Peter Forsgård

photographer

  • BEST Olympus cameras ever made!

    BEST Olympus cameras ever made!

    Now that the production, service, marketing, and sale of Olympus has been transferred to OM Digital Solutions is a good time to look back.

    Semi-Olympus I

    Semi-Olympus I, 1936
    Semi-Olympus I, 1936

    Olympus corporation started to make cameras in 1936. The first camera was Semi-Olympus I. It had a Zuiko lens.

    Olympus Pen

    Olympus Pen, 1959
    Olympus Pen, 1959

    That was the start. The next big thing was when Olympus hired Yoshihisa Maitani who became one of the legends of camera design. His first design was Olympus Pen. It was meant to be a simple camera that one could use. It was a huge success.

    Olympus Pen-F

    Olympus Pen-F
    Olympus Pen-F

    The next camera that is worth mentioning is Pen-F, the half-frame SLR. It was the first of its kind but was no success. Pen-F also has its digital version that was launched in 2016. It is also a great camera, but what I have heard not a commercial success either. I personally think Pen-F is something the new company should think about and launch an MKII version of it. It is a great camera for street photography.

    Olympus 35SP

    Olympus 35SP
    Olympus 35SP

    One of my favorite cameras from Olympus is the 35SP. It has a superb lens. G.Zuiko 42mm f1.7. It also has a very good metering system. It was so good that even Ansel Adams had a 35SP. It was also the first camera to have both a regular light metering system and spot metering.

    Olympus OM-1

    Olympus OM-1
    Olympus OM-1

    The first SLR from Olympus was the M-1. Its name was changed to OM-1. Leica did not like that Olympus used M-1 because they already had that name. The M comes from Maitani and the O is of course Olympus. OM-1 was the smallest and lightest SLR of its time. It was again one of Maintaini’s masterpieces.

    Olympus OM-4 Ti

    Olympus OM-4 Ti
    Olympus OM-4 Ti

    The next great OM-series camera was OM-4Ti. It was launched in 1986. It was the first focal plane shutter that allows full speed flash sync. It also appeared in the opening scene of the James Bond movie – Licence to Kill.

    Olympus Mju

    Olympus Mju
    Olympus Mju

    The best selling Olympus camera was Mju. It sold over 5 million pieces. It was a beautiful small compact camera. It is also the first Olympus camera I have ever bought.

    Digital Era

    The digital era has not been the best of times for Olympus. They made still some great cameras, like the Camedia E-10. Of course, the E-M5 was a revolutionary camera, and the ones that followed, the E-M1-series particularly.

    Olympus E-M5
    Olympus E-M5

    Olympus has always been innovative. There are a lot of things that they have invented or made a lot better. The first 5-axis IBIS was in an Olympus camera. Olympus also had the first sensor cleaning system. The first 4/3 camera, E-1 had a weather-sealed body.

    Olympus OM-D E-M1X
    Olympus OM-D E-M1X

    It will be interesting to see what the future brings us.

    Below this text there are two videos about the history of Olympus that can be found in my YouTube channel.

    You can find some more about Olympus cameras from their camera museum page. It is in Japanese, but Google Translate will help.

    images: Olympus

  • Laowa 10mm f2.0 – Very nice lens from Venus Optics

    Laowa 10mm f2.0 – Very nice lens from Venus Optics

    Venus Optics launched a new wide-angle lens for MFT on December 18th, 2020. It is a 10mm f2.0 C&D-Dreamer wide-angle lens.

    The new thing in this lens is that it has a connection to the camera. The aperture is controlled by the camera body and the info is recorded to EXIF. That is a very good thing. Without the connection, you need to add the lens info manually to your camera. Well, you do have to, but it is a good thing to do that. The IBIS will get the info to work at its best.

    Laowa 10mm f2.0 lens is manual focus. It is very easy to focus manually if you use focus peaking or magnify or both. The focusing ring is quite short so the focusing is really fast.

    In my video, there were two images missing. The part where I was talking what is the difference between the angle of view with the M.Zuiko 12mm f2.0 lens.

    This image is made with Laowa 10mm f2.0 lens. From the image below you can see the difference in field of view.
    This image is made with Laowa 10mm f2.0 lens. From the image below you can see the difference in field of view.
    Image photographed with M.Zuiko 12mm f2.0 lens.
    Image photographed with M.Zuiko 12mm f2.0 lens.

    I like it when there are new manufacturers that make MFT lens. Competition is always welcome. It is a good thing for consumers.

    If you want to get the lens use this link.

    I made a video about the new lens. More info from there.

  • How can I help you and the Future of my channel.

    How can I help you and the Future of my channel.

    My YouTube channel is all about helping you to become a better photographer. In my first video in 2021 I was talking about just that and also the future of my channel.

    There are many ways you can support my channel and the free content I provide for you twice a week. Below is the list of Affiliate links that I have:

    👉 Laowa lenses

    👉 Luminar

    👉 Aurora HDR

    👉 X-Rite Color Checker

    👉 Topaz Labs

    👉 Skillshare

    👉 My Amazon Store

    👉 EpidemicSound

    👉 DxOLab

    Another way is to visit my Kit.co store or you can Buy Me a Coffee. There are also Lens Hoodies available.

    If you want to ask me questions about Olympus or photography use the Ask Peter -page to ask those questions. Another way is to join my Facebook group and get the answer there. There are about 1500 members already. It is a good place to show your images and also get the answers to your questions, It is not only me who answeres your questions. The community has been active also to answer.

    Here you can join the group.

    If you need some more in-depth counseling there is a solution for that too. I do have one-on-one sessions. read more about them here.