Winter Travels

I work in the summers in Alaska as a fishing guide and spend my winters traveling and photographing the southwest in my 5'er in the lower 48.

I am new here so a little catching up from last winter and this fall.

Enjoy,

Jim

Very nice images Jim.

Wow, Jim, I'm impressed.  I had a quick look at your website and blog and will bookmark.  You sure make that 4/3 Olympus system work for you.  I've always been intrigued by the smaller body for high quality travel pictures.  Not quite ready to abandon my full frame Nikons though.  Keep up the great work!

Dp Review has named the Olympus OM-D as the 2012 camera of the year.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/01/01/best-camera-of-2012-results

pixurit said:

Wow, Jim, I'm impressed.  I had a quick look at your website and blog and will bookmark.  You sure make that 4/3 Olympus system work for you.  I've always been intrigued by the smaller body for high quality travel pictures.  Not quite ready to abandon my full frame Nikons though.  Keep up the great work!

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It's the glass not the body!! Oly makes some of the best glass in the world. I was a Nikon shooter for years in my film days, but when I went to digital I went with Olympus for three reasons:

1. Glass they make really good glass. 4/3 format 50% of normal 35 full frame - 200 mm lens equals 400 and much smaller! easier to hand hold and more reach! DUH!!!
2. In body IS - Why buy it with every lens??
3. Dust buster - Oly has the world up on the sensor dust issue!

I love my Olympus and it treats me well..

Thanks guys...

Jim

I agree 100% that its the glass.  I switched from Minolta to Nikon back in the film days, mainly for the quality glass (and also that some thieving lowlife decided that my Minolta body and glass needed a new owner).  Now, with 35+ years of collecting fast, high quality Nikon glass I have a huge investment in the choice I made when I was a young man.  I am still very happy with that decision.

However, as the years march by, I sometimes resent carrying a 30+ lb. camera bag with a couple of DSLR bodies, a few lenses, flashes, remote triggers, tripod, etc.  The steeper the climb, the more resentment  .

I'm not quite ready to abandon my prized Nikon glass, but do appreciate the quality of the Olympus.  It's great that it has worked so well for you.

pixurit said:

I agree 100% that its the glass.  I switched from Minolta to Nikon back in the film days, mainly for the quality glass (and also that some thieving lowlife decided that my Minolta body and glass needed a new owner).  Now, with 35+ years of collecting fast, high quality Nikon glass I have a huge investment in the choice I made when I was a young man.  I am still very happy with that decision.

However, as the years march by, I sometimes resent carrying a 30+ lb. camera bag with a couple of DSLR bodies, a few lenses, flashes, remote triggers, tripod, etc.  The steeper the climb, the more resentment  .

I'm not quite ready to abandon my prized Nikon glass, but do appreciate the quality of the Olympus.  It's great that it has worked so well for you.

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Size was also a consideration when I made the switch to Digital, I was impressed that Olympus decided to design a DSLR from the ground up as opposed to converting a film camera to digital and I was impressed with the though behind the 4/3 format and after realizing that the "effective focal length" would be a 2X factor, I quickly realized that it meant that a 200mm 4/3 lens had the effective 35mm focal length of 400mm. So you could lug around a smaller lens and still have some reach.

I am not terribly happy with their recent financial demise and switch to the m4/3 - although the new OMD just got rated as the best camera of 2012. But it has a lens compatibility problem with the standard 4/3 lenses and the latest rumor is that they will be no longer making the standard 4/3 bodies, but have a new camera coming out that will accept both...I have a huge investment in Olympus Glass so I hope it is something that appeals to me, if not they still have the E-5 Pro body and I have been wanting one of those, so that will probably be my next body and that should last awhile, it is also weather resistant which for me would be a real plus.

Although I am extremely pleased with the results I get from my current E-30 body and will keep it until it dies.

Thanks for the interest and the kind words on my pictures.

Enjoy,

Jim

Oly makes some of the best glass in the world.

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When I bought my DSLR and my bridge cameras I went with Canon, because they were touted here as having the best glass    Who's advertising/supporters do I believe  ???

Tom said:

When I bought my DSLR and my bridge cameras I went with Canon, because they were touted here as having the best glass    Who's advertising/supporters do I believe  ???

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I think they all make great glass.

Your monitor has far less resolution than just about any lens made. Your monitor is digital, lens are optical. If a lens has better resolution than the monitor then making the lens sharper will not make the image on the monitor any sharper. You need to make large prints using high quality ink on high quality paper with a high quality printer to see the difference in lenses.

Great point(s) Tom(s).  With the rate of technological change, any manufacturer can produce a lens that can be judged as "best" .... until the next review or the next product cycle. 

These days you make a DSLR brand choice, invest in the gear, and trust that the company will at least try to keep up be a leader with technological improvements ... and develop new products that appeal to your style of shooting (and are compatible with your present gear).

So far I've been pleased with my personal choice, but definitely do not subscribe to any brand bashing.  Sure, I drive a Chev ... but I'm not going to disrespect anyone's truck just because it says Ford on the tailgate. 

In my view, as a hobbyist DSLR owner, its about enjoying the technology while attempting to make an image that I'm proud of.  Most often that image happens as a result of good location, subject, gear and technique .... and a whole lot of luck.

Photography has been an incredibly rewarding hobby.

SeilerBird said:

Your monitor has far less resolution than just about any lens made. Your monitor is digital, lens are optical. If a lens has better resolution than the monitor then making the lens sharper will not make the image on the monitor any sharper. You need to make large prints using high quality ink on high quality paper with a high quality printer to see the difference in lenses.

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That is fine for those people who are only displaying their work on the internet or a computer monitor. I sell my services and they get used in all types of media, from the internet to printed brochures and other graphic projects. I also sell a fair amount of prints that people want printed large and they hang in their homes and offices, so good glass and high resolution are a requirement for my work.

I agree that all of the major manufactures mack quality glass for most uses and several like Nikon, Canon and Olympus offer various grades of lenses. Olympus has three grades of lenses. The difference between the standard grade and their high end professional grade is amazing, the clarity and sharpness and speed is a thrill to use and I see a pretty significant difference when using one of my higher grade lenses.

But you get what you pay for and for most people and their uses the standard lenses offer such a huge advantage over the typical point and shoot that it really doesn't matter.

I am not a brand masher - I chose Olympus for specific reasons, one of which was the quality of their lenses and even more important was the fact they chose to put their IS (Image Stabilization) in the body and therefore available for every lens I purchase whether it be Olympus or Tamron or any other brand. I didn't like the fact that some other manufacturers chose to put it in each lens which meant if I wanted IS I had to repurchase it every time I bought a lens. And a couple manufacturers at the time only offered IS on their very high end lenses.

But I am happy I chose what I chose and for the most part I will match one of my shots printed in a 20 X 24 or so print with just about anyone and feel confident I can compete.

Now if I had an unlimited budget - I would be shooting a medium format digital camera! But a 15 thousand dollar body seems a little much!

Good shooting everyone and thanks for the input.

Now I have some pictures I took today to process...

Enjoy,

Jim

All images are really awesome. 

Beautiful photos! Thanks for posting them.

-Roni

Great photos Jim. You got me missing Canyonlands, one of my favorites of all the national parks. Do you have any to share taken from the ledge overlooking Grand View Point? I think that's one of the most awe-inspiring view points a person could ever find.

SmokerBill said:

Great photos Jim. You got me missing Canyonlands, one of my favorites of all the national parks. Do you have any to share taken from the ledge overlooking Grand View Point? I think that's one of the most awe-inspiring view points a person could ever find.

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I am sure i do somewhere, however shooting that direction is usually face on into the sun and the many times I have been there has never resulted in what I would call a real winner, plus the expanse is so massive it is hard to show any detail.

I will check, I have quite a few more I can post to catch up....just have to resize them all to be posted here...

Jim

SmokerBill said:

Great photos Jim. You got me missing Canyonlands, one of my favorites of all the national parks. Do you have any to share taken from the ledge overlooking Grand View Point? I think that's one of the most awe-inspiring view points a person could ever find.

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I have one shot of Grand View:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/OQlBIyuKmRBEDalmdoBWqtMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Nice one Tom. Kinda like deja vu all over again for me...  he he

Aside from all the conversations about 'glass' (my favorite is the one that holds my scotch), nice photos!

SeilerBird said:

Dp Review has named the Olympus OM-D as the 2012 camera of the year.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/01/01/best-camera-of-2012-results

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Unfortunately it's still not compatible with the OM lenses (according to dpreview) , in spite of the name. Olympus miffed me when their DSLRs used a different mount than their OMs, so that my OM lenses are useless except with the old film cameras. Nikon, on the other hand, still has a mount compatible with their lenses of 30 or more years ago, though the older lenses don't have all the functions of the more modern ones (they didn't when they were new, either).