Good job, Dean and Chuck. When Ken and I collaborated on our most recent
get-together, it was non-photographic (slowing down a fire encroaching upon
a forest). More brute force, and not much of that.
It's still hard to believe that after years and years of denigrating 4/3,
Chuck owns an E-M5. And he's not complaining about it too much and hasn't
sold it yet. Olympus must have hit a homer.
I'm happy with the E-system and my big fat DZs. I've been thinking about
finding an E-5 and sailing into the west with it. Maybe that's a mistake
and I ought to sail east.
Joel W.
On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 8:44 AM, <hanse112@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Chuck has been carrying all the weight so far on reporting on our
> get-together on the 14th here in southern Florida. Sorry I'm so late,
> Chuck, but I'll add my thoughts on the 2nd Annual Florida ZuikoFest.
> Chuck's E-M5 mated right up to the back of the 65-116mm telescopic
> auto extension tube with an inexpensive ($12, IIRC) China-made adapter.
> Having shot my OM 4T for something like a quarter century, all the bells
> and whistles displayed on the E-M5's screen were, if not overwhelming,
> surely impressive. (One gets the shutter speed and a flashing green square,
> or a faint "over" or "under", in the view finder using flash on the OM 4T.)
> We connected two T32s to the OM Multiconnector and then via a 0.6m TTL shoe
> cord to the E-M5's flash shoe. The E-M5 fired the T32s, and it was quite
> interesting, if fussy, to fiddle with flash distance to the subject and ASA
> settings to get a proper histogram.
> Next time we'll use the bellows, however, and a cable release to stop
> down the lens diaphragm just before exposure. We're learning.
> The Lepp II twin macro flash bracket, as Chuck mentioned, had some
> trouble holding the heavy T32s. Next time I'm flush with cash, I'll invest
> in a couple Wimberley flash brackets:
> <
> http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=240878&is=REG&Q=&A=details
> >
> Their dogbone design looks very flexible regarding flash positioning; it
> also looks strong. But a pair costs four times what I paid for the Lepp II
> bracket, so I'll put up with shimming with sandpaper for awhile.
> When I bought into the Olympus SLR line in the 1980s, I did it on the
> strength of their macro equipment. I haven't been disappointed. The 38/2.8
> is simply an unmatched lens for the entomologist, and I've even used the
> 20/2 on the bellows hand-held on a couple occasions. The OM 4T's
> off-the-film flash abilities have never let me down. In 2005 I revisited
> some spots in the Big Horn and Beartooth mountains, a thousand miles from
> home, where I had collected insects for my thesis research in 1969. I came
> supplied with a brick of E-100VS slide film, and I spent a couple weeks
> going through probably a dozen 36 exposure rolls of that. No place to
> develop them out there, but when I brought them to PhotosInc in Mpls for
> developing when I returned, I don't think that the circuit board in the OM
> 4T missed a single exposure. I trusted that camera/flash/lens combination
> completely, and I wasn't let down a bit. Amazing, simply amazing.
> Is there an E-M5 in my future? Yes. The ability to shoot video is
> really appealing--I could put together a DVD on Minnesota's butterflies,
> perhaps. Will an E-M5 replace my OM 4T, 38/2.8, T32s, and bellows? No way,
> absolutely no way. At least I can't see it happening. Spend two weeks in
> the field simply trusting your film camera set up to nail every
> exposure--it's hard to dump success like that.
> A last note: I hope some others of you get a chance to spend a few
> hours with Chuck Norcutt. First, he's just a very nice guy. Second, he
> knows his cameras and computers. Third, though, he spent a few decades with
> IBM or other tech companies, and he is fascinating to talk with about the
> development of computers, software, and all the other amazing developments
> in the high-tech industries in the past few decades. Chuck, it was a
> wonderful afternoon with you--many thanks for coming over to Archbold for
> the "ZuikoFest."
> Dean
>
--
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