Well. I was going to write about how the camera handles, and goddamit if someone didn’t go and explain how they set up their e-p1, and have it be exactly, or as near as damn exactly, how I set up mine. before you read the rest of this post, I would recommend that you go and read this one. There. Are you back again? Read it all? Hmm. I am suspicious. In case you were just a little too lazy, here’s an extract:
“Aperture-priority exposure mode with the main command dial set to control aperture. Sub-command dial set to enable instant exposure compensation. LCD set to display a live histogram. Manual focus but with the AEL button set to activate autofocus. Finally, auto ISO with a maximum limit of ISO 800, so the camera will freely adjust the ISO between 100 and 800, according to available light levels.”
If you follow the link, you’ll get a nice, illustrated diagram showing how all that looks, which is far clearer than trying to follow the wording above*.
The point of this, of course, is that you’ll notice that I, and Mr Hickey, talk about how it is set up. The fact is, this thing is astonishingly customisable. This, naturally, makes it a little tricky to set up in the first place, as there are a lot of options, but once it is sorted, you don’t have to think about it. The combo above (I occasionally use the auto ISO, but not always) is, in my opinion, the optimum one for quick and precise control of the camera, and, in fact, allows for quicker control than my Nikon D700 (Yes! I have a big camera! Ooooh, look at me.) It also explains the reason why I haven’t used the optical viewfinder; the info that you need to use the camera at it’s full potential is on the screen, notably if you are going to use a manual focus lens. And besides which, it’s just not meant to be used with an optical finder. It’s not made that way. I love a good rangefinder, and that’s what I was hoping to recreate with the e-p1. But what’s the point if you can’t even focus? Ok, I’m going to caveat that, in order to make sure you don’t think I’m an ignoramus: what’s the point if you can’t focus, and your working method or preference rules out zone focusing? There, that’s better.
Which brings me to my comment on the optical viewfinder. It’s great, it really is, but you have to want to use zone focusing to use it. The autofocus speed is a wee bit too slow to rely on getting there in time to catch the moment, and you’re guessing what you’re focusing on anyway if you have your eye to the glass. The problem is this: zone focusing is a pain in the backside without a focus scale on the lens. Yes, you can do it by prefocusing, but you lose the focus point each time you turn the camera off, or nudge the focus ring. Olympus could do two quite simple things to help here- provide an on-screen focusing scale, and provide a hyper-focal option. That would make the e-p1 with optical finder quite a nice little street shooter.
And I’m off on another tangent. Every photographer goes through a period where they think they’d make an awesome street photographer, an Henri Cartier-Bresson or a Joel Meyerowitz, wafting around in a little home made noir movie, all dramatic lighting and sexy cigarette smoke. I certainly have, because the great street photographs look a) cool and b) effortless. A tip: it’s hard. Not hard to do but, as with so much in life, hard to do well. Apart from anything else, you need balls, you need a great eye and, above all, you need lots and lots of practice. Having said all of this, I’ve had a bit of a crack at it. I don’t have the dedication to be any good, and on top of it all, I live in Croydon, where I’ve witnessed a photographer getting beaten up because someone thought their child was in the frame when they took a photo. Scary. However, I was in New York, I was walking through Manhattan, and I had this little camera with a 17mm lens and optical viewfinder. My wife was distracted, so I could get away with paying attention to photographs, not her (Sorry dear. You’re very patient). And I managed, once I’d got to anticipating the slight shutter lag, to find it was a reasonably credible shoot-from-the-hip street camera. Focus at 2ft, f8 and go. In fact, that was what I did with the shot above, and a number of others. And yes, this is the one that got me vaguely accosted (and, not inconsequently, the best shot of the lot. See? Balls.)
Oh, God knows how I’ve got here. I started off talking about how it handled, and I ended up at street photography? Well, it all ends up at the same place. I’m not a great street photographer, and the e-p1 is not a great street photography camera (and yes, the more observant amongst you will notice the problem with that sentence. Can you say “unreliable narrator”?). However, if you wanted it to be, it could be, I guess. A wide-angle manual lens with a focusing scale on it, a viewfinder to match, and learning to compensate for the slightly less than instant shutter response (don’t forget, the shutter has to close before it can open again. A quirk of the system.). Yes, that could work. The limitations on the pioneers of the genre were far, far greater, and look what they did.
So once again – know your tool, and work within its limitations.
*I’m pretty happy that the excerpt that I’ve quoted above is reasonable, and will serve to send readers to Mike’s superb site, rather than steal from it. If anyone, including the author, thinks otherwise, please let me know, and I will be happy to adjust accordingly.
Addendum – here’s an interesting exercise. Go to the flickr hivemind, and tap in e-p1 street (or I could save you the key presses) and see how many of the photographs, or how many of the photographs you like, were taken with a m4/3 lens, compared to a 3rd party Voigtlander or Leica manual lens. I haven’t done an exhaustive survey, but it seems to me that the majority have repurposed an old lens for street photography, not gone with a modern, made-to-measure autofocus option. Interesting.