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I recently took advantage of Ian's E-System hire service to try a 45mm f1.8 over two weekends. The first outing was to Camden, London, to visit the unique and colourful markets and high street shops, where I hoped to get some photographs whilst the females of my family did some shopping. Due to the brightness of the day and my E-M5's restrictive combination of ISO 200 minimum and 1/4000th top shutter speed I was often unable to make use of the large maximum aperture of the 45mm and opted for the convenience of my usual 14-45mm zoom instead.
However, the following Saturday was ideal; dry but cloudy allowing plenty of scope for the f1.8 aperture and providing a nice even light for portraits. I was at the annual Morris Ring meeting in Thaxted, which attracts Morris sides from all over the country and is guaranteed to be a colourful, fun event. I have covered the dancing thoroughly in previous years and, although I still photographed some dances this year, I wanted to concentrate on portraits of some of the characters.
I soon found it is a lens that needs getting used to when used wide open; the actual plane of focus is wafer thin without the more generous DOF latitude of the slower kit zooms to mask any shortcomings of focus technique. Once I became accustomed to this the lens proved to be super responsive and rendered a nice background. At times f1.8 seemed a little too selective in focus so I shot mainly at f2 or f2.5, sometimes f4 when there was more than one subject in the shot.
I had the pleasure of meeting Paul (Smartwombat) from the forum, who was also there to cover the event. I was glad to see that the serious hand injury he suffered some time ago is gradually improving, to the stage that he can now handle his two Canon full frame DSLRs again, albeit with certain restrictions. This is good news for Paul, although it does mean that his MFT kit isn't getting quite so much use now. He's been shooting a lot of motor sport, sometimes as a team photographer, and I've tried to persuade him to post some pics, even though they were shot on C*n*n!
Anyway, enough of the chat, here's some pictures.
However, the following Saturday was ideal; dry but cloudy allowing plenty of scope for the f1.8 aperture and providing a nice even light for portraits. I was at the annual Morris Ring meeting in Thaxted, which attracts Morris sides from all over the country and is guaranteed to be a colourful, fun event. I have covered the dancing thoroughly in previous years and, although I still photographed some dances this year, I wanted to concentrate on portraits of some of the characters.
I soon found it is a lens that needs getting used to when used wide open; the actual plane of focus is wafer thin without the more generous DOF latitude of the slower kit zooms to mask any shortcomings of focus technique. Once I became accustomed to this the lens proved to be super responsive and rendered a nice background. At times f1.8 seemed a little too selective in focus so I shot mainly at f2 or f2.5, sometimes f4 when there was more than one subject in the shot.
I had the pleasure of meeting Paul (Smartwombat) from the forum, who was also there to cover the event. I was glad to see that the serious hand injury he suffered some time ago is gradually improving, to the stage that he can now handle his two Canon full frame DSLRs again, albeit with certain restrictions. This is good news for Paul, although it does mean that his MFT kit isn't getting quite so much use now. He's been shooting a lot of motor sport, sometimes as a team photographer, and I've tried to persuade him to post some pics, even though they were shot on C*n*n!
Anyway, enough of the chat, here's some pictures.
) I must admit that I had only a hazy idea as to what they were until I googled it.
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