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Lympa Log - Leica R lenses on Olympus E-330 DSLR

Photos and Text © Gary Todoroff  2006 All Rights Reserved

April 21, 2006

With a new lens - the Zuiko 14-54/2.8-3.5 , I felt like taking a test drive. So I headed east up to Kneeland, something you would describe as bigger than a hill but smaller than a mountain. Probably that's why locals just call it Kneeland.

I packed my new camera bag, a LowePro Sling 200, with E-330 and lenses, tossed in the tripod, and drove out into fluffy-cloud blue skies. About ten miles out of Eureka, light along the Freshwater Road meadows was too good to pass up.

 

E-330, Zuiko 90-250mm f2.8 zoom at 187mm, 1/160th,  f4.0, ISO 400, steadied on a handy fence post along Freshwater Road on the way up the hill to Kneeland Prairie At a 35mm equivalent of 375mm, you need light and shade to give a feeling of depth to an otherwise foreshortened telephoto view.

Another ten miles brought me to the meadows and praries at about 2000 feet elevation. Light was fading to a rosy glow. My cheeks were probably glowing a bit, too, with temperatures falling to about 35 degrees F. Even with gloves on, the E-330 was fairly handy to use on a tripod. I was especially thankful for the new "Sling" camera bag. You can carry it like a backpack, then can quickly spin it to the front. The bag rides a bit high on your chest, but you reach down into it, just like a normal camera bag. I was changing lenses often, so that was a very useful function during an off-road hike that covered about a mile. 

Kneeland Prairie, E-330 with Zuiko 7-14mm/4.0 at 7mm, 0.3sec, f22, ISO100, -0.3EV . RAW capture was on a tripod with mirror lockup ( Anti-Shock )set at two seconds.

Along with the 14-54mm lens, the new Lowepro bag proved itself well, too. But my favorite camera bag is a 1988 Toyota Supra, which has faithfully transported me to many wonderful landscapes over the years.

The road ends here at Kneeland Airport, a short strip used mostly by pilots when coastal fog socks in our lower elevation air fields. I had not used the new lens much, so took advantage of twilight to try it out.  Zuiko 14-54mm/f2.8-3.5 at 19mm, 15sec, f14 ISO100 +0.7EV, Noise Reduction On, RAW capture.

The top of Kneeland has often been used for car commercials. One time for an aerial photography flight, my pilot, Don Burrow, wisely flew his Cessna 182 up to the deserted Kneeland field the evening before. Sure enough the next morning, local airports were socked in as we drove up to the sunny air field. Instead of the usual empty road like in the photo above, traffic was everywhere: FedEx trucks, UPS, big vans and lots of cars and people - especially strange at not yet even 8 o'clock in the morning. Mercedes was shooting car commercials. An officer in one of three California Highway Patrol cars stopped us to ask what our business was. Without missing a beat, Don drawled with his good 'ol boy southern accent, "We just come up here for the peace and quiet."

The new lens has a very useful zoom range of 28-108mm in 35mm equivalent. Jpeg compression does not do justice to the amazingly smooth gradations of blue on the car hood, captured by the Olympus E-330 without even a hint of digital noise.  Zuiko 14-54mm/f2.8-3.5 at 23mm, 10sec, f22 ISO100 -0.3EV, Noise Reduction On, RAW capture.

 

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