I always keep a coffee cup insulator collar in my pocket as an emergency lens hood. It folds flat.

The image files are fine, and I can only think that it's user error, and a need for another brand .. Maybe a few more beers would help the beer goggles and a low res compact would suit you more.

Excelente. Muchas gracias!!!

A speed booster is a must for vintage lenses on micro 4/3 sensor! to me it brings manual photography to another level paired with the pen f! the best therapy

Photography is about photographers getting the perfect pictures, not owning the most megapixels. A real artist can take a Holga and get a beautiful shot, and the pixel chaser can take a Fuji Medium Format camera and get garbage. You have to learn the craft. I suggest people start with a manual film camera to see what it was like back in the day. It forces you to learn. I still use my film cameras. I love this Pen F camera though. It will always be in my kit.

Thanks, this was good.

This is fantastic. Thank you

I love your existential videos, I think they are your best 🙂 I think there can be value in constraints. The reason most of the time I shoot primes is not because of IQ, it is because I struggle to focus and compose at variable focal lengths when shooting dynamic things. Something Buddha said that I think is a widely applicable lesson is to not "Confuse the finger pointing at the moon for the moon". I think this is a powerful analogy and comes up in many different facets of human existence. Constraints can be valuable in that they can help focus you or teach you things, but there is no intrinsic value in constraints. Something I like to do which I have found very rare with photographers is I just shoot what and how my heart moves me. I love cities and people, but I also love nature and animals. Some things requires different prep before you go out, but If I see a composition in an empty lot in a city, I will shoot landscape shots if i see them. If i am on a hike with friends, I will shoot street if the moment moves me. Different genres teach you different things and expand your mind and thinking about the craft. Photography is all about first learning to see, followed by learning how to show the rest of the world what you saw. Being able to find interest and joy in the world, and having the skill to capture and share it is a thing that does not have boundaries. I think the idea of genres can be a trap as well.

What a cool device. Thanks for the thorough walk-through.

I was searching for a tutorial of the VALOI system. thank you very much!

Looks as if 40mm is becoming a favorite lens. Same with me. I took my Sony A7CR with 40mm on a shoot. It turned out to be perfect. Just wide enough but not too tight for perfect pictures. I will take it out as my main lens in the future.

Now that I have a Nikon Z fc with a simple kitlens I am amazed how much better it does at higher ISO values. ISO 6400 on the Nikon is better than 1600 on my PEN-F. I love it that the PEN F is so loved, because the two bodies I own will be sold for almost the price I bought them new for, 8 years ago. But they WILL be sold soon.

I forgot to mention something very important: in order to participate in the giveaway, but mostly so I can check, you need to put your Instagram handle (@username) in your comment here.

Thanks for takins us through the entire process, Radu! Was looking forward to someone explaining how they use Rawtherapee when converting negatives, especially colour ones. Looking forward to testing out the technique for myself later today. Any particular reason you chose the Olympus Zuiko 50mm f3.5 Macro for scanning? I own it myself, although I don't have any adapters handy for it to fit my Nikon D850. I do use a Nikon AF 105mm f2.8 D lately, previously used a Nikon AI-S 55mm f3.5 and a Panagor 90mm f2.8. The Panagor produced the flattest image and the least amount of vignetting, but the Nikon 105mm has autofocus and I work quicker with it.

Thank you for the video, I have been scanning my negatives with Epson, but I think it worth to try Valoi.

I have the 50mm f/1.7 but I will eventually pick up the 40 mm f/1.8, thanks for the review.

Great video, thanks! I use an Epson V600 but that setup looks to be somewhat faster.

Hola, tus videos son muy buenos, agradables de ver. Justo estaba pensando en comprar algo para fotografiar films. ❤

Good video brother, and awesome pictures. I have been waiting for this one. As my spiritual father once told me: "Indeed you are special, but so is everyone else."

Interesting. I watched another review of the 17mm, and the photographer came to the same conclusion. He hated it due to the flatness of the image. Can't remember his name, but he has a lot of videos on Olympus pens. I think this is a lens issue and not the sensor

Blah blah blah. Its a great camera.

Haha thanks!! If I were good with words it could have been a story told by me! It was almost exactly the same!

❤❤❤

Beautiful!!

Damn. I have never seen your channel, and I have never watched a video of yours. But somehow I ended up here on this video of yours. Amazing confession. Very powerful images. Keep up the great work my photography friend.

It's something really satisfying in watching other people change their minds on something or coming to a certain realization. That doesn't happen very often, because we seem to be so stuck in our ways most of the time. And the photos are great!

Glad for you attending that workshop, and sharing with all of up what you have learned or reconsidered from it! Regarding the photography tools - any tool makes sense for the one that uses it, and less or not at all for the people that experience the result of using that tool. For instance, you can cut a tree down with chainsaw, or with a manual saw; fel people will know (unless they know about wood or cutting trees) how you cut it down, and even fewer will be impressed by having cut it down with a manual saw... Or, as a close example, if we have an artisan, a woodworking person, that does wood sculptures. He will probably cut the raw wood to the size he needs to start sculpting, with an automated tool. Don't know if these examples make sense here too, but I like that you've had a change of mind, regarding no longer considering that photography using manual lenses is always "good", whereas using autofocus lenses is "meh". If you want to use vintage or manual glass, and you yourself are happy with the results, and the subject stays still in that particular case, or you can focus as fast manually as to not lose shots to that (where having a good autofocus would have given you a good, or much better, shot), is up to you. But from my experience, sometimes autofocus helps you have focus in a split second where you need it - and your contribution is: the subject, the framing, the light from that angle, and most importantly probably, the subject expression or mood. And sometimes, you may miss it all because it's too much out of focus, if relied on manual and something changed very quickly. So, I think some humility (not to be confused with humiliation!) can bring a lot of mental clarity and soul, and increase the creative juices. And I'm also glad that your channel is about your photoraphy story, changes of mind, struggles, things you cannot control and how you get around them, as well as maturing, and reconsidering previously "hard truths" that you could swear by. So, it's a human and genuine experience about you as a person, before being about you as a photographer and about your photography. So it's something very valuable, that many people, with varying levels of experience, but that want to know themselves as best as they can and their relation to photography, can relate to. As well as that, the format and the setting for the workshop seemed very demanding (many hours a day, many days) as well as very offering (lots of people and things to shoot, great shooting opportunites, great scenery), so that you yourself started questioning some things, such as missing shots during the day due to manual focus, before getting to the evening evaluations.

hehe Radu You said you are done with SOny and you are back.. so.. i am not so sure u are done with vintage lenses :P

Great set of images with some really amazing standouts! As for the subject matter...I've been kinda in the same camp. I wanted the fastest glass i could afford and that meant manual lenses and while great, they are slow and inconsistent even with zone focusing. And i also was like you, taking pride in manual focusing because of this romantic idea on photography. But i realised that without composition and feeling, the photos were just clinical trials of that setup and nothing more. Focused on focusing (sic!), i lost the bigger picture (sic!2).

Never say never. Yes, this are some of your best pictures and it feels you learned a lot. But also this great body of work, is done with a vintage lens. This adds salt and pepper on your images - I would not exclude the importance of tools. Good pictures are picture made with intention. Its up to you to choose the right tool for the job - being a manual vintage lens or being sharp and clean lens. The work that you present here is outstanding - I would happily sacrifice some moments for this END result (also easier to edit and select). Anticipation is more important than AF I would say. Looking forward to see what you'll create with the Sony 40mm f2.5 and if on the long term you'll not regret the vintage lens.

Radu, those images have so much soul! Thank you for sharing some of those thoughts, I've been thinking along similar lines on several of those topics. Best, j

vintage/manual lenses and modern lenses can co-exists but indeed have another way of going about them. Different scenarios call for different lenses or differenr lenses call for a different pass. So sorry to see you abandon the manual lenses realm ... but a guy has to do what a guys has to do ;-) , it's a all a learning experience. :-)

congrats, bro! eating one's own words (occasionally) can be the best medicine for the ego, and the soul. as for precision in auto focus? consider sticking with sony lenses. 3rd party lenses are a step behind and it can be just as frustrating as using a manual focus lens.

I'm glad I was a part of that workshop and I was there to see you questioning everything. It takes courage to come out like that and apologize, and reinvent yourself!

That beer will put hair on your chin

Sounds very silly in yourstatement. Have many different cameras manufacturers and have had many different cameras, and I use olympus/oms the last 20 years plus because it gives me no digital look and i can carry my my EM5s and OM5s in a compact body with pro lenses. The only other camera in 20 years that gives me the same connection as olympus/oms in all those years is the Nikon ZF with voigtlander 40mm 1.2. And out of camera up to iso 2000 you couldn't tell the difference between the two if i put the prints in front of you. Personal choice, but i can't stand joy sticks and look for modern cameras that don't have those annoying joysticks.

5 minutes of nonsense blah, blah… You compare two camera bodies without even mentioning the main topic of the video. And the beer. Totally, subjective and out of context impression and opinion on a beautiful piece of photographic engineering…

I really like the honesty of your opinion. If Full Frame has your heart you should use it. It is a pity though, that a camera that speaks to your heart so well does disappoint you in the results. So, if that could be fixed it would be very nice for you wouldn't it? I do agree with the things @tomfreda7107 mentioned. I looked at the photos you showed at the end of the video and compared them to photos I shot with my Pen-f. Yours indeed look flat and mine definitely do not. I never shot full frame. Well, I shoot a lot of 35mm film, but not the sensor. I switched though from Canon APS-C to M4/3 and had to adjust my way of shooting quite a bit. Since you shoot with FF that step must be more impactful. Some thoughts: - Coming from a larger sensor you tend to overexpose the M4/3 photos (at least I did) and that will make them look flat. Remember that the base ISO is twice as sensitive as with FF. - There may indeed be something wrong with the sensor of the specific Pen-f you used. - The 17mm f 1.8 has a lot of debate between being a great lens and and a somewhat cold and harsh lens. In my experience the 25mm f1.8 has a much more natural look, soft but detailed. Smaller and lighter than the 17mm. - You can tweak the output of the Pen-f quite a bit, especially in monochrome (highlights, shadows, mid-range, contrast, grain, filter colour). That effects only the jpgs though. For RAW you could use the in camera auto gradation option to shoot at a little darker without the shadows going too black. Or do it in post in free OM Workshop. What a friend in Paul you have by the way!

Very pleasant tutorial. Good to go back to fundamentals also.

I'm still at the beginning of the tutorial but I already know this is gonna be an amazing tutorial. You explain everything so well and it's really easy to follow while you know exactly what your next step is going to do (to your photo). Thanks!

Be a man and try Staropramen !

Fluctuated, masterpiece but end result, like painting with acrylic. You don't see that you've been trapped by it. Olympus win again. A few months with it more and it will be the desert camera, A poor mans Leica. You'll be the first to give back a free Pen-f and need to buy one..Thank Paul and ask him if you can keep it.

What about using one of those super thin conversion rings for m42-nex/e mount? They're only about 1mm thick and negate using a thick adaptor.. I plan getting one to use for the 55mm Super Takumar I want for my A7Riii

Have you tried speed booster with the vintage lenses?

I love my Riii and I've had it since it came out. I find myself wanting a new Nikon or a Fuji gfx 50 but always talk myself out of it because the Sony does everything i need it to do and does it very well. I have been using more vintage glass lately and early ef glass as well just to switch it up. I actually like the way the Riii looks but it seems I'm one of the few lol

Amazing tutorial. Really helped me out.

Yeah, e silky daca il servisezi. In schimb smecheria la Takumaruri e ca au autoungere din material (bronz), fara lubrifiant.

Nu e preset?

Problemele mentionate stiau sa le elimine, doar ca apareau prea multe suprafete aer-sticla si fara coating erau inpracticabile solutiile alea. Tessar-ul functiona destul de bine pt. ca are relativ putine asemenea suprafete. De aceea dupa ce s-a raspandit coating-ul nu mai era Tessar-ul rege ci ocupa nivelul de mijloc. Imi place ca ai poze reale, nu din acelea cand se iese pt. a face poze pt. a demonstra ce stie obiectivul. Alea de obicei is super plictisitoare.

N-are cum sa fie prewar, dat fiind ca M42 a fost introdus in 1949 de catre Zeiss-Ikon pe Contax-S. Nich coating nu exista inainte de razboi ca oferta in comert. Carcasa si diafragma e posibil sa fi existat inainte de razboi intr-o varianta pt. Exa sau alta montura. Ma apuc de un Albacher luat cu 2 lei la reducere. In timpurile astea de inflatie e lucru mare. Era sa iau si Dorfler, dar era la 2,50. Niciodata n-am inteles diferenta dintre cele doua. L.E. Acuma vad ca-i pe montura Exakta. Btw, nu prea are ce sa se strice la un Exa.