I have enjoyed photography for most of my 45 years, and been a Nikon nut since my Dad let me use his FE back in the 80′s, B&W processing was fun and cheaper but I departed for many years until I went digital in 2006 with a then new Nikon D40.  Two years later I upgraded to a D90 and thought “OK this is better than film” and it was a real step in the right direction for my photography, shoot as many shots as you want and delete most of them.

After numerous vacations and road trips while schlepping a fairly heavy pack or sling the other day I decided it was time to change the DSLR rut I was in. Get a new lens get a new bag. Go on a trip, decide what do I leave home.  All too frequently my answer was nothing, I might need it all. I went from taking the kitchen sink in a Tamrac Velocity 10 sling to trying to slim down via a variety of midsize bags, medium slings and even 2 different top loading holsters.  Usually I was either simi-naked with just the d90 and my 18-105 or I had almost all of it.

Finally I had enough, my last preferred solution was a Lowepro Toploader 65 Pro AW and then realized it now needed an outrigger to carry my 70-300 zoom, then I would have most of my usual essentials for a trip.  After trying the new lens case mounted on the side of the top loader, I saw that I now had a somewhat largish hump on the smaller than a basketball hump that was swinging around my neck.  Nope, still not small or light enough, I still needed a smaller kit, but there was just no squeezing all of it into a single bag.

For a while I went pretty much all iPhone photography, I know your saying I basically quit photography, but the best camera is the one you have with you. I went a month without getting the d90 out and even lent it to a friend for a couple of his families trips. It served him well so I was happy about that.  Then the other day I saw an article for an upcoming new lens from panasonic for a smaller Micro Four Thirds (MFT) camera. It seemed like it would be impossible to have a camera I could shoot quickly on auto, or have all the control and lens possibilities I enjoyed from the DSLR on a smaller camera wouldn’t it?

But it wasn’t, or at least it hasn’t seemed like it yet, I picked up a red Olympus E-PL2 and really like it.  I’m sure for a pro there are differences he or she could mock me for being unaware of.  I challenge anyone who enjoys getting a really pleasant picture, a bright, tack sharp image, to say the equipment is everything in that equation.  Usually everyone will say the opposite, and some of the coolest pictures I have seen are with more mundane equipment in the hands of gifted photographers.  With all that said, thus far I have not had anything after acquiring the viewfinder that I can’t do with my new camera at a fraction of the space required to carry it from my former camera.

That old smallest kit solution is now my full kit solution, the lowepro now houses my new Olympus 40-150mm as well as all the cables, batteries, SD cards and my new lightweight rig.  The piece I plan to carry around the most is my Olympus E-PL2 with a 14-42mm lens inside a cosmos leather case with my rangefinder and a spare SD card mounted to a Lowepro neck strap.  Now the only thing missing from my abilities is all my flashes, but I have essentially given up on being the guy with all those flashes.  If I am doing portraits again, it will be with lights.

Now to get out and take some pictures.  I will post a few here as soon as I get back next week.  If you have tips or tricks on making the leap from DSLR to MFT let me know.  So far it has been great though all cameras seem to still have issues with low light situations, but the E-LP2 seems to be doing at least as well as my D90… dare I say maybe better, it may be too soon to tell.  But I did take a shot yesterday I will conclude with that I think is pretty sharp and has very nice color.

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