After my entire camera kit was stolen in Shanghai from a famous live jazz club there (situated, of course, in the middle of the french expat community), I was waiting for the next purchase. Wanted something that is light enough to fit with my travel gear, and yet offered near-pro capabilities… and most importantly, doesn’t give me a heart attack if stolen, lost, damaged again (yes, I have heard of insurance… thank you… but the hassle… the hassle…). So, finally have settled for a Olympus E520 for the meantime, until the DSLR market stabilizes with the next upcoming series of 20 MP+ cams, post-summer next year perhaps? Can’t be that far, since Canon pretty much opened up the market there with their new Canon EOS 5D Mark II (brilliant… absolutely brilliant! — check out the video here). I mean, ISO 25,000 capabilities + HD Video capture…?!!!

However, Olympus E520 serves my purpose for the moment – inbuilt image stabilization + four-thirds mount tremendously expands the line-up of lens that it can handle. The kit lens is one of the best in the range, and I love the controls (over my previous Nikon series of cams).

These are very first HDR experiments (literally amongst the first twenty photographs captured with the cam). Both have been shot near fountain, VT station, Mumbai. Yet to work on the style, as these are just thematic samples at the moment.

An another…

My friend / bcg partner Matti has perfected his approach (his kit: Pentax K20D) with HDR and has done an outstanding series on Mumbai, where is signature style is very visible. Check it out here.