Olympus Body Cap lens (BCL-15) — first impressions

Because I haven’t been getting around as much recently, I was in the market for a small pocketable camera for those candid photo opportunities which occasionally present themselves when out and about locally.

Some months back I sold my Ricoh GRD IV on a whim (something I later came to regret) so began looking for a camera to take its place. I thought about repurchasing the Ricoh but, although image quality is good, I decided to move up to a bigger sensor. (I did try the ASPC-sized GR last year, but couldn’t really bond with it as I do a fair amount of low-light shooting. The GR, unlike the GRD IV, has no stabilizer, a factor which likely prejudiced my feelings toward the camera.)

Anyway, my choices narrowed to the following: the Sony RX100 series and the Panasonic Lumix GM1. I decided to go for the Lumix as it boasts a four-thirds sensor and has a fair choice of lenses (including the 12-32 kit glass which has image stabilization built in.)

The 12-32 has proved surprisingly good, and its image stabilization easily overcomes the lowest aperture setting of F3.5 (at the 24mm end). For this reason, higher ISO interior shots are quite acceptable. The only slight drawback of the GM1 and the 12-32 is that it’s not as pocketable, say, as the Ricoh GRD IV or the Sony RX100 series. Don’t get me wrong, the GM1 with its kit lens in the closed position is only around 2 inches back to front — so still reasonably compact (and easily fits in a coat pocket).

I began to wonder, though, if there was a lens that would narrow the camera’s profile yet further; something nearer to the width of the aforementioned Ricoh GRD IV. It was then that I heard about the Olympus BCL-15, a lens so slender that it really deserves its ‘body-cap’ moniker. (Note: Olympus and Panasonic jointly developed the four-thirds system, so their lenses are interchangeable.)

Although modestly-priced, the only ‘fly in the ointment’ with the BCL-15 is that its compact and basic construction brings with it certain limitations. For starters, it will not autofocus — instead, the front of the lens has a lever which enables just four settings: closed, infinity, 3 meters to infinity, and close-focus. There is also only one aperture; a fixed F8.

So it would seem, then, for my needs — candid shots, many taken in an interior environment — the BCL-15 was out of the question. Or was it?

I’d first tried the 12-32 on the GM1 in a low-lit shopping mall in shutter-priority 125, with the ISO set at 3200. I noticed the camera gave me many shots at F9 or above and, as I mentioned previously, these were really quite acceptable. (Remember — we’re talking about candid shots here; a certain amount of noise and occasional slight OOF is acceptable. To quote Henri Cartier-Bresson: ‘Sharpness is a bourgeois concept’.)

I reasoned, therefore, I’d be okay with BCL-15's F8. After it arrived I popped it on the camera in Aperture Priority (auto-ISO) and concentrated on taking photos. The result? Well, the pictures below will let you judge for yourself. The Olympus doesn’t deliver the most tack-sharp of images, perhaps, and of necessity its fixed F8 setting will almost always deliver a higher ISO. However, in terms of portability, super discreet profile and amazing fun factor, I think it one little lens that is remarkably hard to beat.

(To view further images taken with this lens, see Flickr link on right to view my regularly updated Olympus BCL-15 album.)

Festive Cheer ... (ISO 2500, 1/125)

Christmas is for sharing (ISO 3200, 1/100)

Fingerstall (ISO 2500, 1/125)

Focus of attention (ISO 3200, 1/125)

Play roulette here (ISO 1000, 1/125)

Resisting temptation ... (ISO 2500, 1/125)

Shopping: it's enough to send you bananas (ISO 2500, 1/125)

By way of contrast, here are three high ISO images from the Lumix 12 -32 (at 28mm):

Cashpoint ... (ISO 3200, 1/160)

Evening News (ISO 3200, 1/125)

Waiting for the rain to stop ... (ISO 3200 1/100

Local walks can sometimes be good for pics, too ...

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while. Had a bit of a health setback and I’m only now managing to get back to some kind of normalcy.

Made sure I got out for a local walk this weekend, though, and took a few images, and I’m hoping to venture further afield to bag some more people pictures soon.

Meantime below are three shots taken on a twenty-minute walk this weekend in my local area. (I’ve also uploaded additional pictures culled from my last shoot in central Edinburgh to Flickr. The total count of my Edinburgh street pics is now 279, so please use the links on the right if you’d like to view these.)

(Pictures below all taken with Fuji X100s @ F8.)

A gnarled old tree at the corner of Old Dalkeith Road/Kingston Avenue, Edinburgh.
(Looks to me very much like a rearing horse)

Not many of these old wall-mounted pillar-boxes left in the city. This one's near the junction
of Kingston Avenue and Old Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh.

This traditional-looking clock sits above a guest house in Old Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh

Film vs digital ...

On my latest photo walk (May 12), I took two cameras; a Nikon F65 and Fuji 100s. I loaded the Nikon with Kodak T-max 100, a film I’ve never tried before, which I used to photograph the first part of the walk (Edinburgh’s Old Town).

I’ll be uploading some shots from the Nikon to this post when I get them back from the processors, but meantime here are a few taken with the 100s (Princes Street and surrounding area):

A wee indulgence ...

Checking the picture ...

Disapproving look ....

Picture pose ...

Pointing the way ...

Red man

Take five

Window shopping

Update 22/5/14. Took a bit longer to receive my photos than I expected but, as promised, here are the best frames of the shoot:

Cap'n Jack

Cashmere

Look both ways ...

Unusually-kilted doorman at G&V Royal Mile Hotel

12 Frames (A day in the streets with Vivian Maier)

I’m currently reading two excellent books on street photographer Vivian Maier: Vivian Maier, Out of the Shadows and Vivian Maier, Street Photographer, (both of which I recommend highly).

Vivian Maier, Out of the Shadows is the longer book, at 288 pages, three hundred images, and a fair amount of biographical text.

Vivian Maier, Street Photographer has 123 pages and fewer photographs (and less text), but the book is larger in format and (to my mind) contains the better images.

Out of the Shadows reveals how Vivian would leave the Highland Park Chicago home where she was a nanny then, after leaving her charges at school, head downtown with her Rolleiflex medium-format camera loaded with one 12-frame roll.

One such expedition in 1963 begins with a shot of children at the school entrance, and ends eleven frames later in downtown Chicago. During this time Vivian takes a variety of pictures from many different vantage points.

Looking at the final tally, I’d say the roll yielded eight above-average images.

Although Vivian was constrained by the number of photos she was able to take, she nonetheless managed to make every frame count.

Contrast that with today. Shooting digitally, street photographers have no limitations. A typical photo walk of mine might yield around 150 images, only ten per cent or less of which could be keepers.

The lesson? I guess it might be to look more and shoot less ...

The big picture ...

Concentration

Quartet

Eye-catching ...

Stuck for time (little hand at five o' clock)

Subtext

Runners

Flare/Flair

Striking a pose...

Tom Gilzean

Narcissistic?

Serendipity and the Fuji X100s ...

To paraphrase Forrest Gump: ‘Street photography is like a box of chocolates; you never quite know what you’re gonna get.’

On most my photo walks, I reckon a good day might result in at least ten per cent keepers. (This is an average; sometimes I get a little less — sometimes more.)

On the odd occasion, however, I get one image (in this case, out of 150 frames) which is a little bit special.

Take the picture below entitled ‘Hat Trick.’ The image was one of several taken on a busy (and windy) corner of Princes Street in Edinburgh.

I had absolutely no idea what I had until I opened the image in Aperture and saw the man scrabbling for his hat (crouching next to the girl in the centre of the frame; the hat is on the pavement (sidewalk) left foreground).

Very serendipitous.

These are the first images I’ve taken with my new camera, a Fuji X100s. In an earlier post, I spoke of my experience with its predecessor, the X100. I didn’t like the X100 due to its hit-and-miss focussing and returned it.

The X100s, however, is a completely different unit. Battery life is still limited (I got around 120 shots before the first battery gave out), but isn’t a problem if you carry a couple of spares (good third-party batteries are obtainable cheaply on Amazon).

This isn’t a review, of course, as the attributes of the X100s are much more comprehensively covered elsewhere on the internet. The most winning feature of the camera for me, however, is image quality.

I shoot a lot in black and white, and the X100s produces great film-like images (in jpeg). This is important, as I don’t shoot RAW. I prefer to spend as little time as possible in post-process, and I think this is where Fuji excels.

So, a thumbs-up from me for the X100s (and for the Q-button, which enables effortless switching between colour and black and white modes).

The pictures below are all OOC jpegs with minimal sharpening:

Hat trick

'And now for a nice wee cuppa tea'

Anticipation

Art lover ...

Girl in a hurry

Long wait

Lost in thought ...

Pensive

Seasoned shoppers

Trews

Walk don't run ...

Nikon F65+Voigtlander Color Skopar 20mm & Kodak BW400CN

Got out for my first photo walk of 2014 on Wednesday, 8 January. It’s been a while since I used my Nikon F65, and wondered how my 20mm Voigtlander Color Skopar would perform in full-frame (it’s effectively 30mm on my D40).

It’s been a few months since I used film, too. I had a hankering to try pure black & white again (rather than Portra converted), but since few outlets will develop and scan B&W all that cheaply, I opted to go for C-41, which can be processed with colour chemicals.

I chose Kodak BW400CN film, as the general consensus is that it looks less grainy.

(The Voigtlander is said to vignette a little below F5.6, but as I shot at F8, this wasn’t a problem. In addition, when photographing architecture, the lens is apt to shift on the horizonal plane, less so on the vertical.)

When shooting street, though, I’m amazed at the wide field of view. In one or two of the pictures below, people in the frame are positioned to the side (and had no idea they were in the picture).

All in all, I’m quite pleased with the results:

Edinburgh Castle and Ross Fountain

Tourists examine bronze model of Old & New Town and Castle, Mound Square

Royal Scots Greys Monument, Princes Street Gardens

The Trams are coming ...

Sales ...

Tryst