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So I finally pulled the plug and decided to upgrade my Olympus Pen E-P3 to either the newer Pen F or stick with the E-P line now an E-P5 both now being about the same price. While the Pen F has a few more features and a built-in viewfinder, I decided to go with a nice used E-P5 since I liked the layout of the controls a bit more and like the optional viewfinder I have that is articulated so I can flip up to 90 deg giving me better viewing angle options. Sold the two other Pen bodies and a few lens at a local camera store, about the only real camera store left around, District Camera. Giving up the 70~300mm was a tough decision but in the end went ahead and sold it with the other stuff. Fact is being a standard 4/3 not a Micro 4/3 it was really kind of heavy which defeated the whole point of having a Micro 4/3 setup. I still have 300 zoom for my D80 so for long shots or birding its really the best shot (pun intended).
With the cash I got a sweet 60mm Macro Prime and then found a nice fast 25mm f1.7 prime international version (saves you bux but is covered by a guarantee) but how often to lenses go bad during that first year? (assuming you take care of them)
So I now have 3 primes, 17mm f2.8, 25mm f1.7 and 60mm f2.8 Macro, and three zooms covering 8mm thru 150mm. And the whole kit fits in the same space as my D80 with two lenses and weighs less.
Really digging the new lenses and camera.. so here are a few shots taken with macro and 150 zoom.

there was a nice conjunction of the crescent moon and Venus this morning. first shot with 60mm prime



the next two are with the 150



and a close up of the moon, nice detail and remarkably sharp for a zoom which sells for only $100 from Olympus



now some shots with the Macro
first two are hand held of a spider about 1/8" long with very shallow depth of field since I had to hand hold it had to use a wide f-stop so I could shoot with as fast a shudder as possible, hand-held shots are becoming more of challenge for me, thank dog for IS! The E-P5 has 5 axis IS whereas the E-P3 and 1 only had 3 axis IS (don't ask how you can have 5 axis in a 3D world, all I know is it works very nicely!). the 60mm prime I got from Olympus is pretty damn sharp and has focusing ranges down to .19 M. with a 1:1 thru 1:4 ratio. Nice!





Up close and personal with carpet fibbers, also hand-held



Some shots of Jeanne's Orchids at various depth of field and lighting, some back lit, some using reduced fill fash.







still learning about getting the right color settings in my RAW image workflow, the fact that different monitors, and even different web browsers and hosting sites all seem to have somewhat different color rendition makes it a bit challenging esp. when converting from RAW to jpegs. Garn..






RM (happy camper, or is that campy happer?)

RM,

Wow, great pic's. I've been thinking about upgrading from my venerable Canon SX40 IS, but I've been hesitant to part with the light weight and simplicity of a single lens. The extraordinary resolution of your photos, however, provides a lot of incentive. (IOW, as usual, you're causing trouble! )

Rick

Rick F. wrote:RM,

Wow, great pic's. I've been thinking about upgrading from my venerable Canon SX40 IS, but I've been hesitant to part with the light weight and simplicity of a single lens. The extraordinary resolution of your photos, however, provides a lot of incentive. (IOW, as usual, you're causing trouble! )

Rick

Tanks!
From what I've seen of your work, that camera doesn't seem to do an excellent job and certainly having a single fixed (attached) lenses is nice in keeping the gear to a minimum.
Some days I just take my Fujifilm X10 that has a single fixed lens with a decent zoom range but it doesn't have IS which can be problematic on my more "shaky" days though having a lightweight monopod helps a lot with that. And sometimes I just take my Olympus TG-1 P&S that's really compact but still has a pretty fast lens, F2 and is totally weather/water/shock proof and has IS.

The micro 4/3 line is nice and compact but it does require changing lenses at times. overall though its nice to have the option.
If I had to do it over again in the compact/mirrorless line I'd probably go with a Panasonic Lumix in the micro 4/3 line as they have slightly better reviews and better lenses, the downside being they don't have IS in the body so you can only use their lenses whereas the PEN has it in the body so you use any micro 4/3 lens. Lumix does have one with an articulated viewfinder that flips up to 90 Deg built in so its a bit more compact than the PEN with attached viewfinder that fits in the flash slot on top. It is removable so you can remove it when not needed or when travelling. Now if I could afford it I'd go with a Fijiflim mirrorless, better build, and the imager is a APS-C, so its one third larger and their X-series lenses are far and away some of the best, but cost is also considerably higher and you can only use their lenses. And of course there is the issue of the rate of new systems being introduced such that whatever you buy today is surpassed tomorrow!

RM