Both Ling and I posted little stories to share about our ongoing interactions with Hannah. First one from Ling:
Hannah was showing us her dance in the living room just now…
H: “And shake the hips gently this way…”
H: “Cannot shake too hard otherwise the hips will spoil.”
Mommy: “Who told you that?”
H: “God.”
Mommy: Huh???? You sure about that?”
H: “Ya. God make our hips and so we cannot spoil them. *demonstrating gentle shaking of hips again*
Mommy: *I want to laugh!*
And mine:
Motivational Theory for Four Year Old Girls
Daddy: “Hannah, time to brush your teeth and go to bed.”
H: <<Silence>> “mmgghhmmm”
Or…
Daddy: “Hannah, time to drink your milk!”
H: <<Silence>> “mmgghhmmm”
But then…
Daddy: “Hannah, time to get dressed to go out. What do you wanna wear?”
H: “DADDY, COMING!!! Wait for me in my room OK???”
Hannah has also learned how to roll her eyes. Oh my. Now we’re gonna have to find some way for her to unlearn that LOL.
Took a whole bunch of pictures taken this morning while at brunch with grandparents too, with the E-PL6/17mm and E-M5/25mm interchangeably.
“Cannot shake too hard otherwise the hips will spoil.”
This quote has been making the rounds in my household ever since I repeated it last week. It’s become pretty popular.
If only I had known when I was younger that shaking too hard could cause the hips to spoil . . . my life would be so much different now!
Haha! Me too, Matt :D
Dear Prof. Foo,
I’m an avid reader of your blog and I love to read your posts on photography. I bought an OMD EM5 months ago, as inspired by you. I’m looking for a prime lens now. Can you recommend a good prime lens suitable for EM5 and where to buy it? Many thanks!
Hi Emily; thanks for the visitation to our blog, and CY (my initials) is just fine – I’m not a Professor.=)
The m4/3s system (your new EM-5 is a camera that is based on this system) has a lot of wonderful prime lenses, and your choice will probably come down to this:
a) What you’re primarily shooting with the prime lens (e.g. landscape, travel, babies, children, night, food)
b) Your preferred perspective (e.g. portrait, upper-body, just the face etc.)
b) Your budget
Going roughly down the list of primes I’ve used and/or currently still own, and a rough indication of their current prices here in Singapore, and a very generalized description based on my usage:
Each lens above is linked to pictures I’ve taken using it, and if that’s the kind of perspective you’d like. There’s also the Olympus 75mm f1.8 which many enthusiasts widely regard as the best portrait prime lens in the m4/3 system. I haven’t used this lens yet, as the focal length means I’ll likely only use it ever outdoors (perhaps later when my two children are older).
My two favorite prime lenses are the Olympus 17mm and Panasonic 25mm. These are the two lenses that I use for the vast majority of my children’s pictures posted here this year. Do keep in mind though that I mostly use them for indoor pictures (e.g. at home, at restaurants). If you’re taking pictures of friends or children and mainly outdoors, then the Panasonic 25mm and Olympus 45mm might work better.
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As to where to buy lenses; the shops that many local enthusiasts recommend include Cathay Photo, MSColor, John 3:16, and SLR Revolution. If you’re willing to forgo warranty, lenses ordered from Amazon JP and shipped through a third party forwarder can net you substantial savings (you can read about my experiences with this option here too on the blog, e.g. here).
Hope the above helps; let me know if you need more information too.=)
Dear CY,
Thank you VERY much for your detailed explanation. Thanks for taking your previous time to share with me on all the prime lenses that you’ve used. I really appreciate it. =)
Olympus 17mm is on my list too. I’ve two lenses that come with the camera when I purchased it, that’s the 12-50 and 40-150. Both of them didn’t give the kind of sharpness that I want. :( Guess I need to buy another prime lens. And also these 2 lenses are quite bulky too.
Audio House is having big sale this month. 50% off the 2nd item. I probably go take a look if they have these lenses.
Have a nice weekend ahead. =)
Hi Emily; the 12-50mm indeed doesn’t score very high on sharpness, but if you’re primarily using the lens as an all-round, general purpose, using it for pictures you post on the web, and/or mostly on its wide-focal length e.g. 12mm, then I think the lens is adequate. The lens is also weather-sealed – very useful if you’re using it on travel and outdoors – and focuses very quickly.
The real challenge with the lens though is that it’s a pretty slow (in terms of its brightness) lens, and pretty bad in this aspect at the longest-focal length of 50mm. I use the 12-50mm lens today for those wideangle pictures of our new home in construction and if I’m on sightseeing and in good light, but for what I’m currently taking these days – pictures of kids in mostly indoor environments – the 12-50mm isn’t really good for it.
I doubt if the Olympus 17mm is going to be on discount. The lens is still selling quite well. Moreover, the local pricing for the lens might be still close to or even higher compared to what you would pay if you ordered it from Amazon JP (around $580) or US ($680) and ship it here. I bought the lens here in Singapore in June for $620 – pretty good deal.
The last alternative is to buy it used from Clubsnap. Transaction is very high for the lens, given how popular it is – and users are selling it off for around $600. You’ll probably want to haggle for a lower price if the lens is still selling for $620 new in shops.
Dear CY,
I took the 12-50mm during my visit to the Gardens by the Bay, and the pictures turned out to be a disappointment. I think it doesn’t work well for indoor shooting. I really like those wide-angle pictures that you’ve taken for The Minton, didn’t know that you’re using this lens to shoot. So, I guess it works well only outdoor with good light condition.
For Clubsnap, do you mean buying pre-loved items from the forumers or brand new?
Lastly, I’m also tempted to buy the E-PL6. It’s WIFI-enabled, so I can quickly share the pics on Instagram via my smartphone. Too bad that EM5 doesn’t have WIFI. :(
Hmm; odd that the E-M5 didn’t work well for you at the Gardens. We were there last year, and the 12-50mm acquitted itself quite well, and lighting wasn’t too good either then (it was a very cloudy morning). The 12-50mm can do macro shots as well – most of the flower and flora pictures here were all taken using the 12-50mm:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chekyang/sets/72157631477554094/
The 12-50mm isn’t a great lens but it shouldn’t be that bad. It might be a good idea to check for the usual things – e.g. that your camera has been configured correctly, that the shutter speeds you used weren’t too low against the focal length you shot at, and camera handholding technique. The E-M5 also has a quirk; if you’re shooting at within a specific shutter speed range of around 1/60 to 1/100s, there’s a chance the camera might experience a phenomenon called shutter shock – which, long story short, can possibly lead to what would look like mildly unfocused pictures.
Clubsnap has an active Buy/Sell section, and typically lenses sold there will be used, and in varying conditions. You’ll want to know what to check for when purchasing used lenses though, so you might want to read up, or bring along someone who knows what to check for.
The E-PL6 is a wonderful little camera (my 17mm is the mainstay lens on it now), but er it doesn’t have the Wifi feature! The E-P5 and E-M1 has it though, but both are a lot more expensive.
Dear CY,
Thanks for your advice and useful tips! I guess I need to spend more time and learn how to use the E-M5 more effectively. I’m still shooting in full auto mode (*bang head*). Dunno how to configure the shutter speeds yet.
Maybe I should attend the Olympus Workshop to learn more about the E-M5. Still find it quite difficult to use. And oh, thanks for alerting me that the E-PL6 does not have WIFI *blur me*.
Regarding the lens, I think I better buy a new one as I do not know what to check when buying 2nd hand lens. Is it safe to buy from Amazon and ship to SG? Will it break? Sorry for asking such dumb question. LOL.
Hmm; many enthusiasts are quite happy leaving the camera on full Auto, and you can get great results on it. What full Auto in cameras essentially do is to guess the kind of picture you’re taking, and tune settings accordingly. It can be fooled though, especially when the scene features strong primary colors – which will result in odd color casts.
A new lens like the 17mm will certainly help since the E-M5 when set to full Auto will at least be able to set itself to operate within a wider range of parameters, but I’m uncertain if you’d be able to get maximum mileage out of it. If I could suggest, it might be a good idea to increase your understanding of the E-M5 first, and learn how aperture, depth of field, shutter speed and ISO all inter-relate – then there’s also composition, framing, white balance, holding the camera steadily etc. The most important advice I can think of is to not only take a lot of pictures, but to also review them and especially the parameters you shot them with (especially ISO, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, white balance) – and learn how each of these affected the image. Talking to other enthusiasts, lurking around at discussion forums (e.g. Clubsnap, though I occasionally see impatience with newbies there), reading a good photography book with lots of examples can all help too.
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Shipping from Amazon is safe enough. Firstly, lens as boxed by the manufacturers themselves will be protected with padding cardboard/bubble-wrap. Amazon next packages sensitive equipment quite conservatively with bubble wrap. And finally, if you’re also using a third party forwarder service (e.g. if you’re ordering from Amazon JP), they will add their own packaging on top of the Amazon parcel. So, it’s a box within a box within another box (where your lens will sit).
Do be aware though about warranty policies – not all lens manufacturers offer international warranties, though lenses are routinely manufactured to very high standards of quality, unless dropped/dumped into water/thrown into sand LOL.
Also, if you’re still eying the 17mm, I think you might want to purchase it locally here then. If the street price for it is still what I paid for 5 months ago ($620), then it’s a pretty good bargain.=)
Hi CY,
Do you also use the Eye-Fi / WIFI enabled memory card for your E-M5? I’m thinking of buying one, but not sure if it will work. Thanks!
Yep I have one of those Toshiba WIFI cards. One such came bundled with the recent E-PL6 purchase. Tinkered around with it but ended up not using it as I found the interface just too clunky, and the inability to be on my usual wireless network simultaneously just too much. It was just loads faster fishing out an SD card out of the camera and copying the pictures over the normal way. I haven’t tried using it with the E-M5, but it should work just fine I think. I’ll give it a try once I can find the thing – it’s tossed around somewhere.