A compact camera shoot
Whenever I'm traveling with countless pounds of camera equipment, I tell myself, that there must be an easier way. So why not do a shoot without DSLR but with a compact camera?
No sooner said than done. A few days ago I had a photo shoot in Frankfurt. Evening, gloomy weather and only light equipment - an Olympus XZ-1 (weight 265g) and two Yongnuo flashes from the Far East and matching wireless triggers. Afterwards there was a pinch of Lightroom - less than you might think.
Conclusion? This little thing can do magic!
Thanks to a sensational lens with aperture f1.8, the images from the small Oly - affectionately called "pocket dragon" - are really impressive. Details and colors are great and noise is controllable also under the evening conditions. The autofocus is reliable and even in the garage scenario it caught the subject perfectly most of the time. A Yongnuo RF-602 wireless flash trigger was mounted in the hotshoe of the XZ-1 controlling 2 Yonguo YN560 flashes - purely manual flashes though but with enough power in order to make pretty much everything. Speaking about everything, the XZ-1 has a switchable ND filter and so can cope with lots of light easily - in that combination even shots against the blazing sun are possible, with wonderful star-shaped reflexions. By the way, flash sync times up to 1/320s do work perfectly!
Well, I won't go out photographing weddings with that equipment. But exciting to know that I could. ;-)
