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You are here: Home / Galleries / The Olympus OM-D E-M5 & Pen E-P5 Photograph the Côr Meibion Bro Dysynni

The Olympus OM-D E-M5 & Pen E-P5 Photograph the Côr Meibion Bro Dysynni

02/09/2013 By Heather Leave a Comment

Wales is a country that is often closely associated with male voice choirs. The tradition took hold in the early 19th century when South Walian coal miners formed groups and began to sing together. Though these mining communities have largely died out, the choral tradition continues in Wales, and has produced many popular choirs such as the Treorchy Male Choir and Morriston Orpheus Choir. Male voice choirs can be found singing at the beginning of international sports events such as rugby, and often perform worldwide.

Five years ago, when my parents moved to the seaside town of Tywyn in Mid-Wales, my father decided to join the Côr Meibion Bro Dysynni, a small 20-member male voice choir which has been around since 1967. Amazingly, some of the original members are still active, despite creaky knees and the choir’s very hectic singing schedule. In fact, the oldest members aren’t far off having 90 candles on their birthday cake!

E-M5, 1/80, f/ 5.6, ISO 6400
The boys of the Côr Meibion Bro Dysynni looking their best.
E-M5, 1/320, f/ 1.8, ISO 3200

Imagine the excitement the choir felt when they were invited to participate in 2015’s The Night of 1000 Voices at the Royal Albert Hall in London! At this concert, male voice choirs from all over the British Isles join together to perform a mixture of songs from musicals and opera, as well as traditional Welsh and English tunes. To raise the $5000 needed to participate in the event, the choir has been holding regular performances throughout the year.

The boys of the Côr Meibion Bro Dysynni looking their best. E-M5, 1/320, f/ 1.8, ISO 3200
E-P5, 1/100, f/ 2.8, ISO 1600

As great supporter of both my dad and the choir in general, Mathieu and I offered up our photographic services by shooting three of their summer concerts–one at the Tywyn Catholic Church, one at the Abergynolwyn fairground, and one at Aberdyfi’s St. Peter’s Church.

We chose to use the Olympus OM-D E-M5 and Pen E-P5 with the Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 zoom, 45mm f/1.8 portrait lens, and 12mm f/2 wide angle.

With two of the three locations being inside a quiet church, we had to be sure that the cameras we used would not disturb the audience. Up until then, we had never done a proper comparison between the two Olympus flagships to see which was more audible in a quiet setting.

It turns out that the Pen E-P5 has a significantly louder shutter than the E-M5–nowhere near the disturbance of a DSLR click, but enough to turn the heads of those sitting near you. In the end, we ended up using the E-M5 for most shots. The E-P5 was saved for when the choir sang loudly.

With this in mind, I cannot help but wonder just how silent the new E-M1 will be. Will it have a similar shutter to the E-M5, or will it inherit the shutter of the E-P5 as it did many of its other features such as focus peaking and the Low ISO setting?

Of course, this question cannot be answered for the time being so it is best that we turn our attention to more tangible things, such as the images we captured of the choir! We’ve even included a short video of one of the tunes taken with the E-M5. Enjoy!

E-P5, 1/80, f/ 4, ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/125, f/ 2.8, ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/2000, f/ 2.8, ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/100, f/ 2.8, ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/125, f/ 2.8, ISO 2500
E-P5, 1/125, f/ 2.8, ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/100, f/ 2.8, ISO 1600
E-P5, 1/30, f/ 2.8, ISO 1600
E-M5, 1/400, f/ 1.8, ISO 3200
E-M5, 1/250, f/ 1.8, ISO 3200
E-M5, 1/100, f/ 5.6, ISO 6400
E-M5, 1/160, f/ 5.6, ISO 6400
E-M5, 1/80, f/ 5.6, ISO 6400
E-M5, 1/125, f/ 5.6, ISO 6400
E-M5, 1/200, f/ 5.6, ISO 6400
E-M5, 1/200, f/ 1.8, ISO 3200
E-M5, 1/160, f/ 1.8, ISO 3200
E-M5, 1/250, f/ 1.8, ISO 3200
E-P5, 1/320, f/ 2.8, ISO 200
E-M5, 1/25, f/ 2.8, ISO 3200

Filed Under: Galleries, Olympus Gallery Tagged With: Côr Meibion Bro Dysynni, male choir wales, male voice choir, welsh male choir, welsh male voice choir

About Heather

Heather Broster was born in Canada, has lived in Japan and Italy but currently calls Wales home. She is a full-time gear tester at MirrorLessons. You can follow her on Google+, Twitter or Facebook!

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Heather Broster is participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

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© HEATHER BROSTER/MATHIEU GASQUET AND MIRRORLESSONS, 2013-2020

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