Toronto Photography Meetup Group

The MA-1 is cheaper because half of the people who got one, received it free with the purchase of a E-1 or E-300. If you actually had to PAY for it, it would have cost more than twice as much.

Sorry that you're going to miss it.

The MA1 was introduced with the G1, it's the Panasonic 4/3rds to m43 adapter. Olympus sells a rebadged version as the MMF-1 for more money (about $70 extra if you pay Henry's prices).

The MF1 is what came free with the E-1 and E-300. No reason to get it as the eBay versions are just as good and sell for $15-20US with free shipping.

I really getting tired of being wrong about alphabet soup

Actually, Rob was right.

The MA-1 was the original FourThirds to OM adapter that sold for $200 or given away to E-1 and E-300 owners (it's the one *I* have, and it doesn't have a model number on it, just says, "OM FOURTHIRDS ADAPTER"), and is 7.33mm thick.

The MF-1 is the later replacement (it says "OLYMPUS OM ADAPTER MF-1" on it), and is 7.34mm thick.

Source - http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/43/omz.html

For those who asked about my creative shots at the event...

The following is a gallery with a wide variety of my creative shots using different in-camera (no post editing) techniques:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/0803/ ... e_Variety/


Descriptions of those images if you want to know how I did them...at the bottom of this reply I wrote a paragraph about my future photographic plans:

-"Allan Gardens Moving Camera" 1-3, different attempts at moving the camera with the shutter open, painting with flowers rather than painting with light.

-"Liberty Village" shot with my semi-fisheye converter, purposely aimed to curve the metal frame.

-"Water Frozen by Flash" Basically taking a hand full of water in a darkened room, and freezing it with a flash.

-"2008 Beaches Streetfest" A 2.5 second exposure but done handheld with no image stabilization; I admit I'm not a fan of portrait/people photography, but I like the action in this shot.

-"1st Darkroom Experience, Age 11" As an introduction to the darkroom the instructor had us place objects onto photographic paper and expose them to light. The left half of the image is the result, and the right side is a "positive" copy.

-"Stapling a Document" Creating a multiple exposure image using multiple flash firings during one shot...the first one came from the camera when the shutter opened, and the second one was done by pushing the test button on the flash while the shutter was still open.

-"Spaceship Over a Red Dwarf" Closeup of a plasma globe, using hot pixels as "stars"...hot pixels are usually seen as a negative in digital photography, generated during long exposures. If you wish to see the full plasma globe go to:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/ ... aglobe.jpg

-"Moving Camera w/Open Shutter" 1 & 2 These images were done at the CNE of the Zipper ride...they were both 3.5 second exposures and the camera was moved in different patterns for the two images. These are earlier shots, but they remind me of the "Spirograph" toy.

-"Soul of H.A.L." A closeup of a laser pointer aimed at the camera for several seconds (can't remember the timing). It reminds me of H.A.L. from the movies 2001/2010.

-"Parrot at Flower"
-"Indian War Dance"
-"Peacock Strut" These three images were done using "LED toys" like those mentioned above, waving them in different patterns, turning them off and back on, and having them flash in different patterns. While you can concentrate to create words and specific paterns in light, I prefer to do something random and see what comes out afterwards...of course the names of each picture is only done after seeing what had "developed."

-"That's All For Now" This is an example of a flash that rapidly turns on and off, the type of strobe you'd find in a nightclub or a rock concert.

-"Zooming with Open Shutter" Using an SLR with a zoom lens it is possible to zoom while the shutter is open. Another method (not shown) is rather than a smooth zoom, zooming and stopping at certain points during the exposure (i.e. 28mm, 50mm, 85mm).

-"In Camera Orton" Orton is a technique invented by Michael Orton where a sharp slide image and out of focus slide image are combined in one slide holder to create a "dreamy" effect...this was my attempt at doing it in-camera by changing the focus during the exposure. (there is also a method where this can be done on the computer by combining a sharp image with a blurred copy of the same image)

-"My New Semi-Fisheye Converter" this is a lens I got a few weeks ago which attaches to a normal wide angle lens to give the semi-fisheye effect; a true fisheye gives a 180 degree view, but this lens gives about 150 degrees.

-"Moving Camera with Open Shutter, downtown Toronto" similar effect as the examples from the CNE except this is of the downtown core, also shot with the semi-fisheye except zoomed to give a full frame effect.


My future experiments (when I find the time) will include photographing smoke with lights or flash, blacklight photography, food colouring (in an aquarium full of water), and flash effects (I have a device that triggers the flash when it hears a sound, for example a bursting balloon to capture it mid-burst or a drop of liquid to capture the splash). I'm also planning to make a pinhole "lens" for my digital SLR.

Good to see everyone today - sorry I had to leave early.

Agenda from the 2006 MyFourThirds International meet in Toronto (from a conversation we had at the meet regarding inviting Olympus):

http://myfourthirds.com/document.php?id=19508

Pay special attention to Monday, 10am-12pm.

It was good to see everyone come out, even if the hockey fans did force us out a little earlier than expected

Hopefully our next outing will give an opportunity to use the provided toys in a more practical shooting environment. Any ideas for a location, preferably a little out of town to avoid the bylaw enforcement officers, would be appreciated.

Rob, thank you for setting up the event. It was nice to see other Olympus shooters.

Summilux 25mm worked surprisingly well on E-P2. So tempting...

Someone there asked about ExposurePlot...

ExposurePlot is a program that looks at all the JPEG images that are in a single directory, and tells you in graph form what settings were used...this way you can see what focal lengths you use the most, what shutter speeds, etc.

You can read more about it at:
http://www.cpr.demon.nl/prog_plotf.html

Thanks for organizing Rob. It was good to see the usual suspects again, plus some new people.

It's quite striking how successful m43 has become, especially considering the E-4xx cameras did not get much interest among our group.

I think the fact that Oly stripped down the features of the E-4xx bodies was their biggest issue.

I admit if they had released the E-4xx instead of the E-300, I would have bought it because the E-4xx was the size/weight of the SLR I used for 20 years:


But now I'm used to the bulk of the E-3xx bodies.

But you would likely grow to appreciate a E-PL1, based on your past experience.

Leo posted a few shots of the meet on DPReview:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=34677132

It looks like Olympus Japan is backing up what I've been saying after the "statement" from an Oly US employee saying that Oly would be mirrorless in two years:

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/ne ... 95946.html

Basically:
- Mirror systems won't be replaced.
- There would be no size advantage to removing the mirror.
- Phase detection focus is still superior to contrast detect in speed and tracking.
- There are still FourThirds bodies in the pipeline, but they won't say when...they wanted to establish their Micro FourThirds line first.

I've never really understood all of the navel-gazing on DPReview, regarding this sort of thing. It seems like 3 times a day that someone posts another "Four-Thirds is dead!" thread, or something about how the person is worried that all of his investment in glass is going to be worthless.

Since we're mostly Oly users, I was wondering if anyone here has a 512meg or 256meg xD card that they no longer need that they were willing to sell.

I bought a used C-750 at the Outlet Centre before they moved, and to my surprise it doesn't work with larger xD cards including my 2gig, so I need a smaller capacity.

Actually, this really shocked me since Olympus developed xD from the beginning to be a max of 8gig, and it's Olympus' own format, which makes me mad it doesn't work!

I think that I've still got a few 256 Meg xD cards around Mike, left over from my own C750uz. I'll have a look around.

Looking forward to the next meet, since I'm now an Olympus M4/3 user

Since I usually bring a fair bit of my kit along for the meets you won't have to ask, "How does this lens work on a E-P2?" anymore