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E-3 Day One: The Brickworks
#1

The smart thing to do with a new camera is to take it easy, learn its strengths and weaknesses, and refine its settings.

What I did was walk into the most difficult shooting situation I've ever faced completely unprepared.

The Don Valley Brick Works is a century-old industrial complex that's slowly falling down while even more slowly being preserved. I last visited it over a year ago, when the buildings were all securely fenced off and the area was deserted. This time I was expecting to be able to work around the outside of some of the buildings, as well as get some shooting done along the settling ponds and quarry slopes that have been returned to their natural state.

What I found was a farmer's market, families going for strolls, a dozen people walking their dogs, a full parking lot, and a movie set under construction.
And an unsecured way into the empty buildings.

1 - Iron Age, iso1600, 42mm, f/2.8, 1/20s
[Image: matthewpiers2007-170180-vhq.jpg]

I've been inside this building several times before, and it's dark. In this area there are plenty of holes in the ceiling to let light in, but its still a very difficult place to shoot with spots of bright sun and deep shadows. The standard metering and Lightroom 1.3's highlight recovery did a really good job of keeping everything under control. The E-3's dynamic range seems much better than the similarly-spec'ed E-510, and ACR doesn't turn its highlights magenta.

2 - Stairs, iso1600, 64mm, f/4.0, 1/30s
[Image: matthewpiers2007-170193-vhq.jpg]

The first two photos are views of opposite ends of the same hall. I've never been inside this building without a tripod, and the shortest exposure that I've ever put on my blog is four seconds. Now I'm able to work hand-held thanks to the combination of IS, a good iso3200, and an f/2 zoom lens. (Remember to double all of my focal lengths for the 35mm-equivalents.) For this shot the IS is giving me two extra stops, and I can open the lens up two more and increase the sensor's amplification by another stop as well. "Olympus" and "low-light" are no longer mutually exclusive.

3 - Sad Robot, iso1600, 100mm, f/2.0, 1/40s
[Image: matthewpiers2007-170199-vhq.jpg]

I liked this composition immediately. I took a reverse shot, showing the back of the control panel, but the resemblance to a face isn't as striking. It's also worth noting that this is the only photo that's kept the "as shot" Auto WB setting. The E-1 had (has) a really good WB system, which the E-3 is supposed to improve on. The odd lighting and warm tones of the rust, brick, and clay dust seemed to get the better of it, as it was consistently too cool inside. Outdoors it was fine, but it also had trouble previously with some indoor test shots lit with a compact florescent bulb. I'm not worried, but it's something I'm paying attention to. In this photo, the light in the background really was green.

4 - Pipes, iso3200, 100mm, f/2.0, 1/30s
[Image: matthewpiers2007-170136-vhq.jpg]

I'd normally call this photo a miss since nothing's really in focus, but I still really like the patterns and the way the camera has handled the light and colours. I can't really say why this one's soft, but my vote's for user error and limited DOF, since my table tells me that this shot only had a 2 inch range for sharpness. I have others that have a single pipe in focus, but I prefer this composition just the same.

Focusing in general was excellent. I was able to make the camera hunt for focus a couple of times, with both the 35-100 and the 7-14, but in each case I was working with light that was too dim to let me read the buttons on the back of the camera. For all of my previous visits I would carry several powerful flashlights to use as focusing lights. Overall I'd say that the focusing performance is far better than the E-510, and as accurate as anything Olympus has made.

5 - Big Blue Baby, iso3200, 35mm, f/2.0, 1/25
[Image: matthewpiers2007-170093-vhq.jpg]

[Image: matthewpiers2007-170093-Edit.jpg]

This was one of the earlier pictures I took, and I wanted to see how well the camera handled such a wide dynamic range. While the overall scene is quite dark, I've done very little to help the exposure and nothing to reduce noise. This was developed with Lightroom's default settings, black clipping set to 9, vibrance to +15, clarity to +10, and daylight WB, with just a light crop. No additional noise reduction has been applied to the image or the 100% crop of the bottom of the door.

There had already been many, many times that I had taken photos that I thought would have been impossible with my E-1 or E-510. The E-1's a fantastic camera to use, but not great at focusing in low light, and I don't take it over iso1600 unless I really need it to get any image. The E-510 has live view and more sensitive AF, but can have banding at iso1600, so I rarely take it over iso800. The E-3 shows some signs of banding in its iso3200 noise, such as in #4 pipes above, but it's much better than the E-510 and Lightroom handles it well. I wouldn't hesitate to use the E-3 at any iso setting, and have told it so.

After an hour of wandering around I discovered a scene that I wanted to photograph but couldn't reach. The ground was far too dusty to lie down on, and I couldn't crouch low enough and still be in a stable position to manage the shutter speed. Then I remembered that I was using a camera with a pivoting LCD viewfinder.

5 - Valves, iso1600, 45mm, f/2.8, 1/15s
[Image: matthewpiers2007-170143-vhq.jpg]

This photo was taken with the camera resting on my leg. From this point on, all of the photos needed Live View and the pivoting LCD.

6 - Menace, iso3200, 7mm, f/4.0, 1/2s
[Image: matthewpiers2007-170166-vhq.jpg]

I tried several times to photograph this blower, but it took an unconventional camera position to get something that I liked. The claw-like shadow is me holding the camera at my hip.

7 - Son of Machine, iso3200, 14mm, f/4.0, 1/4s
[Image: matthewpiers2007-170152-vhq.jpg]

One of the pleasures of going to the brickworks is finding odd machines with no clear purpose. This is one of them. It's a small contraption of pipes, valves, and pulleys that I photographed from several angles. In this one the 7-14's hood is resting on a large bolt, about a foot above the floor. My superb but superseded Sony F-828 remains the best-designed pivoting design that I've ever used, and the LCD finder of my E-510 doesn't compare to its naturalness and utility. Live View with a pivoting LCD comes close to it, and is much more useful than a fixed LCD, but it still doesn't match the Sony F-series.

Im still getting used to this camera, but I'm already feeling comfortable with it and can see the difference that it makes in my photos. I was hoping for "good" results in low light, but I'm blown away by what I've seen. Tomorrow it'll be an easier day, shooting the annual Santa Claus Parade and the occasional niece. I'm afraid that it will be anticlimactic after what it pulled off today. From now on, hen someone says "Great photo, you must have a really nice camera," I'm just going to agree with them.

matthewpiers.com • @matthewpiers | robertsonphoto.blogspot.com | @thewsreviews • thewsreviews.com
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#2

The images look great Matt - really happy for you. I am looking forward to more.

Canon stuff.
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#3

It is indeed a difficult place to photograph, and you got very beautiful pictures Matt.
They look so clean at iso 1600.
I like very much your picture #5.

Congratulations... Smile

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.
Paul Cezanne
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#4

I love industrial photos like this - and it looks like a great test of the E3. I look forward to hearing more as your skill with the new toy unfolds.
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#5

Congrats on the new camera! I love industrial pictures too, you got some very good results already. Well done!

Gallery/ Flickr Photo Stream

Reality is for wimps who can't face photoshop.
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#6

nice work! my fav is no 3 with its interesting detail and nice bokeh.
7 is also nice, but still seems slightly dark and you seem to already have pushed it quite hard.

have fun playing with your new gadget!!


Uli
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#7

Thanks very much, everyone. It was a great weekend. Now I'm in a hurry to get my work done today so that I can go out and play some more. It will be a while before I pick up any of my other cameras again, but I still see at least one of them getting some use. Big Grin

updated: I found an old page on an unused blog of mine that collects 22 photos from this location taken during 2005. Most were done with my E-1, but many were taken with my first "serious" camera, the Sony F828. Some of them make for an interesting contrast to these shots, but it's also a better range of images. http://robertsonphotoessay.blogspot.com/...-2005.html

matthewpiers.com • @matthewpiers | robertsonphoto.blogspot.com | @thewsreviews • thewsreviews.com
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