This great image editor has so many functions it's crazy, it does have it's failings though but it's also great fun to use when editing those images you have lying around your PC and it's raining outside.
Last Edited : Monday 23rd December 2024.
I have been using this FREE image editing software for quite a few years now and it's absolutely amazing how it has changed over the years. The current startup page is shown below giving you a vast range of functions to choose from. You should visit the website here "Chasys Draw" for more information than I could offer on a simple webpage.
I have often been overwhelmed by the choices available which can and does lead to frustration and it has one major flaw, well to me personally and that is it doesn't save or store any Exif data (I do a lot of things that relies on the Exif data, like sorting images based on focal length, aperture, ISO, well, you get the idea), John Paul did say to me he is looking into it.
A while ago after updating the software I was checking out it's "Content Aware Eraser", it is one of the best Content Aware Erasers I have ever used and much better than anything I ever programmed. These few images were done in April 2024 where the weather as usual for this area was pretty bad especially when you just wanted to go out with your bike and camera gear just to take a few photographs. So, stuck with the second best option I decided to mess around with the program for a few hours with some images I had on my PC.
As you can see some of the images are pretty poor after a resize but the program held it's own against some other paid for systems, below is a quick screen grab of an image that has been heavily cropped and possibly oversharpened. The original RAW image size was 5240 x 3912 pixels from my OM-D E-M1 II cropped to 1475 x 1179 pixels which is around 30% of it's original size. The E-M1 II is one fantastic camera and goes well with my E-M5 II, once the grips have been added though they both become photographic beasts that could probably handle anything you threw at them as both become weather proofed when you add the correct lens to it's mount.
The shot below is an actual 100% crop of the original image taken from a screen grab of the RAW file in the much under rated "IrvanView" software, which is also another "FREE" image manipulation piece of software and usually hated by the internet "Experts".
Taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 II at 1/250th second, f6.3, ISO 200 using the Olympus M.14-150mm F4.0-5.6 II zoom lens set to 150mm focal length.The lens is brilliant for an underrated "Kit" lens and is also weather proofed. I, for some reason prefer the Lumix 14-140mm f4-5.8 first version. Some shots below showing how these two great "Kit" lenses stand up against each other, well, in my opinion anyway.
It's actually amazing how the Olympus lens looks larger than the Lumix one. The Olympus lens weighs 318 Grams and the Lumix weighs in at 496 Grams. The Lumix one does have Optical Image Stabilization in it though which will add to its weight, I'm old school fashioned where things were made out of steel and proper stuff not plastic, and saying that one of my favorite "Kit" lenses is the Lumix 14-42mm f3.5-5.6, when it arrived I thought it was a toy and sent by mistake but once I used it I was blown away by the resulting images, it's definitely not a toy.
My favorite all round "Super Zoom" lens attached to my E-M1 II with the weather proofed Olympus sitting by it's side. I'll say both lenses are fantastic and do what is expected of them and being a non pixel peeper gives you a lot of satisfaction when going through all the photographs you have taken without a care for how one pixel compares to another one using either lens.
My other favorite all round "Super Zoom" lens attached to my E-M1 II which is the weather proofed Olympus 14-150mm II and I have used it in the rain and wind, have no choice really around here but I wouldn't change my surroundings if told to. The Lumix feels like a "Real" lens when I'm holding it the old fashioned way, you know, with your left hand supporting the camera and lens while you are busy composing the shot so as not to allow anything shaky to interfere when you press the shutter button.
Both lenses waiting to see which one is going out with me today, a lot depends on the weather, I usually take both, one on the camera and the other sitting in my rucksack waiting for the rain to stop and believe it or not they both have their own personalities. My OM-D E-M1 II loves them both and I wonder why we can't just have the old fashioned turret where you just turned this huge dial with all the lens of the day attached and was there at the flick of a rotation. Oh well, life goes on and having the ability to use things from the past goes a long way these days.
A few notes about some of my manual focus lenses from the film era.
My favorite all round fixed mount Zoom lens is the Tokina 60-300mm f4-5.8 and here it is attached to my OM-D E-M1 II.
This lens surprised me when it arrived, "Tokina SZ-X 60-300mm f4-5.6". It came with original box and user registration card filled out on the 30th of September 1989, exactly 35 years ago as of today, September 30th 2024. It has a Canon FD mount which suits me fine as it is simply just a matter of adding it to one of my Canon FD to M43 Adapters (Which I have a decent collection of now). When setting the IBIS value in my E-M1 II I always try and stick to the zoomed out value as close as possible but if I'm in a hurry I set the value to around 120 to 180mm.
My favorite Tamron AdaptAll Zoom lens has to be the "Tamron 35-70mm f3.5 (17A)", a couple of quick shots of the lens below.
And I used to think the "CF Macro" was "Close Focusing Macro" but actually it stood for "Continuous Focusing Macro" which when you think about it makes more sense.
The lens set at 35mm and focused at infinity its length is longer than when set at 70mm and focused at infinity.
The lens is sharp all round but can take a while to get used to the way the focusing is adjusted. The "CF MACRO" which I thought meant "Close Focussing Macro" but actually means "Continuous Focusing Macro" which took me a while to figure out. The mechanical coupling between the zoom and the focus that shifts the zoom towards 70mm as the focus moves into macro is progressive. So while at 35mm the CFD is 0.9m, at 40mm the CFD is 0.5m, at 50mm 0.3m. It has been said that using this method to focus a change to focal length could introduce some major wear and tear and should be used as little as possible. I can actually hear the lens gears grinding as it's being used. It's best to set the focal length first then focus using the Olympus "Focus Peaking" and for best results and if you have the time set the IBIS focal length to as close as possible to the one you are using.
