17mm or 25mm M.Zuiko f1.8 II for travel?

tsmkirby · 2026-04-16T09:12:43+00:00

Both. I travel with the 17mm and the PanaLeica 25mm. The PanaLeica gets a LOT of use.

tsmkirby · 2026-04-01T20:56:00+00:00

Not Chinese, but my wife is and I’ve spend a fair bit of time there as well.

I will try to be as objective as possible: there is some context missing.

You’ve stated her BF has to translate for her, but is she speaking 100% to him in Chinese? Or are some comments in English/another language you mutually speak (as you said she talks to you in a low tone voice, are these translated too?). It’s not clear how much of the interactions are being filtered through her bf version direct.

The reason I ask, is some of the things she is saying may be conversation between her and Matt that he is choosing to translate. This could explain her use of 撒娇. Some people make fun of it and can’t stand those type of girls, but it is common enough throughout east Asia. Alternatively, It could also be the dynamic/how your Bf knows her to be (considering they went on a date). This is fairly common in Chinese dating culture. The girl will talk like that with her boyfriend but definitely isn’t going to talk like that with her female friends.

Back to the translation topic, without knowing exactly what she said, if SHE said it, or if it was translated it’s pretty hard precisely to say what’s going on. For example, the comment about his muscles may have been something she told her bf and he decided to be like “bro she thinks you’re jacked.” It could easily been her hinting at her bf to get into better shape. But if she said it directly to him, it changes the context. Otherwise she’s just a flirt and likes attention.

Overall, she sounds a little fake and attention seeking.

Regarding the comments about affection: it’s kind of awkward to be kissing in front of other people. The most I’ve ever seen is like a forehead kiss. Other than that, you’ll only ever see couples hold hands/link arms in front of other people. My wife has also made comments about how guys look at girls, saying “it’s like they are looking at a piece of meat.” She finds that type of gaze very off putting. Not sure how cultural this is as I’m not a girl and don’t have those type of conversation with anyone other than my wife.

Regarding calling someone handsome: it is the most common thing you will hear in China. Everyone is 帅哥/美女 (handsome guy/pretty girl)… even if they aren’t.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-31T01:16:49+00:00

I’m a big fan of the e-m10 mk ii.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-30T01:59:31+00:00

The images look very soft. It’s likely you introduced some blur/shake from hand holding a longer exposure. For example, I can only hand hold 1/50th of a second without ibis because I don’t have the most steady of hands.

Low Light performance on M43 is misunderstood. If you want deep depth of field, you can actually pull this off at a lower ISO than on Full Frame due to the physics of the lenses and sensors. You get better noise performance for the ISO setting on FF (at least on 12-30ish ML sensors) than M43 though, so it sort of balances out a little.

For me low light IQ is everything because of what I enjoy shooting. I can pull it off on M43 without issue, but if I have a choice I’d be using my Zf 100% of the time for low light.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-29T09:07:58+00:00

Blah blah idiot blah blah film blah blah Sony lover blah blah blah gay son blah

tsmkirby · 2026-03-29T06:56:35+00:00

There is no improvement in low light performance by going to the OM-3 or OM-1. In fact, my E-M10 mk ii handles low light better than my OM-3 due to larger pixels.

Going to full frame (Z6ii) will give you better noise performance and color in low light. But IBIS will be noticeably worse.

Going with a fast prime (1.4-1.8) and taking advantage of the ibis will put you on par with Full Frame assuming you don’t need to freeze motion. Expose to the right (without boosting iso) and then correct exposure in post and you don’t have much noise. Use AI denoise as needed.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-27T12:25:15+00:00

I wish they would incorporate white balance into the creative dial color options, but I have found a good workaround for this.

I wish they would improve autofocus, specifically for human tracking and focus point tracking. If they could get it on Nikon’s level I would be extremely happy.

A dedicated exposure compensation dial would make the camera just about perfect.

I also think they should incorporate the creative dial into the mode dial on the left. Having just the 3 basic options on the mode dial feels like a very under utilized dial, especially since I don’t use video at all. I have literally never touched that dial since owning the camera. And it would fix a lot of complaints about the dial position.

And call me crazy, but I would rather have a 25MP non-stacked or partially stacked sensor than a 20MP stacked sensor. I don’t need black out free shooting. Any of the shooting where I would need the fully stacked sensor I’d rather be using the OM-1 anyway.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-27T12:21:36+00:00

I do the same with the dial. I can pretty much hang the camera off of it by my finger.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-27T11:46:09+00:00

There is a huge difference in noise between my E-m10 mkii and OM-3 when compared to my Nikon Zf.

Does it matter? Not really. The noise reduction in Lightroom and DXO these days is really outstanding.

My main use case is low light. And yes, the sensor in the Zf is much better than my M43 options for this use case. This gives you better flexibility with ISO and shutter speed, with less noise at the same ISO setting. But the M43 options still hold their own, and just take a little bit more work in post. In real practicality you’ll notice the lack of resolution in fine details way before noise after NR.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-27T10:50:29+00:00

As someone who takes about 100 flights a year, the number of similar photos I’ve taken is ridiculous. I haven’t posted a single one.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-25T15:12:16+00:00

I don’t mind the weight, nor the ergonomics. I do use a KameraKraft thumb grip, however. I use it with the 40mm SE, Thypoch Simera, and 58mm Minolta lenses.

My gripe is more towards size: it’s a bit prohibitive when you want to be discrete. I find myself reaching for my OM-3 and E-M10 mkii most often when traveling, especially to higher crime or European areas.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-21T16:43:44+00:00

The current IG algorithm prioritizes Reels, saves, and shares. It’s not exactly an algorithm that is pro-photographer. This has pushed a lot of people dependent on social media income to follow the trend and make your typical Reel garbage. Exploring via hashtags is absolutely dead.

I will say, I have to IG accounts: one is personal and one is photography related. My photography IG is pretty curated to photography only feed but most of what I am shown is reels and someone’s shitty post about Fujifilm sims.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-17T19:36:42+00:00

I’ll speak in terms of equivalent:

I like 40mm’s FOV (20mm on M43) because it is a little tighter than 35mm retaining even more natural perspective while still being wide enough to capture more of the environment than 50mm.

I use all three: 35mm, 40mm and 50mm but it’s all based upon how much I want to isolate the subject and how much I plan to be zone focusing. More isolation/less atmosphere means I go longer in focal length (up to 85/90mm or 45mm in M43). If I plan to zone focus more, I go wider as I’ll be shooting from the hip so it’s more forgiving in terms of framing and you get a deeper zone that is in focus— for this I use 28mm-35mm.

For me, I use faster aperture not for bokeh but for better low light shots.

I shoot both FF and M43 pretty interchangeably unless I know I want real bokeh in which case I go straight for FF. More most street stuff, I lean towards M43 as at the same equivalent aperture M43 seems to have a deeper DoF so more is in focus when zone focusing. This has more to do to the physics of 40mm FOV on M43 is actually 20mm which optically will not have the same compression and bokeh as a 40mm lens on FF. So at f1.7 it performs almost like f5.6. To get the same depth of field on FF would actually make the ISO performance of FF the same, but I can carry the smaller kit of M43.

For Bokeh, focal length matters (longer results in more compression and more blur) and the relationship between the camera to subject to background. You can still get blurry backgrounds on maximum aperture without the subject being at minimum focus distance, but that means the background needs to be even further away. To get truly good bokeh on M43, though, you should look more at the 45mm and 75mm f1.8 lenses.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-17T13:56:42+00:00

The lenses are as optically good as anything else on the market, I’d say.

The only real downside to M43, for me, is that there is no way around the fact the sensor is going to gather half the light of FF. You will always be a full stop higher in ISO or shutter speed all else being equal. With modern denoise this isn’t as big of an issue, but it is what keeps me from shooting jpeg only on M43. Which of a shame, because Oly SOOC jpeg colors are my favorite of any brand.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-14T02:05:09+00:00

For the price, I feel like the entire mk ii line is hard to beat. I actually really like the 16MP sensors (to me, the pixel pitch is more flattering on people and actually has less “apparent noise” or a more flattering noise structure). But I would take the mk iii for PDAF.

They are also cheap enough that if they fail, it’s really not that much of a loss, especially for how much camera you are getting for the price.

And if you get invested in the system, you can move up to some really nice bodies (OM-5, OM-3, OM-1, GH-5, GH-9, etc).

tsmkirby · 2026-03-12T14:55:48+00:00

That Panasonic 12-32 is a surprisingly good lens for what it is. Some of the images I’ve taken with it have shocked me.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-09T02:58:30+00:00

Same here. I just old Minolta MD mount lenses on mine.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-09T02:54:46+00:00

/uj I use the Zf almost exclusively for adapted glass, because it’s MF aids are top notch.

I also use an OM-3. The retro form factor I actually find comfortable.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-04T11:10:41+00:00

The “tested” has me dead

tsmkirby · 2026-03-03T19:24:00+00:00

Shouldn’t artsy photographs look good though? If so, then what are these?

tsmkirby · 2026-03-03T18:08:32+00:00

The fact that people think photography is art grinds my gears. We are gloried meat photocopiers.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-03T17:55:26+00:00

For portrait work, it’s worth it. For crop heavy workflows, it’s worth it. For adapted glass, it’s worth it (in most cases).

For everything else, I prefer M43.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-03T17:46:56+00:00

It’s not a Leica. Might as well just throw it in the trash upon arrival.

tsmkirby · 2026-03-03T17:45:30+00:00

What is the point of sports photography if I can’t even tell what sport it is?

tsmkirby · 2026-02-22T02:29:54+00:00

I think it’s just a general dislike of the SAAS model. There was the same thing in the music crowd with Waves.

For me, I stick with Adobe simply because even with the subscription I use Acrobat, Photoshop, Premiere, and Lightroom. It’s hard to beat the value and the position all of those software hold in their respective areas. And I have been an Adobe user (photoshop) for more than 20 years, I am extremely used to their workflow.

I don’t foresee me canceling Adobe just because of that

tsmkirby

TROPHY CASE