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Re: [OM] Well, that sucks

Subject: Re: [OM] Well, that sucks
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2019 21:19:31 -0700
On 9/9/2019 5:33 PM, Paul Braun wrote:
Just got back from three days in Rome and a 7-day Greek cruise.

Yesterday, right before we were getting off the bus to walk to Trevi Fountain, I pressed the shutter on my E-M5 to grab a shot of whatever it was we were standing next to, and the camera locked up and went dark. I knew it couldn't be batteries since I had one in the grip as well as the body.

Bummer!


I ended up shooting the fountain with the iPhone...

Got back to the hotel, charged two batteries up and put them back in the camera. Nothing. Decided to try the let-it-sit-without-batteries-for-24-hours trick. Just got home after no batteries for 30 hours - nada.

I looks like my E-M5 may have just died.

Natural life span, dood! The E-M5 I is a cave man camera. ;-)  Swapped mine for Mk II in March of 2015. The Mk IIs retired the start of this year, before our Bhutan trip this Spring. Using Panny GX9s now. Very slightly better IQ at the pixel level than E-M1 II.

It's a very capable camera for all your existing µ4/3 lenses, at a bargain basement price. Oly has nothing like that. I'll be interested to see what the E-M5 III is like, but It's not likely to be really inexpensive. May be announced wile we are in Ireland. Not much reliable detail on features known as yet. At a guess, it's not going to tempt me back into the Oly camp.

No, not weather proofed. Then again, in some pretty serious rain in Zion NP, it performed flawlessly, and was unscathed, being held under a rain hat and just popped out for shots.

I seem to recall that you do a lot of shooting in the dark, with spotlit subjects? The GX9 might be ideal. It's ISO invariant over 3-4 stops. You can underexpose a LOT, to hold highlights, and later pull up the shadows to taste. Quoting from my 9.2 post about the slightly lesser GX85:
========================
Wellll, I've done that. Now I'm doing it for you. 
<http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/tech/GX85/GX85Shadows.htm>

Huge DR, intentionally underexposed to hold most highlights.The Celtic design scarf is colorless, almost black, in the straight conversion. The subtleties of color and texture in the pillow behind it are completely invisible.

Increase exposure and pull up shadows in ACR, and the colors and details are all there. As the deepest shadows are exposed, a little bit, by a combination of fairy lights and daylight balanced, anti-SAD fluorescent at some distance, I don't expect perfect color. And yet, converted with ACR's Tungsten WB, the colors are remarkably true. Especially impressive to me are the subtle hues of the pillow.

Yup, a few hot pixels in the darkest parts, easily spotted.
. . .
ISO invariance is not just about noise.

========================

Not good. A new body ain't in the budget right now.

GX9 with gratuitous 12-60 kit lens is $800. Only sold in NA as the kit. Lens is pretty good, although slowish. Sell it or use it. One plus is that its OIS works together with the body IBIS for IS better than either alone.


Anyone have any suggestions before I call Olympus and see how much it might 
cost to get it repaired?

I just can't see the point. It's three generations behind in sensor system. The current ones are just plain better. It's easy to think that progress in digital cameras has reached a plateau. May yet happen, but not yet.

On another note, for travel, I suspect you'd find a Panny ZS200 more than adequate. 1" sensor, 24-360 mm eq. lens. Excellent Raw files, also ISO invariant. But only for good to moderate light. Not great in the dark with conventional technique. Intentional underexposure may extend the range quite a bit, but they ain't gonna to look good on the LCD when taken.

I've been VERY pleasantly surprised my mine. 44 photos taken with it here. 
<https://photos.app.goo.gl/xjdsgFgZdbrZk9yL6>

 It's going along with me to New England and Ireland for the next seven weeks. I'll be interested to see how much use I give it, with the 'big guns' along, too.

Hope Helpful Moose


--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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