amipal

Before I went on holiday, I upgrade from a Panasonic Lumix GH2 which has been pretty much the best camera I've used or owned. The GH3 which has replaced it is amazing as well, but just seems to lack some of the soul which made the GH2 a bit less of a tool than the newer GH3 is.

The GH3 performed wonderfully in Japan and Hong Kong. Auto ISO (limited to max 6400) and Auto WB set, and rarely missed a beat. Even with an ND8 on my fast primes so that I could shoot wide open in bright sunshine, the images from darker areas at higher ISOs were crisp and delightful. The autofocus on the camera is also top-notch, nailing focus in low-light as easily as during the day. I did a quick write-up over on DPReview.

I've begun to upload some of the Japan photos now, as I went on a bit of Tankfest-2012-revisit as some of you may have noticed... But I should be off the military photos for a bit, at least until the Shoreham Airshow at the end of August! I should also begin to put some of my Hong Kong street photography up, so look out for those.

In other news, I completed the 100km London-to-Brighton walk for the British Heart Foundation at the end of June. 105km to be precise, completed in 28 hours and 30 minutes. That's non-stop, overnight. No sleep. It was a brilliant and very tough experience, but I and my team mates managed to walk across the finish line at Brighton Racecourse together.
I took along my handy Olympus EPL1 to grab some shots throughout the two days of walking, all of which I condensed into an eight-minute video here.

Once again, another shout for the benefits of Micro Four Thirds - the EPL1 with the Lumix 20mm pancake on it weighs barely anything, yet can take some great images. It couldn't be more different to my GH3 - an old Olympus with the first-generation of Micro Four Thirds sensor versus a previously top-end prosumer body. And yet they both serve a need.