ROBIN WONG

Last Friday, I was invited by OM System Malayia to speak at YL Photo Fair, sharing my experience using their latest OM System PEN camera. I chose to talk about street photography with the PEN, since that was a topic I was most comfortable with. It was a Friday, a working day, in the afternoon 2pm close to Muslim prayer time, so I did not expect a crowd. However, the turnout was bigger than anticipated, the room was filled and there were people even standing all the way at the back! I saw many familiar faces, friends who came all the way to show support, for that I am truly grateful. I feel blessed with the love and support shown. This was my first time speaking for OM System ever, and I hope for more future collaborations and opportunities with OM System Malaysia. It was fun to be on stage again, both nerve-racking, but at the same time it was also very fulfilling, feeding off the energy of the lively crowd! All images taken by Andrew (IG @andrew_hsien), used with permission

I shot a recent show at Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center (KLPAC), and a friend who happens to be a full frame shooter commented on how daring I was for using Micro Four Thirds to shoot in such a challenging environment. In fact, I have been shooting many times in similarly difficult conditions for KLPAC over the years, and my Micro Four Thirds gear delivered each and every time without fail. I intentionally chose to use the Olympus E-M1 Original from 2013 to prove my point further, if such a dinosaur camera can shoot good enough images, I am sure newer and more capable Micro Four Thirds cameras that came after can do a better job. I brought along my prime lenses Olympus 25mm F1.8, 45mm F1.8 and 75mm F1.8 for this session, most images were taken with either 45mm or 25mm F1.8. I also made a video to share some tips on shooting low light stage photography here (click). 

During the 5 short days I had with the OM System PEN camera loan from OM System Malaysia, coincidentally SUKMA (Malaysian Sports Games) was happening, and I had some opportunity to put the camera to some serious torture. I borrowed the Olympus 300mm F4 PRO lens to be used on the OM System PEN. Initially, I had some very grand plans - I wanted to shoot Muay Thai and Gymnastics, but there was only so much I could do in a few days, and I managed to shoot tennis and weightlifting, both locations not too far from where I stay. I was happy to put the human AI subject detection AF to test, and it did splendidly in following the fast-running tennis players chasing the ball all around the court. Mind you, it was indoor court, because it was raining and the game went on, so I had to ramp up the ISO numbers. Sure. the OM System PEN is not a professional grade camera and should not be recommended for use in such straining environment, but hey, I thought if it can handle some serious sports shooting, it should handle day to day situations without any issues. 

While I welcome third party manufacturers making AF lenses for Micro Four Thirds, which is a rarity these days, we already have so many 25mm lens options that another 25mm F1.8 lens from SG Image does not exactly scream excitement. Well, I did get curious due to the extra low price tag of USD99 only for a new lens, and at that price, I thought what could possibly go wrong? I guess I had to find them out the hard way. I bought one and tested the SG Image 25mm F1.8 AF on my Olympus PEN E-PL7. I have also made a YouTube review, in case you prefer video version, you can check it out here (click). 

This is a continuation from previous post about outdoor shooting session using the OM System PEN camera. An important note - all images were shot in JPEG instead of RAW, because at the time of testing the camera there was no RAW compatibility with post-processing softwares yet. It instantly reminded me of how amazing the JPEG engine of Olympus/OM System cameras are, the images come out very optimized straight out of camera. I simply love the color rendering, they look so natural and true to life, and the skin tones look very pleasing too. I did some minor post-processing, mostly adding contrast and correcting some exposure imbalance (my own fault really, I am not a perfect photographer, I make mistakes). Here are the remainder shots of the outdoor session with Lily, taken with OM System PEN and Olympus 45mm F1.2 lens. 

I was very happy when I found out that OM Digital Solutions managed to include the human AF Subject Detection AF in their latest OM System PEN, though the camera uses older internals. I was curious to see how that human subject detection AI AF works, so I brought the camera with the Olympus 45mm F1.2 PRO mounted to shoot my beautiful friend, Lily in an outdoor setting. The AI AF worked so well, it was super-efficient and sticked to Lilys face throughout the entire shoot, and I got to say the reliability of the AF surpassed what I managed to get from even the OM System flagship cameras like OM-1 and OM-3. I was so impressed, go job OM Digital Solutions! I did a POV video to show how effective the AF works; you can check it out here (click). 

OM Digital Solutions has just launched their latest camera - OM System PEN. I was really excited about this camera for a few reasons - 1) This is officially the first PEN camera from OM Digital Solutions, some sort of a soft reboot of the PEN camera line-up from Olympus previously and 2) It has been a while since I last did a full camera review! Spoilers alert, I actually really do like the camera, it has almost everything that I have wished for in a Micro Four Thirds camera, and I am buying one. I have made a video review on YouTube as well; you can watch it here (click).