Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Details:

What: 4/3 and u4/3 meet
When: Sun. Feb. 28, 2010
Time: 12PM (I'll arrive around 11:00am, most likely)
Where: Bull & Firkin Pub, 1835 Yonge Street Toronto
Bring: Whatever you feel like bringing, or just yourself

Other system users are welcome to attend, if they have any interest in the systems mentioned.

Pro photographer / E-30 user Doug Brown may be in attendance. At least I hope that he will be, because he wanted to try out the EC-20 teleconverter. You can see some of his work at http://www.torontowide.com/

*EDIT* For those who haven't been before, we'll be in the elevated section at the back/right, by the pool tables.

Thanks for setting this up Rob.

I have been a fan of Torontowide for a while now.

You're welcome. Hopefully some people will come out to take advantage of it. Doug tells me he thinks that he'll be able to make it for a couple of hours. Covering entertainment, etc., means a weird schedule.

I may not be able to stay for the whole thing.

As fans of this format you may be interested in Michael Reichmann's review of the Olympus E-P2 posted today on The Luminous Landscape.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/revie ... /ep2.shtml

DG

Thanks for that. I agree with that review in all but two respects.

The first is the "effete" reference. If the E-P2 is effete looking, then so are virtually all of the compacts that are available on the market. It's a very small camera, not some honking huge DSLR with a white lens and portrait grip on it.

The second is the comment regarding how hard it was to find the format command for the card. The first time that I picked up an Olympus camera, I found it without a single fumble. Not too hard considering it's in the FIRST menu.

And for the record the green glowing surround isn't around the shutter button, but rather the power button.

I should be there, although I'm back to being just and m43's user, not 4/3rds as well. Anybody need some BLM-1's? I've got 4 spares. Gonna keep the rest of my accessories just in case.

And Rob, Michael was referring to the styling of the E-P2 as compared to something like the GF1, not compared to a DSLR. The GF1 (and the LX series its styling is derived from) is very businesslike, the PEN's are more style oriented. I actually do agree with him on this, I'm not a huge fan of the PEN styling, although I don't consider styling a major factor for camera choice. I agree on finding the format command, it's pretty obvious, only better setup I've seen was on the D300 (no menu required, hold 2 buttons for a couple seconds and you got a format prompt on the top LCD)

Actually he was talking about the E-P1, but was taking a similar crack at the styling of the E-P2. My point was that if the styling that if it can be said of those cameras, then essentially every compact can receive the same sort of "criticism." Yes, it's a styling exercise, but it's also more attractive to compact users because of that styling.

I'd be interested in a BLM-1! Let me know how much.

Even by P&S standards the PEN styling is a little out there, the GF1's much more typical (right up to the candy colours).

The GF-1 is shaped like a baby SLR. That's far less common these days than a little silver (or black, or blue, or pink) box camera. If anything, the PEN series is retro.

No, the GH1 and G1 are shaped like baby SLR's (or EVF P&S's), the GF1 gets its styling directly from the LX3 P&S, which is a little box.

GF1 (with flash up):

Ah, yes. I wasn't thinking of the newer body.

*EDIT* Location confirmed. We're good to go. Sounds like we might have a couple from DPReview also. One guy, in Sask., was lamenting that he had to shoot a charity event and couldn't burn some Air Miles to be here

Coincidentally or not, Olympus has a teaser for some mysterious event starting around the same time as our meet-up.


http://www.evolve.com.my/



There is at least one thread over at DPReview questioning whether this is real or somebody's idea of a joke, debating the validity of Oly using the evolve.com.my domain and whether the Four-Thirds logo is authentic. What company launches something on a Sunday, especially the Sunday after PMA?

I rather like the theory that EVOLVE is E-V-Love (E-5 Love) spelt backwards. Even if wrong, it at least has the benefit of being creative.

From 43rumors.com...
[quote]But CNET Asia learned that this is not a teaser for a new product announcement:

The only thing I would consider as Olympus "evolving" is if they came out with a full frame line. They were idiots to let Sony beat them to the punch.

Maybe its just an E-3 with 12mp and video ... yawn.

You're just spoilt by your recent full-frame addiction. I'm quite happy with the current format.

You're likely very close on what a E-5 would be; essentially a E-30 with weather sealing and video. It would be nice to get something else thrown into the mix, but I can't think of what useful gizmo they might toss in at this point. Odds are there would be marginally better DR, focus speed, and focus accuracy, but what else? A switch to dual SD cards would be nice, but unlikely at best.

[quote]But CNET Asia learned that this is not a teaser for a new product announcement:

i'm going to try and make it, you know this is the same day as the monthly meet downtown right? i know its at a different time of day, just saying

Nope, I hadn't noticed that.

Rob, have you got an MMF-1 for your E-P2 by chance? I am curious how well my Summilux 25mm works on E-P2..

I've got both the 4/3 and 4/3 to OM adaptors. By default I've got a 40-150 MkII on my E-P2, so the MMF-1 adaptor will definitely be there.

Great..

Actually it's 24hours after our event (otherwise I would have brought my laptop if the pub had wireless)...but it might be a moot point now...the site appears to be closed down with a 403 error; maybe Olympus Japan wasn't happy with all the publicity the Malaysia site was generating outside of Malaysia!

Maybe it was my comment on sites saying they were using the FourThirds logo and not the Micro FourThirds logo if the evolving was the introduction of the E-PL1 (it was later added in the copyright statement at the bottom of the screen).

I noticed that change too. It didn't convince me that it was for the E-PL1.

For those who wish to check out the Firkin menu in advance:
http://www.firkinpubs.com/category.aspx?id=3

Remember folks; tomorrow at noon.

As will my MA1 (the better choice for this, the MMF-1 and MA1 are identical aside from finish, but the MA1 is noticeably cheaper)

Argh, I misread the time. Oops.


Stuck at work