Philippines with Mirrorless

here's a small collection of photos taken with one of the new style of mirrorless cameras, more can be seen on my flickr page here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47889331@N05/...57625980295388/

The camera's small sized proved useful for getting shots that i would not have been able to get with the larger form dlsrs. All of these were shot with natural light, so the whole setup added very little in terms of size and weight to my luggage.

C&C welcome!

Love the second image partner. I didn't see it on your Flickr page. The GF1 is looking good.

Thanks for sharing them with us,

Steve

Yup, some nice captures there which many DSLR shooters (me...) would love to shoot. Keep on! Tim

Great shots! What lens /housing are you using? I've been working on closeups with an Olympus E-PL1 and the 14-42 lens but cannot get anywhere near true macro. I'm hoping Oly comes out with a true macro lens and port for this system

thanks

I'm using the Leica 45mm f2.8 lens m43s. It's a great lens, the sharpness is almost the same at the edges as in the center but the macro can be a tad slow to focus. it should work well on the oly too.

My housing is 10bar, it too has it's problems which i've discussed in other threads here, but it's advantages over the other available housings is it's very small, is aluminium and has a clear back so you can see instantly if one of the 2 o rings is flooding.

When you say the smaller size of the rig allowed shots that would be impossible with a larger rig, is that because you were placing the camera in a hole for some of these images? Really like the images, just unsure why they would be impossible with a DSLR.

Killer shots Huw!

I would be interested in learning more about the advantages of mirrorless cameras vs. DSLR's and especially concerning WA fast moving subjects.

Anyone want to take a crack at it?

When you say the smaller size of the rig allowed shots that would be impossible with a larger rig, is that because you were placing the camera in a hole for some of these images? Really like the images, just unsure why they would be impossible with a DSLR.

yes, i should clarify, that i do not think for a moment other shooters would not be able to get the shots with a much larger setup, but the smaller setup just helped me. in the egg cowries for example, i felt i could actually place the camera in between the coral fronds without any fear of touching and damaging them.

it did seem that i could also stick the camera right into any creature's face without it being intimidated so much, but maybe thats just my imagination

I would be interested in learning more about the advantages of mirrorless cameras vs. DSLR's and especially concerning WA fast moving subjects.

Mike, someone can correct this, but i think they lag just as much as reflex cameras. autofocus can be slower, but on WA fast action shots, i assume the focus is set before hand and locked? thats how us movie people would have to do it lol

i think they lag just as much as reflex cameras.

researching this on the web for the GF1 it's 0.072sec, so comparable with reflexes, faster than the 5d(0.075sec) but slower than the 1d (0.051sec). again this could to be verified if someone also knows a reliable resource, this is according to www.impulseadventure.com/photo/shutter-lag.html

auto focus can be slower on the older models, on the tested lens on the GH1 0.2 secs, but i understand that the GH2, the newest panny model has got that down to 0.1 secs, so faster than a lot of dslrs, depending on the lenses used.

Although, mirrorless are getting much better, even using the site you reference, DSLR's are still faster (Except for some of the oldest models) than mirrorless in terms of shutter response. Startup time is not a very significant issue, unless you happen to swim around with your camera turned off.

In terms of time taken to get the shot, autofocus speed is just as important, if not more important, than shutter lag, as it is really these two intervals together that are important. Autofocus speed is of course dependent on many things, type of autofocus mechanism, lens, amount of change in focus distance measured etc. The Panasonic cameras do seem to be the fastest mirrorless cameras taking both shutter lag and autofocus into consideration, at least from what I read.

Ultimately it will now come down to individual experience using the camera, as well as their needs; with modern dslr's using in lens autofocus generally still being the fastest. On land, the acid test is still sports photography, underwater the speed requirements are generally less.

There are situations such as shooting sharks, dolphins, and of course topside breaching, where having the fastest possible camera can make all the difference.

One reason you get closer is no strobe. When I shot with my old 5050, no strobe, I was able to stick the camera in the face of the critter but I couldn't get macro shots like this. My current solution is a +10 Subsee on an Af-105-vr but the critter often spooks.

Tom

Sorry for the newbie question, but not running a strobe means you were using a filter?

Sorry for the newbie question, but not running a strobe means you were using a filter?

dubstar, because i shot everything in raw, i didn't need to use a red filter. if i needed to tweek the white balance afterwards, i could do this in lightroom with the raw file. i was actually mainly shooting video, so i would set the white balance for each shot with a white slate.

huw

Killer shots !!!

I would love to get the same results using my D90 and a macro lens...

I realy like the second shot....