nomadlens
Images of the South West
Buttercups, Bundle Head, Shaldon
The exceptional depth of field that can be achieved with the small sensor in a compact camera is amply demonstrated in this image with the Olympus XZ-1.
I guess that the beginnings of my inclinations that I wanted to downsize from a DSLR date back to this day. This was the first time that I did a section of the South West Coast Path without my D300. This section is tough – between Babbacombe and Shaldon the path goes up and down like a yoyo and many of the ascents are as steep as anywhere on the Coast Path. It was a very hot day, we had been staying at my parents’ house while they were away and this was our fifth consecutive day of South coast walking and I just decided that I’d had enough and wasn’t going to take it. It remains the only time until I got the E-M1 that I didn’t carry it on the coast path.
Nothing was lost in this image however, as the D300 would never have captured the depth of field in this shot. It shows buttercups in a field on Bundle Head above The Ness (the red sandstone point) at Shaldon, looking across to Teignmouth where the rail line starts along the coast to Dawlish, much in the news lately. I’ve dragged it up from the past (May 2012) to add to Cool Photoblogs‘ Weekly Challenge Spring theme. I always meant to do something with the image so I’m pleased that it has finally seen the light of day.
Location
Bundle Head, Shaldon, Devon, UK
EXIF
Camera: Olympus XZ-1
Lens: Olympus XZ-1 (built in lens)
Focal Length: 6mm
Aperture: ƒ/8
Shutter Speed: 1/400s
ISO: 100
Image Details
XZ-1 RAW files are not of the same quality as DSLR or mirrorless files and a little more attention had to be paid to noise reduction (Topaz Denoise) and capture sharpening (a combination of Focus Magic and Uwe Steinmuller's Optimal Sharp script) than usual. After that it was simply passed to Perfect Effects and its Magic City (?1) preset which really cut through the haze and improved the contrast (though the Tone Enhancer needed a fair amount of tweaking to bring the specular highlights on the buttercup petals under control).
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