So you like Cameras and Photography old and new? me too! I'm a photographer from Yorkshire focusing on all kinds of photography including Street, Landscape, Automotive and Astrophotography. Join me each week on my Photogpraphy adventures where we talk about all things photography from cameras and lenses and all the gear involved, to editing and my process out in the field. It's a lot of fun and I'd love for you to join me. Have a great day and I'll see you in the next one!
There was the Olympus Air A01 (from 2015). Significantly smaller in almost all dimensions. It was an interesting concept but more or less nobody bought it. Unfortunately the camera is almost useless without the smartphone and since Olympus stopped support it's now very difficult to get and run the software. Question is, does this even count as camera?
I’d never heard of this until just now but upon having a look at it, it’s more like the Alice camera and requires a phone for more than basic blind snapping. Very interesting idea and I seem to recall Sony making something similar? In everything I read I never even saw this mentioned, even by Olympus so maybe even they themselves don’t put it in the same category as the pen mini or lumix gm1.
@@DavidFlowerOfficial The idea to have a small box with just the mount and sensor and use it with the smartphone has surfaced several times but it never took off. You can build your own body around it, mount it on a drone or in other difficult places but at the end, the market for this is very small. The next problem is the software that needs to be maintained and updated for new versions of smartphones and in this case, even a company like Olympus decided to drop the development and leave the customers with a fading out usability after a few years.
I haven’t used the PL2 but I do have the pen mini which is basically an EPL3 and I had the EPL3 itself a few years ago. From an image quality standpoint, they’re all pretty much the same but when using the pen mini I did miss the touch screen and nicer body feel of the GF2🖖
@@DavidFlowerOfficial Cheers David! Nice to hear. Just ordered a GF2 a few minutes ago. I'll use ist with the 20mm 1.7 ii. But..prices go skyrocket..puh.
There was nothing done in post to add sharpness, the Olympus ibis is just that good. I just applied a preset and tweaked the exposure. Either way the ibis in the EM1 mk ii you can easily hand hold shots up to 1 second depending on focal length🖖
Use my Samsung android, occasionally for street photography, but mainly for travel photography, and often use a simple selfie stick, which gives the option of differing POV, great if only producing photo books!😀
That’s gonna depend on what you intend to shoot with it. For pure picture quality and a much slower approach the A7 has the edge, but only as a photo camera. As an all rounder for faster shooting like wildlife and sport or as a hybrid for photo and video I’d go with the a6000. They’re surprisingly close in terms of both dynamic range and iso performance (the A7 is pretty bad at iso 1600+). For vintage glass use or portraits I’d go A7, for everything else, A6000
Hi 👋, I'm going to buy Canon EOS 7 D tomorrow, it's my first camera 👀 I travel often can I use this camera? I've no idea how to use as it's first time, thanks 🙏
The 7D is a fantastic camera. You might find it a little on the large side for travel but it’s not too bad with either a standard prime or a single wide range zoom. Thanks for watching 🖖
I have seen tons of very good photos taken with this camera. How is it “kind of bad”? I mean, it’s not an expensive camera. It’s a bang for your buck camera. The CMOS sensor is quite good and about as good as I’ve seen for the price, paired with pretty decent features, it’s a great option for an amateur that just wants to take clean photos and play around with editing.
It’s kinda bad because without that zoom, your phone is better and phones compared to actual cameras are garbage. It’s a fun camera for sure but the image quality is pants. For any beginner wanting to learn they’d be much better off buying an ancient dslr and kit lens as the image quality would be significantly better and when it comes to editing, they’d have the option to shoot in RAW unlike with this camera.
@@DavidFlowerOfficial Fair enough. But for the price and features? You’ll invest far more time and money into an ancient DSLR. I guess it all depends on how much experience and effort someone can put into it.
@Gubers canon 400d regularly runs at about £30 and they practically give away those kit lenses. I just bought a Sony Nex 3 for £31 so there are far better options out there for not a lot of money, but to each their own.
i really enjoyed watching your video but it makes me more confused because i used to take photos with phone and i love photography and this will be the first cam i will buy despite the small amount of money i have that allows me to buy the canon 400d or nikon d90 (or canon 500d maybe) ; so what should i choose ?
It was like you were wearing a cloak of invisibility when you were walking along photographing people David, no one even raised an eyebrow!!! I agree that a mobile phone is a horrible thing as far as ergonomics are concerned and I'd rather use a proper camera every day of the week. I don't even think modern phones are that nice to use as a phone, or web browser, or whatever, they have too little to hold on to and are far too easy to drop, but they are pretty useful all the same.
Yeah it’s very much like they saw me, saw the phone and just continued on without further thought. As I said, I don’t particularly care for that type of image, but the fact that you can get them and no one seems to care is quite interesting. I was a fairly early adopter of the smart phone with one of my earliest being the Sony Ericsson P800 and as you’d expect they have just become more and more streamlined since then. I can’t use a phone without a case because I’d drop the thing in a heartbeat 😂
Your video made me wonder how many times I've been shot as I walk innocently down the street - although I'm sure they'd delete the image once they'd looked at it!!!
@GrumpyTim I’ve always been something of a people watcher, human behaviour fascinates me, but getting up close and personal to photograph it never appealed to me which is why I’m more comfortable shooting from afar safe distance. And I just realised that sentence made me sound a bit like an alien, I guess my secret is out😂 I’ve long since dismissed any illusions about privacy being old enough to have existed before the modern internet so I’ve no doubt that most of us appear on phone cameras, dashcams and even doorbells on a daily basis
Some very nice shots, never thought about the tidal tower as a thing to photograph, but it works, will have to remember that for next time I'm in Hull, I agree with you about the ergonomics when photographing with a phone, adding a mag safe grip to mine has been an improvement, not perfect but an improvement.
I enjoy your video as always. Your eye for composing a scene is simply brilliant. Without a viewfinder - using shadows , light and geometric elements of buildings to compose on a phone screen - Excellent!
My biggest problem with a phone is that to get anything like a camera experience, you need extra stuff which soon starts to make the phone bigger than some cameras you can get but with worse image quality. I recently picket up a Sony Nex 3 for £31 and the image quality is far superior as you’d expect from a much larger sensor and it’s not a lot bigger than the phone. It was fun to get a few shots and no one take you seriously, I think that’s the phones super power🖖
At least for me, I use my phone (a Xiaomi) to take pictures when it's forbidden taking pictures 😅 (or forbidden using the flash). Nobody think I'm taking pictures if I have my phone. And of course, we have always our phones in our pockets, so if I'm out and I didn't plan to take pictures and I see one, I just take my phone.
Just earlier this evening I decided to bite the bullet and squeeze the trigger on updating my trusty iPhone 8, which has lasted me nearly seven years. I know there are new phones coming in a couple of months but the price was right on Amazon deals day today and it was a fair bit cheaper than direct from Apple even after Apple offered a tiny [insulting] part exchange price for the 8. Lots of reasons for an upgrade, not least being seven generations of camera and processing improvements since my 8 was new. Three actual lenses, one with three stages of optical zoom. Plus 64GB of storage on my 8 is nearly full and I had decided to get an Apple Watch, like my wife has, but the latest watch isn’t compatible with anything older than iPhone 12. Or was it the X. Anyhow, I also wanted the bigger display, so I went bonkers and decided on the 15 Pro Max. If it lasts me another seven or eight years, there is a chance it might even outlast me and I can’t take either the cash or phone with me. I use the phone in noisy environments and the idea of the watch is that it will vibrate and inform me of incoming calls and messages even if I miss the ring tone. Also as I get older and work a lot alone, the new emergency features and call facility will always be with me even if the actual phone is left in the cabin, a few metres away and it will call if I fall, well away from the iPhone, using satellites I believe.
I use my iPhone 7 a lot for street & throwaway images and it’s fine, I suppose, given it’s obvious limitations. (Great if like me you’re shy about using a camera in public places). Don’t overlook an iPod Touch as a decent carry-around camera without the phone element distractions :)
Honestly I’d much rather use a little compact over the phone. Coincidentally I saw an iPod touch today and I’d forgotten those things existed 😂 Thanks for watching 🖖
Love your videos, thank you for them! Could I please ask which camera/phone you filmed this or some of your previous videos here? Looking for photocamera with option to film (good quality/not too pricey). Could you please share what do you think the options here to look at? Cheers
@@DavidFlowerOfficial really huge and many thanks for the reply, recommendations and tips overall. All your videos so helpful, interesting and esthetic! So thanks very much :)
Of course, but at f3.5 on apsc you’re not going to be better that extreme background blur if that’s what you’re going for. For what you described I’d recommend either a 35mm or 50mm f1.8. When I was shooting cars at Silverstone etc. for static shots on full frame I often used a 50mm and 105mm f2.8 macro for the details 👍
If you’re talking about the 16-50 kit lens, it’s fine as a walk around lens but neither fast nor terribly sharp. You’ll get some nice pictures with it, but it’s very cheap for a reason. I had both the 30mm macro and kit lens along with the 55-210 and it’s a pretty decent starting point for the a6000
Does anyone know about adapting vintage Voightlander lens adapters? I have 3 DKL that work fine for Kodak/Retina but the Voightlander lenses won't seat and engage with the bayonet being about 1/8 inch shy of the flange. It isn't that issue with the locking mechansim to prevent lenses from on manufacturer from working on the other. Any help is appreciated.
Based on my use of both I’d say overall, the Nex 5 is better. Granted the nx1000 has higher resolution and nice raw files, but it’s a slow annoyingly clunky feeling camera and the jpeg engine is awful and produces mushy looking JPEGs. The Nex 5 produces better looking files in both raw and jpeg and from a usability standpoint, the E mount has a far more robust and lens line up that is still active whereas the Samsung NX system has been done for a number of years now 🖖
i feel you on the usability. i m getting back into cameras, used to have my dslrs and stuff and as someone with a big nose and wearing glasses, i absolutely hated those center VFs. its frustrating, annoying and even ruined fun in photography for me. your nose always ''hurts'' your screen is always dirtys, your glasses are always dirty and at times i had to guess images because i couldnt even get close enough to the evf to see all 4 corners or light was coming into the evf making me see almost nothing. from a usability standpoint, a small evf on the side without having this huge mountain of a vf in the center is huge and i think i much more prefer this design over dslr style
@@DavidFlowerOfficialvery. Just cause of that alone I’m definitely buying one. It’s very cheap and I’d like a camera built like a tank unlike my tiny plastic 550D.
I agree that the EMD1 Mii is a great value. The 12-40mm pro lens lives on this body. A supper combination. A slight niggle that may be particular to me. The on/off switch is on the left hand of the top plate. Annoying. Mask On Nurse Marty (Ret)
Thanks for the review David. I have the GX85 and Olympus EMD1 Mii. I know the EMD1 Mii has PDAf vs the GX85’s contrast detection Depth From Defocus. DFD is quick & accurate. It takes a little time for the sensor to go back & forth until it locks onto the subject. For photography DFD is OK. Not so much for video. DFD also isn’t so sticky for video. The PDAF on the EM1 Mii is better than the DFD on the GX85. I suspect the EM10M 2 also has PDAF. I really prefer the RF style of the GX85 to the DSL style the Olympus has. It is smaller and less heavy. A head scratcher about the GX85 is it has so many video functions yet lacks a mic jac. The EMD1 Mii has the mic jac. I suspect the EMD1 Mii has better IBIS. Olympus has always had super IBIS. I love M43 bodies and all these bodies are good. Oldies but goodies. Mask On Nurse Marty (Ret)
You pretty much hit the nail on the head. The gx80 feels like it’s almost unfinished with the missing mic jack and superior video features yet it’s a far better photo camera than a video camera. The EM10 mkii was the camera that made me take a closer look at m4/3 and eventually switch to it as my main system, so I’ll always have a soft spot for that camera🖖
Thanks for video. I know this is technically a macro lens but i see you taking beautiful non macro pics as well. How would compare this lens to the 35mm f1.8 for all around lens(not macro)… i feel like i could save some money and just get this macro lens… is it a good compromise or the 35mm still WAY better? Thanks in advance
I haven’t used the 35mm f1.8 but based on the images I got with this lens I doubt there’ll be a huge difference in quality unless you get into pixel peeping territory. One thing to think about though is that extra 2 stops of light the 1.8 offers and if that’s going to make a difference to what you want to shoot. I’d say that if macro is something you shoot a fair bit and you generally shoot in reasonable light that this lens is a good option, but if you want the super blurry backgrounds or are shooting portraits and shooting in more challenging light, then maybe the f1.8 is the way to go🖖
I'm a bit behind on my viewing, but at least I've got round to watching this one David. I always love the distressed old buildings round that area and the shots turned out great from the Tessar. I really like the look of the 35mm too, sometimes the worst lenses work really well when bolted to a clinically sharp digital body - I'm a bit more picky when shooting film because film + bad lens can often lead to disappointment!!!
Yeah I think the A7 at 24mpx is a sweet spot for old glass. It doesn’t quite have the resolution needed to highlight every single bit of nasty in the lens😂 Appreciate you watching, Tim🖖
Yeah most likely. I started going in there when I was in college so mid 90’s ish. I was heavily into the whole band thing in the late 90’s/early 2000’s and spent a fair few nights in there🖖😁
@@DavidFlowerOfficial Ha! Maybe it's that! Just got back into photography this year and planning on swinging by Hull to take some pics as it's only an hour away. One night in our third year in Hull, me and my friend, Barbs, decided to walk to Spiders via the industrial backstreets to see what was there. What followed was the weirdest night. We found about 3 or 4 pubs we never knew were there. In one, the moment we entered, someone jumped onto the bar for a drag rendition of "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts". A memorable night.
@@HughRaine sounds very similar to many of my weekends😂 There was another pub a bit further along called The White Room and it was this weird little music pub where I once bought a cd from a guy called David Elf. I swear it was real and I didn’t imagine any of it😂
@@DavidFlowerOfficial Ah, I just found that on Maps. We didn't quite make it that far. I THINK we went to the Old Bull & Bush but... 21 years later, I'm not sure!
My following most used MFT lenses, in no particular order: Laowa 7.5mm f2 - Great wide angle lens, which I use for my random street photography, but is mostly used for my documentary and architectural photography. Samsung/Rokinon 12mm f2 - I'm just getting started with videography and the lens is perfect for what I'm shooting, so whenever I'm out filming I bring that lens. Panasonic-Leica 15mm f1.7 - Great general lens I leave on my Oly Em5 III most of the time Olympus 12-45mm f4 Pro - Master of all trades, really. Great image quality, covers most focal lengths I need, good minimum focus distance. Olympus 45mm f1.2 Pro - my portrait lens! What a beautiful piece of art. Unfortunately it forces me to leave the much more compact 45mm f1.8 home most of the time. Panasonic 35-200mm f2.8 - Like the 12-45mm, master of all telephoto trades. Less used now because of the 45mm f1.2, but still a great general lens when I'm doing architecture or documentary and need detail shots of things a bit further away.
How you feeling about the 4:3 format of this video? I figured I'd try it out since over 80% of you watch on phones and this gives a better view without having to rotate the phone.
For me it's ok. I always rotate the phone, but I don't mind if it doesn't fill all the screen. In fact I didn't notice until I read your comment 😂 Btw, great video as always. Talking about shooting, watching you shooting is great. Too tired of other channels where they talk every time about new gear I don't need. Keep this work!
@LigreDesubi Thanks for the feedback. I decided to give this a try after going through the footage from a previous video and kinda liking it sooc. Also I’m an 80’s and 90’s kid so for me 4:3 is pretty much my entire childhood tv and computer experience 😂 I liked the idea of the camera videos but in truth I prefer using them far more than talking about them. Thanks for watching, mate. Have a good one 🖖
This lens has since become my most used lens for street and general photography and having the dual sync IS on the gh5 is fantastic. Thanks for watching 🖖
Probably not. I think that someone just getting into the game would probably do better with something like the Sony Nex 5. Same resolution sensor as this camera in a much smaller, mirrorless body and it’s Emount rather than Amount which means and lenses you’d buy would be useable still without adapters if after a while you were to upgrade the camera to something like one of the A6xxx cameras. My Nex 5 cost me about the same as this a350 but I recently picked up a Nex 3 (which is essentially the same camera with a couple of features missing) for £31.
Most definitely. I think Olympus/OM System have pushed into sports/wildlife more and more over time. I had a brief go with their huge 100-400 f4.5 at the weekend and while the price of that one is fast approaching kidney selling money, there are a lot of less expensive options including the ones from lumix Leica if you’re able to get away without the sync IS. Personally I don’t do a lot of wildlife shooting so the super cheap 40-150mm is enough for me. Thanks for watching 🖖
Just picked up a 5d mark II and a 50mm 1.8 stm for 177 quid. Camera in good to very good condition, I’m thrilled to start shooting! The classic has this creamy colors and the mark II had more of earthy tones and looks as good as the classic but slightly different 👍🏻
Nice of Andy to think of you and you for reviewing it! On your video about the Olympus 60mm Macro for street, I mentioned the LX-5 , the successor to the LX-3 and using my LX-5 often for macro and macro street photography. With the small sensor and macro Leica lens, when stopped-down you can keep a lot of background in macro shots discernible. One my favorite images is of a Honey Bee on a flower in a field of dandelions with a waterfall in the background. Small sensor cameras can often rival high-dollar wide-angle Macro lenses. I also like the Panasonic LX5 as it's 10 megapixel or the same as the Leica M8 and I believe the Sensor in the LX5 and likely LX3, like the full-frame sensor are made by Kodak. I had an M8 Leica and the images from the LX5 could easily be mistaken for the M8. I recently up-sampled some LX5 raw images through Topaz, some higher ISO and with the In-camera noise reduction and sharpening turned off got lovely Leica M8/M9 looking images.
Interesting David, thanks! I had that lens when I was doing some film Transfers and used it a few times for interview videos and portrait stills, as I and recall it rendering smooth skin-tones and cinematic scenes. I usually keep an old Four-thirds mount Olympus 35mm f/3.5 macro in my bag and use it occasionally for street street. lovely smooth background blur and stopped-down can make for some interesting macro perspective street shots. Have you tried small-sensor cameras with macro lenses like the Panasonic LX-5 with the sub-16mm CCD sensor and the fast, Leica Macro-zoom Summilux? I keep my old LX5 with the LVF-1 flip-up viewfinder just for macro, street, and unique street-macro shots. the flip-up EVF allows you to get down at ground level and still see what you've got. Might be worth an episode on Macro-street photography if you have a macro pocket camera, I can't recall seeing any Macro-street videos.
I have the lx1 and lx3 but I haven’t really used the macro function on them. This 60mm macro is fantastic given its size and the fact that it’s weather sealed.
My first mft was a Lumix LX-100 with a fixed f1.7-2-8, 10-34mm Leica lens. I was so impressed with that little guy that I upgraded to a GX85 and bought into a series of lenses. They were great for certain things, mostly what I call casual shooting and street photography because of their low profile. Then I made what I consider a mistake when I picked up an Olympus E-M1 MKII, thinking it could be equivalent to my full frame cameras for my usage. Well, especially since I bought a Z7, the Oly, sad to say, has been on a shelf collecting dust. MFT's strength is size and my old GX85 does just that. I shoot weddings and events with my full frames, a pair of D750s and the Z7 for portraits. Sorry, but my opinion is that my Nikon Z7 absolutely blows away the Oly, especially when I shoot low light or a situation when I expect to do cropping. No contest. But to be fair, when new, it's a $3000 camera vs a sub $1000 camera. BTW, with tech advances of smartphones, my new phone takes photos which are just about as good as my LX-100. Fact. The bottom line is to just use what you are comfortable with and keep shooting!
Thanks David for your take and Helios 44, I also got a full frame Sony A7R for vintage lenses and like the Helios's colours and how naturally it renders details but I found background blur a bit chaotic on some shots. Have you tried the Minolta 45mm f/2 Rokkor-X? Very similar to the Helios but s with smoother blur. Samples - 'Minolta 45mm f/2 Rokkor-X manual focus candid - Sony A7R | Flickr'
Are you from hull? Im not far from there and was stoked to see it being photographed in this video 👍 thinking of buying the nx1000 as my first mirrorless (currently own a sony hx400v) but want someyhing smaller and more versatile
So I have m4/3 I do love it except for low light.. But in the end it cost X2 more than full frame. I found apsc is 1/4th the price and full frame about half.. When you need good lenses everything m4/3 is 2k. On full frame they are 1k. On apsc they are around $500. All for the same quality lens.
If by "quality" you mean the depth of field, then, yeah, I guess things like Olympus' f/1.2 Pro primes aren't the best value for money (still nowhere near 2k though, huh??). You can easily find lenses like the fast AF, almost razor sharp Olympus 45mm f/1.8, used, for like $120 though. DoF isn't everything.
@@martingreenberg870 The only one I bought new was so cheap it was pointless to look for a used one (€60, Meike 25mm 1.8). Surprisingly serviceable, too.
