Blurring Background with Olympus Digital Camera Lenses
A blurred background is useful in making your subject stand out from
its surroundings. Bokeh is a term that describes the quality
of the blurring. To achieve "good" bokeh in a photograph,
the lens aperture is used wide open as the lens is precisely focused
on the subject. A high speed lens, a lens with a large aperture, is
best for achieving this.
With my Olympus digital camera, I can get a great Bokeh effect using
a lens adaptor and lenses from older standard model cameras, in addition
the fine Zuiko kit lenses. These can be fitted to the Olympus SLR
Four Thirds System camera body resulting in a lens with double the
focal length of that lens as used on a 35mm camera. For example, my
Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.5 becomes a 100mm f:1.5 on the Four Thirds System
camera.
Beautiful bokeh can be achieved with this set up and I love being
able to use my renowned Zeiss 35mm lenses on my digital SLR, in addition
to the superb Olympus Digital Camera Lenses.
No auto-focus, of course, but that 100mm Planar is a pretty nice
low-light or portrait lens. Check your local camera store or visit
sites online for great prices on adaptors for your 35mm Nikon, Canon,
Leica, Zeiss or other manufacturers' digital camera lenses.
Olympus Camera Lenses
When buying Olympus camera lenses and oher digital cameras online,
look for bargains sold as packages. Packages come with a camera body
and what are called "kit" lenses. Here are two popular kit
lenses frequently included with Olympus E-Series Digital Camera bodies.
- The wide to portrait length telephoto 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6
- The medium to longer telephoto length 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6
These lenses are the equivalent of 28mm to 84mm and 80mm to 300mm 35mm
film camera lenses, respectively, due to the Olympus Four Thirds system.
However, due to their smaller size and compact construction they are
much lighter than typical 35mm camera lenses, even those without auto-focusing.
And, of course, many other focal lengths are available from the 8mm
Fisheye through the fixed length 50mm f/2.0 Macro and many variable
range zoom lenses, including an Olympus 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 Zuiko Digital
Zoom, equivalent in focal length to a 140mm to 600mm, 35mm camera lens.
Photography Lessons Online
When I was a kid, many years ago, I used to develop my own film and
print my pictures with an old Federal enlarger. Today, all that darkroom
work can be done with your computer. If you missed blurring the background
when you took the shot and you have distracting background, you can
even create bokeh with applications like Photoshop. There are many
tutorial lessons available on line on how to use this type of software.
You can also find out just about anything photographic online, from
camera gear specifications for digitalcameras such as shutter speeds,
viewfinders, flash attachments, shutter lag, underwater accessories,
macro lenses and battery chargers, complete with prices and equipment
comparisons.
Modern, multi-megapixel digital cameras are fantastic machines, but
with a run down battery, you're pretty much out of luck getting that
great shot. It's a good idea to carry extra batteries and a battery
charger for the car. Even simple point-and-shoot cameras need batteries
these days.
Buying Digital Cameras Online
Digital SLR cameras come in several formats now, even an equivalent
to the medium format film cameras that used film larger than the popular
35mm format. The new digital "medium format" camera use
larger image sensors.and accomplish the same image quality gain that
medium format film cameras do by providing enormous amounts of megapixels.
Well known brands such as Pentax, Hasselblad and Mamiya are now offering
beautiful, high precision, medium format digital cameras.
These medium and large format cameras carry hefty price tags, as
do top of the line, "35mm" equivalent digital SLR cameras
from Olympus, Kodak, Canon and others. But, there are great lower
priced digital camera SLRs on the market with superb lenses available
in all focal lengths from fisheye wide angles to ultra telephotos,
and many zoom models covering medium wide-angle to modest telephoto
ranges for very reasonable prices.
It's a good idea to do a little on-line research to help you decide
on format, basic specifications, shutter speeds, external flash, available
accessories and especially lenses. There are so many beautiful, auto-focusing
lenses in any focal length you could possibly want. Each is designed
to be specially suited for a particular type of shooting situation,
close-up, telephoto, low-light, sports or general purpose.
Read reviews, check prices, compare options. You'll also want to
read about iso settings, which are loosely related to film speed.
Yeah, it's new stuff, but we don't have to worry much these days about
shutter and aperture settings, not to mention buying film by ASE rating.
Or focusing, for that matter. Remember focusing?
When I was a kid, I gave up Friday night movies with my friends once
a month in order to buy U.S. Camera photography magazine, just so
I could read the ads and drool over the Contax, Leica and Exacta 35mm
"miniature" cameras and the medium format Rollieflex and
other twin-lens reflexes. I figured the movies was two hours worth
of fun, but my photography magazine provided many more hours of enjoyment
deciding what I would buy if could ever afford one of those wonderful
cameras.
Today it's a lot easier and even a kid doesn't have to give up the
movies just to review photography equipment. It's all free until it
comes time to actually buy one.
When you buy digital cameras online, take advantage of the information
readily available regarding Olympus Digital Camera Lenses
and other manufactures cameras and accessories and read about the
Four Thirds system of lens design, to help you make your buying decision.
You'll have fun, gain valuable knowledge, and you'll find great
bargains.
