So far behind the curve, can’t even see the curve.

A slippery slope, as all gear buys are. I bought my very first dslr a couple of weeks ago, it's 10-ish years old. Then I found a bargain on one that's only 8 years old with a few more pixels, so I've "upgraded" but now I have two dslr's.
It never ends.
 
Steve M. said:
Oh oh. This is how it starts, like a virus.

Your thread title reminds me of my favorite book, "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me" by Richard Farina. It was his one and only book. After writing it, he promptly fell off the back of a motorcycle and died leaving a party to celebrate the book going hard cover. So let that be a lesson to us all.
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Yes! I just wonder what the lesson is though! ;)
 
Steve M. said:
Your thread title reminds me of my favorite book, "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me" by Richard Farina. It was his one and only book. After writing it, he promptly fell off the back of a motorcycle and died leaving a party to celebrate the book going hard cover. So let that be a lesson to us all. Highly recommend it. It's like Candide or 1984 in a sense. Every year or two I like to go and re read those. Good stuff.
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Wow that`s brought back memories. I had that book when it was published.
 
zuiko85 said:
Might even spring for a panic-sonic 20mm f1.7 if I decide to try autofocus.
Click to expand...

A very good lens. It taught me a lot. Go for it! (Especially if you’re ignoring my hard-spent wisdom about mounting Zuiko 18x24s on an 18x24 sensor...;))
 
This whole order, send back, order something different, all sight unseen must be the circumstances of many here at RFF. There is just no place within a 200 mile round trip to see anything, especially less common brands. Our local Costco has two, count em, two consumer grade Canon DSLR kit’s on display. If I wanted to see and handle a broad selection then it’s probably fly 3000 miles to NYC and stop in at B&H. Not sure who on the west coast has a similar inventory that can be demonstrated in store.

I miss the time when every major city and many smaller metro areas had at least 2 and often 4-8 camera stores, big and small.

This is the musings of a 70 year old crabby old man, so don’t take it too seriously.
 
My OMD-EM10 finally arrived from KEH today. Initial thoughts;
Cripes this thing is small!!!
That sure is a big rear screen for such a small camera, pretty sharp to.
Dumb place for on/off switch.
The VF is better than I thought it would be, at least for slightly longer lenses.
The online manual is 161 pages ?!?!
Cripes this thing is small.
I'm left eyed so I'd have to clean my nose with trichlor to keep the rear screen from looking like you smeared Vaseline on it.



I may keep it.
 
Digital is too complex!
The OMD EM10 that arrived is defective, apparently. Sometimes it records nothing on still shots. I’ll shoot 5 shots in succession over 20-30 seconds and upon playback on the back screen at least one will be blank, and another will be under exposed despite all the same exposure in the same light.
Back to KEH, another 17-18 days (at the very least) shot.
How many used digital cameras on average do members have to try to find one that works?
 
Well, I once bought a second used Nikon D80 as a back-up for my first one, and it died after five exposures. The first one still works, but I replaced it with a pair of D300s', reputed to be "bullet proof". So far, so good.

The problem is, you never know how a used digital camera was handled, or why it was dumped for something else. And as with all electronically controlled items, sooner or later they will fail. Some sooner than others.

PF
 
zuiko85 said:
Digital is too complex!
The OMD EM10 that arrived is defective, apparently. Sometimes it records nothing on still shots. I’ll shoot 5 shots in succession over 20-30 seconds and upon playback on the back screen at least one will be blank, and another will be under exposed despite all the same exposure in the same light.
Back to KEH, another 17-18 days (at the very least) shot.
How many used digital cameras on average do members have to try to find one that works?
Click to expand...

I've not had a problem with used digitals.... apart from Olympus. Had an e-pl1 that bricked itself and an e-m5 whose shutter failed, both not too long after purchase. Both bought from places that gave six month warranty so returned without problem.
 
Now it will not misbehave! Removed one card and used a different card. Or, perhaps a slight film on the contacts that in removing and replacing card got cleaned off for better contact?
This stuff drives me crazy (that’s a short trip).
All this electronic stuff in our lives makes this, easy communication, possible. But trouble shooting problems go far, far beyond my ability.
 
zuiko85 said:
Well, it showed up. A preliminary look indicates manual focusing will be problematic, the rear screen is too crude at 230K dots. I've rigged up a temporary enclosed magnifier eyepiece and with that and magnified screen view manual focusing should be possible. So....I think it will end up permanently mounted as a Q&D rig to photograph negatives of several sizes, 1/2 frame most likely. I have a 55mm f2.8 macro Vivitar that can focus down to 1:1 in a M42 mount so I'll get an adapter for that mount. Ah, too bad, I had higher hopes.
Might be necessary to spring for a more modern mirrorless such as a OMD EM5 body. I've seen them for about $300 at KEH and a little more ay B&H.


Moving just a bit more along the curve.
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I had one of the E-PL1 cameras too, bought when it was six years old for $70. The only thing that strapped manual focusing was the fact that the focus assist magnification was a button press in an awkward location for my fingers. The EVF helps quite a bit, however, and reduces the need.

I made many many photos with the E-PL1. It's got a decent, if older, sensor and was fun to use. I still have my Olympus E-M1 body, which is much more robust and complex.

In general, I find most Micro-FourThirds cameras perform best with native (and adapted FourThirds SLR) lenses. But they're quite usable with other lenses as well.

G
 
Digital transition...

Digital transition...

I got my first serious digital last year after a somewhat long hiatus from "serious" photography thinking this was it. At the same time I though I wanted to try shooting some film again, and basically got hooked! This year film has dominated, but I am realizing that i like my digital results and resolve to start doing more digital again.

I got the Fuji XT-2. I see the point about digitizing negatives (and slides). The MP count matters, especially with mirrorless. This is one area where DSLR may make sense. I was thinking there were very few reasons to buy a DSLR, but this is an exception perhaps. I have been digitizing some slides, and with the magnification function seem to get good focus- but not seeing actual grain.
 
Well, pulling the memory card and pushing it back in seems to have completely solved the intermittent blank shot problem. Either foreign material or some kind of film on the contacts was (hopefully) the problem. Don’t know how much forward voltage there is on those data contacts but it can’t be much.
This is my third digital camera, not counting my iPhone, and the first one that I might actually tolerate. So far I find that I can hit correct focus perhaps 6 or 7 times out of 10 tries and it seems to be getting better.

I like the small size, and that, like most mirrorless you can fit a huge number of legacy lenses. I’ll deal with the question of whether anyone should fit old manual focus lenses to the camera .......later.
 
zuiko85 said:
Well, pulling the memory card and pushing it back in seems to have completely solved the intermittent blank shot problem. Either foreign material or some kind of film on the contacts was (hopefully) the problem. Don’t know how much forward voltage there is on those data contacts but it can’t be much.
This is my third digital camera, not counting my iPhone, and the first one that I might actually tolerate. So far I find that I can hit correct focus perhaps 6 or 7 times out of 10 tries and it seems to be getting better.

I like the small size, and that, like most mirrorless you can fit a huge number of legacy lenses. I’ll deal with the question of whether anyone should fit old manual focus lenses to the camera .......later.
Click to expand...

There are so many failure points in cameras now that it sometimes takes a while to figure out the problem. Luckily, yours was just an incorrect card mounting issue.

Just a little while ago I put a recharged battery in my camera, and got nothing. So I charged up another one, and it worked fine. Could be the first one I put in has gone through its allotment of cycles (you can only measure this by having it in a working camera), as I cleaned off the contacts to no avail. But I'll keep trying it until I figure it out.

PF
 
Thread getting kinda ripe but, turns out the first EM10 was not working right so now KEH replaced it and this one seems fine.
Whew, what a learning experience (still on going and will be for a long time).
I’ve always intended to use this camera primarily with manual focus lenses and after several days have come to the conclusion that it will be, as they say, a mixed bag. Sometimes works okay, sometimes not. Finally worked out how to magnify the VF 2.5X and that helps quite a lot. Focus peaking is, for my eyes anyway, almost useless.
For my Pen F (film) Zuikos, the focus scale and DOF scale don’t apply to the reduced frame size. I was expecting this. Cheap lens adapters probably err on the side of being too thin so as not to prevent infinity focus and Olympus original DOF scales were based on a CoC of D/1000 or .03mm, okay for then ‘album’ sized prints, but fairly loose if you wanted to make a 8x10 enlargement and really not tight enough at all for a 13x17 frame.
The easiest lens to use is my 38mm f1.8 however you have a equivalent 75mm AOV so if I want wider then I’ll have to use either the 25mm f4 or 20mm f3.5. For either of these the magnified view is essential to achieving accurate focusing.

Was wondering if anyone here uses that 7 Artisans 25mm f1.8 lens, and what is your impression of it.
I’m hoping that may be a inexpensive and viable option on this camera.
Thanks in advance for any advice from more experienced EM10 users.
 
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