three days at the beach with the Olympus E-1

[tilman]

bought an old Olympus E-1 (first four-thirds DSLR, introduced in 2003) two weeks ago and had a play with it on the beach over the last few days (while escaping another heatwave).

It's still early days for me with this oldie, but so far I'm having fun

day at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

day at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

three days at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

three days at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

Untitled by tilman paulin, on Flickr

three days at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

three days at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

three days at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

three days at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

three days at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

three days at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

three days at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

three days at the beach by tilman paulin, on Flickr

 

[ReD]

superb nice series look forward to more

 

[Luke]

you just got more great shots in in 3 days than I got all last year.

 

[tilman]

Thanks Luke, but I'm sure that's not true!
Also, surely, having the Oregon coast at one's disposal must be counted as cheating...

 

[Luke]

surely, having the Oregon coast at one's disposal must be counted as cheating...

Headline reads *Photographer admits he's nothing but a dirty cheater*

 

[pictogramax]

Great series, one can easily see you are enjoying both the new/old camera and cheating with it!

 

[Livnius]

Very nice set...something soothing about all of these images.

 

[marlof]

Well done! I still have my E-1 with 14-54. Even when I always liked its ouput, it's no longer on active duty. Images like these show me that I should take it for a spin one of these days.

 

[tilman]

Thanks marlof - yes the E1 and 14-54mm are a great combination! Definitely take them for another spin

 

[Jock Elliott]

Lovely, just lovely. Terrific variety. . . from mega to nearly macro. I love the way you caught that bird silhouetted against the bright spot.

Looks to me like the key thing here is a great eye.

Cheers, Jock

 

[Richard]

Some great images there.

-R

 

[rbelyell]

gotta love that ccd sensor. theres more to life than megapixels! i just today pulled the trigger on a 4/3 panny L1, with hybrid ccd sensor and leica vario elmar 14-50/2.8. i'm looking forward to doing what you're doing here.

 

[tilman]

... Terrific variety. . . from mega to nearly macro. ...

Thanks Jock! Yes, that's where to me zoom lenses are invaluable. As great as primes can be, I'd be changing constantly And the Olympus zooms are pretty good anyway (love their close-focussing abilities too).
In these conditions changing lenses would have been trouble anyway. Too much fine sand blowing everywhere & all the time. The camera & lens are sealed (so no problems there) but the lens hood got stuck at some point because of some sand...

 

[MiguelATF]

Beautiful shots, Tilman. The combination of the E-1 sensor + the 14-54 lens is quite special. Really nice colors.

 

[Archiver]

Wonderful images, and proof that you don't need the latest gear to create quality photography. Some years ago, I was considering getting the Olympus E-3 and the 12-60mm f2.8-4 as a general purpose DSLR. Things have moved on and I use a number of m43 cameras now, but I still wonder what I could have achieved with that combo.

 

[davect01]

Looks like you got a good start.

 

[bluzcity]

Timing, mood, textures, colors, so much to see!

 

[davidzvi]

Wonderful series. While there have been plenty of advances since 2003, none will replace the photographer's eye.

 

[tilman]

Thanks everybody!
There certainly have been a lot of technical advances since 2003. (And some of them even made life easier for photographers )
I wish there were more efforts though to make photography more fun... It's easy to get wound up in the chase for "technical perfection" and to get bogged down in technicalities...

What I like about the E1 so far is that the Auto-Whitebalance seems to be working great, and that the Exposure-metering works pretty well. (All these files took fairly little (to none) of post-processing.)
Only having three focus points feels pretty limited at first, but on the other hand makes the choice of focus point pretty straightforward
Some of these limitations might be a problem for certain types of photography, but they can also free the mind of too many settings and choices...

Anyway - my current train of thought is to try and relax a bit about "technical" perfection and find more playful ways. We'll see how that goes

 

[PJacobs]

Nice series! Great colours (processing?).
Nr. 1 and 9 stand out for me.