camera gear

time for an update I upgraded from a canon g1x to a micro four thirds olympus em5, they are being replaced and the price was heavily reduced in price, picked it up with a 2.8 14-40 pro lens. its bigger and heavier than the g1x but still a lot more compact than an slr and the same quality as all but the top end slr's couldnt be happier with the image quality. its pretty comparable for image quality with the em1 but the em one has more controls for on the fly changing of settings and a better hand grip on it.. looks like a toy version of an SLR, but i'm amazed with the image quality. lens does great macros. theres a new em5 coming out with a new sensor shift technology that gets 40mp shots but needs a tripod to attain that setting. i've used SLR's in the past and got sick of carying the weight and bulk of them, they can be overkill for a lot of photographers. but i was missing the much greater functionality and setting control the slr camera had over the g1x. The em5 has a lot of the functionality of an slr, electronic viewfinder, lot of information on the viewfinder, can make a lot of adjustments , and numerous different shooting setting options, to all in tents and purposes it is a small slr. Olympus Zuiko lenses are as good as they come for image sharpness. the camera and lens are all weather sealed as well. olympus have recognised the market for outdoors people looking for a quality compact camera they can use in all sorts of weather. the em1 is even rated for low temps as well. still its bulkier and heavier than your compact format cameras, you have to weigh up whether you're willing to carry around a camera of that weight and size, its 1.3kilos all up, the camera and lens weigh 900gm, some slrs camera bodies alone weigh that before you put a heavy zoom lens on it.. my last slr kit was about 2.5 kilos. i've also got a sony rx100 as a backup, i use it for video to spare the main camera battery and when i'm not so fussy about image quality, at 250gm and pocketable its a highly portable, camera with a one inch sensor rated as the best advanced compact camera around. has its limitations though hence the em5. comes down to how fussy you are with the photos you want and how much gear you think its worth toting around... are you a tramper who takes photographs or a photographer who tramps....