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

If you've enjoyed reading this post, please go to My Facebook Photography Page and click on Like.  Thanks.

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.

If you've enjoyed reading this post, please go to My Facebook Photography Page and click on Like.  Thanks.

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.

If you've enjoyed reading this post, please go to My Facebook Photography Page and click on Like.  Thanks.

Product Photography

With the autumn coming in the UK, it is starting to get cold and wet.  With some time on my hands, I tried some product photography at home.  What better than photographing my photographic equipment?  This is my attempt at product photography and it proved much more difficult than I first thought.  My early attempts were just not good enough with harsh lighting and burnt out reflections.  I had to experiment a little before the images came out in my vision.

The first photo here is all my Olympus micro four third gears.  They were lit with a Nikon SB26 with a shoot through umbrella left of camera with a large white reflector on the right.  I shot it on my wooden floor to add texture to the image.  Post processing using Capture One involved reducing saturation, increasing contrast and adding -2EV vignette around the frame.  I quite like the outcome.

I also shot a couple of my Canon lenses using very similar lighting.  This time, instead of using a reflector, I had a gridded Canon 540EZ on the right to fill in shadow.  Using my Olympus 45mm F1.8 on my E-PM1 to reduce the DOF, I was able to blur out the background quite well.  These are the results.

Canon 17-40mm F4 L USM

Canon 24-105mm F4 L IS USM

What have I learnt?  The objects you photograph must be immaculately cleaned before the shoot.  Looking at my photo at 100% will show up so much dirt and dust, it is unbelievable!  I am looking to experiment with product photography more this winter when I am not shooting portraits outdoor.  These are nice images, but they are hardly creative.  How to make the images stand out?  That is what I will try to work on.

A Fabulous Day Out Shooting in London with Olympus E-PM1

Sunday 9th September was the last day of the London 2012 Paralympic.  I spent a day shooting the marathon and the streets around central London.  I decided small and light was the order of the day and I used my Olympus E-PM1 with 14-42mm and 40-150mm lenses only.  The E-PM1 with the two MSC (Motion Still Compatible) lenses are recent purchases.  It solved a couple major short comings, slow focus speed and dim LCD screen in bright day light, of the E-PL1 I had before.  Interestingly, the E-PL1 with MSC lens do not focus any faster.

Women's wheelchair race

First off the continuous focus of the MFT cameras are still very poor despite the fast focus speed.  The camera just can not keep up with a marathon runner.  It does not help the LCD freezes and exposure locked once you start shooting.  In the end I prefocused the camera and set it to shoot at continuous high speed at 5FPS and panned the camera blind.  I got some good photos after some practice.  In conclusion, sports photography is no place for MFT cameras.  Working within their limitations, you can still get some good results.  What Olympus and Panasonic need to do is to produce cameras that can continuous focus and the LCD screen do not freeze while shooting.  Unless they do that, they will never displace DSLRs.

Truck carrying photographers

Within the limits of the camera, I shot with both the 14-42mm and 40-150mm lenses to see what they can do.  I also decided early on to try to get some photos of the crowd to get some ideas of the atmosphere and try out some art filters built into the camera.  Here are a few photos taken with the camera and lenses combinations.

I was also interested to see what the bokeh is like from the 40-150mm lens.  I am happy to say it is sort of OK if you shoot at 150mm wide open.  It is never going to be wonderful but it is acceptable and does better than I thought.  Here are a couple of photos showing how the out of focus is rendered.

After shooting the marathon, I had a walk around London to the various events been held there.  Here are a few photos taken during the walk.  Some of the photos were taken using the art filters.  All the photos were taken as jpeg straight from camera without any post processing.

Overall, I am very happy with the results I got.  This is be my light weight camera outfit of choice now.  I am looking forward to trying out a 45mm f1.8 lens in future as I've read very good reports.

If you've enjoyed reading this post, please go to My Facebook Photography Page and click on Like.  Thanks.