Hawthy, check out insurance before you get too involved.
Congrats on the Drone. I have a Mavic Pro myself, great fun.
Make sure you download the CASA app, "can I fly there" as the name implies it lets you know about the current area your in and the restrictions there.
Last edited by MissionMan; 01-01-2018 at 10:39pm.
It was more like, WAAAAHHH! - I NEED A NEW PRINTTA!...
The very old (but good while it lasted) Xerox I got for nothing was consistently picking up several sheets
of paper each time and CHOKing on them For ages I could only print one sheet at a time by pressing
down on the lower sheets so they would not get picked up. Well, today was the last sheet! I put through it
Went to Officeworks with some requirements for a "workhorse" printer and came away with a...
Brother MFC-L2713DW (Don't ask but they make 12s of even just laser printers
Well, here it is in the throes of being set up... Seems to be K.
DSC_3163a-lr.jpg
CC, Image editing OK.
Congrats mate.
Try cartridgesales.com.au for consumables, Am. I've used them for both inkjet cartridges and toner cartridges for my 25 y.o. HP LaserJet 5P. Great prices, excellent products, simply superb service.
New toy arrived yesterday
Nice, we need more pics of that
Some "Need for Speed" gear @ $50 apiece, HDD and dock...
1. Volans (it means "flying") USB3 2-Bay Docking Station and HDD...
(It clones a HDD without needing to connect to a computer)
SDIM8662aclr.jpg
2. What it does - some 4~5X the speed of my old USB2 docking station...
SDIM8659ac.jpg
3. What I think about it...
---And finally, after a Disk Management adventure to tell Win 10 there was a new SSD connected,
I copied 2.83GB of images from the Desktop to it. I didn't check how long - er, short - it took, but it
was fast.
Just managed to grab this graph... (using the Volans dock)...
KingstonCopy.jpg
Just thought I would get a couple of lenses today.
For (very) good light, the mFTs Olympus 75-300 f/4.8-6.7. It's sharp enough, but the silly old bugger holding it is pretty unsteady if standing and unsupported.
For poor light in museums, art galleries and the like, the f/1.8 25mm prime. A tiny little lens that weighs next to nothing, about 4.8 ozs. Pretty sharp.
Of course, an extra bag was needed ... This Lowepro Format 160 will take either body plus either my 12-100 and nifty "fifty" or my 12-50, 40-150R, 75-300 plus any of the other stuff we all carry. It's still pretty small.
I already had another backpack type bag that will take my entire mFTs kit - both bodies and 5 lenses. It is still pretty small.
Andy ( @Bensch) led me astray with his lovely photos of the red pandas at the Melbourne zoo, and I really needed (wanted) a small fast standard prime for low light stuff.
Plan to order a lens hood for the 75-300 and a self-opening lens cap for my 14-42 EZ pancake zoom in the next day or two.
Must be toy time after my cardiac atrial ablation ... .
John the Oly 25mm f/1.8 prime looks to be a consistent good all round lens, period.
A man cannot be over accessorized in the camera bag department, we hold these truths to be self evident, and enjoy the end of spring
cheers Nick
Yeah, it appears to be, Nick. Roger Cicala at LensRentals said as much when comparing it with the often (very) high priced alternatives from Olympus and Panasonic/Panny Leica. At about 1/5th the price of the nearest of these latter lenses, it certainly is a little gem.
Agree about the bags ... About 7 years ago, I was in Brisbane to see my brother and family and attend a family wedding. I saw an advert for a bag. Richard said "That's just close by" (turned out to be about halfway across Brisbane, but he didn't care). I rang. We got to the shop, and they didn't have any stock. But they did have a Tstar bag that fitted my E-30 kit of one body and four lenses beautifully. Cost under $20 ... . Must be my favourite bag of all time! Of course, Tsar no longer make any bag that's even vaguely similar.
The good news is that it fits my entire mFTs kit of 2x E-M1 bodies plus 6 lenses like a glove. Not a tight fit, but not loose either - just about ideal. I can even fit my 10" Lenovo tablet in the front compartment, at a pinch. So I now have bags that fit either body plus a couple of lenses, plus one that fits everything. With everything loaded, the latter weighs a mighty 3.4 Kg ... Even this buggered old body can manage carrying that!
The 75-300 appears to be perfectly good at 300mm, but needs to be supported if shooting at any distance (more than about 5-8m to subject). Even with the excellent IBIS in my E-M1 MkII, I get wobbly pretty quickly, and need high shutter speeds. Sitting and carefully holding the lens in our living room, I can manage sharp shots at about 1/15th at f/6.7 and 300mm with the subject at 3.5-4m. I suspect that reports of this lens being 'soft' at 300mm are probably operator error and lack of good technique. Standing with the subject at 10-12m, I needed around 1/1,250th to 1/2,500th to get sharp shots, even with the IBIS. Most of us know that IBIS becomes less effective at very long FLs, but few seem to realise that angular movement becomes greatly amplified by the square of the subject distance ... Overall, I consider this to be a useful addition to my kit, particularly as it's about half the size/weight of my FTs 50-200. As I get older and frailer, I find the sheer weight of the 50-200 to be quite burdensome, and difficult to hold well.
John I have seen sharp poster sized photos of eagles resting taken with the mFTs Olympus 75-300 f/4.8-6.7 by a professional photographer, this lens needs a good tripod I imagine as you suggest operator error may be a factor with so many heavier lenses having perceived poor performance.
Looking at what people can do on Flickr I have to say your Oly 25mm lens in the field delivers the goods and realistically in the field you are probably going to use this lens at F/4-8.
In museums with the soft light when used wide open for paintings I would have thought it would be as sharp as the painting itself mostly.
I have considered purchasing the 25mm lens however I am more than happy with my old Nikon lenses at this stage having looked at the performance I am still impressed with the Nikkor K 24mm f/2.8 lens that is still in mint condition still (lens has not been dropped re collimation issues).
With camera bags they are so handy to store lenses in anyway and a smaller and larger bag is the way to go I agree.
I had not realized the 50-200mm lens was so heavy that is good to know John.
I have seen plenty of photos stuffed up with Hasselblad cameras and lenses for instance so camera and lens performance really has to be assessed personally in the field.
I bought a camera off one guy who said the Oly EP5 was crap for landscapes and was going to buy into the Sony system. After purchasing the camera as a spare and then looking at the camera menu it became apparent he had set the EP5 at a lower pixel count for some reason and after resetting to the maximum pixel count it was fine so yes operator error can give cameras and lenses a bad name,
cheers Nick
Last edited by Nick Cliff; 27-11-2018 at 3:20pm.
Nick, I am not under any misapprehensions as to the 75-300 being anywhere near the optical performance of the Oly f/4 300 or the Panny 100-400. However, it cost me around 1/6th the price of either of them. It's also (relatively) small and light. It's also 'good enough' for the occasional shots where I will use it at the long end. It is actually quite a good lens up to around the 150-200 mark, if slow. Certainly much better than (say) the Nikon 18-200, and many are very happy with the latter lens.
The f/1.8 25 is really a pretty good performer, considering its cost, size and weight.
I got both at a considerable discount. 75-300 at $399; RRP is around $498 or something. The 25mm was $334, with RRP being about $60 more than that, IIRC. The bag was also discounted. All in all, I am happy with the deal.
For when I get a crazy spell about ultimate IQ, I have other lenses that I can use, just not as small and light. They also do not focus as fast as the native mFTs lenses, although my f/2 50 macro focuses better on both my E-M1 bodies than it did on my dSLR bodies for which it was designed ...
John I see you bought well, I imagine they are the sort of lenses you can take on a holiday and not be too concerned if they were lost.
I had wondered about the Oly f/2 macro lens, though as you say macro lenses can tend to be a bit hefty,
cheers Nick
Wasn't too bad, only the 30mm macro and the auto lens cap (managed to avoid purchasing that 12-50 Pro that I was looking at...)
However, picking up the Panasonic Lumix 100-400 next month, and still have my eye on that Olympus 300 f/4 (perhaps in July for my birthday)
Off Topic - back in Melbourne for a few days in April...would be great to catch up again
Maybe organise a meet up of AP members?
Used to happen regularly a few years back.
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/for...ay.php?173-VIC