Photokina 2012 - The Press Day

Traditionally the day before Photokina is a press day, filled with overlapping press meetings from dawn till late night. As I am not (any more) a journalist and don´t have (any more) a press card, I (can) only visit those meetings I am invited to attend. This year I dropped by at Olympus, Canon and finished the day at Leica party. The exact information and specs of all the new stuff can be found all over the internet and on manufacturer sites. I am not going to copy them here. Just some notes from my point of view.

Olympus

The new PENs have just the same capability as OM-D if you think about purely about image quality potential. Same sensor, same processor. Although they look superficially the same as earlier PENs, they are totally new cameras. Of course they are otherwise stripped down in many ways if you compare to OM-D. No EVF, IBIS works only 2-ways and so on.

New PENs have a really nice and working connectivity through Toshiba´s new Flash Air card. The card creates automatically a password protected hotspot which is just as automatically found by iPhone and Android phones. Olympus has a free app for both platforms. This app reads automatically thumbnails from the card inside camera and then you can choose what to do with images; save them in phone, send them to facebook or other social media, send as emails, send to Apple photo stream or what ever. Flash Air hotspot is turned on and off in camera so it draws power from camera battery only when needed. Olympus app will be downloadable in October when cameras start shipping and Toshiba Flash Air card is included with each PEN.

You can use Flash Card and Olympus app also with OM-D but there is no password protection and the card is on all the time if camera has power on. Hopefully we have firmware update for Flash Air support for OM-D and suitable older models. This was one of my requests for Mr. Terada from Olympus.

Olympus intoduced a new, black mFT 15mm f/8 Lens Cap. They really call this lens as Lens Cap and it is listed as among accessories, not lenses. It is thin as a body cap, has lens cap feature when closed and has 3 lens elements. It has two settings when open: hyperfocal focusing with DOF from 1m to far away and close-up focusing with DOF starting from 30cm up. Image quality should be almost on the same level as with kit zoom at same focal length and at best aperture which is not bad at all. Price starting at 79€ but I guess it will soon be more like 50€ or given away as an extra.

Previously announced mFT 60mm f/2.8 Macro is now ready to be shipped. It focuses up to 1:1 magnification. This black lens is weather sealed and has internal focusing. The focusing mechanism is the most complex of any Olympus internal focusing systems including zooms. There are three groups that move relatively to each other by stepper motors while focusing. Actually the lens is surprisingly light and small, even filter thread is 46mm. I have been told from inside Olympus development that the image quality is better than with the famed FT 50mm f/2 Macro. Price is set at 499€. Lens hood, which is a very clever collapsible model, is not included. It should be, even if the price was slightly higher. As said, 60mm Macro is ready to be shipped and I was promised a test example next week.

Olympus showed a working prototype of mFT 17mm f/1.8 wide angle. This lens has similar construction (no weather sealing), finish and snap manual focusing feature as mFT 12mm f/2 lens. It is shorter but a little fatter than 24mm lens as seen in the image above. Again I have been told that image quality is very high, although I heard yesterday it being compared to a lens which I do not see as high enough in my scale... Hopefully expectations are fulfilled as this is for me THE most expected lens of all, otherwise I will be VERY, VERY, VERY disappointed. I should be getting a test example later this year and shipments should start early next year. I know that many of you don´t like it but the color is silver only at this point.

And then there is also the already infamous Limited Edition Black 12mm f/2 lens. The price with matching black metal lens hood and metal lens cap is an outrageous 1000 euros. In my book this fact is just as stupid as Hasselblad Lunar. Olympus, this not the way to treat enthusiast and pro shooters! Luckily we in Finland have the reasonable Olympus Finland which has set for every black 12mm set, which they can import, a price of 850 euros. Sadly they could get less than 100 sets.

Olympus has upgraded XZ-1 into a more ambitious XZ-2.

One thing I also have researched lately is video sound, and I have tried these Olympus recorders. Sadly I have not enough knowledge and background experience to write about my experiences as yet.

Canon

Canon introduced EOS 6D, which is their smallest and lightest full frame DSLR. It has also built in GPS and wifi. If I was still interested in this camera category for my own use, I would be very interested in EOS 6D. Looks and feels good. When I compare EOS 6D to Nikon 600, they feel like cousins and one could see them even as twin brothers. It all depends on what you are looking for. Pricewise they also start at same level slightly above 2000€, but I would see them both dropping very soon just below 2000€. APS-C size has another dent in it´s shield.

Of all Canon news, the most interesting is Project 1709, which goes now into closed beta. This peculiar name contains a cloud service for images. For Canon it is partly about strenghtening their brand and extending their product portfolio better from equipment into service and content. Actually this extention means now the general audience as in b-to-b field Canon is there already. Canon´s cloud is not only for keeping and indexing images, it is also for printing them out as various products. And that´s one area where Canon is strong with its printers and digital printing machines. The screenshot above shows how you can build a timeline of images inside Project 1709.

Other than these and new printers Canon had excellent food, company and weather at their 25th Anniversary of EOS System at Rheinterrassen.

Leica

Directly from Canon it was time to move to Hall 1, which is now taken by Leica. While Canon presentation was typically Canon, which means strict company hierarchy plus slide with three points after slide with three points, Leica was very casual and smiling.

More than smiling, it was also touching when Nick Ut and Kim Phuc were called on stage. In 1972 Kim Phuc was 9 years old when she and her brothers and cousins were hit by American bombing during the Vietnam war. Kim Phuc was burned by napalm. Nick Ut was then a 22 years old photojournalist who took pictures of them running away from continuing bomb blasts. Nick went on to drive Kim Phuc to hospital and only after doing this took care of his images. One of images with naked and burnt Kim Phuc in the center, and those other children, some soldiers and bombing around her, caught the attention of everyone who saw it. Nick won Pulitzer Prize and this image is now part of our collective memory.

Later Nick Ut traced down Kim Phuc and helped her in her life and they have stayed in touch. Kim Ut was now awarded into Leica Hall of Fame. To see these two people on stage and hear their stories about this image (which I have seen so many times) and their lives was already worth coming to Cologne.

After this, the lights went on and we had the chance to see the extensive photgraphy exhibition Leica has gathered in their Hall. Well done Leica, superb!

Leica introduced also new products:

- Paul Smith designed Leica X2 version, which, for me, means just a very colorful color scheme. However, for me the Leica way of pimping camera models is kind of honest way to do it as they don´t pretend to be anything else than what they are. Leicas.

- The Leica M, THE real news, which is now a true full format mirrorless system camera. It can be used as a traditional rangefinder camera but just as well as a modern fully digital camera with EVF and live view monitor for both stills and HD video.

- The Leica M-E, which is slightly stripped down and adjusted successor of M9

- The Leica S, which is a slightly scaled down and enchanced version of previous model S2.

Leica is getting rid of model numbering in their earlier fashion of M8 > M9 > etc. Leica M is from now on Leica M just like Porsche 911 has always been Porsche 911.

New products caused a huge hulabaloo around them with everyone taking zillions of pictures. And then everyone was ready to party!

But now, I must leave to a meeting at Leica Hall where I have a better chance to see and try new cameras. Maybe more of them later...

-p-

Photokina 2012 - Some last thoughts before show

My Photokina starts "officially" on Monday morning at 11am with Olympus press meeting. Then it goes on with Canon in the afternoon and Leica in the evening. Right now I can´t write about any possible product details but there will of course be new stuff coming. I have known for a few weeks what Olympus has in their pocket. Leica is taking wholly new steps but stays very much Leica, so don´t worry Leica shooters. Unlike many other companies, Leica has kept all their product images in-house and thus avoided seeing them published at internet rumor sites. Breaking NDAs seems to be one of the more popular hobbies these days.

During the next days I have several meetings, some of them just to keep in touch and exchange information. Of these I mention here one in particular. I have on Tuesday a meeting with Mr. Toshi Terada, who is Manager of SLR Product & Marketing Planning Department at Olympus. There has been so much writing about Olympus FT series future and FT-mFT merger in the internet that now is your chance: be free to send me questions to ask, preferably as comments to this blog. Of course you can ask anything regarding Olympus system cameras FT or mFT. But as you know companies do not tell about future steps and camera models too much in advance. So be realistic in your expectations and think about what to ask if you really want it answered. Also my hands are tied (by me) in what I will write because the better I keep confidentiality the more I will get to know. That´s the name of the game, for me at least.

My Photokina ends "officially" at Canson Infinity booth. I will be there presenting a swollen "combined Photokina version" of my print portfolios and telling about my photography and my experiences on printing on Canson Infinity materials. Canson Infinity is in Hall 6.1 and I will be there on Thursday afternoon and all day on Friday and Saturday. You can even have one or two of your images printed there. Please come in to say hello, if you happen to be visiting Photokina during those days.

Trends

Looking at what has been already published (and of course I´m reading rumor sites, too) I see a few trends happening:

Connectivity: More and more cameras will be connected to social media or the internet in general. Wifi is naturally an obvious method but it also is not a sure and easy way for those who are not familiar with managing wifi connections. Mobile cell phone technology is more likely the future.

Mirrorless: Reflex or mirror cameras are going out. They are not vanishing today because they still are better than mirrorless cameras for many applications but eventually they will lose. And I think it actually happens faster than we now think.

Narrowing market for APS-C DSLRs: Sort of related to above. Several and ever cheaper full frame (24x36mm) DSLRs are being introduced and on the other hand mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras are getting ever more capable and more popular. 

Large sensor compacts: With Sony RX-1, a full frame 35mm focal length compact camera, we now have the camera I was asking Canon to make for a few years. They didn´t (the price would have been too high then), Sony did, and I´m tempted... Sensor prices have gone down. The size of sensor and electronics in not an issue. Human factor and ergonomics dictate the body size and then the lens size is dictated by sensor size with the aimed for image quality, lens speed and other parameters of the lens.

Dying market for low-end compacts: Cell phones are killing low end compacts. Period. We buy more than 1.8 billion cell phones with camera this year. Next year even more. We are going to use a dedicated camera only when we want a "better" picture. Seeing this companies are concentrating their efforts in high end compacts.

Large sensor video cameras: I think the era of DSLR as video camera came and went already. They showed the possibilities and also the missing ergonomics. Hybrid cameras are here to stay for us who want to mix it but for anything more ambitious video work a dedicated video body (and dedicated lenses) is better and eventually (with rigs and mics and all) not more expensive. 

Higher lens prices: Lens prices are going up with more megapixels in sensors. There simply is no way to make cheap, high quality lenses. There is no way to keep lens prices the same if they must keep out resolving more megapixels. Electronics gets cheaper, lenses get more expensive. Canon´s new 24-70mm zoom is an excellent example of this trend, very high image quality, more than double the price. To counter this we will see ingenuity in software corrections. We will see variable lens structures where stepper motors move more lenses than just needed for focusing and/or zooming. And of course we will see more lenses with good lens elements but cheap mechanical construction.

-p-

Canon PowerShot G1 X

Canon is the last big camera maker without a mirrorless system camera. Strong rumos have suggested that Canon is going to introduce such a camera maybe already during this month but latest before Photokina in September.

Canon has an interesting camera at the top of their point and shoot camera line: PowerShot G1 X. Namely, its sensor size is slightly bigger than that of mFT-sensor. Maybe Canon is going to keep this sensor size only for this camera, but rather I expect them using the same sensor size also in their upcoming mirrorless system camera. This was my reason to test and see what kind of camera Canon has built around this sensor in G1 X.

Today Canon introduced also a new APS-C size DSLR, EOS 650D (aka Rebel T4i) which has two new (for Canon) main features which naturally will be implemented in their mirrorless system. These are phase detecting elements in sensor and stepping motor for AF inside lens.

G1 X is styled like other cameras in Canon´s PowerShot G series. It looks like a somewhat grown up version of G12 up to its controls and operation. My wife noticed G1 X first on a table when she arrived home from work. Her immediate comment was: "You have a new camera. Doesn´t it look old fashioned". It was so surprising that I started to laugh. She is used to seeing cameras around and she can always pick up one when she needs. So, I was surprised that she even noticed G1 X, and it is not actually flattering for Canon why she noticed it. Canon is of course familiar to her as she has used Canon DSLRs. Yes, this camera is no masterpiece of design but it is a lot better in your hands than how it looks like on table.

G1 X sensor size is 18.7x14mm which puts it between mFT (m4/3) (17.2x13 mm) and APS-C (22.2x14.7 mm) sensors. It has 14.3 megapixels, a 4:3 aspect ratio and is actually very close to mFT by size. Sensor technology is the same as in Canon DSLR cameras (much alike EOS 7D and 60D).

Size comparison between sensors of various mirrorless cameras. Canon and Leica have fixed lenses, the others have interchangeable lenses. Sony has also a point and shoot camera with 1 inch sensor and Fuji, of course, APS-C size cameras.

G1 X in use

G1 X really feels familiar if you have used latest PowerShot G cameras. It is the newest link in a chain of cameras based mostly on physical controls. The biggest difference in size between G1 X and G12 is that G1 X is some 2 centimeters deeper, when lens is retracted and power is off. Bigger sensor requires naturally bigger lens. This effect of sensor size is even more emphasized by the shortening of longest relative focal length. It is now 112 mm (relative to 35mm size) while G12 has 140mm.

Like said G1 X feels good in hand.  Well balanced, well made and controls are where they should be. I used also this camera mostly at aperture mode. Aperture is set with the wheel above grip and exposure (correction) is set using the bigger (lower) dial next to shutter button. Above it is the dial for exposure modes. Focal length is set by powerzoom switch in front of shutter button, and using it is just as vague as with all these rocking switches. I would have preferred a Canon S series solution with control ring at the base of the lens. Actually I tried first to find some functionality in the gripped ring at the base of lens before I noticed that it is just a cosmetic cover for accessory bayonet.

ISO speed (or Auto-ISO) is set by ISO button in 4-way switch at the back of camera. It shows (animated and not too fast) an ISO scale in LCD monitor and you choose what you want with the left and right buttons of 4-way switch. Sadly you can't get into shooting mode by touching shutter button (which is the normal Canon style) but you must confirm your choice with FUNC. SET button in the middle of 4-way switch. 

The same button shows quick menu for most shooting settings in monitor and there is practically no need to go into deeper menus after configuring the camera. 

Canon offers configurability for the wheel above grip and 4-way switch. Additionally there is a shortcut button (S) in camera´s upper left backside corner, where you can set one of 15 different settings or functions. Half of these are also available through FUNC button. Using this shortcut button requires stopping shooting because of its peculiar position, and I could not figure out any productive use for it in my way of shooting. Actually, after experimenting settings, I could not find any better configuration for any option within the limits and possibilities of this camera than Canon´s default! 

Most of all I missed thumb focusing but such is not possible with G1 X. Button marked * at the back of camera is for locking exposure. It gives you the mandatory possibility of separating focusing and exposure setting apart and leaving focusing for half way pressed shutter button. Surely this is the second best solution and when given just this option one can adapt here.

G1 X has an optical, zooming viewfinder, typical for this series. It has also diopter correction. Too bad, you are looking at a very small image and what you see is according to Canon only some 80% of what will be seein in the final picture. Optical viewfinder shows no information at all. Next to eyepiece there are LED-lights for focus lock and flash status but they do not help much. Actually I can not imagine any use for this kind of viewfinder other than following a moving subject because for those subjects the backside monitor is useless. There I could even think positively that leeway in viewfinder helps keeping the moving subject better inside picture.

I tried to frame this image (width 140cm, aspect ratio 4:3) as exactly as I could with G1 X optical vewfinder. Final image shows this much more of the view, and the difference stays practically the same at every focal lenght. How an earth did Canon figure out that 80%?

While speaking of moving subject we come to the biggest single negative aspect in G1 X. This camera is unusable for me for shooting any moving subjects. LCD monitor has so slow refreshing rate that I could not follow a walking person at a few meters distance with camera set for continuous shooting. Also, when shooting RAW and using AF your image capture rate slows down to markedly under one image per second. I did not measure exactly but I would say that it is closer to one image per two seconds than one image per second.

For stationary subjects autofocusing is mostly good and exact but relatively slow if compared to Olympus E-P3 and other mFT camera introduced around that time or later.

Canon´s Digic V processor is good for many things and G1 X feels fast for example when powering up. Still, with issues like shutter delay, AF speed, image rate and live view Canon has some work to do compared to present mirrorless systems. Here it must be mentioned that G1 X has a fully automatic High-Speed Burst mode for JPEG shooting which gives you 4.5 images per second for up to 6 images. Even so, the best way to shoot moving subjects with G1 X is to pre-set focusing and other settings and try to take one succesfull image per situation. I expect the new features introduced with EOS 650D to help Canon to catch up with AF speed. 

The lens

 

G1 X has a lens which starts from F2.8 at widest focal length and (speaking with 35mm terms) it zooms from 28mm to 112mm. These are very usable numbers for most casual shooting at least for me. Lens speed goes down quite fast when focal length grows and it reaches F4.0 at (latest) 21mm and F5.6 immediately after 40mm. I would consider this lens to be quite good while thinking about it´s construction, size in retracted position and zoom range. Absolutely thinking it is just a pretty ordinary kit zoom lens. Lens corrections are easily made by automatic lens profile correction in Lightroom 4 and what might be left can just as easily be corrected manually. This lens has it´s sweet spot at apertures F5.6 to F8. This lens shows quite well the compromise you have to do when choosing a camera like this or a camera with interchangeable lenses. This one is small with a nice zoom range. With a system camera you can have far better lenses but you have to pay more and end up with a bigger camera (system). 

Test frames were set like this in the whole image area.

OIS

G1 X has an optical image stabilization system inside lens. My standard ten shot cumulative blurring test was shot at 53mm focal length. For me the OIS system in G1 X gives a little more than one full stop benefit. Effectiveness of stabilization depends on your shooting technique and what kind of shaking you cause.

Testing RAW ISO speeds

Of course it is somewhat difficult to compare G1 X sensor to other cameras because this fixed lens has its own effect on sharpness and contrast. (This test was shot close to 35mm focal length.) Even so, G1 X showed exactly what I was expecting of a Canon CMOS camera. I have used almost every Canon DSLR camera but the latest three (1D X, 5D MkIII and 650D). Image files showed all typical Canon traits when I tweaked them in Lightroom. Canon´s sensor development is slightly behind of Sony and Nikon/Aptina and practically at the same level with Panasonic. This test chart can be compared to similar chart with Olympus E-M5 and E-P3, while you have to remember that Olympuses had a lot better lens for their test. G1 X is better than E-P3 but loses to E-M5. A totally different question is where and when these differencies can be seen in everyday images. They can not be seen while looking at images normally on screen or as prints up to A3.

My Sample gallery has a bunch of examples from normal shooting situations with Canon PowerShot G1 X.

An opinion

I liked the feel of the camera in hand as it is one of the best of all P&S cameras I have tried. I did not like to shoot with G1 X because of its sluggishness, it´s an ordinary point and shoot camera in this respect. The lens was what I expected, there is so many compromises to be made in a design like this. While it is quite an achievement as such those compromises can be seen in test shots. The sensor was also in line with expectations, good enough but not the best. PowerShot G1X is a solid performer for casual shooting if you need not to be fast. 

Many moons ago I was involved in Canon Europe´s professional round table discussions. One of the regular wishes from professionals there was a photographer´s compact camera. At that time I would have been very happy if Canon would have replied with G1 X. But now the bar has been raised by the competition. Usability and responsitivity. Let´s see how Canon´s new technology performs in practice in the form of EOS 650D and then we know pretty well how Canon´s first mirrorless camera will perform.

-p-

Canon TS-E 17mm f/4 L

I tested Canon´s new superb 17mm tilt shift lens already in June. But then came E-P1 and I´ve been shooting like crazy. Now, finally I found time to write my impressions on this great lens.

Canon´s new super wideangle tilt shift lens is absolutely fabulous (well I kind of said it already but that´s what it really is) but it also is not one of the easiest lenses to use. Even a regular 17mm lens takes some time to master but this beast with it´s ample movements gives a whole new meaning to wideangle distortions. Of course  already it´s price at about 2500 euros rises it above the reach of casual shooter. This is a PRO lens.

TS-E 17mm is a totally new lens, a new design and only Canon has such a lens presently. This kind of lens is basically a normal/short tele lens with a powerful wideangle adapter in front. This is very obvious if you look at the huge bulging front element. This large element, however, is one ingredient in the performance of this lens. One other important feature is nano coating inside of first element. I have noticed in practise that lenses with nano coating have time after time a better micro contrast than other lenses from either Canon or Nikon. This lens has also UD and aspherical elements but I`m not going further into technical specifications. They can be found at Canon websites. A sad but also obvious fact is that lens prices will get higher as manufacturers are trying to make lenses that are up to 20+ MP sensors. More and more nano coatings, special glass, special surfaces etc and tighter tolerances at manufacturing.

Another Canon first in TS or PC lenses are separately revolving tilt and shift adjustment planes. This gives the shooter more options. I will not go here into using these adjustments. Tutorials can be found elsewhere. Usage is familiar to every shooter who has used Canon TS-E lenses. Everything goes smoothly and precisely. Everything in the handling of this lens tells about quality. 

Suited for

As I see it, this TS-E 17mm is suited for interiors, landscapes, architecture and product photography. In this order. I´m going to write later on using this lens and Canon´s new TS-E 24mm f/3.5 MkII in product and landscape photography. So, I´m passing those genres here.

Interiors

Above we have an interior shot which combined from three TS-E 17mm shots: one normal and two extra shots with lens at maximum shifts to the right and left. These three shots were combined into one photograph in Photoshop. Now, this kind of job SHOULD actually be done so that lens stays put and sensor moves, a job for a view camera or special tripod head for 35mm camera. When sensor stays put and lens moves, the vantage point moves and combining of images is not automatic like it is in the first case. When lens moves, you need to do some manual work in Photoshop to get things aligned and it is more difficult the wider the lens. With masks aligning can be done reasonably fast if you know how to do it. Below panoramatic shot we have the single center image on the left.

Image Quality

TS-E 17mm gives a very high image quality in interior shots. Better than any comparable wideangle lens I have ever used. 

Above on the right there are two 100% crops from combined shot above. They are from the left upper corner and right lower corner. Sharpness and contrast holds on even with maximum shift. There is some chromatic aberration but surprisingly little considering angle of view. Very little distortions. Canon body used here is 5D MkII, ISO 100, f/11. 

Finally on the left the smaller crop is from a shot with Nikon D3x and Nikon´s formidable 14-24mm zoom. The difference here is real, both images are focused equally, same aperture f/11. Of course any difference is most obvious in the corner, but same trend is seen through out the whole picture. Canon image is sharper and has better contrast in these only slightly sharpened shots. D3x is a ”sharper” camera than 5D2 as such at ISO 100 and Nikon´s 14-24mm zoom is a VERY good lens. This only shows how good the TS-E 17mm really is.

Above another version of the same interior. Done in the same way as the horizontal one but this time I had camera vertically. Same procedure, same possible difficulties while combining shots. This version gives a much nicer sense of spaciousness and also an aspect ratio that is suitable for most interiors. This image shows also how careful you have to be with corners with such an extremely wide view.

One more interior. Same procedure: three vertical shots with maximum shift, combined in Photoshop. Curvature of vertical line to the left of image is NOT caused by TS-E 17mm lens. I had to go and check afterwards and it actually is a fault of builders. This curvature is obvious here but not really noticed by the naked eye while standing in the room.

Buildings, Architecture

Architecture did not take the first spot in my suited for list. Here´s why. With this lens you have to be really careful with angles and not distort the building too much. This is not a horror example. This is the true nature of TS-E 17mm ;-). I think a 24mm TS/PC lens is more suited for architecture. 17mm is for those situations where you really need those extra angles and know how to tame the beast. Shot with 5D2, ISO 100, f/13. Image quality is superb.

TS/PC lens or ordinary wideangle and Photoshop?

Well, the lens always wins. To be able to get the same result in Photoshop you need first a wider lens to shoot from the same spot because you end up cropping later. Here a 15mm lens, above. Same image corrected in Photoshop below it, before crop. My big TS-E 17mm image above has been cropped only slightly from the right (construction work). As you can see, the needed amount of tweaking is huge AND you lose most of image area while cropping. You get less and inferior pixels.

 

Tilt and Backlight

Tilt is kind of obvious. You can control plane of focus. Above I got all the flowers sharp at f/5,6. With an extreme lens like this you have to be again careful with what happens in the corners. Either you like the effect or you hate it!

Despite of huge front element this lens tolerates backlight really nicely. There is no veil all over the image on the right. Contrast stays high. Flare spots are easy to retouch if needed.

Conclusion

A very special and high quality lens for pro shooter, a very special and fun or frustrating lens for special wideangle effects. A must have for any Canonist shooting lots of interiors, a no brainer for wide angle landscape photographs with 35mm FF. All the others watch your step.

-p-

E-P1 + 14-42/3.5-5.6 ED vs. Canon 5D + 24-105/4 L IS

What would be the perfect travel camera? Which lenses? How much weight and bulky size? What kind of compromizes between size, quantity and quality? I guess these reflections are quite familiar to every photographer.

Canon 5D and zoom lens 24-105mm f/4 L IS was my travel companion for a few years. I don´t like to carry a lot of equipment with me, and this combination gave me good image quality and versatile focal lengths in a manageable size and weight. Image stabilization compensates for a mediocre maximum aperture, and lens focuses close enough. 5D has also very good high ISO performance up to ISO 800. Later I have used the same lens with 5D MkII but this combination is not as balanced because this zoom is not able to perform with 5D MkII´s higher resolution sensor. But that would be another story. Below is a landscape from Mauritius with Canon 5D and 24-105mm lens. Focal length here is 45mm @ ISO 400.

 

But then came Olympus E-P1

When I compared the general look and feel of my E-P1 shots with my earlier shots with various digital cameras, I noticed that at ISO 100 they are not that far behind from 5D images. Both have a 12 megapixel sensor which explains some. 5D is also an older camera. I don´t know how Canon and Olympus sensor tehcnologies are evolving comparatively but still 5D sensor has quadruple area which makes it even now a far better camera at higher ISOs. But lets forget high ISOs now and stay at ISO 100.

I can already hear people crying that it is not fair to compare these two cameras. A used 5D with a new 24-105mm lens costs three times as much as E-P1 with kit zoom. 5D is full format camera and 24-105 has wider zoom area. Yes, all of this is true but I can compare which ever cameras I want to when I choose my travel camera. It would be futile to compare cameras like Sinar P2 with PhaseOne digital back and Canon´s any Ixus. In that case there´s no point because they really are different, but here I have a reason!

To compare travel cameras I decided to travel with E-P1 and 5D. I took a train to Helsinki and shot churches and statues and boats and market and streets and buildings and shop windows... and some trains. It was nice to behave like a tourist for a couple of hours, have ice cream and then travel back home. Well, the train ride took only 20 minutes, but still it was nice to visit downtown Helsinki on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, which I don´t do often.

Shooting with these cameras

5D wins hands down because it has a view finder and can be hold steadily like a camera should. I had VF1 on E-P1 all the time but it is usable only for a limited range with kit zoom. I do not like to shoot through LCD screen. Period. E-P1 wins hands down because it is so light and small. It is also as fast to use as 5D. It´s easy to shoot candidly, and after that shooting with 5D feels like a performance. Both feel solid, real cameras but using them are different experiences. For how and what I like to shoot both cameras focus and expose equally well and both can be tailored to behave as I like.

Images

I took a few dozen pictures with both cameras. I used E-P1 kit zoom´s focal lenghts: 14, 18, 25, 35 and 42mm and tried to frame as closely as possible with 5D from the same spot. There were of course some fluctuation in corresponding focal lengths because these cameras have sensors with different aspect ratios. Taking several images at every focal length cancelled any unbalancing effect from this. 

I shot SuperFine JPG + RAW with E-P1 and RAW only with 5D. I opened Olympus JPGs and Canon RAWs in Lightroom. Images were quite close in general appearances, and as needed, I fine tuned Canon images as needed to have same tone and sharpness as E-P1 JPGs. Then I chose 15 representative image pairs and printed them in A3 size for evaluation. Of course I compared those pairs also on screen.

Observations

At E-P1´s (right) 14mm and 5D´s (left) 28mm focal length 100% crops are very close to each other. In this pair Canon´s lens was at a little bit wider setting because it´s difficult to set it exactly. 

At E-P1´s (right) 18mm and 5D´s (left) 35mm focal length 100% crops are again very close in quality to each other like above.

These crops are from E-P1´s (right) 25mm and 5D´s (left) 50mm focal length images. Now here is a difference, which can be seen very obviously in the word ”NESTEKAASUA”. Actually the same thing is seen in previous images if you look closely at leather surface or stone around ”1863”. Also you can see some graininess in E-P1 crop. 5D images are very clean, it simply has a better sensor and related algorithms etc. than E-P1. Now we must remember that E-P1 images are in-camera processed JPGs. We need to wait for Adobe´s RAW processor update to get really comparable results. Okay, so there is a difference in 100% crops. Images are very seldom enjoyed in 100% crops in real life. When can we actually expect to see this or any difference in practise? In A3 size prints I can´t see any these mentioned differencies. In size A2, yes, some people can see it when they are asked to compare prints closely side by side. Otherwise, it´s there but it´s not obvious to anyone. In the internet? No-one has monitors large enough. And, really, I think very few photographs are about extreme micro contrast. By the way, look at the ropes. Don´t they look sharper in E-P1 image? Here E-P1´s slight roughness is actually good and it also shows in A3 prints when compared.  

Let´s move one step forward: E-P1 (right) at 35mm and 5D (left) at 70mm focal lengths. E-P1´s humble little kit zoom has not been any worse so far compared to Canon´s mighty professional L-zoom. Actually it is slightly better at 25mm (50mm) focal length and another tad better here. Neither lens has a straight image plane, which means results are depending on subject, but these pairs seem quite typical. Also this contrast difference is barely noticeable in A3 prints. One of the worst features in E-P1 is smearing in red color. You can see it clearly in diagonal red lines.

Finally we descend to E-P1 (right) at 42mm and 5D (left) at around 84mm focal lengths. Descend because here E-P1 kit zoom is clearly worse than Canon lens. In A3 prints the difference between cameras is seen mostly as lack of contrast in almost all E-P1 images. In my opinion Olympus m4/3 kit zoom an admirable lens at 14-35mm area. It´s value for money is outstanding. At 42mm it is not actually bad but, well - try to walk a bit closer and shoot at 35mm setting.

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