Note: there is no substitute for using larger apertures when it comes to shallow DoF and bokeh, or if using a flash isn’t appropriate.
Note 2: the fastest glass in the world wouldn’t help if the lighting is so poor that even high ISO and slow shutter speeds can’t produce good exposure.
I purchased my OM-3 with the 12-45/4 about a month ago in my quest for a lightweight but capable, weather-sealed setup for shooting in the rain. My 12-45/4 is tack sharp as expected from all its glowing reviews, but I still had reservations about its relatively slow F4 aperture. Yes I have my fast tiny primes, but what good will they be if I cannot use them in the rain?
My other options for weather-sealed zooms were the hefty Pana F1.7 twins (anti-micro 4/3rds), other F2.8 zooms which were still significantly less portable than the 12-45/4, and slower zooms like the 12-60mm and 14-150mm. My (perhaps unfounded) opinion is that if F4 is too slow for a particular situation, one more stop at F2.8 wouldn’t make much of a difference and I would much rather use my fast primes.
Good lighting make good photos. I quickly realised while I can rely on fast glass to compensate for low ambient lighting, there are too many situations where faster glass wouldn’t be of much use, like backlit subjects or simply insufficient ambient light. My solution almost came too late as GAS reared its ugly head and I went window-shopping. Then I found and picked up a used FL-LM3 flash for the equivalent of $35 USD.
It's a lot smaller than it appears, and only 52g to boot.
White card is exactly credit card-sized.
Controllable light source with bouncing at my whim, check. Tiny and lightweight at 52 grams, check. Doesn’t need any batteries or recharging, check. Weather-sealed on top of all that, oh yes. I also rigged up a small bounce card (random white card and hairband I had lying around) and a black foam snoot (courtesy of Neil van Niekerk) for the low cost of nothing but 5 minutes of digging around my boxes of random junk. Simple and elegant, and a whole lot more practical than continuing the search for infinitely fast glass made of lightweight unobtainium.
A crude but simple example showing a typical usage for the tiny bugger:
Exposing for the background without flash.
Exposing for the subject without flash.
Best of both worlds with flash.
There are of course limitations to using a flash, namely in situations where sudden flashes of light isn’t appropriate (eg. candid street photography) or where using flash is pointless (eg. landscapes, birding). Fast telephoto lenses like the 35-100/2.8 and 40-150/2.8 still serve a very valuable purpose at gathering as much light as possible at long ranges, but it seems to me the tiny FL-LM3 is perfect for working with lenses up to 45mm (perhaps a bit longer too, but I haven’t tried using it beyond 45mm). The 12-45/4 becomes significantly less disadvantaged in low light situations, and I can keep my kit lightweight without being burdened by heavier fast glass.
Enough of my overly long tangent. Keeping in mind that fast glass and flash usage aren’t mutually exclusive (eg. blurring out the background while overpowering the sun), how do users here balance between chasing after faster glass and finally submitting to using flash?
Note 2: the fastest glass in the world wouldn’t help if the lighting is so poor that even high ISO and slow shutter speeds can’t produce good exposure.
I purchased my OM-3 with the 12-45/4 about a month ago in my quest for a lightweight but capable, weather-sealed setup for shooting in the rain. My 12-45/4 is tack sharp as expected from all its glowing reviews, but I still had reservations about its relatively slow F4 aperture. Yes I have my fast tiny primes, but what good will they be if I cannot use them in the rain?
My other options for weather-sealed zooms were the hefty Pana F1.7 twins (anti-micro 4/3rds), other F2.8 zooms which were still significantly less portable than the 12-45/4, and slower zooms like the 12-60mm and 14-150mm. My (perhaps unfounded) opinion is that if F4 is too slow for a particular situation, one more stop at F2.8 wouldn’t make much of a difference and I would much rather use my fast primes.
Good lighting make good photos. I quickly realised while I can rely on fast glass to compensate for low ambient lighting, there are too many situations where faster glass wouldn’t be of much use, like backlit subjects or simply insufficient ambient light. My solution almost came too late as GAS reared its ugly head and I went window-shopping. Then I found and picked up a used FL-LM3 flash for the equivalent of $35 USD.
It's a lot smaller than it appears, and only 52g to boot.
White card is exactly credit card-sized.
Controllable light source with bouncing at my whim, check. Tiny and lightweight at 52 grams, check. Doesn’t need any batteries or recharging, check. Weather-sealed on top of all that, oh yes. I also rigged up a small bounce card (random white card and hairband I had lying around) and a black foam snoot (courtesy of Neil van Niekerk) for the low cost of nothing but 5 minutes of digging around my boxes of random junk. Simple and elegant, and a whole lot more practical than continuing the search for infinitely fast glass made of lightweight unobtainium.
A crude but simple example showing a typical usage for the tiny bugger:
Exposing for the background without flash.
Exposing for the subject without flash.
Best of both worlds with flash.
There are of course limitations to using a flash, namely in situations where sudden flashes of light isn’t appropriate (eg. candid street photography) or where using flash is pointless (eg. landscapes, birding). Fast telephoto lenses like the 35-100/2.8 and 40-150/2.8 still serve a very valuable purpose at gathering as much light as possible at long ranges, but it seems to me the tiny FL-LM3 is perfect for working with lenses up to 45mm (perhaps a bit longer too, but I haven’t tried using it beyond 45mm). The 12-45/4 becomes significantly less disadvantaged in low light situations, and I can keep my kit lightweight without being burdened by heavier fast glass.
Enough of my overly long tangent. Keeping in mind that fast glass and flash usage aren’t mutually exclusive (eg. blurring out the background while overpowering the sun), how do users here balance between chasing after faster glass and finally submitting to using flash?
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so that I can use it on my GX8
