Butterflies with the E-M5 plus kit 40-150mm plus Metz 50 AF-1 flash plus deflector

5.04.2013

Butterflies with the E-M5 plus kit 40-150mm plus Metz 50 AF-1 flash plus deflector

In April I made two trips to Westford's Butterfly Place. I have been there quite a few times over the last few years, but find that I am still able to "capture" new varieties. Hopefully, too, I can get better and better images of some of the varieties I already have in my growing "collection" of tropical butterfly photos.

Earlier this year I acquired for $100 a brand spanking new Olympus 40-150mm zoom for m43. It works rather nicely with a 3 foot focusing distance when zoomed to 100mm to 150mm. At 150mm I can fill the screen with a composition 4" across. I usually start with the lens at 150mm and zoom out if I want to add more environment to the image. Of course, I can always back up.

My standard lens for flower and butterflies had been the 70-300mm designed for reg43 bodies. But on the m43 body it focuses slowly and noisily. That's okay for flowers but not so much for things that move. The 70-300 is sharpest when zoomed to 100-150mm, and focuses at about 3 feet. But it has slightly more magnification than the 40-150. At 150mm I can fill the screen with a composition that is 3" across.

Nevertheless, I think the 40-150 for m43 is a better choice for me. It focuses fast and quietly and is very lightweight, which I notice after my (typically) two hour butterfly sessions. By the way, the 40-150 is light because it is all plastic, even the lens mount. I'd rather have a metal lens mount, but for $100 I have nothing to complain about. As far as I can tell the optics are excellent in the range I am using for butterflies and at my preferred aperture setting of F8. Though I don't get quite the magnification I have with the 70-300, a bit of cropping isn't particularly problematic with the 16 megapixel sensor of the E-M5. When I started with the 70-300, it was on the Olympus E-520 which was a 10 megapixel sensor.

I used a flash during both April sessions. The flash is a Metz 50 AF-1 to which I attached a cheap deflector. I also have some other deflectors I expect to experiment with.

I used manual exposure settings. Almost always I shoot at 1/250 and F8 and whatever ISO is required to provide underexposure of about one stop. I then set the flash at TTL. I use flash exposure compensation if adjustments need to be made.

Below are my two favs from April. Neither specie was in my collection so I was happy to have seen these specimens and also to have found them in perfect condition.