My Experience with using Olympus E-PL1 for Photos and Videos

I've had my E-PL1 for over 6 months now and I really like using it.  Like all cameras it does have its weaknesses.  I have listed the main weaknesses and what I've done to overcome it.

1. Focus speed – Not a lot I can do, but don't expect DSLR speed and forget moving objects.
2. Low light focusing – It can be an issue in a dark pub, but not a lot you can do apart from carrying a small LED light.
3. Hard to see LCD screen in daylight.  This is a problem even in cloudy days let alone on a bright sunny day.  I have purchased a Delkin Pop Up Shade.  The 2.7" universal shade fits really well.  So far, it worked really well on a cloudy day.  Where as before I had to turn up the brightness to the max on a cloudy day, I did not have to do anything with the shade on.  I've yet used it on a sunny day, but it can only make it better.
4. Maximum shutter speed is only 1/2000s which limit the use of fast lens on a sunny day.  I intent to buy a ND filter for get round this problem.

I've been getting more into video since I got the E-PL1 because it is very small.  Even though I have two DSLR that can take better videos, I've not bother to use them for video at all.  I was lucky enough to be given two Pentax K mount manual focus lenses.  One is an Itorex 28mm F2.8, the other a Pentax 50mm F2.  When I shoot videos, I normally use one of them simply I like the smooth manual focus which you can not do with the kit lens.  I am also able to create better bokeh with these lenses.  To demonstrate, I've shot a very short video on a very wet London on New Year day 2012.

E-PL1 fitted with Itorex 28mm F2.8 with Pentax 50mm F2 on the side. 

I normally shoot video in manual mode while using the E-PL1 as I like to know exactly what the camera is doing.  I found ISO only goes up to 1600 in video mode.  I would like to be able to go up to ISO 3200.  The extra stop would be very useful.  To combat shooting in a dark room, I have purchased a 160 LED video light from Amazon.  The light is day light balanced (5500k) and it comes with three diffusers.  They are white diffuser, orange and pink.  The white diffuser is great to soften the light indoor and not blind the people you are filming.  The orange diffuser is balanced for tungsten.  While the pink on is balanced for florescent light.  You probably will not use the LED light bare unless it’s a super bright day and you want to fill out any shadow.

I've only played with the video light at home and a couple of Christmas parties.  I am still learning about colour balance when using video lights and will update my blog once I know more.

Light & Shoot 50 Fashion Photos - A Book Review

Publisher: ILEX
Author: Christ Gatcum

As the title of the book say, there are 50 fashion photos featured in this book. The photographer featured ranged from world famous professionals (Rankin, Perou) to unknown amateurs.

At the beginning of the book, there is an introduction of studio equipment from off camera flash to professional studio lights. Then the type of modifiers and their uses are given. After reading this chapter, you should have a reasonable understanding of studio lighting. The diagrams will be use with each image featured to indicate the lighting used.

With each image, there is a short biography of the photographer. Then the photographer of each image write a short piece of text giving the thought process and use of light to achieve it. The camera, lens and camera settings are listed. The diagram showing the lighting and modifiers used is very useful. Most photos were taken with digital cameras, only a few shot on film.


It is interesting to see many images did not use any lighting or modifier at all. In fact, there are images relied on post processing in Photoshop. Some of the images are stunning. The photographer must have started with a concept and had a team of make up artist, model, costume designer and set designer to bring the vision into a photograph. While other images looks very ordinary to me. With many things fashion, there is no right or wrong, it comes down to if you like it or not.

For me, the good images makes up for the ordinary. It is a good reference book you go back to every now and then. It is not bogged down to equipment, in fact very little is mentioned regarding type of camera or lens. This book is recommended if you are getting into fashion photography and looking for inspiration.

Using Olympus EP-L1 for Studio Shoot

Something happen on a shoot recently I had to share my experience.  I organised a photo shoot with a model at a studio.  Everything came together as planned.  Only 10 minutes into the shoot, the battery indicator started to show it was running at 50% power.  I thought no problem as I packed a spare battery with me.  So I got the battery and tried to put in into the camera.  Shock horror, it does not fit!  The battery I picked up is for a different camera!  They are both Canon batteries and look remarkable the same.

I am going to have a rant about camera companies and batteries here.  Why do they feel the need to change the battery every time you release a new camera?  It just annoys the hell out of me.  My house is full of batteries and chargers.

Don't even talk about some companies that have "safety feature" which prevent third party battery working in their cameras.  Panasonic did this with a couple of micro 4/3 cameras.  That is the reason I do not even consider buying any Panasonic cameras at the moment.

I have both a Canon 500D and 550D which uses different batteries, but they look almost the same.  Now I've learnt my lesson and will be clearly marking the batteries to indicate which camera they are for.  I am not going to make the same mistake.

Now, back to the studio shoot.  I carried on using the camera for a few minutes until the battery ran completely flat.  Then I remember I had packed my Olympus E-PL1 as a back up.  I took it out of the bag and set up everything as it was on my Canon 550D and started shooting.  I was very happy with the results of this camera in a studio environment.  The only downside to using the E-PL1 as a studio camera is my arms got very tired quickly and started to shake.  I had an flash trigger on the hot shoe anyway, so even if I had the optional viewfinder, I could not use it at the same time.  I had to put the camera on a tripod after 5 minutes.  There was no way I could hand hold the camera arms out for an entire shoot.  In an studio environment, focus speed was good.  I have set up the custom button for manual focus.  So, after I achieved focus, I switch to manual focus so there is no delay when I take photos.  Since the model does not move much during the shoot, this works well.  I just had had to refocus every time the model changed poses.

Lessons learned:

1. Always charge your batteries before a shoot.
2. Always check the batteries are for the correct camera.
3. Always have a back up camera with you that has fully charged batteries.
4. Pack everything the night before the shoot.

Here are a few shots of images taken during the shoot.  I shot in RAW format, processed them using Capture One 6.2  The cameras I used was an Olympus E-PL1 with the 12-42mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens.  The model was the lovely Sherry Platts (Model Mayhem # 2306417).  She did her own make up.

Two grided strip box behind model and a large grided softbox on boom arm just over head. 

Light Painting for Cars

I did a light painting with a few cars last week and I want to share the technique I used.  Things you will need are a tripod, remote shutter release, a flash gun and gels.  You may ask why you need gels?  This comes from experience.  The first time I did light painting with car was my Ford Puma.  The photos came out great, but there was a strong orange colour cast on the image.  Here is what I mean.  The white balance was set to flash, but the background was lit by street light casing colour cast.

Strong orange colour cast around the car.

This time round, I was prepared and took CTO (colour temperature orange) gel with me.  I set the white balance to tungsten and then fitted a CTO gel to my flash gun.  This way the white balance between the flash gun and street light should be a similar.

The technique I used was to focus on the car with camera on tripod.  I was using F8 and exposure was around 2 minutes on bulb mode.  I opened the shutter, ran behind the car with LED light or sparkler, waving them around to create a pattern.  Then I used my flash gun and fire it at the car from various places.  A tip is not to point the flash towards the camera and don't stand between the camera and the car.  There will be an element of trial and error, but you will get there in the end.  Here are the best images I got from this shoot.

TVR Tamora

Honda S2000

Mini Clubman Cooper D

I did have to use my RAW processor to fine tune the exposure, highlight and shadow.  Then in Photoshop, I did a bit of healing to rid any hot spots.  That was about it.

Strobeam DL4 - Summary

Over the last few weeks, I posted my experience of using the Strobeam DL4.  I have combined three posts on this blog into one.  This make it easier for anyone reading this see my obsevations.

1st Post


I've been a Strobist for quite a few years. It is one of the best thing I have done in Photography. In conjunction with joining The London Strobist Meetup group on Flickr in 2009, my portrait photography has come a long way since those early days.


In the early days before discovering off camera flash with Strobist I had a Portaflash kit from Jessops. It was a good kit to get started and I learned the lighting basic with it. The only thing is, it is not much more powerful than portable flash guns and require mains power, so not suitable for location shooting without power. For the last few years, I have been using a combination of Nikon SB26, SB28, Canon 540EZ, 550EX and 430EX as my off camera kit. Used with various light modifiers, I am very happy with the results I get within their limitations. The biggest issue with these portable flash guns is the lack of power. This shows up in bright ambient condition, when you are restricted to 1/250s X-Sync shutter speed and has to stop down to small aperture like F11. I had to set the power of these portable flashes at full power without modifier. This cause problem with heat build up in the flash and long recycle time.


I've been toying with the idea of buying portable flash for a while but never happy to pay the cost. I am aware of Strobeam DL4 for over a year, but it still cost £670. I have seen it been used by other togs and they were easily overcoming bright sunlight with a large softbox. Last week, I saw it on eBay for £455 + £10 shipping. I thought about it for a few days and after asking some questions I ordered it and received it within a day. I unpacked it and charged the battery and did a few test fire.  Here is what you get from the package. It comes with a carry case which is handy.  The battery charger is not shown here.

It comes with an adaptor so I can use my Bowens softbox with it. The head feel quite well made, but I have not used it in a real photo shoot yet.  The battery took 4 hours to charge and is very small.  I will add report on its performance once I have done a couple of photo shoots. Here are a couple of photos of it mounted on my boom arm.

The connection to the side is the power lead from battery and the cable at the back is the sync cable.  It can be triggered optically with the little white switch to the right.

2nd Post

Yesterday I had a photo shoot using the Strobeam DL4.  It went very smoothly.  Here are a couple of observations.  The recycling time was good with a maximum of 2s at full power.  I was using 1/4 power most of the time and recycle time was less than 0.5s.  Very consistent exposure shot to shot.  My experience of portable flashes is that they are not very consistent.  Exposure can vary by over a stop sometimes.

I did notice one bad thing, the supplied bracket is not very strong.  I tried to fit a very larger beauty dish on the head that must weigh 1kg.  It was too heavy, the head just pivoted over no matter how hard I tighten the screw.  I gave up in the end and used a much smaller one.  Most of the time, I was using a 60x90cm softbox.  I was very happy with my purchase and would recommend others do the same.  I will report back when I have done a out door day light shoot.

Here is an image of the flash head in action.

3rd Post

You may remember I used my Strobeam DL4 battery powered mono light for a shoot a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned the supplied umbrella bracket was not strong enough.  To rectify this issue, I purchased a Calumet 026 umbrella bracket.  As far as I can see, its a copy of the Manfrotto 026 bracket.  It is an all metal contraction and is much stronger than the plastic bracket that came with the light.  You can see a comparison of the  difference with the photo below.  The supplied bracket is made of plastic (on the left).  It was not great for mounting on a light stand.  Also not strong enough for heavy modifier.  The Calumet bracket is all metal and is much stronger.  I will trust the mono light will not fall over.

Here are a couple of photos of the mono light mounted on a boom arm with this bracket.

One more observation.  The head has a buzzer which sounds when it is ready to fire.  I have discovered, it only buzz if the power is set to 1/4 power or above.  It may be below 1/4 power, the flash head is always ready.  I guess the buzzer works by detecting a discharge and charge cycle.

I also purchased a 7dayshop 43" umbrella softbox.  It was only £13 including delivery.  It is small when folded and ready to be used in seconds.  Here is a test shot of the umbrella mounted to the Calumet bracket.  The light was quite even without the spill kill reflector.

I tested it with the reflector and the light was  much more concentrated in the centre of the softbox.  I think it is a great investment for very little money.  I think it will struggle if used with portable flash.

First Shoot Using Strobeam DL4

Yesterday I had a photo shoot using the Strobeam DL4.  It went very smoothly.  Here are a couple of observations.  The recycling time was good with a maximum of 2s at full power.  I was using 1/4 power most of the time and recycle time was less than 0.5s.  Very consistent exposure shot to shot.  My experience of portable flashes is that they are not very consistent.  Exposure can vary by over a stop sometimes.

I did notice one bad thing, the supplied bracket is not very strong.  I tried to fit a very larger beauty dish on the head that must weigh 1kg.  It was too heavy, the head just pivoted over no matter how hard I tighten the screw.  I gave up in the end and used a much smaller one.  Most of the time, I was using a 60x90cm softbox.  I was very happy with my purchase and would recommend others do the same.  I will report back when I have done a out door day light shoot.

Here is an image of the flash head in action.

New Toy - Strobeam DL4 Portable Flash

I've been a Strobist for quite a few years. It is one of the best thing I have done in Photography. In conjunction with joining The London Strobist Meetup group on Flickr in 2009, my portrait photography has come a long way since those early days.


In the early days before discovering off camera flash with Strobist I had a Portaflash kit from Jessops. It was a good kit to get started and I learned the lighting basic with it. The only thing is, it is not much more powerful than portable flash guns and require mains power, so not suitable for location shooting without power. For the last few years, I have been using a combination of Nikon SB26, SB28, Canon 540EZ, 550EX and 430EX as my off camera kit. Used with various light modifiers, I am very happy with the results I get within their limitations. The biggest issue with these portable flash guns is the lack of power. This shows up in bright ambient condition, when you are restricted to 1/250s X-Sync shutter speed and has to stop down to small aperture like F11. I had to set the power of these portable flashes at full power without modifier. This cause problem with heat build up in the flash and long recycle time.


I've been toying with the idea of buying portable flash for a while but never happy to pay the cost. I am aware of Strobeam DL4 for over a year, but it still cost £670. I have seen it been used by other togs and they were easily overcoming bright sunlight with a large softbox. Last week, I saw it on eBay for £455 + £10 shipping. I thought about it for a few days and after asking some questions I ordered it and received it within a day. I unpacked it and charged the battery and did a few test fire.  Here is what you get from the package. It comes with a carry case which is handy.  The battery charger is not shown here.

It comes with an adaptor so I can use my Bowens softbox with it. The head feel quite well made, but I have not used it in a real photo shoot yet.  The battery took 4 hours to charge and is very small.  I will add report on its performance once I have done a couple of photo shoots. Here are a couple of photos of it mounted on my boom arm.

The connection to the side is the power lead from battery and the cable at the back is the sync cable.  It can be triggered optically with the little white switch to the right.