MK1 Photography Blog

Below are some of my recent macro photographs taken on my main Olympus camera system, the lens used was the Olympus 60mm f2.8 A Cygnatech diffuser took the edge off the light but helps with exposure to be more dynamic as though the insect looks studio lit. The last image is an arty effect on a feather on our decking outside Images below for your appreciation   

Its only 16mp? You shoot on a micro 4:3 sensor? But what about the noise? You cant get bokeh with such a small sensor Are the images printable? These are many of the standard comments and questions people put in forums and online, these days its a belief that only full frame gives all answers to the above......Well no its simply not true! I have earnt money from these "small" sensors! I have large aluminium prints of family on my wall and they look fantastic so I am of the camp that these sensors are brilliant for photographers - of course noise levels are less with a full frame camera and viewers perception of bokeh varies with different people. Below are some portraits taken with my GX80 There are many reviews of this camera on YouTube and look up Gary W he's a real advocate of this remarkable little camera PS it came out in 2016!

  Sadly I have been neglecting the blog and I don't really have any excuses except, many episodes of ill health and safe arrival of our new granddaughter Olivia! We are so blessed. I decided to buy an additional micro 4 thirds camera so I got a mint condition Panasonic GX80 and Olympus 17 mm f1.8 this is a beautiful lens too. With the camera came the Panasonic 12 - 32 f3.5 f5.6 kit lens, this is an amazing sharp little cheap lens plastic mount but so useful. The photos I have added below show the kit and some results from it, 16mp is plenty enough I was guilty as everyone else thinking that more pixels give better images. It's the same with Olympus and my move to that system I am happy with it's images and colour science and that's someone who has shot with Fujifilm!  

I suggested in my last post that I intended to have a digital detox with a Lightphone 2  Sadly on my network (Vodafone) it kept dropping calls and as it was a very basic phone I had to have phone calls! The network blamed the manufacturer and they blamed the network. Basically caught in a loop I couldn't get out of So off to eBay it went and I sold it within a week, I had purchased from Amazon renewed (an excellent service) in the previous year a Google pixel 5 another great phone but totally not supported with updates. This began to overheat! So that went back to Amazon as the renewed process guarantees a year on all there devices. So I began a search with " what is the most secure phone with limited support" and people suggested the Samsung Note 20 Ultra. On Amazon renewed they had one new totally unused for £300 and absolute bargain, when I received it and opened it it was remarkable still with all the Samsung stickers on it. The phone is a beast with 12gb RAM and 256

 I was becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of control our so called "Smartphones" have over us. There were instances when a subject I was talking about or emailing became part of my chosen search engine feed. It came to a head when I honestly got so sick of my phone I switched it off and went without, It prompted me to search for the Lightphone 2 and it's funny how the search engine gods don't proffer me with details of this device in my feed - I wonder why? I decided to order one from the American company run by two people who became fed up with their big tech overlords So it was delivered and a very easy set up all through an account and I have been using it as my only device ever since for 5 days and I am more peaceful and more " in the moment"  Photos below and a link if you want to know more The light phone 2  

We did our annual (as it seems now) visit to our local church in our village of Haddenham in Buckinghamshire  Its a lovely celebration of local charities and businesses decorating their own Christmas trees within the church. A beautiful and peaceful event very enjoyable, the X100S came with me as it's the perfect documentary image making device and much better than any phone!

 Although I do actually love my Finepix X100 I have just paid for another camera - the   X100 S I am so sorry to my little Finepix X100 it has now been left on the shelf for the time being. I think the rendering and refining they carried out on the S ironed out most of the "faults" with the original they improved the IQ quite a bit with the 16 MP sensor the same used in the T variant. I have found the 'S' to be slightly sharper in detail and much faster to operate. So all of today's images were taken with my new to me X100 S the first few are of our local church here where we live, some of the other pond scenes are a little walk out into the countryside near our home. The final photo is of a real character in our village Henry the Red Setter. I think this image shows the sharpness of the S files