Joe writes:

With the current world situation, many photographers are unable to shoot what they love to shoot. I am a people photographer who usually shoots in a studio. Portrait and wedding photographers are shut down, event photographers, advertising photographers and the list goes on – if we are going to be responsible and follow CDC and WHO guidelines, we can’t be out shooting like we normally do.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be using our cameras and it doesn’t mean that we can’t take advantage of this situation to improve our photography skills.

So my challenge to you is pick up your cameras and shoot something DIFFERENT. Pick a genre or genres that are different from what you normally do and push yourself to learn some new skills and to step outside of your comfort zone creatively.

I am going to shoot ABSTRACTS in my home. Abstracts of every day – random and boring objects photographed in a way to make them appear unique, interesting and in my case full of vibrant color – because I love bright colors.

I am not going to use lots of studio lighting like I normally would. I will work mostly with found light and I am going to share a video each day during this lockdown to share my thought process and also how I processed the images.

I will post the full res image son my Flickr profile, and I encourage you to join my Facebook group and share your Stuck at Home Challenge images with the rest of my group. I will be doing LIVE Image Reviews every few days to give you feedback on your efforts.

Whatever you do – stay safe and healthy. If you do have to leave your home to work – thank you for what you do and be safe.

No matter what – find time to pick up your camera and shoot something because, “Your BEST shot is your NEXT shot!”

BCNranking published the full February sales report. And it’s a very good news to see the E-PL9 on top and the E-M10III selling good as well.

And to my surprise it’s not Canon or Sony or Nikon or Fuji that is now leading the mirrorless market….it’s Olympus! See here:

Well not bad for a company that is said to close their camera business in 1-2 months :)

OM-D E-M1 Mark III | Macro Photography with Geraint Radford

This is the new Panasonic L-mount lens roadmap (MirrorlessRumors).
Mac Pro 2019 Review: Customization, Performance Review, Rendering Test and More | Hands-on Review (Explora).
Olympus 12-45mm F4 Pro (ValueTech).
STC grip for Olympus (Mobile01).

Plenty of news on the facebook OMD group, Panasonic FF and the GH5 group.

Panasonic manager Yamane made it clear in a recent Dpreview interview that they have no plan to make APS-C cameras because it would cannibalize their MFT system. Here are some excerpts:

L-mount and MFT:

We will keep developing cameras for both categories – full-frame and Micro Four Thirds.

Why it’s important to stick with MFT:

Some manufacturers, as you know, are making very small lenses, compatible with full-frame, but we think that to do this, they needed to sacrifice lens quality to a certain extent. That’s how they are able to make them so small. That means that those lenses are not fully utilizing the benefits of the full-frame sensor. When it comes to Micro Four Thirds, we can fully utilize the benefits of the sensor, and we believe that as a combination, the overall quality of Micro Four Thirds can be very good.

APS-C L-mount

As of now, we have no plans to enter the APS-C market, because we know that Micro Four Thirds and full-frame can coexist without any cannibalization. If we moved into APS-C, there might be some overlap between Micro Four Thirds and APS-C, and between APS-C and full-frame, so I don’t think we’ll go in that direction.

About 8K:

We will be ready for 8K soon, but we can’t tell you the timing. We need a little bit longer before we can introduce 8K cameras. It won’t be [in the very near future].

Sony A6400 vs Panasonic GH5s: Deal Breakers for BOTH?

Olympus announces OM-D E-M1 Mark III and more (Popphoto).
If Money is no Object: 15 Shopping Ideas for Photographers (Explora).
Landscape photography with Tom Ormerod (Olympus Imagespace).
E-MIII vs G9 by Asobinet.

Plenty of news on the facebook OMD group, Panasonic FF and the GH5 group.

Olympus just issued the following press text:

At Olympus, we work hard to make people’s lives healthier, safer, and more fulfilling through our technologies and products, and we prioritize the well-being of our team, ambassadors, and customers above all else.
Due to recent public health concerns we have made the difficult decision to postpone all consumer events in the United Stated and Canada until further notice. We look forward to rescheduling these events as soon as possible and will contact registrants directly once revised event information is confirmed.
We are also providing information regarding the best ways to clean and disinfect your camera gear.
If you have any additional feedback or questions, please contact our Customer Service team at getolympus.com/contactus for further assistance. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Olympus Ambassador Joseph Ellis lists Olympus biggest competitive advantage?

OK, so in my professional life one of the critical advantages of the OMD system has been how much easier it is to carry all the gear I want to have at a gig. Now that kit includes several lenses, three bodies flashes etc. and compared to what I used to carry in a DSLR system it’s night and day lighter and more compact, gives me more options in terms of FOV, amazing AF, killer exclusive features IBIS it’s still more than most would want to carry on vacation or just in a pocket on the daily.

But luckily, at the heart of the OMD system is the choice to go even smaller, so light so compact that any burden to carry or use it is as minimal as possible. I’ve been in love with the idea of smaller but still feature-rich cameras since moving to OMD but to really make the system shine it’s more than just a camera it’s also the lenses.

Now as you step into the OMD system there are a lot of lenses to choose from but I think there are maybe three categories
1. Specialist lenses (macro, super telephoto, ultra wide angle)
2. Do-everything zooms
3. Primes (normal-ish 12-75)
And each of those categories has Pro/Standard options. For me the Pro lenses are for when I’m going out to do photography exclusively. Meaning if the purpose of the activity or the trip is to make images then I’m absolutely going to want the fast and flexible Pro zooms at the ultra-fast apertures of the Pro primes but for EVERYTHING else I adore the smaller primes.
As I was growing into the OMD system I bought a few of the standard prime lenses and these have really become the mainstay for my personal work because they allow me to capture the widest range of available light with the smallest footprint. Combined with the image stabilization, the high iso capabilities of the cameras and fast and acute AF you’ve got the best system I’ve ever used for capturing life unobtrusively. Zooms are wonderful but I would rather have the ability to take in more light, keep my shutter speed up for fast movement.

So what do I carry on the daily – 12/25/75 and the EM5MKIII. These three lenses and bodies make for the lightest and yet widest range of possibilities. The 75 is there mostly for sports and performances, the 12 for scene-setting, unique perspectives, small rooms etc. and the 25 is the default, go-to do-anything ready at a moment’s notice lens.