Photography News Issue 30

Advertisement feature 2 Borrow Olympus kit – free! The Olympus Test & Wow service allows you to get your hands on some of the latest Oly gear totally free for up to three days. We caught up with photographer Marianne Coleman for the

Photography News Issue 30 absolutephoto.com

low-down on this freebie Here’s the scenario: you want a new bit of kit; you’ve spent hours looking at reviews, reading opinions and painstakingly going over spec. Youwant to be sure of your decision before partingwith your hard-earned cash, so maybe you even pop into a camera store to get hands-on. Getting to test kit in a shop is great, but shooting out the front door of a busy high-street shop is not the most inspiring experience. This is where the Olympus Test & Wow service comes in. Test & Wow lets you borrow Olympus cameras, lenses and accessories for up to three days, and test them away from the store, in whatever environment you like! The easy part of looking for new kit is falling in love at first sight with the latest Olympus camera or lens, from the OM-D E-M5 to the vast PEN range, through to the so-beautiful-it-hurts new PEN-F. The hard part? Choosing a piece of kit that’s right for you. With such a diverse range of cameras to choose from and a vast array of lenses that lend themselves to a wide variety of subjects, making up your mind can be a minefield. Test & Wow was introduced last year across Europe, as Olympus wanted to give customers the chance to try before they buy. This simple, but generous service allows you to try kit out in an environment that suits you and your preferred photographic style, so whether you’re fed up with lugging about

your overweight DSLR kit and looking to move to mirrorless, or are a long-time Oly user looking to upgrade your camera body, or perhaps want a new lens for a special event, this service is not to be missed. How to Test & be Wowed So how does it work, and who can make use of it? We caught up with Olympus in-store specialist Clare Harvey-May who showed us in mere minutes how easy and quick the service is to get to grips with. “Pay a visit to wow.olympus.eu/en_GB/ and see what kits are available,” advises Clare. “Each itemhas a description so you can see exactly what it comes with. Once you’ve chosen your kit, simply select a dealer local to you from the drop-down menu and you’ll then be able to choose a convenient date to pick up your gear. You’ll need to fill out some details and accept the terms and conditions, then you’re done, leaving you to plan your shoot.” Sounds too good to be true? Lots of photographers have already been happily using the service, including Marianne Coleman who opted for the OM-D E-M1 PRO kit from her local store, Merchant City Camera in Glasgow. When we caught up with Marianne she explained that she found out about the service after browsing spec of Olympus cameras

online and decided to give it a whirl after the jogwheel on her Pentax DSLRmalfunctioned. Like many, Marianne had also come to the conclusion that there’s no need to lug around a cumbersome DSLR when a mirrorless model can do the job just as well – if not better – and at a fraction of the weight. “One can spend many, many hours researching to find just the right camera,” she explains. “I sat inmy computer chair drooling over pictures of the Olympus OM-D series, but my goodness, it was a big commitment in expenditure. My first-ever DSLR was an Olympus OM-10, so nostalgia took over and I found myself so very, very in love with the about-to-be-released silver E-M5 Mark II. “There’s really no substitute for getting a camera in your hands and trying it out, yet standing in the camera store taking pictures isn’t much of an indicator of how the camera is going to handle in the pouring rain, late at night or buffeted by the salty wind of the seaside. I agonised. I dithered. It was such a lot of money to commit to an unknown, especially Micro Four Thirds – a system I had no experience with and had read mixed reviews of.” Thankfully for Marianne, Test & Wow meant she could try out a Micro Four Thirds camera. While the E-M5 Mark II hadn’t made it into the service at that point, Marianne jumped at the chance to try out an E-M1. “I wanted to know what Micro Four Thirds I was so excited to find out that I could borrow an E-M1 and kit lens for a whole weekend at absolutely zero cost

was like, what having an electronic instead of optical viewfinder was like, and how useable the manual focus assist options were for someone like me with lots of beautiful ZUIKO glass to use frommy sadly deceased OM-10. I was so excited to find out that I could borrow an E-M1 and kit lens for a whole weekend at absolutely zero cost.” It wasn’t just the fact that Test & Wow is free that impressed Marianne, it was also the ease. “It was so simple,” she says. “I filled in the form and I was able to borrow the camera the very next day. I left them my debit card details and I needed to bring my driving licence with me to collect it. The guys in the shop went through the kit with me. They showed me how to activate focus peaking and MF assist, as well as how the 2x2 switchmode worked for changing ISO and white-balance. “You get a full 24 hours with the kit, but because of Merchant City Camera’s opening hours I was able to borrow the camera on Friday and return it on Monday.” Testing &Wowing “I was a bit nervous,” confesses Marianne. “It might be free to try, but if you break anything, you do have to pay. My camera usually comes with me on all sorts of rugged terrain. The shop assistant gave me the whole kit: E-M1, battery grip and 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO kit lens, in a little, leather PEN bag with padded sections for each component. It

Above You won’t be able to achieve shots like this stuck testing kit in store, but thanks to the Olympus Test &Wow service, you can take cameras and lenses away with you and really put them to the test in your own environment – all without spending anything.