Camera Gear

I never carry over weighted stuff with me. I always prefer portable things.

What's over-weighted to you in terms of cameras?

an slr or anything thats much over half a kilo including lens

my main camera weighs half a kilo canon G1 x, takes photos as good as low end SLR cameras., but i picked up another compact sony rx100 that weighs quarter of a kilo, still takes incredibly good shots. you can get some extremely good quality compact cameras now

militaris, I have had E-3 for a long time, its a heavy beast. Was looking at the OM-D in the shop last weekend. I think I am tempted to swap. Smaller much lighter, with everything it would be half the weight of what I currently tend to carry. I note your comment on the continuous focus. Over all how have you found the OM-D.

Only just noticed your post. The OM-D is a great camera and I still love it. Lightweight and tough for the most part. Although one of the covers for my dial have dropped off..... Must send it away for warranty repairs but I do not want to be parted from it. Continuous Focus is rather useless, but Single Focus is quick. This is only a problem if you are trying to photographing quick moving objects like birds in flight. But for most other situations its excellent. No complaints regarding the photo quality, and these a wide range of lenses. Most of them lightweight. I happily take my entire 4 lens kit with me on hikes. The weight is not really a issue unless I leave them hanging around my neck all day. Battery life sucks. A spare is essential. I did not make a mistake buying it last year, but would be reluctant to purchase one currently. There are rumors that the next model is going to be announced within a few months. The rumors might be baseless, but I have read that the next model might take 4/3 lenses naturally, that Continuous focus might be improved (quite a few people are mentioning some type of Phase detection Autofocus) but that could be wishful thinking of their part.

I've got the front SLR aarn clip ons - they're great on a track like the abel tasman where its super flat most of the way and you don't need to jump over stuff. Their biggest downfall is on the hairy stuff - I find the front packs too much of a pain when you really need to be able to lean in on stuff. Mostly now I take my aarn sans the front packs but if I need more than one set up (landscape, macro, tele photo) then i'll use them.

Militaris, thank you for your response. I have generally decided to stick with olympus. I might even get around to selling the E3 kit so as to not increase the ever growing number of cameras that I already own. However I also noted the rumours of a new model and therefore am holding back at present to see if that becomes an actuality.

It has been announced, the Olympus OM-D E-M1. Its not cheap but its impressive sounding.

Hi Militaris, What 4 lenses do you carry, and do you bother with a tripod? I am always reviewing my pack weight and the decision as to which lenses to carry on longer trips is never easy! Thanks, Alan