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Swiss Summer Alps with E-510: tips and observations

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That was a very good and interesting post. It matches many of my observations, especially "never try to photograph mountains with no polarizer, and especially with no grad ND." My mountain lens setup is now 9-18, 35 macro, and 70-300. It covers all necessary focal lengths and relevant applications (landscapes, flowers, wildlife) in a light package. I, too shoot to preserve highlights, usually in the -.3 to -1.3 range. I shoot RAW though. I finally discovered a foolproof process to eliminate 99% of clipped highlights wit my E-410 two days before my E-620 arrived!
 
I was also surprised to notice 1/4000s wasn't fast enough at f/3.5 and ISO 200. I agree the 9-18 is less contrasty than the 14-54.
 
Very nice. Castle of Aarburg ;)

Greetings from Switzerland

Martin
Mithandir said:
cnb said:
(sorry, but the 20km traffic line in front of the Gotthard tunnel and then some more at the border crossing in Ticino last week-end had me shaking my head as usual - and few of those cars and trailers were Swiss).
Click to expand...
Hah. I saw that tarffic jam. It confused me. A bit after basel there were signs saying there was a 150 minute queue in direction Gotthard. Now we were travelling to Spiez near Interlaken but since we don't know the geography and had trouble reading the signs (I'm no good at german) we thought we'd be in that queue, so we tried diverting through Lucerne instead of Bern. Our gps didn't like that and got all confused (and so did we because the detour looked to also have the 150min queue).

So we ended up driving around aimlessly and randomly for a bit and then suddenly, out of nowhere we saw this:



I love a country that can spring surprises on you like that. Ever after we've not worried about getting lost - it was worth it :)

Oh and for the polution: we did use trains and feet to minimize our carbon output and our car is pretty good in that respect as well.

--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/
Click to expand...
--

Olympus €-620 | Zuiko ED 12-60SWD | Leica D Vario-Elmar 14-150 | Zuiko ED 50-200SWD | Leica D Summilux 25/1.4 | EC-14 | FL-36R
http://www.muehlemann-pix.ch
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/mypics/1125341
 
I've gotten around to stitching some of the panoramas I took. These were all ultra-quick panoramas taken by using continuous shooting mode and panning. As a result they're a bit motion blurred at 100% Of course, I'm not showing them here in 100% so ...

All stitching done with Microsoft ICE

Giessbach waterfalls:



Mountainama:
26 images taken in portrait orientation. About 270°



The lake (I forgot its name for the moment .. uhm .. meh, it'll come back to me), about 190°:



Oh and this one ... this one I don't think went entirely right:



--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/
 
The 26 images panorama is particularly striking, because of the angle of view and lighting conditions, and you have a human in there and a moving train.

Boy, I admire your skill and patience.

This is the kind of thing that I would never (manage to) do : basically I am still just a point & shoot & move-on kind of guy, albeit with a bit more gear than a P&S.

(I like to try and control exposure and other factors for single shots, and at best I will think in the direction of a series, but I lack the patience for using tripods or for making any kind of bigger plan...)

(Speaking of series : while you were in Switzerland, I (for the first time in my entire life) attended the festivities of our National Holiday in Brussels:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1033&message=32477858 )

--
Roel Hendrickx

lots of images : http://www.roelh.zenfolio.com

my E-3 user field report from Tunisian Sahara: http://www.biofos.com/ukpsg/roel.html
 
When I say "Ultra-quick panorama" I mean it :P

Here is the way I did these:
  1. Find a representative part of the scenery for lighting (not into the sun, not into the shadows)
  2. Press and hold the AEL button
  3. Set camera to continuous shooting mode
  4. Move to the rightmost part of the panorama
  5. Press and hold the shutter release while turning around (putting the weight on my right/back leg and leaning slightly back)
Then at home toss them into ICE, make a few adjustments in PS (needed to recover some highlights here) and done.

The disadvantage of this method is that you need a high shutter speed or you'll get motion blur (well, even with it you get a little).

In retrospect I wonder whether I should have turned off IS ... hmm ...

--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/
 
Mithandir, chapeau !

That is an inventive method that even I could consider trying out someday.
(Going off to Piemonte in two days, so why not there?)

I assume you used RAW (for exposure latitude)?
No problem buffering?
Or would JPGs work?

About the IS : indeed maybe best "off", or use "mode 2" (that allows sideways motion).

What is ICE? (I do assume you don't mean that your camera was heated so you needed to cool the images down - ;) )

Anyway : if it is pano software, then that is another thing that I should try to get around learning.

And finally : how do you print such a thing?
Mithandir said:
When I say "Ultra-quick panorama" I mean it :P

Here is the way I did these:
  1. Find a representative part of the scenery for lighting (not into the sun, not into the shadows)
  2. Press and hold the AEL button
  3. Set camera to continuous shooting mode
  4. Move to the rightmost part of the panorama
  5. Press and hold the shutter release while turning around (putting the weight on my right/back leg and leaning slightly back)
Then at home toss them into ICE, make a few adjustments in PS (needed to recover some highlights here) and done.

The disadvantage of this method is that you need a high shutter speed or you'll get motion blur (well, even with it you get a little).

In retrospect I wonder whether I should have turned off IS ... hmm ...

--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/
Click to expand...
--
Roel Hendrickx

lots of images : http://www.roelh.zenfolio.com

my E-3 user field report from Tunisian Sahara: http://www.biofos.com/ukpsg/roel.html
 
RoelHendrickx said:
Mithandir, chapeau !

That is an inventive method that even I could consider trying out someday.
(Going off to Piemonte in two days, so why not there?)

I assume you used RAW (for exposure latitude)?
Click to expand...
Nope, jpegs. Could use RAW for extra leeway, but there's really not that much of that in E-510 RAW files anyway. With panoramas it's very important to have consistent exposure across frames (hence holding AEL button) which doesn't combine too well with adjusting RAW files individually.
RoelHendrickx said:
About the IS : indeed maybe best "off", or use "mode 2" (that allows sideways motion).
Click to expand...
I'm going to have to test this. I think turning IS off may add more motion blur, it all depends on how well the IS system can compensate for the rather big movement I make. I'll make sure to test this out before I go to africa. Maybe I'll climb the cathedral and try it there.
Btw, I think it's mode 1 that allows panning.
RoelHendrickx said:
What is ICE? (I do assume you don't mean that your camera was heated so you needed to cool the images down - ;) )
Click to expand...
Microsoft Image Composite Editor:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ICE/

It's a free panorama stitcher that seems to work quite well. Very easy to learn (drop images in there and it does most things itself, just rotate and adjust the curve of the horizon if needed and save).

I only got it today, after seeing it mentioned in this thread:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=32478832
RoelHendrickx said:
And finally : how do you print such a thing?
Click to expand...
Plenty of printers let you print by the meter (max "width" is usually 90 or 110cm, and then you can go as long as you want). On smaller scales some inkjet printers allow you to load rolls of paper.

--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/
 
Mithandir said:
RoelHendrickx said:
Mithandir, chapeau !

That is an inventive method that even I could consider trying out someday.
(Going off to Piemonte in two days, so why not there?)

I assume you used RAW (for exposure latitude)?
Click to expand...
Nope, jpegs. Could use RAW for extra leeway, but there's really not that much of that in E-510 RAW files anyway. With panoramas it's very important to have consistent exposure across frames (hence holding AEL button) which doesn't combine too well with adjusting RAW files individually.
Click to expand...
OK Understood.
Mithandir said:
Mithandir said:
About the IS : indeed maybe best "off", or use "mode 2" (that allows sideways motion).
Click to expand...
I'm going to have to test this. I think turning IS off may add more motion blur, it all depends on how well the IS system can compensate for the rather big movement I make. I'll make sure to test this out before I go to africa. Maybe I'll climb the cathedral and try it there.
Click to expand...
Sounds interesting. I have been on top of the Oudaan building once (outside, now closed because of too dangerous) and in KBC Boerentoren (behind glass). Never been on top of the Cathedral.
I think also interesting views can be found :
  • on the top floor of a highrise Linkeroever (to see the City)
  • on top of a crane in the harbour.
Mithandir said:
Btw, I think it's mode 1 that allows panning.
Click to expand...
Don't have my camera here, but I thought "Mode1" tries to correct all vectors, and "Mode2" allows panning?
Mithandir said:
Mithandir said:
What is ICE? (I do assume you don't mean that your camera was heated so you needed to cool the images down - ;) )
Click to expand...
Microsoft Image Composite Editor:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ICE/
Click to expand...
I'll check that out.
Mithandir said:
It's a free panorama stitcher that seems to work quite well. Very easy to learn (drop images in there and it does most things itself, just rotate and adjust the curve of the horizon if needed and save).

I only got it today, after seeing it mentioned in this thread:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=32478832
Mithandir said:
And finally : how do you print such a thing?
Click to expand...
Plenty of printers let you print by the meter (max "width" is usually 90 or 110cm, and then you can go as long as you want). On smaller scales some inkjet printers allow you to load rolls of paper.
Click to expand...
I had no immediate plans, and I was aware of "print by the meter", but I was wondering about at-home possibilities
Mithandir said:
--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/
Click to expand...
--
Roel Hendrickx

lots of images : http://www.roelh.zenfolio.com

my E-3 user field report from Tunisian Sahara: http://www.biofos.com/ukpsg/roel.html
 
Mithandir said:
When I say "Ultra-quick panorama" I mean it :P

Here is the way I did these:
  1. Find a representative part of the scenery for lighting (not into the sun, not into the shadows)
  2. Press and hold the AEL button
  3. Set camera to continuous shooting mode
  4. Move to the rightmost part of the panorama
  5. Press and hold the shutter release while turning around (putting the weight on my right/back leg and leaning slightly back)
Then at home toss them into ICE, make a few adjustments in PS (needed to recover some highlights here) and done.

The disadvantage of this method is that you need a high shutter speed or you'll get motion blur (well, even with it you get a little).

In retrospect I wonder whether I should have turned off IS ... hmm ...
Click to expand...
Next time, try taking a few seconds more and don't shoot in continuous shooting mode. I've taken quite a few panos lately and don't get any motion blur with simply metering off some central area (as you say), pressing the AEL button, and then taking the photos handheld while trying to keep my camera level as I pivot. You go around quickly, but avoid motion blur.

Oh, and I keep IS on; if I had a tripod, I'd probably switch to IS2.

Cheers
Christa
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ch_cnb/
 
I have learned a bit on this thread! Thanks to Mithrandir, et al...

I have a 620, so my IS settings are different from the 510, but I believe Mode1 is general stabilization (up-down & side-side) and Mode2 is for panning. The 620 benefits from a Mode3 for panning in portrait mode. In general, I'd think that you want Mode1 for Landscapes as that will (should) stabilize for all motion - especially if you are not using a panning-capable tripod.

I'm quite a newbie, so I hope this adds value to an otherwise very informative thread.

Cheers,

N
 
I was wrong. Somewhere around march I somehow started thinking that IS-1 meant one-dimensional stability (so with panning) and IS-2 was two-dimensional stability and I've been using it wrong ever since.

Luckily I was using it right before that or I'd have felt very silly (I upgraded from E-500 to E-510 primarily for IS :P)

Good thing I've found out before my next trip, and thanks.
--
Mithandir,
Eternal Amateur
http://www.wizardtrails.com/
 
Affirmative

Seen from "Stampbach", to be exactly ;)

Cheers
Martin
rc53 said:
Mithandir said:
The lake (I forgot its name for the moment .. uhm .. meh, it'll come back to me), about 190°:

Click to expand...
It's the Thunersee or Lake of Thun; the pyramidal mountain is the Niesen.

--
Robt.
Click to expand...
--

Olympus €-620 | Zuiko ED 12-60SWD | Leica D Vario-Elmar 14-150 | Zuiko ED 50-200SWD | Leica D Summilux 25/1.4 | EC-14 | FL-36R
http://www.muehlemann-pix.ch
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/mypics/1125341
 
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