What a strange day...
I'll be honest, I had a lot to think about and didn't ring home until I got back to Nottingham and had sat quiet in the hotel for a few minutes.
Mary-Louise, my good lady, recently bought a digital tablet. She wanted it to use with Illustrator, and we spent a long time at the Photography Show at the Wacom stand trying one out.
Essentially it does the same job as the mouse, and despite Wacom's advise to ditch the traditional mouse and stick with the tablet the old mouse is still sitting on her desk and is the favoured device to move the pointer around.
Why am I sharing this with you? Well, both devices do the same job. One slightly different to the other, with the older of the two so familiar and natural that you are always drawn back to using it. The old Logitech mouse is still grabbed first almost every time Mary-Louise's computer is used.
The same is true of my experience with the OM-D today.
I got my choice. An OM-D EM-5 to use all day, and I used a 12-40mm and a 12-50mm lens with the latter of the two sporting a macro facility. I'd decided that each time I took an image with the OM-D, that I'd swap to the Canon and repeat the image in order to provide an image comparison when I got home.
Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I immediately struggled with the electronic view finder on the Olympus. It didn't quite give me a "what my eyes are seeing" view through the viewfinder. Where as the Canon, being completely optical... did.
I also struggled with the menu system in terms of being able to select what I wanted to do. The OM-D range of cameras can have most of the surface buttons reprogrammed to do what the user wants. One of the many disadvantages with only one day to play is that you really haven't got time to do this reprogramming - you need to get out there and expose pixels.
It took a few minutes of conversation with Steve to realise that I am so familiar with my Canon that it is almost instinctive, and no way could the OM-D be the same as I'd only had it in my hands for an hour or so.
I'll be honest, by the afternoon I was starting to get the hang of it and came away with at least one good image.
I'll be honest, I had a lot to think about and didn't ring home until I got back to Nottingham and had sat quiet in the hotel for a few minutes.
Mary-Louise, my good lady, recently bought a digital tablet. She wanted it to use with Illustrator, and we spent a long time at the Photography Show at the Wacom stand trying one out.
Essentially it does the same job as the mouse, and despite Wacom's advise to ditch the traditional mouse and stick with the tablet the old mouse is still sitting on her desk and is the favoured device to move the pointer around.
Why am I sharing this with you? Well, both devices do the same job. One slightly different to the other, with the older of the two so familiar and natural that you are always drawn back to using it. The old Logitech mouse is still grabbed first almost every time Mary-Louise's computer is used.
The same is true of my experience with the OM-D today.
I got my choice. An OM-D EM-5 to use all day, and I used a 12-40mm and a 12-50mm lens with the latter of the two sporting a macro facility. I'd decided that each time I took an image with the OM-D, that I'd swap to the Canon and repeat the image in order to provide an image comparison when I got home.
Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I immediately struggled with the electronic view finder on the Olympus. It didn't quite give me a "what my eyes are seeing" view through the viewfinder. Where as the Canon, being completely optical... did.
I also struggled with the menu system in terms of being able to select what I wanted to do. The OM-D range of cameras can have most of the surface buttons reprogrammed to do what the user wants. One of the many disadvantages with only one day to play is that you really haven't got time to do this reprogramming - you need to get out there and expose pixels.
It took a few minutes of conversation with Steve to realise that I am so familiar with my Canon that it is almost instinctive, and no way could the OM-D be the same as I'd only had it in my hands for an hour or so.
I'll be honest, by the afternoon I was starting to get the hang of it and came away with at least one good image.
Olympus OM-D EM-5, 12-50mm lens, Lee 10-stop, Giottos tripod, Manfrotto head
I also attempted to do all of the creative things that I do with my current kit - long exposures, running water, deliberate camera movement etc - all a bit of a challenge on a bright sunny day but all completed with reasonable results.
Right now I want another day to play, to try and answer the questions (and doubts) going around in my head.
However, it was great to catch up with Steve, and the other workshop participants were great company - thanks to Aiden from Olympus, Roger, Bob (and the dog), Ralph, Clive and his delightful wife (whose name I cannot remember).
Not quite sure what to do next...
I also attempted to do all of the creative things that I do with my current kit - long exposures, running water, deliberate camera movement etc - all a bit of a challenge on a bright sunny day but all completed with reasonable results.
Right now I want another day to play, to try and answer the questions (and doubts) going around in my head.
However, it was great to catch up with Steve, and the other workshop participants were great company - thanks to Aiden from Olympus, Roger, Bob (and the dog), Ralph, Clive and his delightful wife (whose name I cannot remember).
Not quite sure what to do next...