Dunedin Walkabout

Downtown Dunedin, FL
I like to spend time here, downtown is lined with restaurants and shops, but best of all, it's the Pinellas trail, which runs right through downtown.  You can bike, walk, or rollerblade here (of course, you can drive here also).
Olympus E-PL1 w/ Panasonic 14mm f2.5

Trophy

Behind this door, it's full of beer

Picnic anyone?

Stage

Nice sitting area

Ready for business

 

Patina

Intertwined

Character

Greek Gods

People on the Beach (Clearwater Beach)

Great day at the beach.  Had a couple of rainy days, so it was nice to have a break from all the wetness (although we needed the rain).    I got there a little earlier than others, so it wasn't very crowded, but it was still warm.  Good thing the water was nice and cool, not warm like soup yet.....

Taken with Panasonic GF3 w/ Olympus 14-42mm


Looking

Downtown Tampa at 28mm

Tampa downtown is not known to be a busy place during weekends or after hours.  There were some traffic, but I was not sure where everyone was going. 
I parked my car, across the Hillsborough River by University of Tampa, then walked toward downtown.  it was around 3:00PM, there were people here and there.  Restaurants were open, but not too busy.  Some of the remnants of Occupy Tampa were in the downtown park, but even that was fairly scaled down.  It actually made it a nice little walk, not busy, plenty of breeze to cool me down, and a few surprises to me, as I just never took my time to see what's there.

Olympus E-PL1 with Panasonic 14mm f2.5

Patterns

New Member

I have been waiting to buy the Panasonic 14mm f2.5 pancake lens.  I was going to wait until next month before I pull the trigger, but an alert from The Online Photographer indicated there was a daily special on Amazon last Saturday, GF3 and the 14mm for $314!!!!   that's only $40 more than the lens alone!!  Since it's a one day sale, I went ahead and ordered it, and it was delivered in 3 days.  VERY FAST!!!

Didn't get to play with it too much, other than charging it up, and snapped a few shots.   One thing I noticed, it is small, and for some reason, it doesn't have any grip for my fingers, so it's a little slippery, maybe a gaffer tape will do the trick.


Group Photo - Top, Canon 5D
left, Olympus E-PL
right, Panasonic GF3
bottom, Panasonic LX5

E-PL1 in the Flesh

This is mandatory, right?  
Why the Nikon lens cap?   Well, I lost the original lens cap, and the replacement is $12 vs $5 for the Nikon.  Soooooooooooooooooooo.......


I got mine from Cameta Cameras, this is a demo unit, I think I paid $275 for the blue one.  At the time, the black one was $249. 

E-PL1 at Night

E-PL1 is not the best performer at night or low light situation.  The main reason I say that is because it lacks the focus assist light, so it hunts quite a bit in darker situations.  But the pictures below, although shot at night, there were plenty of lights from the building/street where E-PL1 had no issue with focus.  I used a tripod, or hold it against the wall to steady these shots. I know my limitations, my hands aren't steady enough to get anything worth keeping without helps!   The image stabalization won't help me at 2 second exposures...  :)

(Shot with E-PL1 with 14-42mm kit lens)


Rio in Macau

Downtown St. Pete, Florida

 I wish I get to go to St. Pete more frequently, it has a very lively downtown, plenty of great restaurants, shops, museums, and right on the water.  It's a nice downtown for a
stroll.
(all shot with Olympus E-PL1 w/ 14-42mm kit)

Early Saturday morning, restaurant is not open yet.

E-PL1 in China

On my last trip to China, I brought along the E-PL1 and my Nikon D80.  The reason I had both cameras is  because I had just purchased the used E-PL1 right before the trip, so I wasn' familiar how it will perform.

E-PL1 had the kit lens, and for D80, I had 28-105mm, 35mm f1.8, and 50mm f1.8.  Both of the 35 and 50mm are fairly light, with their plastic construction, however, the 28-105 is an older styler metal lens, and is quite hefty.  To be fair, if I had more lenses for the E-PL1, I would've carried additional lenses with me, and weigh myself down, but it will still be lighter package.  I used both equally, and went to the D80 when I needed an extra reach, but carrying the back pack full of camera gear was very tiring.  The E-PL1 was such a delight to have around on excursions.  

Bonsai!

All in a day

I think I have found the versatile camera system that I have been looking for - the micro 4/3.
I use Nikon, Pentax and Canon DSLRs, and I have travelled to many places with them.  Don't get me wrong, they are great, and I wouldn't trade them for anything.   But, I started to wonder if I really need to drag the heavy camera, and lenses with me everywere I go?  

I tried out the Panasonic LX5, nice camera, great pictures in daylight, and nice little camera to tote around town, but I always feel like I need to taking a DSLR with me on trips, "JUST IN CASE"...  

Then I came upon a super deal for the Olympus E-PL1 with 14-42mm kit lens, so I took a shot at it.  It's not a pocket camera, it's not the fastest, but image quality is superb.  Instead of lugging the heavier DSLRs in the future, I think I will be confident this camera will do just fine for my needs.

Looking back, the first digital camera I ever owned was an Olympus d520, 2 MP, SmartMedia, but it opened my eyes to the potential of Digital Cameras.  I guess it's full circle back to Olympus, :)

Here are some shots from today.


Patronless?