A PEN and a Pancake

Back in September '10 my father bought me an Olympus PEN e-PL1 as an early birthday present.  Earlier that day, my Dad asked if I wanted anything for my birthday and I mentioned that I wanted a simple, lightweight camera that I could carry around and shoot everyday without lugging around my D700; a convenience camera!!! I had several Point-N-Shoots in the past and disliked the lack of control you had over taking pictures.

I read some reviews and almost bought the Canon G11, but then read the reviews of the Olympus PEN and checked it out at Best Buy.  It has a hot-shoe and full Manual controls, which means I can pop my Pocket Wizard on it and trigger any of my strobes, or speedlights.

So I brought it along on my Trash The Dress Session with Nikki and shot a few images:

Took it to Vegas and played with the Tilt-Shift Effect:

Brought it to a Penguins vs. Ducks Hockey Game:

Did a Strobist shot by triggering my SB-900 with the PEN's built-in flash:

Another Strobist image that made FLICKR's Explore:

Then I got busy, packed it away and forgot about it from November through December.  During that time, Teresa bought me a new lens for my D700, the Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G lens.  That Nikkor lens is phenomenal, and the ability to shoot wide open in low-light quickly, was unparalleled.  That's what was missing, something to create killer bokeh in low-light.  The kit lens that comes with the PEN is a 14mm - 42mm and works nicely, but has an f-stop range from 3.5 - 5.6.  So, I checked out the Olympus web-site and found out that they make a "pancake" lens that's a 17mm and f/2.8, but all the reviews mentioned that the lens was just decent.

With a little more research, I found out that Panasonic makes a LUMIX Micro 4/3rd 20mm f/1.7 lens that's really sharp, fast, has some decent bokeh and is compatible with my PEN.  I found a good deal on one, bought it and now I carry that camera/lens combination everywhere.  Based on the sensor size, the angle of view on a Micro Four-Thirds Camera (Olympus PEN) is basically double a 35mm camera.  This kinda applies to the Aperture, too.  So the images taken with my PEN and the Pancake lens would be close to shooting a 40mm lens at f/3.4 on a 35mm camera.

Here are some images taken with that "combo":

Are you noticing a "Coffee" theme?

So be careful if you see me around town, I may be taking your picture with my favorite "walkabout" camera.

That's A Wrap!!!

P.S. My buddy Rob had a studio shoot with his friend Natashia, Thursday Feb. 3 at Studio in the RAW.  So I joined along and photographed Natashia with my PEN and a Pocket Wizard:

 

A Behind-The-Scenes Lighting set-up for the above image: