Olympus Pen E-P1 part 2: some test shots

I took some random test shots using my new Olympus Pen E-P1 micro-4/3rds camera.

(See previous blog entry here.)

I have four compatible lenses and two adaptors.

1. Shown mounted on camera: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm (f/3.5-5.6) kit zoom (micro-4/3rds mount).
2. Back left: Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 manual focus prime lens (Leica M mount).
3. Back right: Olympus ED Zuiko Digital 8mm (f/3.5) Zuiko fisheye lens (4/3rds mount).
4. Not shown: Olympus ED Zuiko Digital 9-18mm (f/4-5.6) wide-angle zoom (4/3rds mount).

5. Voigtlander VM adaptor (Leica M to micro-4/3rds).
6. Olympus MMF-1 adaptor (4/3rds to micro-4/3rds).

First light with the Nokton (1/100s, f1.4, IS, noise filter: low). Available light, ISO 3200.

Title: Lunch

Checking for noise and detail at the C-clamp area below the Guinness. 100% crop:

Title:焼酎 (Shōchū) [Nokton 35mm/f1.4, 1/100s, ISO 800.]

Soft focus image courtesy of natural means: from condensation on refrigerator in the humidity of summer.

Title:京王線 (Keio Line) [Nokton 35mm/f1.4, hyperfocused 1/30s, ISO 125.]

Taken from a moving train. IS comes in handy. Using Manual mode to explicitly set a slow shutter speed. Normally, one would use a manual aperture lens in Aperture priority mode on the E-P1 (the camera will automatically choose a shutter speed that gives proper exposure).

Title:愛ちゃん (Ai-chan) [Nokton 35mm/f1.4, 1/1000s, f/1.4, ISO 200.]

Outside Tokyo Taiikukan (東京体育館). Notice only subtle blurring of the background despite f1.4 on the 4/3rds sensor and 1/1000s fast shutter speed.

f1.4 on 4/3rds depth-of-field is equivalent to f2.8 (2x) on a full frame sensor. Given that, and subject distance required for framing, perhaps a lens with f1.2 capability or even faster would have been better. But then the it wouldn't be so nice and compact as the 35mm f1.4.

Title: Tokyo back street [14-42mm M.Zuiko kit zoom, 1/125, f/6.3, ISO 200.]

Taken through the window of Ootoya (大戸屋) just behind Yoyogi station (代々木駅). Just a stone's throw but a world away from the severe modernity of the NTT Tower and the hustle and bustle of Shinjuku station (新宿駅).

If one doesn't need shallow depth-of-field from the f1.4, or its low-light capabilities, the slower f3.5-5.6 14-42mm kit zoom is actually much more versatile and less fiddly than the manual focus Voigtlander prime.

Title: Natural lighting

360° spherical panorama: interior.mov (full resolution, 12MB)interior2.mov (low resolution, 1.6MB)

At Tokyo University. Use Quicktime Player to view either of the full panorama .mov files.

This is my first spherical panorama with the E-P1. Taken with the 8mm fisheye lens attached via the MMF-1 adaptor on a special rig. More details next post.

Doha

This is my third blog entry on Doha. Previous two entries:

• Museum of Islamic Art
• CMU Qatar

It definitely makes for an interesting juxtaposition of cultures. Let's see here: gutra, thobe, sandals, and no riding gloves on what looks like to be a BMW R 1200 RT tourer.

Not to mention, powerboating and dhows as we'll see below.

I stayed in the high-rise section of Doha (shown in the distance above).

The Al Corniche Rd connects that section to the purposely low-rise section fronted by the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), which is right next to the location where I took the above photo.

(Click to see an enlarged annotated satellite view of the area.)

It's a nice 10K run from my hotel along the waterfront to the Diwan (nr. the MIA) and back. That should give you some idea of the scale of the place.

On the day I arrived there was a Class-1 World Powerboat Championship race going on right in the bay. Using the 10x zoom on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5, I found it hard to properly track the boats: However, I was able to capture the next boat cleanly with my point-and-shoot camera (despite shutter delay) because it was dead in the water: Qatar has a long tradition of boating given its fishing and pearl diving history. Next to the MIA is the port where traditional dhows are still built: Here is the view looking south from the man-made hotel beach (though I'm sure the sand is locally sourced) towards the port and museum area (in the far background):

Hmm, perhaps the view is clearer from a higher vantage point:

(Yes, I took a brief swim in the Persian Gulf. It was surprisingly warm even in April. As a sinking swimmer (see here), I enjoyed the buoyancy offered by the sea water. However, as a scuba diver, I rate the visibility as downright murky though.)

You may also have noticed the huge project near the top of the satellite map. That is the Pearl-Qatar, an immense project which is still under construction (like much of Doha). Supposed to be a Riviera-style man-made island complex. Perhaps appropriately, this is the southern view from the patio of Bice, an Italian restaurant there:

I didn't get to see much of old Doha (if it exists). On a brief visit to the souk, which looked rather gentrified, I managed to take two 360° spherical panoramas:

(Use Apple's free QuickTime Player to view the special .mov image files, which can be zoomed and rotated 360° in all directions. Click on the links to see the spherical panoramas.)

souk1.mov Hello Majd!
souk2.mov

That's it for my Doha entries. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Doha: CMU at Qatar

(See my previous entry on the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) here.)

My visit to Doha was made possible by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) at Qatar. CMU-Q is located in a 14 sq km campus (named Education City) on the western edge of the city. Education City is a massive initiative housing multiple institutions and is the flagship project of the Qatar Foundation.

A bit like with the MIA, CMU has just recently moved into a building that looks somewhat quiet and fools the eye, appearing deceptively small from the outside, but is impressively large and opulent from the inside.

To illustrate this point, here is the entrance.

Behind that dark glass is the atrium, here is a 360° spherical panorama of what it looks likes on the other side:

(Use Apple's free QuickTime Player to view the special image, which can be zoomed and rotated 360° in all directions. Click on the link to see the panorama.)

Panorama p3.mov

(Notice how the atrium is lit from above by the Arabian sun. Also, I took this during setup for Meeting of the Minds, an end of semester student poster event: hence, the easels and tables for food. You may also be able to pick out the location of the next panorama.)

The next spherical panorama shows another open area to one side of the atrium.

Panorama p1.mov

(Unfortunately, there are only regular chairs in this picture. When I first arrived, there were wonderfully large red cushions in the seating area with students sitting around chatting and using their laptops. I missed that photo op.)

Next panorama, something at the other end of the size scale: the small but rather classy looking library:

Panorama p2.mov

(I like the way the library has floor-to-ceiling glass affording a view of the outside courtyard but always shielded from the blast furnace of a hot sun that I'm told can reach 55°C in summer. The only direct sun exposure here is filtered through the geometric openings on the far wall.)

Finally, here is the entrance to the building again (rumor has it the cost was $500 million to $600 million): If you click on the picture, you may be able to see water running continously down that center channel.

Doha: Museum of Islamic Art

Recently, I visited the newly opened Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) designed by I.M. Pei in Doha, Qatar.

(View of the MIA with the modern highrise area of Doha in the background. The al Corniche promenade runs in a half-moon along the water connecting the two areas. A good 10K+ run.)

I have an interest in architecture and spherical panorama photography. Previous entries on the topic have included:

• The Getty Museum in Los Angeles. (Blog entry here.)
• MIT's Stata Center designed by Frank Gehry. (Off-blog webpage here.)

A close-up of the main building taken by my friend Majd Sakr:

The museum cuts a rather lonely and austere figure on Doha's skyline:

Inside, the building is simply magnificent, and a feast for the eyes (and camera):

View of the interior looking up.

Of course, there are interesting artifacts on display:

including a view of the world that's hard to decipher unless you are familiar with the Middle East:

But for me, the museum itself was as interesting as the displays. The museum simply abounds with interesting touches. Here is an exterior elevator (plan view, i.e. looking down):

Stairs with Japanese-style lighting both recessed and protruding, making for an interesting perspective effect:

A detail of the ceiling viewed through a fisheye lens:

More bendy stuff from my fisheye lens:

On my second visit to the museum, I was graciously permitted to quickly use my tripod after the museum closed. This allowed me to take my 360° spherical panorama shots from the three different positions shown below:

For your viewing pleasure, you should click and view these specially prepared .mov files using Apple's free QuickTime player. You can rotate around 360° in all directions, as well as zoom in and out (shift and control keys in MacOSX). In particular, look up at the ceiling.

Pano #1
Pano #2
Pano #3

(Special thanks to Merridy Wilson at the MIA for making these images possible.)

One of my favorite images:

Since I stayed after closing time (5:30pm) to take the spherical panoramas, the sun happened to be setting as I left. A final view of the museum and sunset:

The desert and dynamic range: spherical panorama photography

I blogged about hiking on Pusch Peak back in April 2007):

It's hard to capture the scale and immersion of the canyons and peaks with conventional 2D camera technology. One day I plan to get a digital SLR and panohead and make 3D QT VR pictures.

I've since tried a few, small spherical panoramas projects, e.g. MIT's Stata Center and LA's Getty Museum. I've also tested my setup on the east coast in Virginia's Cumberland Gap but I haven't had the opportunity to follow through on Pusch Peak until recently.

So this autumn, I ascended the lower reaches of Pusch Peak with my spherical panorama gear. Unfortunately, the results are somewhat disappointing, revealing significant limitations of my equipment and process.

At altitudes of 1000m to 2000m, the strong desert sun here makes for unrelentingly harsh lighting (except during early mornings and dusk). In other words, rather challenging conditions for cameras, especially if one needs to capture a 360° view within a canyon at mid-afternoon, which will inevitably contain both brightly lit surfaces and deep shadows.

I'm using an Olympus E-510. And I've been taking jpeg images. As it turns out, the dynamic range of this combination has been tested to be well below par, see below:

This hasn't mattered until now.

It appears the solution, apart from getting a better camera, is to use RAW (not jpeg) images and maybe Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) to develop them. Assuming the test results translate well to the real world, I should be able to get nearly 3 stops more dynamic range without having to resort to bracketed exposures (for HDR etc.).

[Update: from discussion on dpreview.com, Jay Turberville pointed out that there must be something wrong with Imaging Resource's result for the E-510. The Olympus E-410, basically identical, tested out with a dynamic range of 5.99 on JPG. Still below par though.]

I will have to issue a promissory note here: to make time to ascend Pusch Peak again with my camera gear. And see if RAW will make a significant difference in real-world testing. (I'd also love to test a camera with state-of-the-art dynamic range but I don't know anyone with a Nikon and fisheye.)

Meanwhile, to illustrate the problem, here are the two least blown-out spherical panoramas from my first shoot.

The first panorama is from lower down on the hike. Since the sun is mostly hidden, this one came out the best:

pano1.mov (10.2MB file, use QuickTime player)
pano1.swf (Adobe Flash)

The second panorama was taken higher up. As you can see, I've diddled around with exposure curves a bit in an attempt to recover as much detail as possible but you can clearly see nasty artifacts such as banding in the sky.

pano3.mov (9.6MB)
pano3.swf (Adobe Flash)

Another tri-state area

When one hear the term Tri-State Area or Region, I believe most people think of the well-known New York-New Jersey-Connecticut (NY-NJ-CT) tri-state region. Well, at least the two are synonymous for me probably because I've spent ten years living in Jersey.

Of course, other tri-state areas exist but I was astonished to discover there are actually as many as 38 officially-marked "tripoints" in the United States. Moreover, the NY-NJ-CT tri-state region does not actually possess a tripoint. (See this authoritative Wikipedia entry.)

Last week, I visited one of these real tripoints on my drive home from Boston to Tucson. As seen on my iPhone 3G map display, this is where Virgina, Tennessee and Kentucky meet. (The blue GPS blob marks the point where I was standing.)

Although it's a nice 1.2 mile walk up to the Tri-State Peak located inside the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, it's a bit of a disappointing hike: trees and other vegetation block any chance of a scenic view.

Nestled in a clearing lower down, however, is the surprisingly photogenic (almost Mayan temple-like) remains of an Iron Furnace:

Given my recent interest in 360° spherical panorama photography (see recent blog entry tech and subjects: The Stata Center and The Getty Museum Los Angeles), I couldn't resist the opportunity to make a panorama at this spot. Download here. (Warning: 12.1MB file. You can view this using Quicktime player.)

Anyway, I was here to visit my good friend Jim Montgomery who has recently moved to this hilly and very rural - let's just say dining-opportunity-limited - corner of southwestern Virigina bordering Kentucky and Tennessee. The upsides are the gorgeous scenery and almost empty roads in pristine condition (a consequence of the lack of real winter, population and truck traffic I reckon). In short, a perfect "secret" location for bike training. On Jim's porch:

jim led me on a perfect 25 mile training loop from his home in Rose Hill VA with about 1700 ft of climbing. The GPS tracklog recorded on my Garmin eTrex Vista Cx:

I wish I had more time to explore the region on my bike but the start of a new semester in Tucson cannot be delayed. For example, the Cumberland Gap tunnel "crosses" - or is it also appropriate to use the semantically-bleached terms "bridge" or "thread"? - the mountain ridge that can be seen in the background. In particular, I'd like to try the (presumably abandoned) mountain road it replaced. Another Wikipedia entry states:

The tunnel replaced a 2.3-mile (3.7 km) stretch of U.S. 25E between Middlesboro, Kentucky and Cumberland Gap, Tennessee that became known as "Massacre Mountain" due to the large number of travelers killed on the twisting mountain road over the Cumberland Gap pass.

Anyway, some pictures from the ride are shown below - I'd have to rate the route as equal or better to my favorite Valley Forge PA area hill route I used to ride but without the traffic and with far better roads.