Preview: Olympus PEN system for Video
As you know, I’ve been on a quest to minimize our electronics even further. On our first trip, I was lugging around a DSLR, lightstand, tripod, strobes, etc., Since then, I’ve drastically cut down the load, but we’ve also started to incorporate more video on the site. For our latest Brompton trip, we’ve been using a small Canon HD solid state camcorder which we bought used on EBay. It has worked out pretty well so far, but I want to to cut down even more.
I’ve been watching the Micro 4/3 camera systems for some time but hesitated on pulling the trigger. However, I feel that the system is now getting close to maturity. There are some great lenses out for the system and the size is just right or travel. Interestingly, the Olympus PEN cameras also do video and I’ve been toying around with the idea of just carrying two PENs on our next adventure to shoot both stills and video. I’ll do a more indepth review later, but I just wanted to post a quick video experiment with the E-PM1 that Olympus sent me as part of their Pen Ready project. So far, so good! If you’re interested in what I’m carrying or want to purchase a camera and help support our site, check out our Amazon store with the list of camera gear I’m trying out.
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It doesn’t mention it in your gear list but I’m guessing that you both have mobile phones. I think I remember Russ mentioning using an iPhone at one point in one of the video clips.
I just got the new iPhone 4S a few days ago and I’m really impressed with both the still-image and video recording improvements. You should check it out if your travels take you past an Apple store. I’m not any kind of professional photographer though so it’s probably nowhere near as good as the stuff you’re already using.
And I was wondering if you’d looked into the whole iCloud thing? Keeping your Mac, iPhone, and iPad in sync with each other effortlessly could be pretty handy. I’d love to hear more about the details of how you use all your technology! (OK, so I’m a total geek!)
Happy travelling,
–Philip
The video is good. The stills are even better!
I bought the EP1 on Amazon this past winter. One of the great things is how easy it is to use old lenses. I bought adapters for Nikon and for Pentax K mounts. I don’t have all the autofocus auto everything bells and whistles but I can take great photos and the 2x focal conversion has been useful. I am treating this camera more as “digital” back for my favorite lenses. I am also eyeing the EPM1 because it seems to let you have a complete travel kit and the option for a few special prime lenses. So say at a party, I can have the standard kit lens on and pass it around for other to use it on auto then switch back to a manual lens to do more controlled photographs.
BTW, I’m not using a viewfinder. I changed the settings to rule of thirds grid display and center-only spot autofocus. This makes it easy to quickly check lines in a composition against the lines on the grid and make sure the focus is on what I decide not where the camera guesses.