I was having lunch with a friend at Fahrenheit, and after lunch we decided to take a walk at Pavilion, KL. Little did I know, there was some superheroes event going on. As I dug further, there was going to be an Live Action Show of Justice League. Now if you guys do not know me well enough, I am a HUGE fan of Justice League, and I particularly love Batman and Superman. Alright, alright now the cat is out of the hat, it was indeed a delightful surprise. The stage event would take place at 5pm, and we had plenty of time to kill before that.
Therefore, we headed for desert. Cream and Fudge factory may just be the best place to lounge around and kill time. I have to tell you, the French Vanilla ice cream with mixed in crushed roasted almonds was probably the best ice cream I have ever put in my mouth.
All images in this entry were taken with Olympus PEN E-PL1 and 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 mk1 kit lens.
French vanilla with crushed roasted almond.
Yummy !!!
Since I was not out for shutter therapy session, I only brought along the Olympus PEN E-PL1 and the standard kit lens. If I have known earlier about the Justice League show, I would have prepared the E-5 and its army. Nonetheless, PEN is still a very capable camera system by itself, and I have no doubt that it would perform satisfactorily.
I got myself rather close to the stage, about 12 feet away, and most of the people in front of me were kids, so there was nothing blocking my view on the elevated stage. Lighting was bright, but not even. I set my camera to Aperture priority mode, at ISO 1600, and -0.7 EV. Now all I wished for was for the cameras AF to perform well enough to capture some good shots.
Harley Quinn and her band of dancing girls.
The Joker
Wow, the Joker knows kung fu !!
Batman showing off his bat-wing like cape.
Pulverized by Harley
The show started with Harley Quinn and her batch of girl clowns dancing around. Initially I thought of tuning down the ISO setting, but seeing how fast the dance moves were I almost went all the way up to ISO 3200. Nonetheless, I decided to just stay at ISO1600 (obviously Olympus is not famous for high ISO performance, hence staying on the safe side) and waited for pauses or slowing down of any movements before I click the shutter button. I acquired fast enough shutter speed to freeze some movements, but I did get quite a handful of motion blurred shots. It did not bother me so much because the kit lens was forgivably not bright enough, and I only needed a few good shots to go home with.
The autofocus was a pain. Yes, it was expected, from my previous use with the E-PL1 and the 14-42mm mk1 lens, I was not anticipating miracles. I could not "snap to capture" spontaneous moments. I needed to pre-focus and wait and even so I missed quite a few opportunities. Not something very encouraging especially when shooting live action shots where lightning speed and instant response are crucial. Did I curse out loud and throw the camera hard on the floor because of this? No, of course I did not. As much as I have missed out on some good shots, I did manage to grab a few good ones too. After shooting so many fashion shows and stage events on shopping malls over the years, I know my way around such limitations on the camera, enough to get what I needed for the day.
Wonderwoman and Hawkgirl
She may not have superhuman strength, really, but her kick still looks lethal.
Green Lantern. Cant wait for the movie !!
Hammer vs Maze
Joker and Harley
ISO performance was better than expected. There were areas of extreme high contrast, especially the scenes with Joker and Batman together. Jokers face was all white while Batmans costume was all black, not very good for the camera due to limited dynamic range at high ISO shooting. Nonetheless, the balance was sufficiently pleasing and yes, there are blown highlights and shadow clippings but who cares? Batman is supposed to be all shadow, and the whitish face on the Joker just made him look stunningly more devilish in a charming way. Noise was present, but not intrusive. I could have removed them easily with any noise reduction software, of course with the expense of some details and overall sharpness. For a small camera, shooting at ISO 1600 with available light, with just the humble kit lens, I do think it did very well in such circumstances.
The final showdown.
The Joker packs a punch !!
Caught at last.
Justice League, and ermm.. some villians LOL.
The show was really fun to watch. A lot of acrobatic actions, with the stage actors jumping and spinning around, and the fighting scenes were intense and interesting. It was always a treat seeing Batman and Joker, whether it is in the comics, or television or the big screen. The kids and generally the crowd had a great time. Too bad they did not have Superman and Martian Manhunter, which would have been better !! Well, like the host mentioned, if all the superheroes were here, who is going to save the world, right?
Now that was my Saturday afternoon, Justice League and Olympus PEN E-PL1, saving the world !! How was yours?
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