the daily flashkube

(Click on the image to see the flickr slideshow)

Shooting at the aquarium is tough to say the least. For one thing, the lighting is horrible for photography. In the atrium area there is a sharp contrast between light and dark due to the rays coming in from above. This makes it very difficult to retain detail in both shadows and highlights. The rest of the place is movie theater dark except for the lighting at each exhibit. Glare from the tanks is also a major frustration. Flash is out of the question. Finally, most of the subjects are in constant motion, especially the fish.

The last time I shot there was in 2008 with a Nikon D80. It was a solid DSLR that served me well (RIP). This time I took my new Olympus E-P1 Digital PEN. Normally, I’d bring my Nikon D300, but I really wanted to see what the E-P1 is capable of. Having shot there before I knew the aquarium would really put it to the test. I have to say that I was very impressed overall. Controlling exposure was easy and the frames per second it can achieve is higher than any other camera of this size that I’m aware of. The Digital PEN has been everything I had hoped for so far.

As you can see from these images, a choice had to be made about exposing for highlights or shadows. Frankly, my D300 probably couldn’t do that much better in these conditions. Similarly, the glare from the tank glass would have presented a problem with either camera. It was in autofocus that the difference between a DSLR and this Micro Four Thirds camera really became apparent. Like most compacts, AF on the E-P1 uses contrast detection instead of distance information to acquire focus. This translates to a longer wait for focus to lock. With moving subjects, this is very frustrating. Also, the focus points are not as clearly defined as I am used to. For example, when setting it to the center focus point, the box representing that area is quite large, making it difficult to tell what the camera will try to lock on to.

Fortunately, one place where the E-P1 shines is in manual focus. The focus ring on the 14-42mm lens I purchased with it is very smooth and not sensitive like most DSLR lenses. In other words, focus changes very slowly as you turn the ring making it much easier to dial in the exact distance you want. Also, the live view zooms to 1:1 as soon as you turn the ring to give you a clearer view of your subject while focusing. At the aquarium, I used a combination of AF and MF to get the shots I wanted.

Overall this camera is going to perform where I need it to. I bought it because there are so many places I don’t want to take my D300 and all its supporting gear. Check out the flickr slideshow of my aquarium photographs. Then let me know what you think.

NOTES: I’ll need to get used to the 4:3 aspect ratio of the sensor. The D300 is 4:6 which is a common print size. For some reason the E-P1′s aspect doesn’t look “correct” to me. Some of these were cropped to 4 by 6 but I hate shaving off megapixels. Also, there is no RAW support for this model in Camera Raw or Lightroom yet so I’ve been shooting in JPEG. Hence, there is much less flexibility with color, tonal range, and white balance. I imagine these would have come out better had I been able to process them as RAW files.