You have summed up my quandary quite well. I'm not made of money either but as I grow into photography I find myself bumping up against the limits of the E-M1 more and more.
I wouldn't think you would want such a small DOF for landscapes??
At the time it became apparent I was out matched he was using ISO 6400 and a ten second shutter speed.
That must have been on because there was always the delay of black lcd after the exposure completed.
I don't understand reducing DOF for landscapes??
I presented it straight out of camera.
I tried a bunch of different settings. Here is one at 800...
I'm pretty certain I did. I was getting the post exposure delay.
Not many opportunities for full moon and white covering on the ground.
. Its simply better for these types of very low light shots.I noticed that. ;-)
Why not?
Such as?
I am reading this as sarcastic but to avoid confusion for more serious posters, I want to clarify that you have made multiple assumptions that are not true.
if you want the sky/stars as much as the landscape you do. Shoot how you wish but you have to get light to the sensor and you're also dealing with noise. I chose to let the landscape fall off and focus on the sky, but then again we were shooting the Miky Way. This is going to take some working out on your end. Another thought would be to shoot 2 or 3 images, a sky shot and foreground shot, different exposures and then blend them in PS. You probably won't get the sky you want and the landscape you want in one shot. Work your ISO and use dark frame and see what happens. I think even shooting FF you'd have a hard time getting landscape and stars well exposed. Try light paining too.....
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These shots were taken on a tripod.
You are shooting at infinity. At those focal lengths (12mm) everything past like 10 feet is in focus even if you shoot wide open at f2.8 Stopping down isn't really going to change your dof anymore. It is already INFINITE. It will just improve sharpness. So shooting with a faster lens you will still have everything in focus, just a little softer but with much less noise.
Part of the issue with this photo is that the em1 uses the old Panasonic sensor which was HORRIBLE at long exposures. They limited that sensor in most camera bodies to not more than 2 minutes and really it starts looking bad with any sort of long exposure.I presented it straight out of camera.
I tried a bunch of different settings. Here is one at 800...
I think that before you try a total system swap you should consider trying some different glass for night shooting. Pick up the 25mm mitakon lens. It is cheap and pretty small. 25mm might be a bit tight for your landscapes but you can see what it is like to use a very fast lens. If you like it there are more specialty lenses that can serve landscapes better like the 17.5mm or 10.5mm nokton lenses.
streetsmartphotos.blogspot.com
I've seen the results that my club president produced so it can be done.
With a wide-angle lens you have a lot of DOF already at f2.0. Unless you have a subject in the foreground, you can use the hyperfocal distance of 5 m and you will have everything in focus from 2.5m to infinity.
Yes, but was he really shooting a F/16? Because F/8 on MFT gives the same DOF as F/16 on FF.
Thanks for that advice and the explanation about using lower apertures.
I will consider them. Thanks.
