I have had a brief play with the Live Time feature of the E-M5 (see here), enough to convince me that it would be more fun with a very dark filter to allow long exposures. The B&W 10 stop ND was in stock in B&H, so it was soon on the way to Thailand.
It arrived today, so I stuck it on the 25mm Summilux and took a couple of photos; neither of which were a particularly good example of long exposure photography; but they did demonstrate just how effective a 10 stop filter can be, even in bright afternoon sunlight.
6.8 seconds at F16
10 seconds at F16
Here’s some things I have learned about using Live Time and this filter:
Live Time and Live Bulb are essentially the same feature. Live Time starts when you press the shutter button and stops when you press the shutter button again. Live Bulb starts when you hold down the button and stops when you release it.
Live Time only gives you 24 views of the photo being taken (at ISO 200, fewer at higher ISOs). So you need to change the frequency of the view update so that it fits with the expended duration of the shot. For my two shots, the exposure was less than twelve seconds, so I set the refresh at half second intervals. If your exposure runs on beyond the 24 refresh views, then it carries on exposing but you get no preview. In practice this means that when you set up for a fresh shot, you may need to play around with the refresh intervals so they cover your expected exposure time. For some reason, Live Bulb and Live Time can have separate refresh rates set
There is a Bulb/Time timer option in the menu. I can’t see the point of this if you are using the rear screen to decide when exposure is finished, so I set it to the maximum of thirty minutes (options for this feature are in Menu/Cogs/E - second page).
I put the camera on manual and moved the shutter control dial until I set Live Time. I set a high F stop (F16) because it was so bright. Not ideal, but for twilight/night shots I will be able to use something less image damaging.
I set noise reduction to “On” (Menu/Cogs/G). This effectively doubles the length of the exposure as the camera processes the image to reduce noise; but if you don’t use noise reduction then the image will be noisy. I expect the “Auto” setting would do the same job but I used “On” just to be sure.
I set Anti-shock (Menu/Cogs/E- second page) to four seconds. This opens the shutter but doesn’t turn on the sensor to take the shot for four seconds; giving a chance for any vibrations to die down. Probably not an issue with such a long exposure but if the option is there….
Turned off IS and mounted on a sturdy tripod (thank you 3LT Brian). Set focus to manual. In the bright sunlight it was possible to zoom in and focus. In dark conditions you would have to unscrew the filter, focus, and then screw back the filter. This is a point in favour of the Lee Big Stopper which slides into a holder; but good luck finding the filter and the holder anywhere (and it is much more expensive).
I saved all the settings as a Myset so could easily access them again (or more likely inadvertently overwrite them.
I am looking forward to capturing a sunset, and also taking the filter out on the streets at night; should be some interesting light trail effects with multi-minute exposures. And if anyone has a waterfall handy….