Michael Rammell 27/04/2014 Michael Rammell 27/04/2014

Can we get on with making photographs now?

There has been so much debate lately surrounding DSLR vs Mirrorless.

DSLR's are too big. Mirrorless are too small. DSLR's are too heavy. Mirrorless have small sensors.

Enough already!

The fact is they're all cameras, whether you're shooting Medium Format, DSLR, Mirrorless or even iPhone they all take photographs. Sure, each camera approaches the task in a slightly different way and as such they're all suited to different things. But people ask different things of their cameras, therefore we don't all need the same camera or put the same priority on the same elements of a camera.

On different pages

I've seen debates between sports photographers and portrait photographers: one claiming that anything less than a Canon 1Dx or a D4s isn't worth the money and the other saying that those high end DSLR's aren't worth what they cost. The thing is with those photographers both requiring very different things of their cameras it really wasn't a debate that was being had on the same page so to speak.

Its like saying my apple is better than your banana. Sure they're both fruits but they're incredibley different!

The proof of this is portrait and architectural photographers may need megapixels so could be using a medium format (not known for it's low-light performance). They're likely to be indoors using controlled studio light. I'd argue that frame rate and weather sealing perhaps aren't at the top of these photographers' list of requirements when choosing their camera.

A sports shooter needs fast and accurate tracking. Therefore a Canon 1Dx would be a suitable camera. It's weather sealed and built like a brick. Although it's perhaps not ideal for street photography. It's maybe overkill for a portrait photographer.

A street photographer will be out all day on their feet walking the streets trying their best to blend in and be incognito. A Mirrorless camera, being light and small and not fitting the description of the typical DSLR is a great ally allowing them to photograph daily life without arousing suspicion. It is less intimidating.

So, my point here is NOT that a DSLR is only good for sports, or that a Mirroless is only good for street, because I've seen people use DSLR's for street, I've seen people shoot weddings with Mirrorless and I've seen people shoot a great many other things with a series of different cameras, my point is that we really need to stop debating it and accept the fact that people have choice now. That new cameras that are different from DSLR's are available and that people like them. Choice is good. Choice forces innovation in an industry. Even if you don't use or like Mirrorless cameras you should be pleased that they are here so that we can see new things from the old guard camera manufacturers.

Does it have to be 'or', or can it be 'and'?

One thing people often forget is that it doesn't always have to be an 'or' situation. Canon or Nikon. JPEG or RAW, DSLR or Mirroless. Apples or Bananas. I'll be out today in Central London with over 20 photographers shooting street. I have 2 Mirrorless cameras with me. In a couple of weeks I'll be back shooting weddings again. I'll be using my DSLR for that.

The Future

With regards to the future of the form factor of cameras? That will all depend on the consumer and the manufacturers of course. If these camera makers keep producing DSLR's and people keep buying them; they're not about to all of a sudden stop and change they're strategy. They'll make what they can sell.

As for the consumers: us photographers - we'll keep buying what we like and what we need for the job, whatever camera that may be and whatever camera suits them most. It's all about preference.

That said, can we please get on with making photographs now and get back to being creative's?

Michael Rammell 23/04/2014 Michael Rammell 23/04/2014

Measuring Success and your Meaning of it

The dictionary definition of success is:

“The accomplishment of an aim or purpose”

Success will be defined differently by different people. Of course as the dictionary definition says it’s about accomplishing an aim or a purpose. So, to further define our own success we have to determine what our aims are and what our purpose is, right?

I would go out on a limb and say that when most people talk about being successful, they’re referring to making lots of money, or at least a ‘decent’ amount by their standards. Some people would say that it’s not all about money and more about happiness.

So if we’re not all agreed on the definition of success, how do we measure it?

Can happiness be measured by our wealth?

Many different successes in life

Okay, so if we’re going to view success as achieving something; a goal or a target, then one may say that in life you can have many different goals and targets. For example, get grades, get house, get car, find wife, have kids. They’re all various successes someone could have. But if someone achieves all those things where does that leave them? Does that mean they’ve achieved everything in life? Is that person successful?

I would argue it’s also a lot about how you go about your success and how happy your successes makes you. In fact I’d go as far as to say that happiness and fulfillment are measures of success that should not be forgotten about.

Different views of ‘Success’

Success, if you ask me, is an opinion. It’s a feeling. Sure If you want to measure success by how much money you’re making then perhaps it’s easier: you can set a target and work towards that amount. Success could be a target of £100,000 per year.

But success could also be in the way that you make your money, rather than just actually making it. Success will vary on grand scales for people. Perhaps you’ll have succeeded when your photography business pays your bills? Success for someone else could be as simple as earning enough from shooting weddings this year so that they can buy that 5D MkIII or Nikon D4s. To others though, success may be actually making some money from photography for a start.

Success will be determined by what is important to us in life, the stage of life we’re at and what we value most.

Some peoplen have nothing, yet seem to have everything

Success will change as our aims and purposes change

I think my definition of success and as such happiness has evolved over the years. It initially was a materialistic measure, which I think children and young people are too often taught in school, sometimes at home and all too often by television. I started working in IT at a young age and there was one particular person I looked up to who was very materialistic at the time. Because I looked up to him in the early days I somewhat inherited his narrow view of success (in my opinion). At a very young age I was earning a good amount of money. I mortgaged my own house with my own money at just 22 years old. But that didn't make me happy at all.

When I found photography I became more and more interested in spending time making photographs, sharing, discussing and experiencing photography and all it has to offer.

When I met my wife I was more interested in getting to know her and find out all about her and growing with her as a person. We experienced a lot together (and still are).

When I had children, I was mostly interested in spending time with them and making the best possible family I could. Photography was and still is a huge part of my life and I’m very distracted by it at all times. I say that I am distracted by it because at times life is about more than photography, it’s about all of those other things that I am now learning are part of what I’m calling my success.

As new things have come into my life and priorities have changed I’ve always found that the one component needed for me to make those new things fit and work in my life to a point where I can truly enjoy them, rather than make them feel like work, is TIME.

My own Definition of Happiness

I think my definition of happiness is having time and being in control of it. Making money, in whatever way that is, is a vehicle to buying time as far as I’m concerned. Obviously, having a hobby for photography like I do offers me an avenue to explore in terms of combining that and making the money I need to buy time. BUT, in the last few years I’ve realised that the finite amount of time I have in a day, or a week was being overly allocated to photography and taken away from my wife and children.

Time is an important factor of happiness

I think having a balance of time, control and money is my definition of happiness. Having time to explore what I come across in life and take opportunities, having control of that time so I can do things when I want to do them, and having enough money to be able to afford all of that.

Time, for me is the most important thing, but time is dependant on other things. (Control and Money). That’s my ‘formula’ so far.

Whilst some people will still consider money to be their measure of success, others will insist that money doesn’t matter at all and that’s absolutely fine. In my opinion money is necessary, but it’s a small part that enables the other components that I define as success. Unfortunately being a photographer, whether professional or a hobbyist isn’t the cheapest of passions to pursue when you compare it to say playing Squash or running. So again, you do need money to enable you to pursue what makes you happy. (if your passion isn’t free of course)

What does any of this have to do with photography?

You may be asking why on earth I am talking about this subject on a photography blog? Well, I want to get you thinking about why you’re doing this in the first place? Why are you trying to make money from photography? What does it offer you that your day job or current pursuit doesn’t? The point is that we sometimes forget why we’re doing things when we become obsessed with them and I know full well how addictive photography can be.

Closing Question

So, now that I’ve shared my thoughts on what I call success, what does ‘Success’ look like to you? It doesn’t have to be the same as me. Success to some can be financial security, or travelling the world and of course earning money is a necessary part of those things.

What is success to you?

P.S: I remember when I was very young and there were a few times where I’d asked for a gadget, such as a Sony Walkman, or a toy such as an Action Man. Sometimes I wouldn’t get those things. However, what my brothers and I did have in our childhood were plenty of great times: Travelling down to the Isle of White or to the Hayling Island coast in the UK. Disney Land Paris, City Breaks with my mum and Brothers, holidays to Greece, driving down to the South of France that took 2 days, camping in the garden things like that. They weren’t tangiblethings. They weren’t the gadgets or toys I asked for as a young boy. But what they were, were great times and memories. Sure, I didn’t get the Action Man or the Sony Walkman, most likely because I was a horrible child most of the time or we didn’t have the money for much of my childhood, but if I did get those toys, I wouldn’t be sitting here now saying to you that “I had the greatest Mum because she bought me the Walkman and the Action Man“.

However I am saying that I had a cool Mum because she gave me experiences and memories that I still have today. I did get other toys and gadgets of course, but I don’t know where any of those are today. However, I still remember those great times and today they still have value to me. It’s for reasons such as this that I believe my definition of success is less materialistic and more about time to enjoy happiness.

When I’m old and grey, will I remember the Sony Walkman? Or, will I remember the time my brother got stuck in a swing in the park that was clearly too small for him at Hayling Island?

Happiness to me is more than things and stuff and money.

Michael Rammell 22/02/2014 Michael Rammell 22/02/2014

First Impressions: Olympus OM-D EM-5

It's been two weeks now since I took receipt of the OM-D E-M5 from Olympus. Initially, the E-M5 I had was on loan from Olympus UK who were kind enough to send me a camera so that I could review it for the Ready Steady Pro Photography Podcast and Blog, which I will be doing in due course. But I'm not going to write a full review and release my video review until late March. At that point I'll have had the camera for 5 or 6 weeks and I'll have had ample opportunity to to put it through it's paces fully: I'll be playing with it at the Photography Show in early March, I'll be out in Boston in the US in mid-March and I've got a day of Street Photography In London too between all that, so plenty of opportunity to really see what it can do.

Now, before I go any further and tell you about the camera itself I just want to let you know that I was personally quite skeptical about the mirrorless movement in general. Sure, the lightness and size of these cameras appealed to me, but I had serious doubts about their performance and ability and credentials before I decided whether or not I should jump on the bandwagon. My view was that they were an expensive fad almost, appealing to those people who shot film and were lured by the retro styling of cameras such as the OMD range from Olympus as the Fuji's.

However, I'll be clear and tell you now that I have fallen in love with the OMD in particular. At the time of writing I do still have the E-M5 on loan from Olympus UK, but it only took a week of using the loan camera before I put down the cash and bought my own, along with the Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8. The pull for me, as well as the performance, as I talk about below, was also a great deal that Olympus are currently running whereby if you buy the kit E-M5 (Body + 12-50mm lens) you get a free 45mm f/1.8 and 2-stage HLD-6 Battery Grip. Those retail at a combined price of over £430 and Olympus were offering them for free. So, I jumped at the chance. (check out the deal and all the details on the Ready Steady Pro Blog)

So, today I want to give a first impressions style review. My thoughts so far on this extremely tidy package and to give you a real honest opinion of what the camera can do, what it can't do and ultimately a conclusion.

The Build Quality

The reason I want to start by talking about the build quality is because it truly was the first thing that blew me away when I took the lease camera out of the box: It's weighty, it's very sturdy and it's all-metal body gives for an amazingly solid build. It is nothing short of impressive and that goes a long way to making this feel like a very serious camera, rather than just a little compact point and shoot with an EVF, which some people have often mistaken it for.

As someone who is used to shooting with a Canon 7d, which you may know also has an all-metal weather-sealed body and is built incredibly well by Canon, I was pretty much expecting something mostly plastic when I got the E-M5 out of the box. I was however pleasantly surprised to find that it feels as solid as any high-end DSLR when it's in your hands. The only thing I can add to this - and this sounds odd, I know - is that the E-M5 doesn't feel hollow. It feels very much like every millimeter of space inside the camera is packed with technology and that it all holds together very well.

Being a weather-resistant body though, I should have guessed that it would be well built. I guess I just didn't know what to expect seeing as it was the first time I'd held an Olympus camera.

To be honest it's not worth me saying too much more about the build quality because you genuinely do have to feel it to believe it, so to speak. If you're at your local camera store or a trade show be sure to pick one of these things up. I'm sure you'll be as impressed as I am.

Ergonomics - How does the E-M5 feel in your hands?

Now, this will be subjective depending on who is holding the camera. I know that for sure. Personally for me though, it feels superb. That solid mass in your gripped hand feels great. It's heavy enough that you feel the quality and that weight gives it a sense of balance. So far I've only tried the kit 12-50mm and the ultra-lightweight (yet, all metal) 17mm f/1.8 M.Zuiko lens. This prime has hardly come off the E-M5 since I got it. When I talk about balance though I'm referring to the way the camera feels when you're walking around with it, when you're holding up to your face to shoot with it. For example when I'm out and about with the Canon 7d and the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM II the camera feels extremely front heavy for obvious reasons. Add an extender to that and the feeling is amplified. Now, I know that's not comparing apples for apples: One is a micro-four-thirds system with a compact prime and the other other is a Large DSLR with an L Class telefocal lens mounted to it, but it illustrates the point I'm trying to make. Albeit in an exaggerated manner. At the end of the day what I am saying is that it feels great.

Some may say that it's too small and that you don't have enough grip or body to get a decent and comfortable purchase on the camera when it's in your hands, however you do have the optional 2-stage battery grip for the E-M5, the HLD-6. The beauty of this grip is that the 2-stage setup means if you can screw in the first part of the grip to add the desired 'bulk' to the front of the camera so that you have something more substantial under your finger tips. The bonus however, and I'll admit I'm yet to experience this first hand as my grip is still in the post from Olympus, is that the second part of the grip is the dual-battery part with portrait-oriented controls. Effectively, this makes the E-M5 much closer to the feel of a DSLR. I think I may be right in saying that no other compact system has this (Fuji, Panasonic, Sony etc?)

I'm used to using my 7d with a grip because I honestly believe that it doesn't feel quite right without it, so for me this option ticked a huge box. Although, I will probably only use the first stage of the grip for street photography. I'm going for incognito. Not obvious. I certainly will have te battery/portrait grip on it at all other times.

This is another part of the reason I'll be doing a more full, in-depth review in the middle of March; by that time I'll also have my 45mm f/1.8 M.Zuiko and Battery Grip to talk about.

In summary though - for me the E-M5 is a masterpiece of manufacturing from Olympus and it feels great in your hands, grip or no grip. It doesn't bother me either way. A one word summary would be "Quality.

Here, take a look at the the E-M5 in all it's glory:

The Electronic Viewfinder (EVF)

Honestly, the EVF and the Focusing were the only two things that were making me nervous about the E-M5 before receiving it from Olympus (we'll come to focusing in a minute). But I'll tell you now that the EVF is a dream to use. I find that there is hardly any lag at all, to the point where it isn't noticeable and doesn't have any negative impact whatsoever. It's absolutely fine. I don't have any other EVF experience to compare it to, again, if you're coming from the world of DSLR's, like myself, I think this EVF does a great job of making it easy to adjust to.

There is no doubt though that the EVF is different if you're used to using a mirror, but that isn't an issue with the OMD, that's just a trait of EVF's in general - they are different to mirrors: after all you're effectively looking at a tiny magnified screen, rather than a reflection.

If you're unsure about Electronic Viewfinders and what they are and what they do - don't worry. They're pretty much a digital viewfinder. Think of them that way. The fact it is showing you a digital representation of what the sensor is seeing though, does offer some very distinct advantages over their mirrored cousins. For example: What you see in an Electronic Viewfinder is the end result once you've pressed the shutter. That's right, when you press that shutter button what you're seeing in the EVF is the picture you'll end up with. It's really cool.

Further more, with the EVF being an actual screen inside an eye cup (if you will) means manufacturers can actually overlay information on the picture and show effects in real time. For example, you can have an in-EVF histogram and you can see everything in black & white whilst you shoot. There are more features and benefits, but for me personally these are the only things I'm interested in as bonus features of using the EVF.

Focusing Speed & Accuracy

This was another one of those elephants in the room that was stopping me from pulling out my wallet and diving into the world of mirrorless: focusing was rumored to be slow on mirrorless cameras, but this was a reported issue with Fuji's, Sony's and Panasonic's too. It wasn't an OMD-Specific report. However, having been fortunate enough to have a unit on loan from Olympus for the sake of this review, it meant that I didn't have to open my own wallet to find out what the camera was like.

Quite simply: this is not an issue with the E-M5 at all.

Olympus claim that the E-M5 has the fastest auto focusing in the world. Whilst that is a bold claim, what I wouldn't refute is that the focusing is darn fast and very accurate, despite only having contrast auto detect. (You'll find that most DSLR's also have phase auto detect). Whatever Olympus have packed inside this thing to make it focus so quickly is simply wonderful.

With regards to the focus accuracy so far when I've used full auto focus (allowing the camera to select the focus point) it's hit the nail on the head 9 times out of 10. I'd say that it's no more or less accurate than a larger DSLR with both phase and contrast auto detect. It's odd, but I can certifiably say "It just works".

What I find though is that I've setup my E-M5 to be as close as possible in terms of it's function button and control dial layouts as possible to my 7d. I haven't the time to re-learn an entire system and I'm not keen on the idea of missing a shot and it being the fault of any camera. As a result, I also use the E-M5 in the same way I use my 7D: Single point, manually selected Auto focus point. This means I use the directional buttons to pick a point to focus on. This may be bad practice as they Olympus seems to snap-on to the correct focus point most of the time, however it's just me and the way I like to work. In a busy scene with a lot going on or when shooting a close-up potrait, I haven't the time or the inclination to risk having the camera focus on the tip of a nose instead of an eye.

But, this does speak to another amazing feature of the Olympus OM-D E-M5 - the customisation options are amazing. I'll talk a little more about customisation shortly, but you'll be pleased to know that the OM-D captures focus extremely well each and every time. This is a total non-issue.

Touch Screen

More and more cameras today are coming packed with touch screens, in fact everything today comes with a touch screen. My daughter, who is two years old always tries to select her favourite programs on Apple TV by touching the TV screen. Oh how the world has changed.

I digress.

The touch screen on the Olympus is simply fine. You can scroll through the photographs using an Apple-esque swipe motion, but it doesn't feature a pinch to zoom gesture.

One way that Olympus have utilized the touch screen to full effect though is by implementing a touch screen focus and shutter function: You touch the area on the screen where you want the camera to focus and it quickly snaps into focus and then fires off a shot. I can't see myself using this a great deal, at least I haven't done so far, but my wife however loves this feature.

We went to Paris a few years back with a Sony NEX-3 and she loved it. Broke her heart when I sold it. Now she's back in love with the Olympus because she doesn't have to feel like a photographer and use the EVF. The quality of the display is such that it is perfectly feasible to obtain focus, compose your scene and make a photograph. So, the Touch screen gets a huge thumbs up from me personally and from my wife also.

I can see myself using the tilt feature of the screen when on the Tube in London. Looking down at the screen whilst it sits on my lap, then pressing the screen to make a photograph. I can see some benefits if truth be told. I'll have to talk more about this when I do the full review.

But, in summary the screen is lovely and bright, refreshes incredibly quickly, is packed with detail and all sorts of customization options. Of course it also titles up and down too, which is a nice feature. It's a great screen. Well done to Olympus!

Note: if the touch screen bothers you simply disable it in the menu.

Dials, Controls & Customisation

After only a few weeks of using the Olympus I'm at the point now where I'm very familiar with the button and dial layout. As I mentioned I use single focus points which I manually select. I've become accustomed to this in the same way I did on the 7d meaning I don't have to pull away from the EVF to figure out which buttons to press, which for me is very important as I don't want to miss a shot.

When I first received my own Olympus the aperture and shutter speed dials were already allocated as I wanted (you can swap them so that the front dial surrounding the shutter button can be aperture or shutter speed and the dial at the rear can be changed too). So, no matter what DSLR system you're coming from you can set the dials up to be closer to what you've become used to on those systems.

You can also adjust the direction of the dials. Rotating clockwise will increase the shutter or aperture if you like, or, change that setting so that anti-clockwise increases them, or vice-versa.

The E-M5 also features two Function buttons (fn.1 & fn.2) and a record button for instant video. You can also re-assign the functions that these buttons activate and deactivate. I personally have ISO set to the top function button, meaning when pressed I can then quickly change my ISO using one of the dials or the directional buttons. I then have the back function button set as my White Balance button. I have left the record button as the video button.

With these settings in place I can now really quickly change all of the settings I need in order to achieve the shot I want. Just like I can with my Canon 7d.

The dials themselves seem relatively well placed and are very solid, continuing the theme of the great build quality. If you add the body grip you get an additional dial and shutter button, but this is simply a duplicate of those that are already on the body of the camera. This is a nice addition as the shutter button and the shutter speed dial (as I have mine set) are then further out on the front of the camera under your index finger. It's a great addition. Furthermore add the second stage grip and you've got the same again, this time on the vertical axis.

Image Quality

Perhaps I should have touched on the image quality earlier on in this review. After all it doesn't matter how much of a masterpiece the camera body is if it doesn't make great photographs, right?

Well I'm personally extremely impressed with the files I'm getting out of the Olympus OM-D E-M5. I actually let Neil Graham borrow the camera for a day and he made the same observation as me - and that is that the files seem to be very forgiving in post-processing. You can really push them.

I'm personally a sucker for a black and white photograph, as you may be able to tell and to be honest the files are lovely and silky in Black and White, you can really push the blacks and the whites for a lovely high contrast monochrome finish.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing this post there are no camera profiles in LightRoom 5 for any Olympus lenses. That doesn't matter too much as you can still take the RAW's into LightRoom and do what you want with them, but it just means you can't use the profile options. But, until I see a before and after with a profile enabled, I'm non-the-wiser as to what imperfections there are with the Olympus MFT lenses. I love them!

High ISO Performance

Before making my own purchase I watched a few hours worth of YouTube videos to see what the OM-D was all about in terms of it's ISO performance. I'd not really heard too many bad things, and the bad things I had heard were in my opinion flawed arguments as most of the time people were comparing the Olympus to top of the range DSLR's such as the 1Dx and D4. Fine, they're all cameras, but the bodies of the Nikon and Canon alone are upwards of £5,000. That's like comparing a Ferrari to a tuned-track car. Sure, the Ferrari isn't cheap and is a very capable car, but those track cars are designed specifically for what they do. As i said above when I was referring to balance (7d with 70-200 vs E-M5 with 17mm) it's not comparing apples for apples. Why would anything that costs 8 times as much be a fair comparison?

Analogy and rant over I'll tell you in my own words about the ISO performance: suffice to say I don't want to talk technical and I haven't done a side by side lab test, but from a practical perspective - I mean actually going out with the camera and shooting at high ISO's of 3200 plus, I can say that I am extremely impressed yet again. The Micro Four Thirds sensor packed with 16megapixels. I found at ISO 3200 I still have very clean pictures. Add a little hint noise reduction in Lightroom and they come out even better. I can honestly say that coupled with a good technique, such as Exposing to the right the results are very clean.

The Price Point

I'm even more impressed with the price of the E-M5 now that I know the camera better: The outstanding build quality, the impressive customisation, the superb selection of lenses and ultimately the superb quality of files that you get as a result of all that. It's a camera that has come down in price quite a bit since it's launch. You can pick up a body only for a little over £500, but as I eluded to at the start of this post right now Olympus are running an offer giving you over £430 of accessories (a 45mm f/1.8 lens and the 2-stage battery grip) for free. This was a hugely deciding factor for me.

The E-M5 can only be described, in my mind, as amazingly capable, fantastically solid and great fun as well as being a perfectly feasible tool for 'proper' work (Portraiture, weddings etc). So, given all that it can do I'd say that the £899 I paid for it with the 12-50mm kit lense from Park Cameras was decent value. (I will say I chose to purchase from an authorized UK stockist for warranty reasons and so that I could make use of Olympus' fully loaded deal). You can pick up an E-M5 Body only for £749 from Park, and I've seen it for around £650 elsewhere.

The amazing thing is that the E-M5 does pack in many of the features, but not all of them, that the E-M1 contains, yet the E-M1, body alone will set you back £1299 from Park.

So, as far as I can see if you're looking for a extremely capable, interchangeable lens, compact camera with EVF the Olympus represents superb value. As do the lenses available. But I'll review lenses separately to this post.

Just for fun: E-M5 shutter in slow motion

E-M5 or E-M1

Okay, I'll start this off by listing the things that the E-M1 has that the E-M5 does not:

Phase Auto Detection
Weather Sealing
WiFi
Mic-In
TruePic VII sensor (E-M5 packs a TruePic VI)
ISO Starts at 100 instead of 200 on the E-M5, but the next firmware release for the E-M5 is supposed to give the E-M5 access to ISO 100 as well
Focus Peeking
81 Focus Points instead of 35
A higher resolution with over 1,000,000 dots instead of the 600,000 that the E-M5 has

Or you can take a look at the DPReview Side-by-side comparison tool.

Now that I've listed it, it does seem as though the E-M1 packs a lot that the E-M5 does not. However, note that really the only actually features it has in addition to the E-M5 are the Wi-Fi and Mic Input. Sure, I mean the auto detect is phase as well and it has focus peeking and more focus points, but to be honest, from what I can gather and from what many other blogs have said, the resulting picture quality is only marginal.

Now consider that you're going to have to spend out an additional £550 to get all these things that the E-M1 offers, I'm of the opinion that we arrive at the point of diminishing returns. DPReview themselves give the E-M1 an impressive 84% score. That's Great. But the E-M5 scores an impressive 80%. Both achieved 'Gold Awards'

4% difference between the two cameras for £550? Diminishing returns indeed if you ask me.

Furthermore if you're convincing yourself you need the built-in Wifi - Go and buy an Eye-Fi SD card instead for the cost of £32. I don't know about you but I can't see the need for Wireless shooting 90% of the time, perhaps only in a studio location. For this thought the Eye-Fi is perfect and represents actual value for money.

At the end of the day if my clone and I went out to do some street photography or were at a wedding and one of us had the E-M1 and the other the E-M5 - I'm not convinced the photographs on the E-M1 would be £550 worth of better, if much better all.

This is not to say that the E-M1 is rubbish, but more a nod to how amazing the E-M5 actually is.

My verdict is that if you're a photographer coming from the world of DSLR's and you're looking to dip your toes into the mirrorless waters then the E-M5 represents a great value choice. But don't let the word value trick you into thinking 'it's decent for the price', I mean value as in you're getting a hell of a camera for the price. My inclination was to spend the £550 difference on lenses and accessories. After all you're going to need additional batteries and if you're used to shooting to Compact Flash you may need to go and buy a few quality SD cards too now.

That's it. That's my First Impressions and thoughts on the E-M5. In the coming weeks I'll be talking much more about this camera on the blog including why having a smaller camera encourages greater creativity, how having a smaller camera enables me to shoot more than ever, I'll have lens reviews of the 17mm and the 45mm lenses (both f1.8 M.Zuiko Micro Four Thirds lenses from Olympus. I'll also be reviewing the HLD-6; the battery grip and then there will be a full, in-depth video review of the E-M5 too.

I'm so looking to get an E-M1 from Olympus once in send back the lease E-M5 and I've also agreed to take a look at the PEN E-P5, which looks quite cool as well.

So I hope you found this review useful, keep an ear to the ground for more E-M5 updates and be sure to subscribe to the blog for future updates too!

Michael Rammell 17/02/2014 Michael Rammell 17/02/2014

SEO Tips for Blogging Photographers: Part 1

SEO can seem like a mystery to some. You may find that some of your more generic posts are climbing up the results ladder, whilst others are sitting in an abyss, getting only a few seldom visitors.

Well, there is a science to SEO. It’s not guess work at all. So today I want to share with you Part 1 of my top SEO tips for photographers that blog! (and let’s face it, we all blog!).

If truth be told these SEO tips are applicable to all, but we’re going to use photographers as our example, as that’s what Ready Steady Pro is all about!

1: Post Titles – What are people searching for?

Where possible, it’s important that the title of your post has some of the keywords in it. This very post for example has the words ‘SEO’, ‘tips’, ‘photographers‘ and ‘Blogging‘ in it. AlreadyGoogle know that this post is giving SEO tips to photographers. More than that though, you should look for a title that people are searching for. Again, this post is likely to be found byphotographers searching for tips on how to boost their SEO when blogging. It may sound obvious, but if I had called this post something like ‘Get blog posts found on the internet’ it’s not as likely to have the same success rate. Sure that title may still be relevant to you and I, but we’re writing posts not just for consumption by the reader (by humans!) but we’re also writing for Google too. Remember that.

2: Keywords in Post URL

Keywords are of, erm…Key…importance. Not just in your post title, but also in your URL too! By actually including the keywords in your URL it helps Google to find your post. I’m not talking about just listing your keywords or as many keywords as you can. For a bad example: “readysteadypro.co.uk/blog/Post104-photography-business-weddings-tips-seo-photographers-berkshire-marriage”…I’m talking about an actual readable post URL, much like your actual post title. A URL such as this would be far better: ”readysteadypro.co.uk/blog/SEO-Tips-Photographers-Blogging”. Remember, we’re writing for Google as well as the human readers. This URL is digestible, understandable and clear.

3: Title Tags and Heading Tags

Have you ever seen the <h1> & <h2> tags in html?Or in WordPress blogging you may have seen the ‘Heading 1‘ & ‘Heading 2‘ options in the font format section in the toolbar:

Well, these heading options are more than just a convenient way to consistently format your headings and sections. Google Search Robots scan through your post and pay particular attention to these tags (the heading option in the drop down sorts out the html-behind for you). Imagine if you were looking at someone else’s screen and they scrolled quickly down the post are your eyes more likely to catch one of the larger titles or are you more likely to pick out a random piece of text from one of the many paragraphs? Okay, some may say random text from a paragraph, but the point I’m making here is that Google loves these headings. The headings represent another opportunity to highlight your keywords. Don’t go formatting your entire post as a heading, but instead use the headings throughout your post to throw in a few keywords here and there.

Perhaps if you’re blogging about the most recent wedding you photographed could have a paragraph about the venue with a heading tag to start. In that heading tag write the venue name so that searches for the venue could also return your post to the searcher. For example: “Wonderful Wedding at The Ritz Hotel”

4: Tag & Title all of your images (Alt Tags)

Google loves text! The more text you have the more Google can make sense of what it is you’re writing about. Photographs and images however can often present Google with a problem as it can’t crawl the pixels and deduce what the photograph is. However, you can help Google out by giving the pictures you insert into your posts proper titles and descriptions. Depending on the blogging platform you’re using, you should be able to look at the properties of the pictures once uploaded and give them a title and an alt tag and possibly a description or caption. If you can do this – be sure to do so! It really does help Google to make heads & tails of what the image is that you’ve just uploaded. You may also find that photograph will then be returned in Google’s Image search, which of course will link back to your site also.

5: Links, links, links!

Google Search robots are like Lemmings – they’ll just follow the paths you provide for them. So there are a few ways you can leverage links in a post to your advantage. First of all, be sure to include plenty of links to content on the same site as the post. That’s right – link to other pages and posts on your own site! Google robots will scan through your post, see that it points to your ‘contact me’ page, or links to another post and go off and have a look at that too. Think of it as self-promotion. There is nothing wrong with that.

Secondly, linking to other, reputable and popular websites is also another way of gaining kudos with Google. Websites that provide links to other places on the web are connected sites. Google loves this. If you’re linking off to an article you wrote on a wedding magazine’s blog, or linking to a florist or dress maker Google will look upon this favorably. So be sure to use links throughout your posts

Bonus Tip 6: Post length is important!

As mentioned, Google looooves text. Google can get it’s little robots all over your post, picking out the heading tags, the links and the keywords and is able to form a profile of what it is you’ve written thus allowing Google to better return your post for matching search queries. Well, the more you can tell Google (or, the more you can write, rather) the better this whole process works. Articles of less than 500 words, even those that are pretty well setup for SEO, won’t perform quite as well as those with 1,000 words or more. So get writing. But as I’ve said throughout this article don’t forget you’re writing for the reader too, so don’t just write any old words down. It has to be all-killer and no-filler. You could try writing in a conversation style. You could add a summary to the end of the post for a little bulk, you could add quotes. There are lots of ways to increase the word count if you’re having a hard time, but don’t write for the sake of writing. 1,000 words of more would be nice though.

(Word press blogs have a little Word Count that updates as you go. I can’t say the same for every blogging platform out there, but another way to check your current word count is to copy all your text into a word document and use the word count function there too:

Well, that’s it for part 1 of this post. Next week I’ll be sharing another selection of top-tips with you, including:

Google Maps for business
Google Webmaster Tools
The importance of the ease of sharing and social media
Categorizing your posts on your blog
Back Links

Try applying these top SEO tricks to your next blog post and see how you get on – do let us know if you implement any of these suggestions!