On Memorial Day we had some entertainment from Ray Owen, a Grammy nominated singer/songwriter and national recording artist.  He performed by singing and playing songs from the past, many popular during our previous wars going way back to the Revolution & Civil War.

I’m primarily showing this picture of Ray since it was part of an experiment to see if I could use the Panasonic G3 with the 45 – 175 mm, f/4 – f/5.6 lens in the Omni Auditorium.  I have often wished for a longer focal length when taking pictures of events there, but have refrained from using this lens since it isn’t very fast.  I normally use my 20 mm, f/1.7 lens since the lighting is very poor.

The result of my experiment is that it worked, but barely.  The pictures may be suitable for printing in machine copied flyers, etc. but they are awfully noisy and a little soft when reviewed closely.  All of the pictures were taken at the widest aperture which depended upon the amount of zoom, and at an ISO of 3200.  ISO of 3200 is my working limit with the G3, and only if I take the pictures in raw format and do a lot of “cleaning” in LR4.  Since this lens is soft at the largest apertures, especially at the zoom extremes, I doubt that I will be using it much under the above conditions.

As mentioned in the previous posting, I have ordered a Fuji X100 camera.  It is due to be delivered today, so I’m now looking forward to trying it out.  If I use it to take pictures in the Omni Auditorium, I’ll have to get up close due to the fixed 35 mm (e) focal length, but I’m positive the image quality will be a big improvement.  Hopefully, if the ergonomics are suitable, my next series of articles will be showing my trials as I learn how to use the X100 … not an easy process according to what many are saying on the web, but well worth it in the end.