My father was a young man during that era made famous by Mad Men.   Although a Western educated bourgeoisie, he gave Mao a chance but in the end fled metropolitan Shanghai for metropolitan Hong Kong, then a British colony.  Leaving with nothing, shortly after his first steps into the West he bought himself some … Continue reading Of vintage watches and custom made watch straps. →

I'm not a true artist because I draw terribly and likely paint even worse.  But I discovered that being a prolific user of Photoshop gave me some skills that allowed me to digitally paint certain styles of artwork, in my case motorsports.  Photoshop gives the user a powerful array of tools that immediately compensates for … Continue reading Digital Motorsports Painting →

The idea for this project began as a thread comment from a knowledgeable poster who speculated that even modern Zuiko lenses were not able to fully resolve the nearly double resolution afforded by the High Resolution Mode.   Resolution can be determined by the size of the smallest features clearly discerned.  It is not the same … Continue reading Can m43 lenses actually resolve the additional resolution of high res mode? →

One of the best selling features of the new E-M1X body is the ability to take 50 MP high resolution images from a 20 MP sensor - hand held.   The sensor stabilization motors shift the sensor in half pixel increments to improve both resolution and color fidelity (since no Bayer layer interpolation estimation is … Continue reading Quick evaluation of E-M1X hand held high resolution imaging →

There is nothing quite like stepping into tropical weather, low 30s and 90% humidity, whilst surviving the last few weeks of winter in Toronto.  That's one of the reasons I chose a local butterfly conservatory as the location to test the auto focus capabilities of the new E-M1X body. In order to really challenge the … Continue reading Shooting Butterflies with the E-M1X →

Nearly all my lens acquisitions are predicated by a specific photo shoot opportunity.   The need to shoot candid portraits of people at an office Christmas party and at a ballroom dancing gala initiated my first foray into large aperture prime lenses.    These in particular were of a semi telephoto focal length since I would be … Continue reading Wide field, large aperture primes for m43. →

Returning readers will be familiar with my penchant for Sigma lenses, specifically as an adapted lens for use on m43 bodies thus addressing  focal length and aperture voids in the m43 lens ecosystem.  You can review specific applications in earlier blog entries (hit Home in the upper right corner to see the entire list of … Continue reading Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Art lens →

I found myself spending two weeks in Italy and decided that in the best tradition of m43 to travel as light as possible with regard to photographic gear.  I also believe that you should never bring your main camera ... because it might be pick pocketed or dropped into a canal.   I contemplated bringing … Continue reading Jim’s Ultimate Travel Camera Kit →