Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Hollister, California. The lens delivers, doesn't it?
I hope you'll like these. C&C welcome.

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

Olympus 75mm F1.8 at Renaissance Faire

These are just a fraction of shots I made last Sunday. Didn't have time to process them all, but these, I think, illustrate the lens quality the most and I posted full resolution in my gallery.

Keep in mind that I stretched OM-D abilities to maximum on some shots - contrast was too high. Some shots required shadows +100, highlights - 100 in Lightroom.

Wonderful lens. Apart from sharpness, see how it renders bright out-of-focus background.

good stuff. Still learning my 75.

photobeans wrote:

contrast, sharpness, bokeh, color rendition, good build quality.. this lens has got it all. Why pay more for Zeiss or Leica, when you can have your cake and eat it at much lower prices.

It's not only about the price, about the size/weight too.
For example, see what my fried captured last year at the same event
http://terapixel.livejournal.com/70037.html
I admit that he takes stunning photos, better than mine (BTW, he almost didn't process that set).
But, he used Contax medium format camera + Phase One digital back + Zeiss 350mm F4 lens. This combination is almost as big as bazooka.
Here are few more photos in full resolution. Just finished processing. If you are interested, the rest are here (140+ photos):
https://picasaweb.google.com/mchestakov/NorthernCaliforniaRenaissanceFaire2012#

Northern California Renaissance Faire 2012

Northern California Renaissance Faire 2012

Northern California Renaissance Faire 2012

Northern California Renaissance Faire 2012

wonderful captures!  this is exactly what I wanted to see with that lens.   My 75 is coming to me in a mail hopefully by Saturday, it is one before last to complete my m43 package (Panasonic 7-14 would be the last).    Did you have to use ND filter on any of these (I see you were at 1/4000 at some?)

Fotoloco wrote:

Any of the primes at 1.4 - 1you outside during the day you will need a three stop ND filter to avoid blowouts in many situations. If you have the sky in the background mabye more.

I see, can I get away with 'all-in-one" ND filter or you recommend getting several?  I don't want to have to spend fortune on these in different sizes....although I do have step up rings somewhere...

Absolutic wrote:

wonderful captures!  this is exactly what I wanted to see with that lens.   My 75 is coming to me in a mail hopefully by Saturday, it is one before last to complete my m43 package (Panasonic 7-14 would be the last).    Did you have to use ND filter on any of these (I see you were at 1/4000 at some?)

Thanks. I used B+W MRC polarizer and it was enough to prevent overexposure. Some shots were taken with 1/4000s because I didn't have time to meter the scene properly and I was conservative in exposure compensation. First shot with 1/4000s is a bit underexposed.

BTW, I shoot RAW and in many cases I reduced highlights/whites and sometimes exposure in Lightroom. If you shoot JPEG you may need at least 3 stop ND filter. But, I wouldn't shoot scenes with high dynamic range in JPEG anyway.

Wonderful series of photos that shows off the abilities of the excellent 75/1.8 lens.

Dave

OdzBodkinz wrote:

Really nicely done. Any jousting?

Thank you. I got very few, but I didn't spend much time near arena. When I came the only available space to watch was relatively far away and it was under sun. That day was really hot, 33C or 92F.
You can see full series here https://picasaweb.google.com/mchestakov/NorthernCaliforniaRenaissanceFaire2012 , about 95% were taken with 75mm, few with 45mm F1.8 and Samyamg fisheye.

These are heavy crops from 75mm, I didn't have longer lens with me.

The real problem during that session wasn't shooting wide open under sun, it was switching between sunny and shadow areas. In shadow exposure time with polarizer would drop to 1/100s or longer, and people would blur.

EDIT: Tried to post images from Picasa but this forum didn't allow it now, although I posted images from there before. Please see in full album RenFaire 2012

Fotoloco wrote:

Above poster made good point. In most cases a polarizer and shooting raw then adjusting in post will give you the latitude you need. You can get aa larger ND and step it to the smaller sizes. I do not do that for several reasons. I have the 25mm, 45mm, and 75mm. If I am going to be shooting outside I will usually put an ND on each rather than changing, and with those lenses, the smallest is 37mm and largest 58. So it is a pretty big difference - to me cumbersome. Expensive  though - you are right.

I just ordered a 3-stop Hoya nd in 58mm filter size. It was much cheaper than I thought it would be (on amazon). ..... I checked and to this day, Olympus has not made any m43 lenses with a filter size above 58mm (Panasonic made one 100-300).  So I figured I am safe at 58mm, plus many of my m43 lenses:  14-150, 75 that is coming to me, 40-150 (that I plan to sell because I just got 14-150 and it is covering the same range) all have 58mm filter side, 12-50 has 52...and 45/1.8 has 37 so I can use step up ring.