Olympus RM-UC1 Compatible Remote Control

When I had an Olympus E-PL1 I was annoyed you cannot use remote shutter release with it.  Now with my E-PM1 I am able to use the Olympus RM-UC1 as a remote shutter release.  That was until I looked at the price of it.  The cheapest place I found in the UK was £49!  I mean it is just a small switch with a cable, how can it be that expensive?  When I bought my Canon RS-6E remote release, it was only £18.  I was prepared to pay that for original part.  But £49 was over the top.  That was when I decided to look online for alternatives.

I managed to see there are many alternatives on Amazon from as little as £2.99.  That will give you a simple switch to trip your shutter.  However, I found some multi-function switch that can be used as:

Shutter release with bulb function

Timer delay

Exposure time

Interval shutter release

Number of shots

Since I like to shoot stop motion videos I decided to buy the switch for £9.99 from an Amazon seller.  The switch arrived within a week and I am happy to say it does everything it says it will do.  The build quality is not up to OEM standard and you will need to supply two AAA batteries to power it.  The only negative I have to say is it does not have an on/off switch, so I take the batteries out when I am not using it.  So far, I’ve used it as a remote shutter release and interval function and it worked flawlessly.  It is highly recommended.  Even if I am photography professional and use it every day, I would buy two and keep one as spare in my bag.  On the other hand if you only want a simple remote release, buy one for £2.99.  If the Olympus remote release is priced more like £15, I will not have any problem paying, but £49 is another matter.

Here are a couple of firework photos taken with my E-PM1 with this remote release on a tripod.

Canon Demi Half Frame Camera

The Canon Demi (Demi is French for half) is a camera I’ve owned for over ten years.  I was shooting with a number of 35mm rangefinder cameras from the 60’s when I heard about half frame cameras.  The Canon Demi was a response to the Olympus Pen half frame cameras.  In the 60’s colour films were very expensive to shoot and process.  When Olympus introduced the Pen series of cameras, enabling users to shoot 72 photos from a 36 exposure 35mm roll of film, it was an instant hit.  Other manufacturers quickly introduced half frame cameras also.

My Demi was purchased from eBay and listed as not working.  Since these cameras were all mechanical I was sure I could repair it.  The shutter was stuck due to lubricate drying up and the light seal on the back of the camera turning into gunk.   I took the shutter assembly out, cleaned it and put it back.  Then I removed all traces of the light seal on the back of the camera and replaced with new material.  It was all very simple but time consuming work.  I shot with it for a while and happy with the result I got.  I love the retro design and must be quite modern at the time.  It is all metal and is quite solid.

The camera itself is very simple to operate as it is automatic.  First thing you would do after loading the film is to set the ISO which goes from 10-400.  I think in the 60’s 100 ISO is considered a fast film.  You would focus by zone as indicated on the back of the camera by turning the lens to the correct position.  It works well enough, but do not expect absolute 100% accurate focusing all the time, although it works well for landscape photos.  Do remember it was designed in the 60’s when expectation was much lower than now.  After focusing, you then adjust the shutter speed so the dial needle on the top of the camera is in the middle and shoot.  The selenium light sensor on my camera still works after all these years and got some reasonable exposure out of it.  The lens on this camera is a 28mm F2.8 which is equivalent to a 56mm lens on a 35mm camera.

Unfortunately, the negatives I shot with are in a big box in my loft and I do not have time to scan example images shot with this camera.  There is no shoe for mounting a flash, although a separate bracket is available for purchase so you can mount a flash gun.  When I did shoot with flash, I just held it with my left hand.

Thing have come full circle now in the current digital age.  Micro Four Third cameras are now very well received and rapidly gaining acceptance.  It is interesting the MFT sensor is the same size as the half frame image.  In fact the size of the Demi is very similar to my Olympus E-PM1.  The E-PM1 has many advance features and the image quality is far in advance of the half frame cameras.  It is interesting to see how photographic technologies have developed in 50 years.

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Metz 44 AF-1 for Olympus MFT Cameras

I am writing this because when I was looking for a flash for my Olympus E-PM1 there were not much information out there.  I based my purchase decision from a couple of user reviews on Amazon.  What I wanted was a low cost (but not low performance) external flash gun that is compatible with the Olympus remote flash control system with a head that can be bounced and swiveled.  My choices from Olympus are FL-300R (GN=20, £152), FL-50R (GN=50, £499) and FL-600R (GN=50, £299).  FL-300R is a nonstarter due to its low power and it inability to be bounced or swivel.  The other two are just too expensive.  That was when I started looking at third party flash guns and started looking at Metz and Nissin.  My choice went to Metz because I was able to find a lot more information for Metz and got one at a great price on Amazon for £99 delivered.  Other retailers sell it for £129 normally.

The flash gun is well built but you can see it is a budget model as there are no fancy stuff included.  Something I like to have is a flash stand so I can mount the flash gun on a tripod stand.  That is not a major issue as I have a few of them knocking around.  There are only 5 buttons on the back with no LCD display.  Here is a summary of the flash gun:

·         Max guide number = 44m
·         Swivel and bounce head
·         Built in white reflector
·         Auto zoom head for lens from 24-105mm
·         Built in diffusor for lens down to 12mm
·         Uses 4 AA batteries
·         Compatible with TTL flash mode
·         Compatible with Olympus RC mode
·         1^st or 2^nd curtain flash if your camera support it
·         Manual power @ 1/64, 1/8, 1/2 and 1/1
·         Recharge time at full power is 3-4s
·         USB socket for firmware update

Once switched on you have the option of using TTL, manual or slave mode.  For TTL all the controls are on the camera.  Features like flash compensation, red eye reduction, 1^st /2^nd curtain sync are all controlled via the flash control menu. The zoom head moves with the lens and works well.  One problem is sometimes you want to zoom the head to a position that is different to the lens setting.  This is not possible with this flash gun.  The “Flash” goes green once the flash gun is ready.  After firing, the “Flash” symbol also goes green to indicate a correct TTL exposure.

Pressing the “SL” button switch the flash to slave mode, the Olympus RC flash control.  For my E-PM1, I must mount the supplied flash on the camera and raise the flash for it to work.  Also, I had to enable RC flash mode on the set up menu.  Once enabled, I can control the flash to TTL, Super FP RC (high speed sync) and manual flash control.  First of all, Super FP RC Mode does not work with this flash gun.  For that you need to buy the Metz 50 AF-1 which I do not want to spend money on.  The reason is because I have two Canon EX flash guns for my Canon DSLR and I do not remember using FP Flash at all.  I worked around it by fit ND/polarising filter on the lens to reduce the light level so I can shoot at a lower shutter speed.

Enabling RC Mode

I can report the wireless remote feature works well indoor.  All the features work as far as I can see.  One thing I’ve noticed is when switched to RC manual power control, you can control the power in very small increment, much finer than the normal flash menu.  The only negative of this flash gun is that it can only be used in Group A in RC mode.  My E-PM1 can control three groups (A, B and C) independently.  This mean I can not use three 44 AF-1 to create complex lighting.  As a strobist I love the flexibility of using multiple flash guns and control them separately.  In future I will have to think about adding other flash guns if I want to explore Olympus RC flash further.

Setting flash compensation in RC TTL mode

In summary I am very happy with the Metz 44 AF-1 and it works well with my E-PM1 and is vastly more powerful than the supplied flash.  I would love to have an Olympus flash gun to compare with, but I’ve no access to one.  For the price, I can’t complain about the flash gun.  Two features I like to have is the ability to control the position of the zoom head and change the group for RC mode.  The flash is so much bigger than my camera, it can be a little unbalance, but that is not the fault of the flash itself.  For the money it is excellent value for money.  If you want Super FP mode, then go for Metz 50 AF-1 for a little more money.

Update: 23rd October 2012

I've used the flash now for about two weeks and actually used the wireless flash function for real, I've found the flash tended to under expose images.  I was using RC TTL mode and had to dial in +2/3 flash compensation to correct this error.  When the flash gun is mounted on the camera flash exposure works much better.  I'll try to borrow a Olympus flash gun and compare results if I can find one.

Update: 2rd November 2012

I've just tried to use the wireless flash outdoor and it was not very successful.  Even in the shade it was difficult to trigger the flash.  I had the receiver facing the camera but the success rate was very poor, maybe one in ten.  I don't know if an Olympus would be better.  Used indoor, it was 100% reliable.  In future, I will use radio trigger in manual mode if I am shooting outdoor.

Comparison with Olympus FL-50R

I have done a comparison between the Metz 44 AF-1 to the Olympus FL-50R.  Click on the link to read

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Boxers of Lions Boxing and Fitness

James

James

These are the portraits of boxers taken at Lions Boxing and Fitness.  For James and Thomas, I remove clutter behind him so you only look at the boxers.  To achieve that, I shot with my 50mm F1.8 lens fully open and used a Nikon SB800 behind to provide rim light.  In post I increase saturation and contrast to add drama.

James

Thomas

With Dan, I want to emphasis him so moved the light higher up pointing down.  With a grid fitted, the light drop off is much more defined so the surrounding is much darker.  Again I increase saturation and contrast after.  The bruising on the left eye is courtesy of our makeup artist Charli.

Dan

Dan

The final boxer was Alistair.  I wanted some action shots of him punching a punch bag.  In my mind I’ve already settled for a black and white image and used bare flashes to light him.  I wanted dark ambient light level to achieve that.

Alistair

Alistair

I converted to 97% mono in Photoshop, so it is not completely black and white.  I thoroughly enjoyed shooting with the boxers.  They were really friendly.  I would like to thank all the boxers that day, some of them I did not have time to work with.  Finally I would like to thank Danny who runs the gym for letting use shoot there and arrange for the boxers.

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A Day of Shooting with Olympus E-PM1

This camera is now being replaced by the new E-PM2 and there are some shops doing great deals.  Body and kit lens can be bought for £225, twin lens kit can be purchased for £299 (prices correct for September 2012).  You need to look around as prices does vary a lot.  For £299 for the twin lens kit it is a bargain when you consider the 40-150mm F4-5.6 IIR lens can cost £180 on its own.  While the E-PM2 will sport the new 16MP sensor from OM-D, E-PM1 has the now very old 12MP sensor.  There are many reviews of the camera on the web so I won’t try to do one here.  All I will say is it is very usable up to ISO 1600, go beyond that picture quality rapidly degrade.

Since I have the camera for three weeks now, I have learned to work around the menu, settings and work around its short comings.  At the weekend I went to the Newham Waterfront Festival with my E-PM1, 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 IIR, 40-150mm F4-5.6 IIR and 45mm F1.8 lens.

When I first got there, it was bright sunshine and I was able to shoot at ISO 400 and got over 1/1000s shutter speed.  There were some people doing wake boarding on the water and I managed to shoot some great images with my 40-150mm lens wide open at F5.6.  From previous experience I know continuous focus on moving objects is not one of its strengths, so I prefocused on and shot at 5FPS.  Using this technique, I was able to get good success rate.

There were quite a few bands playing on the stage that day.  Even using the kit lens, I was able to get some great images when it got dark.  The stage was well lit, but I noticed the camera metering was easily fooled by the stage lighting.  I had to dial in -2EV exposure compensation to get correctly exposed images.  I limited myself to ISO 1600 throughout the performances.

After the last band played, I set my camera on a small travel tripod and shot the firework display.  I received a remote shutter release from Amazon the day before and made good use of it.  It is an aftermarket shutter release which cost 20% of the Olympus remote.  It also has many additional functions like timer, fixed number of photos and intervalometer. It all worked perfectly and highly recommended.  Here are a few photos of the firework display.

After shooting with the camera for a whole day, I am delighted with the results.  The bonus was the camera with three lenses weighted less than my DSLR kit.  It also fitted in a small shoulder bag.  The only area where I could have got better result was when I was shooting the wake boarder with my DSLR.  But then I do not have the equivalent focal length lens with my DSLR.  In fact using the rear LCD, I was able to raise the camera over my head to shoot some great images.  Although my DSLR have live view, the focus speed is so slow it would be frustrating to use.  The built in IS did a great job as there were only a handful of blur images due to shutter speed.  Most blur images were due to people movement.  ISO 1600 images were very usable and I was happy with them.  All the images were shot RAW and processed with Capture One.

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