and you feel the impact every time you press the shutter. With all that said, I'm very pleased with the K100 in terms of image quality and the shake reduction really helps not only in low light situations but when using zoom lenses (70-300mm in particular). It allows you to drop a couple of ftops w/o getting picture blurr from camera shake. I bought an AF Tamron 28-200mm on eBay for $50. You can't beat that.

You've got some darn good pictures with your Oly 550. It made me re-consider buying it (had changed my mind after reading some reviews). I still think the camera handles high ISO very poorly (ISO 800 is as high as you can go w/o having use some sort of noise reduction program). Thanks for sharing!

I'd also look at the new Panasonic FZ7. It does not record in RAW but it does record in TIFF format, which is similar to raw. It has 12x zoom, IS, high ISO (up to 1600 in AUTO), it's very light and compact AND it costs much less than the FZ50 or FZ30.

The H2 comes with a 58mm lens adapter, so all you need is the 58mm-55mm step down ring. B&H has it for $6.95 + $3.70 s/h.

I bought the FZ20 about 3 months ago and I feel your pain, frustration and disappointment. My first few pictures were nothing but pure garbage. In fact, they were so bad that I was going to return it. But, I decided to keep trying instead since I had paid a great price for it and had seen so many great shots coming out of it. Well, it paid off. Here are some of my findings that may help you (and other users) out:

 

1. Metering sucks. So, what can you do about it? Well, for once do not use spot metering unless you are zooming in all the way (12x) and your subject is small located in a shaded area (i.e. a small bird under a tree); or you really understand exposure and know how to compensate the overall over exposure it will give you. In most cases, use Center Weight. Use Matrix when photographing landscapes with very little areas of high contrast and if using Matrix, never meter on the sky. In fact, try to reduce the sky portion of your framed view or everything else will be in the dark (under exposed)

 

2. I find the LCD/EVF to be very inaccurate and way to bright (even at zero setting). As a result, when reviweing the images, they appear to be OK but they are actually under exposed. Reduce the LCD/EVF brightness to -3 (you might have to increase it if taking photos in very low light conditions or you will not see anything but, if you are like me, most shots will be taken in daylight so -3 is appropriate).

 

3. Theoretically, assuming you have plenty of light, a shot in A mode set to f4.0 should produce the same image in terms of exposure as if the camera was set to f5.6 since the shutter speed is being automatically selected by the camera. Well guess what? It won't. I find images shot at f5.6 to be darker than at f4.0 but here is the worse part...not always. So, what do you do? Well, for most situations I found that f4.0 produces the best images. If I want more DoF I go to F5.6 or f6.3. I try to avoid f8.0 to prevent refraction (softness), although it can be fixed in PS.

 

4. Use Highlight. It will tell you the areas on the image that are over exposed. The trick here is to understand what the camera is telling you and change the settings (or not) appropriately. When I was playing with the camera trying to understand its metering system and exposure, I was shooting images where part was in harsh sunlight. One of the subjects I photographed was a large colorful ball at an ammusement park sitting on top of a building. The sun was blasting on it and when I took the first picture and looked at the results, there was a circle flasing black right in the middle of the ball where the sun was being reflected. So I reduced exposure by 0.33 and shot again. Still flashing. Reduced it again to -0.6. No use. In the end, I went all the way down to -2. The rsults? The very first image was well balanced and properly exposed. All colors were accurate (except for the very center, bright spot). All other images were under exposed to a certain degree. This example tells you that you should not try to totally eliminate the black flashing areas at all times because sometimes it is practically impossible to do so and you will end up with a very under exposed image. The rule-of-thumb here is: if the highlight area is large AND an important area in your composition, reduce the exposure as much as needed to either eliminate you reduce the flasing spot to a minimal. However, if the flashing spot is the sky or a tiny spot of light reflecting on the water, or a leaf reflecting the sun, then you might want to just let it be. Remember, you can always add color to your sky. You always have to make sure you subject and the surrounding area are not flashing. I took a picture of a black and white bird standing on a large rock under blasting sun. The first shot, EV was set to 0 (as always, that's my starting point). The birds head, upper body and rock were flashing. I reduced EV by -0.3 and then -0.6, etc. until I got down to -2. The first shot was horrible, totally over exposed. The second at -0.3 was better but still very much over exposed. The third at -0.6 was good. The white areas of the bird were still bright but I could see some of the details on the feathers but the rock was still a big white blog. The fourth at -1 was perfect. I could see all the details of the bird's body and the texture and colors of the rock. Most of the background was under exoposed but who cares, my main subject was the bird (and the rock). Now, does that mean that nothing was flashing on the fourth shot? No. There was still very small flashing spots both on the bird and on the rock but they were OK. The shot at -1.3 eliminated all flashing spots but it under exposed the bottom part of the bird. So, you have to find the balance on just about every shot of objects under harsh sunlight.

 

5. I tried to keep the ISO set to 80 to minimize noise but guess what? it's too low for this camera. I find ISO 100 to be good in most bright conditions and 200 in lowlight. Avoid ISO 400 unless you have no other alternative. Actually, I set the ISO to AUTO when I use P and S modes and to 100 in A mode. The reason is because in P mode, the camera never chooses ISO 400 so I'm safe and in S mode, most likely you are forcing the camera to a high shutter speed, which means you need light. If you set the ISO to a low value, the camera may not have sufficient light. So, I let the camera choose the ISO accordingly. The results, despite of what people say, have been pretty good.

 

Remember, although the FZ20 is a good camera and has great features, it has its faults too. It is very inconsistent when it comes to metering light so you have to really sit down outside your backyard on a bright sunny day and on a cloudy day and shoot anything and everything using different camera settings. In the old days, this exercise would be a nightmare. You'd have to write down every setting for every shot. Today, you use programs like EXIFER to look at the camera settings once the pictures have been downloaded. So, don't be shy. Memory is free. Take 20 pictures, download them, analyze the EXIF data, make changes and take another 20 shots. Repeat this exercise until you understand the camera's ccapabilities and limitations and feel comfortable reading the histogram and understanding what the highlights are telling you. Hope this helps. <div></div>