Life Observed

We thought we had walked enough this morning and called a halt at a pub. So we are sitting with a beer, walking poles and a good lunch.  But wait. Right up there on the sky line is an ant on the hill. Someone has trekked up four hundred meters of mountain before lunch. That is very impressive. Now I need to sit down and relax for a bit.

I do like my pictures to be sharp. I am a confirmed pixel peeper , where I wind up an image to maximum magnification to check if it passes my criteria. Sometimes I find self induced blur in my images, camera shake, or mis-focussing, but I that's OK. That is my fault, not the fault of the lens. BTW, if you want to learn all about lens performance, this is a good web site . So, some folks refer to a bad lens as being "like a jam jar" to describe poor performance... Let's just check what jam jar optics are like.. Oh dear, that really isn't very good. Clearly Zuiko optics are going to have to perform a lot better than that.  Fortunately they do: Here is a picture taken with the Zuiko 50mm macro/short tele lens. This is just such a sharp lens. Even when peeped at, these pixels are close to perfect. Well done Olympus, you make Quality Glass. So: don't walk away from your loyal 4/3 camera owners, replace the excellent E620 with something new...

... but what about using a telephoto lens for landscapes? It goes against common sense, but a telephoto lens is just what you need if your landscape shots seem dull and lifeless. If you shoot the surrounding hills from the valley you will find the compressed perspective will make them look higher and steeper and a great deal more impressive. Naturally, you would get more into the picture using a wide angle but for me the advantages the long lens gives outweigh its limited field of view. Here are some examples: Cumbria This view was taken from the centre of Keswick if I recall correctly. This used a 300mm equivalent lens and emphasises the local landscape to make quite an arresting image. In this case I am looking upwards towards the scene. In this next image I am looking down onto southern England from the South Downs. Devil's Dyke Here the medium telephoto has given me a sweep of countryside reaching right up to the distant horizon. It seems to co...