Micro 4/3 25mm Lens Test

Are the Pro f1.2 or f1.4 lenses worth the money?

I own the Panasonic Leica f1.4 Mk 1 & while I’ve generally been happy with the performance, having recently upgraded my camera from G9 to G9ii, the lens lens doesn’t auto focus fast enough to take advantage of the face & eye detect with erratically moving subjects. It’s fine for things like landscapes & studio work but I found recently, when photographing a dance event, that ~25% of the time it missed focus. It’s quite an old design, launched in 2011 and I wanted to see if a more recently designed lens would perform better.

So I ordered from MPB the Olympus f1.2 Pro, the Panasonic Leica f1.4 Mk2, the Olympus f1.8 & the Lumix f1.7 for testing

What should you spend your money on?

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How to Take Better Photos – The Alternative to Going Out on Spec

We’ve all done it, it’s a lovely day so we’ve grabbed our camera & gone out taking photos – only to be disappointed with the results when we’ve got back.

So what’s the answer to capturing images full of drama like this?

Photography Projects for Lockdown 3.0

Last time lockdown was all about macro photography – here’s a new project to get your teeth into

What Did You Get Up to in 2020

Well, it’s been an unpredictable year hasn’t it and for many of us we’ve had to find creative ways to continue out passion for photography.

Back in April, as the first lookdown started you couldn’t buy a second hand macro lens for love nor money. And as I’d swapped systems from Canon to Micro 4/3 in 2019 that was a lens I hadn’t added to my arsenal. After a bit of hunting I was luck to find a mint condition one on mpb.com and these are a few of the images I captured on my kitchen table.

How to Make Money with Client Portraits in Their Homes

Over the last few weeks I’ve been running some virtual online meetups for photographers when we can’t actually get out with our cameras and we can’t get to our photography meetings. The other night I was talking about how I capture studio-quality portraits for clients in their own homes without a lot of expensive gear, and I just thought I would share that bit of that workshop for you.

What is the Best Lens for Awesome Landscapes?

I’ve been running some online workshops each week for photographers who can’t get to their local camera clubs whilst we’ve got this COVID virus keeping us all at home. One of the questions that we’ve been asked is what’s the best lens for landscape photography? So the other night we did a session on landscapes and I got my brother, Adrian, who lives up in the lake district and does some great landscape photography to talk to us about what lenses he uses in what situations and what he finds best. 

How to Create that Post Apocalypse Look

At the moment, we’re in lockdown and we’re allowed to go out once a day for a piece of exercise. So, I went out on Tuesday, which was the first day we were under lockdown, for a walk. And, as ever, my camera goes with me everywhere. And my idea was to photograph empty streets, no people around, shuttered up shops, and that sort of thing.

When I got home, I decided I wanted to post-process them to give them that sort of post apocalyptic look, that sort of grungy, dirty type of look that is appropriate for the present situation. And I thought I’d just share with you how I went about that.

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