Finally I managed to get out to take a few photos. I hoped that the weather would work for me, but finally it was a bit bland. Anyway, I got a bit of real-world experience using the E-1 in evening light. This photo was taken using the 14-54mm lens with 1.4 teleconvertor, at ASA 200. I'm impressed with the colour rendition, although I quickly discovered two things: in this sort of light, it pays to underexpose by about 2/3 when using ESP. Second, the LCD screen is of very limited use in judging colour. One annoyance: it is a great pity that when the screen displays a shot after it is taken, that you can't press INFO to bring up the histogram. This is weird. If I start pressing appropriate buttons at this point the camera should realise I want to go into review mode and just let me. One bit of user stupidity: I had real trouble with the AF, and was constantly correcting it. Im some cases I found it impossible to focus even in manual mode. Later, when showing the camera to a guy in the shop I bought it from, who hadn't seen an E-1 yet, he pointed out that the diopter was way off. I must have moved it when changing the eyecup.... oops.

I've been a bit quieter than planned this week. Unfortunately the aftermath of a mega-party last weekend (not that I'm complaining) and a workload from hell this week (yes, here I am complaining) has kept the E-1 very unused.

However, one small development: I ordered the Studio software (I can't wait for Photoshop CS to maybe support the E-1 forever) and the EP-2 Eye Cup. The EP-2 is really worth it. It helps cut out external distractions when looking through the viewfinder and really rounds off the handling. I paid about 30 CHF for it (20 Euros, so $20 give or take).

Oh, and the software and EP-2 took under 2 days to arrive at my dealer after I placed the order, so here in Switzerland anyway there doesn't seem to be any problem getting Studio.

We shouldn't have to pay for it though...

Photos soon - PROMISE!

...well it may just be me, but this is far from easy. Olympus supply a really bizarre tweezer tool which seems to be mainly designed to make life difficult. First of all, if you're going to try this, read the instructions. But not too carefully, because they're not very helpful. The trick is that everything is actually far less tactile than you'd expect. To start with, there is talk of a tab that needs to be pulled down using the tweezers. Well, first the aperture that gives access to this tab is too small to get the tweezers into. What actually seems to happen is that somehow you sort of brush the tweezers against the tab (certainly you do not "pull it down" as the instructions say) and then the screen swings down. Although "swings" is again too strong a word. Collapses is better. Then you've got to remove the screen by grabbing a protruding tab with the bloody tweezers. The thing is, this would be much easier if this tab was the same size as is illustrated on the instructions. It isn't, it's tiny, and again the tweezers seem to be designed to thwart you. By this point one starts to wonder if all this poking around in $1700's worth of camera is such a good idea. Anyway, once you've grabbed it the old screen doesn't so much slide out as (you've guessed it) fall out, although by some miracle it didn't (a) jam itself behind the mirror or (b) fall on the carpet. So, next step, grab the new screen and insert it. Well getting it out its bag is challenge #1. It obviously liked it in there. Then, using aforementioned tweezers, one simply places it on the holder. Now this is really where I lost the plot for a while. I expected to slide into some locating grooves or something, and much head scratching ensued. In fact, as it turns out you sort of balance it on the holder and push the holder back up. Somehow everything stays where you put it. It all feels a bit flimsy but it seems to work. Next, remove the grid screen, very carefully blow air on it to remove the dust that somehow went along for the ride, and put it back in again - at least you'll know how to do it by now! Is it all worth it ? I think so. I found with the standard screen, in what is after all a very small (albeit very nice) viewfinder, you need all the help you can get to keep horizons horizontal and so forth. But the instructions on such a delicate operation could be a bit clearer. And those tweezers should go back to the medical lab they came from...

Just worked out how you post images in Movable Type blogs.

This was taken this morning just after I got out of bed.... sunrise over Monte Generoso. Taken with the E-1 at 400ASA, 14-54mm lens, ESP metering, only 1 coffee.

Every morning I think if I was a real photographer I'd be out there at 6am.

I've just done a test of RAW conversion using the High Function and High Speed options. I applied zero sharpening in Olympus Studio, and then used PhotoKit to apply capture sharpening. I read RémiG's article on sharpening. I can't reproduce his results: In my case (a winter landscape, similar in type to his test image), there is a slight difference in the results. The HF version seems to have a little extra edge contrast, but it is marginal and only really discernable at 200%. What is slightly more worrying to me is that the two versions have slightly different colour casts. Possibly this has something to do with the (reported) poor color management implementation. But certainly I don't see this "painterly" effect he reports. On this evidence, I don't see much point in HF. However, it will be interesting to look at the results of upsizing. It is possible that HF has slightly more detail. Either way, I'd say that Olympus Viewer and Olympus Studio are two good reasons not to buy an E-1. They're not totally unusable - and maybe are better than Canon's efforts - but they're really not very impressive. If my software team produced this sort of stuff their next career move would be selling burgers...