a few days ago i decided i wasn't going to wait for a black 45/1.8, so i took it out for a spin. it felt awkward at first; silver lens on black E-M5; like showing up at the office with a big afro; retro and hip, but out of character for me. i also fumbled with the FOV initially, not used to it being fixed at this focal length. i found that when i saw something interesting to shoot, i was already too close and had to back up. it was different with the 45-200 when i had the E-PL1 a few years ago. it was a substantial lens that immediately told me i should look further afield. by comparison the 45 was tiny so my mind was expecting to shoot at close range. after some brain surgery i got used to it, and also became oblivious to the odd silver lens after seeing the bitingly sharp images it produces. the 45 packs a punch (pardon the pun) and i'm now kicking myself for not taking it out sooner.
the following day i had the opportunity to really work out this E-M5+45/1.8 combo at the Vertical Horizons concert. we had tickets to the area in front of the stage and i thought that was an ideal range for the 45. so Oh Em Thee, how do i love thee? let me count the ways:
- size. popped off the grip, slapped on the 45, and my girlfriend didn't even balk when i asked her to put it in one of her dainty bags.
- less conspicuous. as soon as the concert started, out came the iPhones, then the compacts, then much later i saw a guy whip out a DSLR. he was hunching low, presumably to hide in the crowd while taking potshots through waving arms and swaying heads. me? i had no qualms holding the E-M5 over my head despite one of the ushers just a few feet behind me. to the untrained eye it was just another compact. btw, i saw someone right in front of the stage with what i think is a white E-P3+40-150 and i wondered if it's any of you folks here.
- speed. i was happily tapping away at the screen and focus was near-instantaneous. totally kicked my D7K's butt specially when i think about the time i was shooting Linkin Park. admittedly it's not a fair comparison given the f1.8 aperture of the 45, but still...
- accuracy. i took about 100 shots and i struggled to find misfocused shots that wasn't due to user error eg. wrong AF point, or me mashing the shutter button without half-pressing.
- noise. or lack of it. with the 45 wide open, ISO rarely ventured beyond 800, and the few that reached 1600 were clean.
- IS. i'm pretty sure some of my shots were taken while i was rocking to the music, and they turned out ok.
- weight. i could've comfortably held the camera over my head alllllllll night long...
now, the not so good stuff: spot metering. it is not linked to the AF point and stays at the center. the first few shots had blown highlights which made me scratch my head since i was pretty sure i had the AF on the brightest object in the frame (the bald head of the lead singer). then i noticed the little gray circle in the middle of the EVF and it wouldn't budge despite my cursing. i was so used to the D7K having spot metering linked to the AF point that i (mistakenly) assumed it was standard feature for all cameras in this price range.
it was too much of a bother to meter at the center, AEL with the tiny fn1 button (which is most certainly too small), recompose, then shoot. by the time i've gone through this sequence, the lighting has changed, the subject has moved. particularly bothersome when holding the camera overhead. i found it much faster (and more predictable) to use center-weighted metering and just dial in the EV compensation. the rear dial was much easier to feel-find and i didn't have to recompose. i opted for center-weighting since the required EV compensation was narrower (between -1 to -2) compared to ESP where at times i had to dial in -3EV, likely because the stage backdrop was mostly black.
hope Oly can address this with firmware, assuming of course that it's technically possible. i'm thinking that for any camera that has multi-spot metering for its ESP (which i assume the E-M5 has), it should be fairly straightforward to tell the camera to use just the meter at the AF point, even if not for all the AF points.
but i'm just whining now. i had a great time with E-M5. sharing some pics:
after gushing about how sharp the 45/1.8, it's rather ironic that my favorite shot of the night was the last blurry pic
