Manual Focus

Thanks to Steve Palmer I was inspired to dig out my manual OM lenses from my desk and try them on my new Pen f.

We’ve had a fairly busy day as we drove down to Lakeside to do the routine refresh of house paraphilia at Costco etc so I didn’t have a lot of time.

It was sunny though and I wanted to capitalise on the colour that has appeared in the garden thanks to the alliums that I planted many years ago, which have once again sprung into life.

I did try the telephoto 70-210mm (eqv 140-420mm) but had to be at the other side of the garden to get anything in focus!

So I switched to the 50mm (eqv 100mm) which came with my OM10 SLR.

Reviews always rave about this lens and I cannot say I blame them as this is a nice sharp lens with a great aperture.

Even with some signs of age, the photos still come out really clear.

I took several photos on the Alliums and one of the ferms and am very impressed with the crispness of the shots.

I also like the colour rendition from the Pen f.  These are straight out of the camera with the Natural colour profile (which is the same one I use on my EM5 MKII).

I have had trouble getting the focus peaking to work on the Pen f which is annoying as I use it quite a bit on my EM5 MKII, especially when using the manual lenses.

The EVF and screen are clear enough to see what I am focussing on but it’s still nice to have the additional help of the peaking marks.

I have searched online but cannot find any recorded reason why I have the peaking issue, it may be because I am using a manual lens – does anyone know?

The 50mm is a nice size on the Pen f and doesn’t feel particularly heavy or large given its construction and age (built in the 80’s).

We are planning a day out over the bank holiday and I am considering taking the 50mm manual lens with me as it’s so sharp.

It also provides a good level of bokeh.  The lens stops down to f/1.8 and given the distance I have to be from the subject, there is decent separate from the main subject and the background.

As you can see the Alliums come in various shapes and sizes but I do like the structure they add to the garden.

This is the only shot that is not straight out of the camera:

This is a focus stack of 4 shots as I wanted to see how it would turn out.  I like the focus on the centre of the flower with the blur at the edges.

I really should try the stacking built into the Pen f but know that it was not worth using it today as it’s too breezy and the flowers are swaying around too much.

I am enjoying learning how to use the Pen f and the manual lenses broaden my options.

Whilst at Costco I bought myself a new backpack, the Manfrotto Metropolitan Backpack.  I intended to use it as my photography rucksack for trips and travel but now I have it home, I think I will use it as my work bag.

The split section in the backpack means I can keep my Pen f in the bottom, my work laptop in the back sleeve and my other bits in the top.  I’ll give it a test run when I am back in the office on Tuesday.

It’s a well-constructed bag and fairly light, I look forward to trying it out.  (The price at Costco made it a steal so I was mad not to!).