China: as seen through 25mm pancake lens (WAY too many pictures...!)

Oh, right, I've been forgetting, I'm supposed to put these things on the second page for some reason.

I finished 52 days of travel though China about a month ago. I am almost embarrased to say that half of all the shots I considered good were made with the 25mm pancake lens on the ol' E-620. For the first year I seriously disliked the pancake lens. It was a way to pay $200, used, to get an incredibly boring focal length that had at best "average" image quality, where average is defined as a kit lens. There was nothing it did well at all except be small.

However, over the last year I have been gaining respect for it. It's not any better, it's more in the line of "familiarity breeds respect" kind of thing. I always have it on my camera, because when I do my camera it fits in my pocket. I don't own a camera bag, so it's pocket or nothing. Once I have a lens on my camera it's too much trouble to change it, so an increasing number of shots come from the pancake. I have really come to appreciate the effectiveness of the "boring" focal length. I have learned to use its strengths. And especially now that I am traveling, the small size is very nice.

I have come to realize the best aperture is f/6.3, with f/5.6 a close second. I will usually change my ISO to 800 before I budge beyond those apertures (though actually it's not bad from f/4 to f/11). As far as I'm concerned, with my pancake lens mounted all apertures besides f/5.6 and f/6.3 and all ISO's besides 200 are irrelevant, my camera doesn't even do them, it's just a variable shutter speed focusing mechanism. Yay for IS.

I also have posted shots with the other lenses I used on the trip.
50mm macro:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1022&thread=34938447

14-54mm I:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1022&thread=34934353

and 9-18mm and 70-300mm combined:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1022&thread=34934132

Anyhow, here's the pictures I took with the 25mm pancake, to follow in the next two reply posts.

Camera body used was E-620. All shots received "standard PP" (usually a batch process, with some extra work at times) and were resized to 800 pixels wide or 700 tall, whichever came first.

Please feel free to critique (and be cruel about it!), comment on, modify, shred, process, or whatever my pictures. Especially if I can learn something from it emoticon - smile. Even just saying if one was good or bad is useful to me, I'm still learning.

1. I've never been there, but North Korea looks like a strange place from here. f/5.6 30s ISO100



2. Ocean near Yantai. I made a 16:9 crop to make it more unique. f/5.6 1/800s ISO200



3. Qingdao 5-4 Square Stitched Panorama f/5.6 exposure times vary ISO200



4. Xiao Qingdao Lighthouse, I love looking up with the pancake. f/5.6 1/160s ISO200



5. Shanghai Museum, How many Buddhas was that again? f/5.6 1/15s ISO800



6. Shanghai Museum f/5.6 1/10s ISO800



7. A stock photo if I ever saw one! Hangzhou West Lake. f/5.6 1/640s ISO200



8. Tongli Morning Scene, the rule of composition here is "random things everywhere" f/5.6 1/60s ISO200



9. Tongli 5-shot panorama. Manual exposure, sunny WB. Auto gradation! f/6.3 1/100s ISO200



10. Yay for autogradation! A bridge in Tongli water village f/6.3 1/200s ISO200



11. Old Tongli building. f/4.5 1/400s ISO200



12. Canal-side Restaourant f/5.6 1/160s ISO200



13. Tongli Church f/5.6 1/400s ISO200



14. This is actually one of my favorites, but only after looking for a while. f/5.6 1/160s ISO200

15. Tongli Building reflected. f/11 (!?) 1/40s ISO200



16. I don't seem them much, but I love reflections. I waited for several minutes getting shots of drops. f/5.6 1/20s ISO200



17. I also love turning them upsidedown. f/5.6 1/20s ISO200



18. Tongli Sunny Alleyway. f/5.6 1/640s ISO200



19. Tongli Dusk f/5.6 1.3s ISO200



20. View from the hotel in Tongli. f/5.6 8s ISO200



21. A.M. Garbage Boat. f/5.6 1.3s ISO160



22. Farm girl on wood-heated bed, the center of life in the winter. Light from window (my flash is a pop-up) f/5.6 1/10s ISO200



23. Her mom said "you have a big face" when she saw the picture. f/6.3 1/1000s ISO200



24. Yay for "low key"! Why does everyone smoke? f/6.3 1/250s ISO200



25. Roadside chat. f/6.3 1/800s ISO200



26. Country roads looked great from where I was standing! f/6.3 1/640s ISO200



27. Yay for my first succesful panning! f/6.3 1/15s ISO200



28. This is what it would look like with no panning. f/6.3 1/13s ISO200

lovely!

All pictures do give a sense of the place and the people there.

Thanks for sharing.

Vishu

A very enjoyable set. I'll be sure and look at the other galleries too. The people shots are especially interesting.

--
John Krumm
Juneau, AK

You've really given us a nice series of pictures with a summary of workable settings, etc. In this last series, using the 25mm, I found the water village scenes some of the best. Your "reflection" captures were imaginative and especially good. Your sentiment about the "lowly" 25mm seems to be somewhat the foremost initial impression people have of it. However, in the hands of creative people, it can shine. You have that talent and passion to enjoy it. Thanks.

Thanks! I have lots of people shots, especially from the small farming village. I might put up a few more later, but these are probably the best (though I'm a poor judge). But now it's bed time!

very nice, i personally love the pancake, it makes for a great compact setup on the 600 series of cameras. Maybe everyone smokes because the anti smoking brigades haven't got to work properly there yet and they aren't taxed to the hilt.
--
http://illy.smugmug.com

These are beautiful shots, you have a talent to make the normal seem special. Congrats!
--
--Wyatt
http://photos.digitalcave.ca
All images (c) unless otherwise specified, please ask me before editing.

Is an astounding panoramic shot! Too many panoramas focus on a wide landscape, and I appreciate the solemn lighting and intimate mood this one portrays.

Raven15 said:

I finished 52 days of travel though China about a month ago. I am almost embarrased to say that half of all the shots I considered good were made with the 25mm pancake lens on the ol' E-620. For the first year I seriously disliked the pancake lens. It was a way to pay $200, used, to get an incredibly boring focal length that had at best "average" image quality, where average is defined as a kit lens. There was nothing it did well at all except be small.

Click to expand...

I have not used my 25 pancake very much since buying it either, but last weekend did for a day of shooting and was very impressed. Once the distortion/bent lines are corrected using a program like PTLens or Olympus' own master or Studio, the resulting files leave little to dislike, and there's no lack of sharpness. I'm going to start carrying (and using) it more and more.

I also second your assessment of the E620's auto gradation results with the right types of subjects. Your results speak for themselves. Excellent images.

Funny - I rarely use my 25mm at anything other than f/2.8 as I'm trying to make the most of the DOF-effect that I'd miss with a slower lens. Here, you're shooting portraits at f/6.3.

Perhaps I should consider getting out of Av-mode more often! I do like the lens though - I bought a E-420 to go with the lens rather than the other way round.

Wonderful tour: the pictures were fine; all told a story !

Thanks Vjim

Gidday Raven

Lovely, wonderful shots, mate. Thanks.

A look into your trip, as it were.

I also like the pancake ... bought it for its size; surprised by its IQ, and versatility ...

Even on my E-510, the combo will fit into all my casual coat pockets; and who wears a suit when travelling? Lol.

Now to have a browse through your other piccies ...

--
Regards, john from Melbourne, Australia.
(see profile for current gear)
-- -- --

The Camera doth not make the Man (or Woman) ...
Perhaps being kind to cats, dogs & children does ...

Gallery: http://canopuscomputing.com.au/gallery2/main.php



Bird Control Officers on active service.

Member of UK (and abroad) Photo Safari Group

That Tongli pano is brilliant. Really enjoyed your photos, thanks for sharing.

--
Matt

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30133833@N05/

dpalugyay said:

Is an astounding panoramic shot! Too many panoramas focus on a wide landscape, and I appreciate the solemn lighting and intimate mood this one portrays.

Click to expand...

I like this one for those reasons too, it is probably the best panorama I have taken. I'm going to try to take more panoramas of smaller scenes in the future.

Gregm61 said:

I have not used my 25 pancake very much since buying it either, but last weekend did for a day of shooting and was very impressed. Once the distortion/bent lines are corrected using a program like PTLens or Olympus' own master or Studio, the resulting files leave little to dislike, and there's no lack of sharpness. I'm going to start carrying (and using) it more and more.

I also second your assessment of the E620's auto gradation results with the right types of subjects. Your results speak for themselves. Excellent images.

Click to expand...

I just discovered how to batch process RAW files to remove lens distortion in Studio about two weeks ago, it really made me much happier with the output of the pancake lens. I was using the light house picture, previewing then unpreviewing the distortion correction, it was like watching The Matrix!

Maxwell Smart said:

Funny - I rarely use my 25mm at anything other than f/2.8 as I'm trying to make the most of the DOF-effect that I'd miss with a slower lens. Here, you're shooting portraits at f/6.3.

Perhaps I should consider getting out of Av-mode more often! I do like the lens though - I bought a E-420 to go with the lens rather than the other way round.

Click to expand...

I used to use it at f/2.8 all the time too. Then one day my E-410 broke, and locked itself at f/5.6 for all lenses. I was surprised how much more I liked the pancake at f/5.6, and have been trying to stick at that aperture ever since. I recently discovered (between the two farm girl pictures) that I prefer f/6.3 over f/5.6, so it's been f/6.3 ever since. I'll use shallow DOF if I can, but otherwise it usually doesn't bother me, I'm more of an "environmental portrait" shooter I guess.

I almost always use aperture mode, though on this trip I used every mode, P, AUTO (giving my camera to someone else), Manual, even scene modes (portrait)!

Some excellent compositions, especially in the last part.

The panorama with the red accent of the bikeseat-cover is my favourite, but there are others I would not mind seeing printed very large.
--
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