Morocco with new toys

[unofficialPete]

After several years with a single lens M43 setup (20mm f/1.7) and with a high mountain trek on the cards I purchased a Samyang 7.5mm fisheye and Pedco UltraPod mini tripod.
None of the classic Moroccan market images, you really need a long prime to do this without getting bothered.

Still miss my 40D + 3 top end lenses, it may be time to upgrade the GF-3 to something newer in the M43 range, the IQ leaves a little to be desired when you push the limits. Review of new kit at the end, enjoy.

The Samyang 7.5mm is a stella lens and the build quality is immense for £270. There are no electrics but the DoF can be made very large and most shots came out in focus. Shooting in Aperture priority (manually changing the aperture on the lens) whilst letting the camera decide shutter and adjusting the ISO and EV worked really well.

Owning a fisheye for a bit of fun was never an affordable option with Canon, not when it could get boring quickly. Thankfully the Samyang isn't the fishiest of fisheye lenses and I think it'll keep me tied to M43 for sometime. It also takes the best selfies ever

The Pedco UltraPod mini tripod was only used a couple of times but lugging all 57g up a mountain wasn't an issue even if it wasn't used. It is fiddly but for my SCS setup it was in my opinion better than the bigger offerings from gorilla pod.

 

[Ay Ay Ron]

I love the fisheye lenses. A used an opteka 6.5 on my Canon 550 when I went to New York, a really good city walkabout lens imo.

The milky way shot you have there looks very noisy, is that the m43's limits you were talking about?
I'd love to go to Morocco but it's somewhere the Mrs just isn't interested in going. Maybe trip with some mates instead.

 

[Niall]

I have to agree with the fisheye comments, I love my 15mm F2.8.

Nice photos too, some of those locations are lovely.

 

[unofficialPete]

Thanks!

Aaron its a great trip, so much you can do and you can always get out of Marrakech to more peaceful places and could deffo go on some lad adventures on quads/camels/trekking etc. I'm not into hiking but going up to 4.1km was nuts.

Yeah the M43 does suffer at high ISO compared with my Canon 40D, fortunately it was so sunny everywhere and the fisheye really lets you drop the shutter speed down! Then again the GF-3 is a bit old now, the GX-7 is calling my name.

 

[Andy.]

Nice series. 4.1km is impressive! Did you have any problems with the altitude?

 

[Mr Plums]

I dont know much about photography at all , but i imo they would look better without the fish eye.

 

[unofficialPete]

Nice series. 4.1km is impressive! Did you have any problems with the altitude?

Yes! literally went from a beach to the 3.1km base camp in 36 hours with a nights sleep at 1.8km. Real bad headache but woke up feeling OK on summit day. The misses really suffered and thankfully we made friends on the journey who helped out with various meds. I'd add in another day if doing again.

I dont know much about photography at all , but i imo they would look better without the fish eye.

I agree with some it can be a little cheesy if used wrong. At times it really helps capture the scale of the scene IMO. At the same time I missed a longer telephoto lens to emphasis the size of the mountains.

The Panasonic 7-14mm would be my weapon of choice but it is x3 price and double the size

Here are a few more that I think really suit the different lenses:

7.5mm

20mm

Merged set of 4 @ 20mm

 

[Brazo]

I too prefer the non fish shots you have taken, I don't think the fish eye necessarily suits those scenes. I love Marac! Went to Marrakech and the Atlas Mountains a few years back it's such a culture shock!