I have not yet had too much opportunity to enjoy or put my new Olympus gear to the test, after switching from Nikon to Olympus at the end of January. With appalling weather in February and the world health coronavirus crisis and lockdown since...time spent behind the camera has been minimal. Plans are afoot to resurrect my garden hide set up before species other than House Sparrow and Starling start to move through as well as concentrate on more macro work in the short term at least. In the meantime, I've just been looking back at a couple of pre-lockdown Olympus sessions out into field on Shetland. The first early opportunity was on the westside of mainland Shetland, where, after a couple of failed attempts at approaching a very nervous Mountain Hare, I found another more confiding individual. Mountain Hare in early spring are still white, beacons against the harsh browns and dark peatlands of rural Shetland which rarely has any serious snowfall so little need for white camouflage (or indeed any camouflage as predators are few and far between here). Given the culls of Mountain Hare on mainland UK, I think Shetland's populations are probably the luckiest in Britain.

The conditions weren't great, but I took this at ISO 640 at 1/400sec, f5.6. My initial thoughts I remember were being delighted to be able to take shots with such a lightweight set up which enabled me to nimbly move across boggy peatland to approach my subject. The set up actually felt almost toy like to hold and shoot with after lugging around my Nikon DSLR for so many years. Also in silent shutter mode, I only knew I was taking images because my index finger was moving, silent really means silent. What a bonus for the wildlife and bird photographer. How many times over the years have I managed to align myself for a great photograph, only to have my shutter, even on 'quiet' mode, give me away and remove the opportunity from in from in front of me! Noise is now not an issue.....neither is the ability to shoot 18fps if needed - I can't wait to trial this on fast flying birds and action shots out on the water with gannets diving. 

The other immediate benefit was that I could so easily feel confident in my manual exposures (I always shoot manual) in a situation which was a little tricky with a white subject on a dark background. The ability to look through the lens and visibly watch my exposure changes and tweaks on the image in front of me - in LIVE exposure meant that when I took a shot - what I saw is exactly what I got - no need to check after or worry about over exposure (EVF).  The resultant image was as I had seen it when I took it. What a benefit.

The changing topography of my approach to the hare meant that actually I ended up a little closer than I had intended to achieve a clean shot. In hindsight I'd have removed the x1.4 converter and given my fury subject a little more space - but in this instance I took what I could in the given opportunity. Mountain Hare are numerous and often approachable on Shetland. 

I can't go without another superior feature being noted as well as indulging in a few bird images. The inbuilt camera stabilisation is incredible. Though I had initially worried about the noise at high ISO's and the potential inability to capture images in the many low light conditions I have been used to over the years on Shetland (especially with rare and scarce birds where you take what you can, you can't choose the right weather conditions most of the time), I was to be blown away at the sharp imagery hand-holding and at ridiculously low shutter speeds! So what I lose in quality at very high ISO's I gain in the ability to hand-hold and achieve very acceptable images at even 1/30th second. This is going to be such a useful feature for me. Take a look at the incredibly rare Tengmalm's Owl below which has been gracing a couple of gardens in the west side of mainland Shetland through early spring and the Long-eared Owl roosting in dense pines. These were shot hand holding the 300mm at ISO 800, the Tengmalm's at 1/60th second and the LEO at 1/50th second. I am looking forward to delving more into this feature with different photographic techniques and subjects after lockdown as well as starting to probe into the benefits of the highly rated Pro Capture mode and weatherproof testing - Shetland style. .

Rebecca Nason.