One good thing about digital cameras: their prices generally drop quickly. My faithful Sigma DP3 Merrill is acting up (the main dial which controls aperture in aperture priority mode is now very hard to predict and basically has a mind of its own) and I think it's going to be finished soon, which is hardly a surprise given the sheer amount of use I put it through...and it did get quite a few knocks along the way.

While I absolutely loved the results it produced, actually using it was not a lot of fun for reasons which are already well known: terrible battery life, a substandard rear screen, slow autofocus and essentially nonexistent high ISO performance. I may end up with another one some time down the line, but I decided to find a replacement, for a change of shooting style.

I ended up with a camera which I have used before, the Olympus OM-D EM-5, and a very highly regarded (but very cheap) lens, the 45mm f1.8, which I have not used before. On micro four thirds, this gives the 35mm equivalent view of 90mm, which is not that far from the Sigma's 75, and this is the view I am most comfortable with (I have the iPhone for wides, and it is very satisfactory in that respect). The total price of the OMD and the lens was significantly less than the Sigma when I bought it, and the Sigma itself hardly broke the bank. Hence the title of this article.

The main, and probably only, area in which the Olympus loses to the Sigma is in overall resolving power and detail, but then again pretty much everything loses to the Sigma in that area until you get into Nikon's 36mp bodies with extremely good lenses - at which point you are spending a LOT more than you would for the Sigma body. Otherwise, it has much faster autofocus, better ISO performance, better battery life and a far superior screen / EVF. The tilting screen is particularly good for candid shots in public. Oh, and I almost forgot the image stabilisation, which is ridiculously good, as one or two of the shots here will demonstrate. The lens is also very impressive; my go-to guy on equipment reviews said it was brilliant, and he's pretty much right on the money with that assessment.

Anyway. Essay over; here are some initial shots from the OMD / 45 1.8 combination.

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Deliberate attempt at making a composition out of a normal, everyday scene.

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The tilting screen can also be used like a traditional waist level finder in the old medium format film cameras like Hasseblads. Gives you a somewhat different perspective when you're holding the camera at the height of your stomach or thereabouts.

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I mentioned that the image stabilisation is extremely good, and it can be used to do things like this. That train is slowing down to a near stop, but when you shoot at 1/25 (which is nearly 0.5 / fl)  and the three people waiting for it are perfectly sharp (viewed at 100 per cent there is no blur whatsoever) it looks like it's whizzing by.

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To finish, a couple of late night shots in b/w jpeg mode.

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The next article will be of the nationally televised "domatsuri", a huge dance festival which takes place over three days all over Nagoya. It's already finished, but I have quite a lot of shots from it, so that will be up hopefully in a week or so.

Thanks for looking!