Melbourne with Olympus

Melbourne with Olympus

Image: Both of us were using Olympus gear throughout the trip.

26th May 2016, Melbourne Australia – Singapore – Recently we took another trip out of Singapore. This round to Melbourne, Australia and mainly to complete I left behind more than 10 years ago – that is to complete the Great Ocean Road. Olympus Imaging Singapore, as usual got wind of our trip and decided to sponsor us the equipment for the trip. Most of you who have been following this site will know that Olympus had been very proactive with our trips sponsorship and they had sponsored at least 10 of our trips since we started working with Olympus. Just earlier this year in March, Olympus had covered us for our Krabi, Thailand trip, the recent Melbourne, Australia trip and the upcoming Bali, Indonesia trip in July. Since we are travelling every 2 months, there will be a lot of new materials on Olympus.

As a user of multiple brands, I had traveled to many destinations with different cameras of different brands. So when this Melbourne trip was confirmed, I was cracking my head which camera should I be bringing and what are the lenses that I really need. I decided to match lenses to the places that I will be visiting in Melbourne. Weight & size is a serious consideration as we will be moving around quite a bit and from the vast open Great Ocean road to the city in the heart of Melbourne and to a far flung suburban small town.

After much deliberation, Olympus was the answer. Light & compact bodies with really capable functions and lenses that weights next to nothing – means I can bring more bodies and lenses without breaking my back.

Image: St. Kilda, Melbourne Australia.

Since I used a combination of 2 bodies and a few lenses (my partner took one of the body and 2 lenses), I shall not state individually what did I used for each image, but rather I would like to showcase what I’ve managed to captured in Australia with my OIympus gear. Purely Olympus. Looking through the images featured in this article, it will be really easy to know which lens or body I had used to capture the image. Have fun identifying them!

Image: Brighton Beach, Melbourne Australia.

Image: Elwood Beach, Melbourne Australia.

I must state that all featured images are of minor adjustments & editing, mostly are cropping, straightening of horizon and the occasional “push” on contrasts especially on monochrome images. Otherwise, this is pretty much what I’ve gotten direct from the cameras.

Image: Sun setting at the Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Australia.

Image: Loch Ard Gorge, Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Australia.

Image: The Razorback, Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Australia.

Given the rapid changing skies at this time in Australia – a minute sunny, next minute gloomy, the Olympus cameras & lenses combo seems to adapt & react really fast, in fact, I was able to capture the shots really easily and without having the camera messing up the exposure by metering the exposure wrongly or simply randomly assign a white balance causing color-run, that already reduced the chances of me missing an important shot. I believe most of you would want a travel camera that gives you “insurance” since moments can be missed within seconds and you need to have a camera to match that expectation.

Image: Farm Calves, Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Australia.

Image: Puffing Billy, Belgrave, Melbourne, Australia.

Image: Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, Australia.

Image: Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, Australia.

Image: Chinatown, Melbourne, Australia.

Image: Speaking of Good Luck! Managed to catch Amistat LIVE at Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, Australia.

Personally, I think that Olympus’s user interface is pretty much idiot-proof and if you have been using Olympus, you will feel at home using any of the brand’s cameras – menus are easy to navigate, and buttons layout always makes sense. Although I am not exactly a fan of art filters, but I do know of people who makes full use of the art filters to max out the creativity options that came with the cameras.

Image: Flinders Street Station, Melbourne, Australia. Shot from Federation Square. (Diagonally Opp)

While many travel photographers will probably say that I am taking a “risk” by using an all-Olympus set-up for my trip (as compared to using a Canon or Nikon or Sony) while some will start commenting about sensor size, low light capability etc, well, I will say it all depends on the user. And what the user had planned to do or shoot. As for me, I had mentioned earlier that I had planned my gear according to my itineraries.

Image: Luna Park, St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia.

When we returned, I scrutinized the images carefully and I am glad to share with everyone that I had gotten all the images that I had planned for and I managed to capture all just by using my Full-Olympus set up. You may wish to check out my full album from this trip here.

For those who are really curious what exactly are the Olympus cameras & lenses that I had used for this trip, do check out the next few pics.