Trip – Michael Guthmann

21. July 202124. August 2021

Almbach Gorge the natural territory for the E-M1 Mark III and the 8-25mm lens?

In my article “My experience with the M.Zuiko Digital ED 8-25mm F4.0 PRO” I showed you already the 8-25mm lens and how flexible you can utilise it. In my holidays I have been in the Alps and visited the Almbachklamm nearby Berchtesgaden. I planned to use the E-M1 Mark III only with one lens and as the Almbach Gorge (Almbackklamm) is very narrow I decided to go with the 8-25mm F4 lens.

The Almbach Gorge

The Gorge is not far away from Berchtesgaden and close to the B305 in the direction of Salzburg. It belongs to the little village Marktschellenberg. At the entrance is the last working pebble mill, which is still producing marble balls with water power (title image). The gorge is 3km long and ends with the Theresienklause, a dam which was utilised to transport wood through it. The way back is again through the gorge or via the Etterberg and the church of pilgrimage “Maria Heimsuchung”. We left the gorge at half of the way and went directly to the Ettenberg. In case you would like to know more about the route you will find it here.

The gorge, the natural territory for the E-M1 Mark III and the M.Zuiko Digital ED 8-25mm F4 PRO lens

As already mentioned earlier the combination of E-M1 Mark III and the 8-25mm lens is the perfect combination for such a trip. Half of the gorge is at least up to the half very narrow a wide-angle lens is needed, in addition, there are a lot of motifs, which are a bit farer away so that the zoom area of the lens will be completely used. Already at the start, there is a small ravine, which you can reach via a little bridge and therefore a nice easy motif.

The images already show how useful the zoom range of the lens is and how it can be utilised to create your image, but also why the E-M1 Mark III is the fitting camera for such a hike. With the built-in LiveND filter you can make, without a physical ND filter, long time exposures, which enables you to show the floating water in your images. Thanks to the image stabilisation you can realise these images without a tripod. You. can leave it at home and save weight.

Many claims that zoom lenses are only used in their extreme focal lengths. In this case 8mm or 25mm. However, this hike showed something else. I also used the focal lengths between the extremes, depending on how the composition of the picture required it. The picture of the church, for example, was made with 18mm. The picture of the watercourse was taken with 14mm.

18mm, F4, 1/2500 sek.
14mm, F11, 2 sek.

Conclusion

As already indicated in the headline, the decision to take the M.Zuiko Digital ED 8-25mm F4 PRO with me on the hike was, in retrospect, exactly the right one. The lens covered exactly what was needed with the focal length range. But the E-M1 Mark III was also able to show its strengths to the full. In particular, the image stabilization in combination with the built-in LiveND filters (this is a digital ND filter) was very helpful in realizing images that would normally only have been possible with a tripod and physical filters. So I only had one camera with one lens with me. I could leave the tripod and ND filter at home and thus save a lot of weight, which would otherwise have burdened me on the hike.

20. February 202121. September 2021

Utilise Tough TG-6 as GPS Tracker

Only a view system camera, like the Olympus E-M1X for example, do have a built-in GPS. Those cameras can either write the position directly into the EXIF data or record your route. In case you don’t have a system camera with built-in GPS there are several possibilities to record GPS data and write them into EXIF or record your route.
The easiest is for sure the smartphone together with the appropriate App, like OI.track from Olympus. The disadvantage is that a smartphone doesn’t survive the whole day in case you have GPS activated. As I anyhow own a TG-6, which has also a built-in GPS, as a second camera, I’m using it as a GPS tracker.

Advantages

In opposite to the smartphone, the TG-6 can be used over several days without recharging in case you only use GPS recording. Also, you could be sure, that your smartphone is used for other things. As with the smartphone, you can send GPS data to your camera and save them as EXIF data into your image.

Preparations

First, you should connect your TG to your smartphone. As soon as you have done it the time in the TG-6 will be synchronised with the time of your smartphone. When you do the same with your OM-D the time of all three devices are synchronised. This is especially important in case you would like to save the GPS data into your image EXIF data. Base on time the camera decides which GPS data is written to the fitting image.
Also, I recommend installing A-GPS data into your TG-6, then the TG-6 can find the GPS signal when you switch it on. How to do this I described in my article “….”

How to

The TG-6 (by the way the same switch is available on TG Tracker as well) has a switch to activate GPS constantly, even if the camera is switched off. In case you are using older TG cameras, you can activate GPS constantly on the menu. Once you have activated your GPS you only have to have the camera with you.

Select those tracks, which you would like to use, and wipe to the left.

Select “share” to send track per mail or to your computer.

As soon as you finished you can download with WiFi the GPS recording with OI.share to your smartphone. OI.share is available for free on Apple App Store or Google Play. From the App, you can send them via mail or store it on your computer (in case you are using Apple devices the easiest way is AirDrop). Or you send it to your OM-D camera to save the position data in the EXIF data of each image.

Use GPS data

GPS data can be saved in different formats. The data of TG-& are .log files, which are not usable for all programs. Therefore in some cases, you have to convert them. For example, in case you would like to save it on Google maps. You can do that on the free website GPS Visualizer.

Select “Convert to GPX” and upload your TG file to the website to convert it. In case you have recorded several files, you have the possibility to select all of them. Those files will be converted into one file. Here one example on Google maps.

30. November 202027. May 2021

Speed up GPS signal recognition

In opposite to cellphones, cameras have to rely on the GPS signal for localization. The connection to satellites can take longer and therefore it could happen that the location information is not available when you take the image. That’s why the E-M1X supports the so Called assisted GPS (A-GPS). A-GPS saves the rough satellite position of the region in the camera. This helps the camera to find the satellite position and can locate the camera easier and faster.

Download A-GPS data

Olympus offers software for your home PC/Mac which is called “Olympus A-GPS Utility”, but I prefer to use it on my mobile OI.track as this allows me to download and transfer the A-GPS data at any time. OI.track is available on the Play Store or App Store, depending on whether you are using Android or iOS mobile phones. You can download and install the A-GPS data as flows.

1 Start OI.track and open settings by clicking the gear wheel in the upper right corner.

2 In the settings you find the button “Update GPS Assets Data”.

3 A dialog opens to start the download…

4 As soon as the data. is downloaded, start WiFi on your camera. When your camera is recognized by OI.track the software asks you whether you would like to use the newly downloaded A-GPS data. Please accept by pressing “Transfer”.

5 As soon as the A-GPS data is uploaded to the camera you have to restart your camera once. Afterward, you are ready to use them…