Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The BCL Arrived!

Having the wallet already open, further desires resulted in ordering more fun stuff for EVIL MFT (MFT=micro four thirds) cameras.

To match my LoFi-photo needs, I could not resist to order
The BCL (Body Cap Lens) was delivered today. Of course, first thing to do was put it on the camera!
The quality provided by the 15mm 1:8.0 is fair, even better than fair. Some call it the worst lens ever... I kinda disagree, respectfully.
First of all, you have to watch bang for bug.
Additionally, you need to understand what this lens is good for, in order to appreciate its existence.
This lens is essentially fixed focus. OK, one can tweak the focus from narrow to infinity a bit, however, the lens also is designed as a f/8.0, thereby resembling an "F eight an be there" lens!
This means, the is no time to wait for auto-focus at all! If, as a street-photographer, you want to be sure to have your frame sharp, just put the lever somewhere between close and infinity, and you will be fine.
Of course such a simple lens has got its shortcomings. There is some severe vignetting going on.
Have a look at a photo I shot with the BCL-1580:
Olympus BCL-1850 / Olympus E-PM2
Here comes the nice thing about this lens. It can be used as a very quick shooting street lens on cameras recording in RAW. Who cares about vignetting? In RAW, we can so easily get rid of it by applying lens corrections.

A very quick fix with RawTherapee can correct a lot... with some more care, one may get much further:
treated in RawTherapee as to remove vignetting

Actually, I am so excited about the Body Cap Lens 15mm that I ordered a Body Cap Lens 9mm fish-eye at the local photo-gear dealer.

The PINWIDE will certainly take a little longer to arrive at my place. I am really curious about using a pin-hole with a modern high-res image sensor. I can't wait to test the "live bulb" mode with said pin-hole!

I hope to receive the ordered stuff over the next 2 weeks (±).
Of course I will obtain an M42-adapter, for using my legacy glass with the MFT-system.

A new era started, the era of me using EVIL IBIS cameras!