Asian in a Strange Land

Olympus E-M5 with 12-50mm lens

After weeks (months?) of rampant speculation, Olympus have officially announced their latest Micro 4/3 camera: the E-M5.  It’s a beast of a camera by Micro 4/3 standards.  For only $200 more than the Olympus E-P3 you get:

• 16MP sensor, probably a tweaked version of the one found in the Panasonic G3 which is excellent
• At least 1 stop better high ISO noise performance due to new sensor
• Built-in electronic viewfinder (EVF)
• Weather sealing (they say it’s on par with the E-5, which was a pro-level camera and very well sealed)
• Magnesium alloy construction
• 2 real, clicky dials with proper resistance up top instead of 1 ok one and 1 flimsy one
• Faster and better continuous AF (so they say; we’ll see)
• 5-axis image stabilization that also works during movie recording and in the EVF while composing the shot
• Tilting rear screen with same touch-sensitiveness and resolution of the nice E-P3 screen
• 4.2 frames per second burst with AF, 9 fps without, with respectable RAW buffer size
• Can take extra grip(s) to improve handling and add battery life.

There are a few other perks too, but I think I hit the real high points.  All of that in a package the size of an E-P3 (which is quite small) plus a little bit of extra height from the EVF housing up top.  Compared to an E-P3 with EVF attached it’s actually smaller.

I’m now very glad I passed on the 2011 crop of Micro 4/3 cameras.  I’ll be eagerly awaiting test shots to determine just how good the image quality is particularly in high ISO noise, and I want to hear user reports about the supposedly improved continuous AF, but other than that this really looks like a home run of a camera.

Drooling…

Beef noodle soup

The best thing about having good restaurants nearby is that you can eat great food without having to cook it.  The second best thing is that it can inspire you to cook great food for yourself.  Here is Exhibit A of that inspirational effect: homemade beef noodle soup.

I was first introduced to this dish at Mr. Chen’s and have since learned a lot about it–probably way too much.  It’s a Taiwanese dish, so the oft-used identifier “Szechuan” beef noodle soup is a misnomer that only indicates that it’s spicy.  Good to know that we here in The States aren’t the only ones to bandy about the “Szechuan” adjective willy-nilly.

Beef noodle soup is so popular in Taiwan that it has become the national dish!  Because of its popularity there are many variants, and my search for a recipe to try on the Internet turned into analysis paralysis.  I finally settled on a recipe at thekitchn.com, which is a site that Denise frequents so I trusted that they would do a good job.  Plus it was one of the least labor intensive, which is always a plus.  Out of respect for thekitchn.com I haven’t reproduced the recipe here, so if you want to follow along feel free to look over the recipe at their site.

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