5 Reasons Why Olympus Micro Four Thirds System Is Suitable For Insect Macro Photography

I have written lengthily before about my shooting techniques when it comes to Insect Macro Photography, if you want to find out more about the equipment I use and how I get my shots, kindly read my post here (click). 

In this post however, I will not discuss about how to shoot, but rather why I find that Olympus Micro Four Thirds system is highly recommended for newcomers to photography who want to explore the world of insect macro.

Being the mirrorless system, Olympus OM-D and PEN cameras are generally smaller and lighter than DSLR alternatives. Adding useful features such as 5-Axis Image Stabilization, large Electronic Viewfinder and built in wireless flash TTL control capabilities, you basically have all the tools necessary to shoot extreme close up insect macro. The M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro lens offers a large magnification of 2 to 1 (in 35mm equivalent) which is plentiful of magnification for small insects shooting.

Image Credit: Tian Chad

Image Credit: Tian Chad

Here are the five reasons why Olympus Micro Four Thirds System is Suitable for Insect Macro Photography

SMALL, LIGHT AND EASY HANDLING

From my observations, most of the time, insect macro shooters will carry around their large DSLR cameras which are mounted on tripods. While this method is guaranteed to give you optimized image output due to complete mitigation of hand-shake, movement is limited, and setting up can be cumbersome. Imagine if your beautiful butterfly decides to hop on to another flower after you have just spent about 3 minutes getting the tripod ready for that shot.

Olympus OM-D and PEN cameras are built to be much smaller in comparison to DSLR, and very light. Mobility is the key concept in designing Olympus cameras, and using cameras so small and so light, there really is no need to carry a tripod around. I can easily hand-hold the camera and a macro lens with one hand, while the external flash on another hand (please do read on how I shoot my insect macro here, if you have not). Most importantly, if the insect moves, or changes position, as long as the subject is within reach I do not need to waste time and effort readjusting the tripod, I can shoot immediately without being slowed down by setting up.

If you have not done a serious macro hunting in the forest (we have rainforests in Malaysia), you will not know the difficulties of hiking and braving the treacherous terrains of the jungle floors. Having lighter equipment is a God-sent, I remember the days I used the Olympus DSLR E-5 not too long ago, I am only 32 years old now and I am starting to have minor back problems due to lagging those heavy DSLR cameras and lenses around.


5-AXIS IMAGE STABILIZATION

Olympus believes in true hand-held freedom when it comes to photography. I understand that some sort of photography (long exposure landscapes, night sky photography, as well as products and studio shoots) will require mandatory use of tripod, but us consumers, hobbyists, who use the camera for our  own purposes, not for commercial use, do we really need to carry around a gigantic tripod just to shoot a tiny little spider?

Having the 5-Axis Image Stabilization opens up a whole new world in photography! A lot of people often underestimated the importance of a good image stabilization system, It works effectively for me. If I am shooting the insect without using flash, I will rely on slower shutter speed and the 5-Axis Image Stabilization to steady the shot and not have to use crazy high ISO numbers. On the other hand, if I am using the wireless flash technique (as shown in the photographs above) I will rely even more on the 5-Axis Image Stabilization since I am practically holding the camera and lens with only one hand.

Also, the 5-Axis Image Stabilization can be previewed live, meaning, while shooting, the Image Stabilization will steady your live view, or your view through the electronic viewfinder, thus having a smooth, non-shaky view while shooting. As the magnification gets larger, the view gets shakier, and overall shooting experience is much better with a powerful Image Stabilization system.

MORE DEPTH OF FIELD

The one constant complain, or something that can be regarded as a weakness for the Micro Four Thirds format, is the less ability to render shallow depth of field. While most photographers would crave for the beautiful bokeh, and want to create as blur of a background as they can, rendering super shallow depth of field, in the world of macro photography, you actually do want to have MORE depth of field. You want to see more zones or areas in focus. Imagine if the depth of field is too shallow, you can only see the eye in focus, which is not desirable as the wings of the insect and the patterns on the body can be beautiful as well.

If you use a full frame system, to get the same depth of field as the Micro Four Thirds system, you need to stop down twice as much.

AMAZING M.ZUIKO 60MM F2.8 MACRO LENS

I genuinely think that having a correspondingly good lens is extremely important for the type of photography you do. Olympus has the M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro lens which is just a brilliant lens for macro photography. It is small and light, weather sealed to match the higher end Olympus OM-D bodies, and super sharp straight out from F2.8 the widest opening aperture.

Furthermore, this M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro lens provides a true 2 to 1 magnification factor (in 35mm format equivalent), meaning that you get a rather large magnification capability out of this lens. A very tiny insect (eg, an ant) can be magnified to large enough scale to fit the entire frame, revealing all the beautiful tiny details of the subject.

To grasp the magnification capabilities, you can refer to the examples below:

I am sure everyone knows the typical, generic size of a Lego figure. 

The higher the magnification is, the more you can fill the frame with the tiny subject. 

BUILT IN WIRELESS TTL FLASH CONTROL

There are many methods to light your subject, and yes, for macro photography, lighting is extremely crucial. Some would recommend the use of LED light, and use light painting over the subject (I wonder how many insects can stay so still for you to do light painting), some would recommend use of dedicated powerful flash. No one will recommend the use of direct flash firing, and some sort of diffusing and reflecting methods for the flash will be applied. There are so many ways to create a DIY macro flash diffuser, and they give different quality and output, so I will not go into detail on which one works better. As for me, you can see I use a generic brand tiny softbox attachment thingy on my Olympus FL-50R flash, which I fired wirelessly off camera.

The reason why you should be using a wireless flash? Because sometimes, subjects do not just pose nicely on top of a leave, at your eye level for you. Many times, the insect will be under a leaf, or inside a flower, or behind a branch. The position is never ideal, and having the ability to move the light around gives me complete control of how I can light my subject, and I can shoot them at more places.

Caterpillar underneath a leaf, with flash

This shot was out of focus, and was taken without the flash firing (my mistake in adjustment). The out of focus part aside, you can clearly see why flash is necessary in keeping a balanced, brightly lit subject. 

If you are a newcomer to insect macro photography, and you want to consider which camera and lenses to purchase, please do give Olympus Micro Four Thirds system a consideration. An OM-D camera (with 5-Axis IS) and the M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro lens, and perhaps an external flash to go along with the setup.

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KL Street Shooting - A Different Approach

I think it is crucial for a photographer not to just stay stagnant with one particular shooting style and not experimenting with different approaches or techniques in photography. I have seen a handful of narrow minded photographers who think they are so sure of what they are doing and just fully concentrate on their own specific methodology. I do not think there is a single best solution when it comes to art, and we do have to constantly update ourselves, daring to try different ways of doing something and often the best results are the combination of multiple alternatives of approaching the same subject.

My usual set up for street photography is: OM-D or PEN camera with either M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8 or 45mm F1.8 lens, and usually in full colour (because I love glorious colours). I would do close up portraits and tight composition of certain scenes, and I will plan my shots carefully with precise execution (having the focusing point at the exact location of the frame I want in focus and fervently adjusting the exposure compensation to get the right balance of brightness, etc).

For this particular session, I have done something rather different:

1) I used the PEN-F and activated the Monochrome Profile Control, using Mono Profile 2 for most people/usual street subjects, and Mono Profile 3 for buildings and sky scenes. 
The main reason I went all black and white in this session, is to eradicate the constant consideration and thought process that involves colour. This way I am simplifying my workflow to just focus on the subject, minus the distractions of colour in the frame.

2) I chose the 17mm F1.8 lens, providing an equivalent of classic 35mm perspective, something much wider than what I comfortably work with
This is not exactly a new experiment, as I have used the 17mm lenses (both the 1.8 and 2.8 pancake versions) quite frequently recently. While this is not my favourite focal length to work with, I find it challenging to myself to compose using 35mm classic perspective, and sometimes it does yield rather interesting results.

3) Instead of using Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority, I switched the mode dial to Program. I decided to trust the camera on the metering too (Evaluative/Pattern)
Because, not having to think too much about which F-number and what shutter speed to use helps me not to obsess to much about the technical part of the photography execution, we are paying so much for modern cameras these days, I would think that the camera should be able to work for us and not fail us!

4) I left the ISO to Auto (with high ISO limit of ISO6400). Normally, I will change the ISO settings necessarily to compensate for varying lighting conditions.
The default monochrome profile 2 in the PEN-F added so much film grain that you cannot even distinguish if the photo was taken with low or high ISO settings. Furthermore, the highlight and shadow settings were pushed to the extreme by default, shadow -6 and highlight +6, effectively blowing out the highlight and clipping the shadow regions, crushing whatever available dynamic range in the photograph. It is good to remove yet another variable to think about as I was shooting.

5) Usually I would painstakingly select the focusing point (single point) but for this session, I left the AF to be fully controlled by the camera (activating all area) and turned the Face Detect AF on
I still would not recommend this for usual shooting (or anything that requires critical focus) but Henri Cartier Bressan said sharpness is a bourgeois concept, so...

6) I shot in JPEG. No RAW this time. Just JPEG and I set the compression settings to Large Super Fine. 

Fly

Lone Walk

Entry Point

Kuala Lumpur

In Your Hands

Hug

Crossing the Stream

Jump

Meow

Under the Table

Not only my set up was different, my shooting approach was modified as well. I employed a "run and gun" style, walking and snapping my shots instantaneously without much consideration of exposure and focus accuracy, and left those work to the camera which I hoped would not fail me. While I did not get 100% accuracy hit rate (I was not reviewing the camera anyway, so I can get away with underexposed or slightly out of focus shots) the simplicity of not having to go through so many steps was liberating. I saw something interesting, I reacted immediately and most of the time I got the shot. No I have not come to the stage where I stick the camera inches away from a stranger's face and fire an overpowered flash directly onto the eyes.... that probably will not happen in my street shooting. I sure hope not. 

The PEN-F monochrome profile control has sooooooo much to love for. I am not a big fan of film grains (seriously, I do not see the magic, and how these grains add any value to the images) and I almost decided to turn the film grain off. On the other hand I also considered the fact that the settings were already pre-adjusted for a reason: the monochrome profile 2 was to simulate a certain film look, with high contrast and grainy outcome. Also this shooting session was doing something I would normally not do, so I decided to stay with the original preset of Mono Profile 2 in the end, and you know what? The results were not too bad at all. While these photographs were not pixel-peeping worthy I do admit there was some organic feel to them that I normally do not get from my ordinarily clean and sharp looking photographs. 

The usual important things to look out for, good lighting, careful composition and framing, approaching strangers and timing the shot still apply, no matter what kind of street shooting technique you choose. If the lighting was bad, no matter what kind of black and white style you employ the images will still look flat and uninteresting. If your framing is poor and composition weak, your story and message

Arrow 

Waiting Area

Wheels

Portrait of a Stranger 1

Open

Passing by

Portrait of a Stranger 2

Friendly Foreign Labors 1

Friendly Foreign Labors 2

Paperwork

Lines

Danish making use of low angle shooting

A recent selfie of me, in black and white! It was a little out of focus but who cares?

I hope you have enjoyed these photographs as much as I have enjoyed shooting them! I probably will not use this method permanently, but I might give this experimentation a few more trials and see how I can adopt certain parts to improve my own street photography game. 

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Flirting with Legendary Olympus Zuiko Digital 14-35mm F2 Super High Grade Lens

To all my muslim friends and blog-readers, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! Maaf Zahir Batin. Have a joyous, blessed and happy times with your family and friends, and may your stomach be filled with plenty of Raya goodies and amazing celebration foods! Stay safe everyone!


While I was digging through the hidden sections in the office I found more and more interesting items, some old lenses, and one stood out in particular: the Zuiko Digital 14-35mm F2 which was a Super High Grade lens for the now discontinued Four Thirds DSLR E-System. I thought, why not bring this lens, attach it to the latest Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera, the PEN-F, and give it a spin?

The ZD 14-35mm F2 was a legendary lens, a much sought after lens for all Olympus DSLR users, as well as a bragging right for those who own the lens. While Olympus Four Thirds format has a smaller  image sensor in comparison to APS-C and Full Frame DSLR cameras, the 14-35mm lens at a wide constant aperture opening of F2 consequently bridges the gap between the larger sensor systems, considering the rival DSLR systems have only constant F2.8 zoom. While this effectively is only one stop advantage and may not carry that much advantage when it comes to shallow depth of field rendering, the extra light gathering ability of F2 vs F2.8 is still a huge benefit to have. Furthermore, the 14-35mm F2, being a super high grade lens (SHG), designed to deliver the best optical performance, and being razor sharp even shooting wide open at F2 was truly a God-Sent, considering all other competitor's F2.8 zoom lenses would require some aperture stopping down to at least F4 or narrower to accomplish similar sharpness and lens flaw control (chromatic aberration control, distortion, corner softness, etc) as the Olympus 14-35mm lens.

When I was actively using the Olympus DSLR cameras many years ago (I have the E-410, then upgraded to E-520, and finally had the E-5), I always had the lust for the F2 Super High Grade lenses (14-35mm F2 and 35-100mm F2). I never had the chance to use them, also never a chance with my lowly Malaysian junior engineer's salary can I afford any of these ridiculously expensive lenses. Now, imagine, the lens was right in front of me and I have full permission to use this lens! I know this lens may not be popular these days, due to the rather gigantic size which was disproportionate in comparison to the small newer Micro Four Thirds camera bodies, sporting a 77mm diamater filter thread! Nevertheless, there was that curiosity in me that must be satisfied, so my shutter therapy sessions have been fulfilled with the Olympus Zuiko Digital 14-35mm F2 SHG lens!

All images were taken with Olympus PEN-F and Zuiko Digital 14-35mm F2 lens (via MMF-3 adapter of course)

The 14-35mm lens is not a good match to any Micro Four Thirds body, as the lens is too large, and rather heavy. I would not recommend this lens for long hour shooting. 

1/2000sec, F22, ISO200, 30mm

Mithun Kumar, visiting Malaysia again! So we had a short shutter therapy session last Sunday. You should come to KL more often dude, plenty more Malaysian food to try. 

A little note about this image, take a closer look on how Mithun was lighted, there was a building with large reflective surface opposite this building we were in, and that opposite building reflected bright sun light (morning light) creating an intense side lighting, which looked really good!

1/1250sec, F2, ISO200, 35mm

Portrait of a Stranger 1

Check out the bokeh at F2 ! So, so creamy. 

1/320sec, F2, ISO200, 35mm

Deadpool

The close up shooting is not that impressive for this lens, but I think for general use it is more than good enough. Surely the newer Olympus M.Zuiko lenses such as 12-40mm F2.8 PRO allows much, much better macro shooting capability. 

1/100sec, F2, ISO500, 35mm

Powdered Face

1/50sec, F2, ISO200, 26mm

Portrait of a Stranger 2

1/80sec, F2, ISO200, 35mm

Crop from previous image

Though this was a rather old lens, it is still capable of resolving crazy amount of fine details, even fulfilling the needs of the latest 20MP image sensor in the PEN-F. The sharpness is incredible, I would say the sharpness is on par with Olympus prime lenses, such as 25mm and 45mm F1.8. 

Portrait of a Stranger 3

1/320sec, F2, ISO200, 35mm

Crop from previous image

Malaysian Flags

1/800sec, F7.1, ISO200, 22mm

Fly

Take note that there is no noticable corner sharpness, no chromatic aberration and no barrel distortion at the widest end of 14mm

1/640sec, F5.6, ISO200, 14mm

So how did the ZD 14-35mm F2 perform on the PEN-F?

First of all the autofocus was excruciatingly slow. Some may even question me, why not use the OM-D E-M1 instead, which as Phase Detect AF built into the sensor which allows much quicker and more reliable AF capabilities than the PEN-F? My answer is, why not try and see what this lens can do on a newer 20MP image sensor of the PEN-F? Yes, I know that the AF will be painful to work with and I will miss some shots (I did, but not too many). However, I am not shooting anything crucial, this was purely just for the fun of it, and I am not delivering the images to clients. As frustrating as it is to work with slow autofocus, I am in no hurry, and I can slow down, pace myself and be more meticulous with my shots. If you cannot live with slow autofocus, you better look away and do not even consider having this lens. Trust me, it can be unbearably slow, it is not reliable enough for any serious photography. Unless of course you are shooting still life or subjects that do not move and you have all the time in the world. 

The large size was a little awkward to handle, and the heavy weight of the lens made the combination of the PEN-F and 14-35mm F2 lens a little imbalanced. As expected, I knew this going in and I was not expecting miracles here. I took plenty of coffee breaks to rest my hands. 

The slow focusing speed, and the rather difficult handling of the lens on smaller Micro Four Thirds camera aside, if you can somehow find yourself to forgive these two shortcomings of the 14-35mm F2 lens, what you obtain out of the lens is nothing short of breathtaking. The images come out super sharp, pleasingly rich with fine details, having high contrast (and micro contrast too) and excellent color rendering. This is possibly the best zoom lens ever created. Purely speaking on the optical quality alone, I grade this ZD 14-35mm F2 a notch higher than the current M.Zuiko 12-40mm F2.8 PRO lens. I acknowledge that I am not providing any evidence here to support my claims, but if you have shot with both lenses extensively, you will be able to notice the differences. No, the 14-35mm is not exactly a world apart in comparison to the newer M.Zuiko 12-40mm F2.8 PRO lens, but the overall rendering of the image, the "more natural looking" sharpness and overall more pleasing output can be quite easily observed. Just take a closer look at all the sample images that I am providing here. This lens, though a zoom lens, produces image quality close, or equivalent to prime lenses!

And ohhhhhhh the bokeh. Being at F2, a constant wide open aperture throughout the zoom range, it is quite easy to produce shallow depth of field, blurring the background off. The out of focus area is smooth and creamy. 

Run

1/160sec, F4, ISO640, 19mm

WheelChair

1/4sec, F18, ISO200, 28mm

The beautiful thing about using the older lenses on Olympus newer Micro Four Thirds body? You enjoy the full benefit of the 5-Axis Image Stabilization. Hand-held at 1/4 sec shutter speed, to capture motion blur to show movement in the shot, the area that was not moving in the frame stayed completely blur-free. 

Red vs Green

1/200sec, F5.6, ISO200, 14mm

Crop from previous image

Even at the wide end of 14mm, the image contains great sharpness, and full of fine details. 

Cleanliness on the Street

1/200sec, F5.6, ISO200, 35mm

Crop from previous shot

Check out the details on the fabric of the vest!

Orange

1/400sec, F5.6, ISO400, 16mm

Reality vs Painting

1/2000sec, F7.1, ISO200

Yellow

1/400sec, F3.5, ISO200, 28mm

The Making of Bread

1/80sec, F5.6, ISO1600, 23mm

I somehow wish Olympus would create an equivalent version of the 14-35mm F2 lens for Micro Four Thirds! Let's make it 12-35mm F1.8, which would make so much sense. Perhaps it would be impossible to engineer such a large aperture lens and still keep it at a small size, but why not? I know Olympus has the technical know how, and they always push the boundaries with the R&D when it comes to optical development. I am sure they will find a way to make it happen. If the quality is equivalent or surpasses the older version of 14-35mm F2, I am sure many would opt for this "Prime-Zoom" lens. 

Also, make a matching 35-100mm F2 lens! 

I fully believe that the current M.Zuiko 12-40mm F2.8 PRO and 40-150mm F2.8 PRO lenses are super capable lenses, with incredible sharpness rendering and fast autofocus. Nonetheless, I am sure, having an F1.8 or F2 zoom would surely be a game changer for the Micro Four Thirds system. Having that one stop of light gathering advantage, in combination with the already proven world's most powerful 5-Axis Image Stabilization system in the OM-D and PEN cameras, and the possibility of significant image sensor improvements (I remain hopeful, as alwatys) in the near future, the Olympus Micro Four Thirds system would be quite difficult to beat!

One of the oiliest pasta I have ever seen in my life. 

1/50sec, F5.6, ISO640, 35mm

Same pasta, but shot closer

1/50sec, F8, ISO1000 

An Ugly Looking Burger

1/80sec, F8, ISO640

Watermelon Cake

1/60sec, F9, ISO640, 35mm

Watermelon Cake

1/60sec, F9, ISO640, 35mm

Crop from the watermelon cake

Pancake vs Fried Chicken

1/13sec, F5.6, ISO1000, 27mm

Flowers

1/25sec, F2, ISO200, 35mm

Even at widest 14mm, with F2, you can get shallow depth of field, and bokeh looking totally smooth

1/80sec, F2, ISO400, 14mm

Crop from previous shot

zooming in a little, the background became even blurrier. 

1/100sec, F2, ISO400, 25mm

A Little Deadpool on my Flat White

1/25sec, F2.8, ISO250, 35mm

What Large Lens You Have

Do any of you own, or have used the ZD 14-35mm F2 lens before? Do share your experience using it, I would love to hear your thoughts and your shooting days with that legendary lens. Do you wish that Micro Four Thirds lens has a similar version, but with smaller/lighter construction and super fast AF?

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