On the Road with Micro Four-Thirds

In the seven years that I've been writing motorcycle travel stories, I've used a number of cameras, from Nikon and Pentax dSLRs to advanced point-and-shoots from Canon and Ricoh. Last summer I travelled for RoadRUNNER Magazine to Kansas to do a trip on riding and eating barbecue there. It was my first trip using Micro Four-Thirds cameras. Here's what I brought:

World's Smallest Loser

Panasonic GH2 20mm F1.7 vs. Canon G10, originally uploaded by john m flores.

When you by a new camera, you inevitably use the new toy a lot. And some of your other cameras - the ones that used to be the shiny new toys and the favorites - get jealous. They remember when they were the flavor of the month, and now they are day old bagels.

The new camera newness wears off inevitably, and you end up reaching for the camera that's best suited for the situation you expect yourself in. But in this sensor shuffle, one or more older cameras gets picked less and less because the new guy does things just a little better.

For me, the camera that the Panasonic GH2 has pushed off the island is the little Canon G10. They're not really comparable, but the GH2 fitted with the wonderful 20mm F1.7 is nearly as small as the Canon, with superior image quality, superior video, and superior low-light performance. The G10 has a zoom in it's small package, and maybe if I were out and about more in the Spring it would get called on more, but right now it's dim and damp and I'm mostly indoors, so the 20mm F1.7 works just fine. So, Canon G10, you are, for me, the World's Smallest Loser!

Panasonic GH2 20mm F1.7 vs. Pentax K20d 40mm F2.8 Limited

Panasonic GH2 20mm F1.7 vs. Pentax K20d 40mm F2.8 Limited, originally uploaded by john m flores.

Another gear shot. The K20d on the right is no giant, but here it's bullying the little GH2. I did some ISO800 shots last night of our sleeping cat and these two matched up pretty well. The Canon G10 I had lying around lagged behind considerably, and my wife's K-x was just a hair ahead.

The K20d's bugbear is the AF. I struggled in low light. Makes me wonder how I've gotten any shots in focus over the last 18 months. In comparison, the GH2 let me set not just the size of the focus point - to about the size of the cat's eye - but also position the focus point right on his eye. That's a convenience that I've managed to live without my whole life, but now that I have it, would I ever want to turn back?

Panasonic GH2 20mm F1.7 vs. Canon G10

Panasonic GH2 20mm F1.7 vs. Canon G10, originally uploaded by john m flores.

Here's something that vexes me about the GH2 - it sometimes feels a like a point-and-shoot, like a more advanced Canon G10. I haven't quite put my finger on it.

Is it the EVF, particularly in low light when it artificially amps the image brightness and introduces noise into the otherwise excellent display?

Is it the decidedly pixelated camera settings on the top and bottom of the EVF - a subtle but clear reminder that you are looking at the world through a digital screen?

Is it the fact that most snapshots - those that capture fleeting moments - often have the generous Depth of Fields associated with smaller sensors?

Or is it something else in the IQ how the colors and lights are rendered?

No answers in this post, just questions...

Looming. Large.

Looming. Large., originally uploaded by john m flores.

Went into "The City" today (there is only one) to meet an old friend in town. Was ready to head out the door with the Pentax K20d and a fistful of primes, the Canon G10 as backup, and the Olympus XA to play with. At the last minute I decided to leave the Pentax behind. It was a nice day with good light, after all, and the G10 performs quite well in good light. As good as a dSLR? Not quite, but good enough and a lot easier to play with and feel all serious and stuff. It wasn't a photo trip, after all, and I felt that placing a black box to my eye while in the middle of a conversation would be a little rude.

It was the right choice. The G10 is a serious little camera, but you don't really stand out when you are wandering about and pick it up to take a photo. For much of the day it hung around my neck (via a Sony strap, thank you very much), ready to spring to life. Taking a shot was dead simple, even in manual mode. It barely interrupted the conversation. Tom, as it so happens, brought his G11 along, so we had ourselves a good ole' PowerShot G-series meetup!

Among folks like myself that started with film, I think that I'm in the minority that loves rear LCD screens for composing. Yes they crap out in harsh light, and holding a camera at the end of a lever arm isn't the most stable, but you get angles that are otherwise hard, a the DOF of a small sensor helps in the convenience department.

And as far as quality is concerned, good enough for me. I took some photos with the G10 on my last trip to VT. I won't be surprised if a photo or two ends up in the story.

This shot, by the by, is from the High Line, the new park built upon the old tracks of the elevated subway. A great move on New York's part, another piece of respite from the buzz of the apple...

Point & Shoot + 20 Year Old Flash = Compact Setup

Point & Shoot + 20 Year Old Flash = Compact Setup, originally uploaded by john m flores.

A small reminder of how big things have gotten. Mind you, in the modern world the Pentax K20d is a diminutive little rascal, a mere meerkat to the lions and tigers and bears and hulking Nikons and Canons oh my! that roam the youth sports sidelines, cruise ships, and weddings of this once great land of ours.

Yet next to the Canon Powershot G10 it looks like the big fish in the small pond. What begets this flash of insanity, this megapixel miniaturization? It's that little, yellowed, different Promaster flash that the Canon is sporting. One of the biggest challenges of small sensor compacts is the low light performance. You can wait for the ceaseless march of technological progress to fix the problem for you, constantly upgrading to the next best thing since film cameras, or you can stick a flash that's older than the Internet on top and strobe your way to a high IQ.

As you can see, I chose the latter. This dance duo has been pumping out some tasty pixels lately. Mostly of the cats, because they don't care. I've been bouncing off the ceiling too and trying to drag the shutter for some nice balanced lighting.

All's not well in the castle though. The Promaster's thyristor (sounds like an as-seen-on-tv excercise machine) appears DOA, causing the flash to operate at full power all the time. And the Promaster's trigger voltage is an eyebrow-searing 289V, while sensitive modern digital cameras are supposed to fry their brains at higher than 6V.

Or so they say. I've used the Promaster on the G10 for a short while and have not seen any brains fried or the acrid smell of burning silicon. And I've yet to find one well-documented case of "Old flash kills young camera" stories online. Just heresay, like that jolly old bloke the stuffs his corpulent self down chimneys once a year.

Were the Canon mine, I'd risk a fate worse than death and weld that damn Promaster on. But since it's my brother's, I've gotta behave. Off with its head.