After my old Panasonic Lumix (with the unbeatable 10x optical zoom) died, I borrowed a Canon G10 from Horng, then a first edition Sony Nex-5N from KY. They come with free photography tips and advice, can’t get better than that!

The loaned cameras, while free and fantastic are older technologies. They could not produce the photos I think I can take. My next camera need to accommodate my severe limitations and requirements, which are:

• I unabashedly shoot mostly in ‘Auto’ mode. Go right ahead, laugh at me, I don’t mind. I will learn manual settings in my own time, but meanwhile I still need to take the photos.
• I want to be able to shoot people and food. Maybe some action shots.

That’s it. So I just want to point and shoot, right? Why dump a few thousand ringgit on a bridge camera just to shoot using one button all the way, when a compact digital camera is sufficient?

Simple. If the base technology is good, it can help me to take the photos I want to take. If you shoot simply with a bridge camera, the photos WILL turn out better than if you shoot simply with a compact digicam.

Plus knowing that I CAN take decent photos on auto mode will inspire me to learn the manual settings and hopefully take BETTER photographs.

I told all these to Jason, who hooked me up with Robin. Yeap, THE Robin Wong who has a REALLY fantastic story of how he, a geotechnical engineer ended up working with Olympus. Go ask him if you want, tl;dr passion pays.

After listening to what I wanted to achieve, Robin generously loaned me a Olympus OMD E-M10 with a separate Olympus 25mm f1.8 prime lens.

Photo credit: The Phoblographer’s review of the OMD EM10

The new Olympus OMD E-M10 is a 16.1MP Micro Four Thirds with 3″ tilting touchscreen LCD. The touchscreen ended up SUPER useful for noobs like me, who sometimes fumbles and cannot focus in time.

The camera records full HD 1080p video. It has image stabilisation and built-in Wi-Fi connectivity. There’s more, but you can read the full specs elsewehere. This post is all about photos taken using the Automatic mode.

I think it’s a FANTASTIC camera: brilliant JPEG colours, fast focusing, fast shooting speed, fast everything! Depending on lighting, some photos ended up with over-the-top yellow tones. The camera built is slightly clanky for me, less sleek than other cameras that I’ve used. But it’s a matter of getting used to.

It is a bit expensive. The current retail price for the camera with standard kit lens is slightly below RM3,000. The fixed Olympus 25mm f1.8 lens is maybe… RM 1,500? As Ringo said, “That’s the price of a return flight to Japan… for two!”

Here, have a look at some photos that I took with the Olympus OMD E-M10, all but two using the Olympus 25mm f1.8 lens. The last two were taken with the Olympus M.Zuiko ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7 lens, which possibly costs more than my monthly salary.

All these were taken in Automatic, JPEG. Post-processing was only cropping (if necessary) and exporting to smaller size. No other touching up was used.

Two peas in a pod.

My grandfather at his favourite breakfast place.

My grandfather didn’t say it, but he was like, “Yo why you keep taking photos of me..

But my grandfather is cool. He gives no two f-s.

A casually shot photo with friggin’ sharp details.

Super fast focusing and speed. Great for shots involving people moving about.

I swear this photo is better than those taken by some amateur ‘photographers’ snobs. F- them.

Back to my cool grandfather. My sister and cousin dancing in the background. But he gives no care.

Portrait shot of my cousin. She’s hot, smart and successful. Introduction fee applies.

Portrait shot of my cousin. He has since grown out his funky hair.

I don’t want to blow my own horn. But I think this is nice /blows horn

If you can take this in auto/JPEG, imagine the wonders you could produce with manual shooting in RAW!

I want to bokeh everything!

Bootcampers running up hills in the morning.

I could tell them to get a hobby, but I have a nagging suspicion that this is it.

Robin lent me the Olympus M.Zuiko ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7 lens for this. It was possibly the most impressive tool I’ve held in my hands.

I was going to nick the camera and the lenses, but Robin knows where I live.

Not bad, eh? If I could take these with ZERO effort, imagine what you could do with full on manual control!

Buy. Now.