Sorry Canon, it was good while it lasted, but it’s over. I have a new love. The Olympus OM -D-E MI Mark II has stolen my heart. And made travel fun again.

My First Canon

Back in 2012, I bought my first DSLR. A Canon 450D with a twin lens kit. I was in heaven.

I had no idea how to use a camera with interchangeable lenses, having never owned one before, but I took an online course to master the concept of F stops, ISO and aperture and went forth into the world. I LOVED the 450D. Pics were of excellent quality and easy to learn. Emboldened by what I had learnt, two years later, I upgraded to the Canon 7D. It was heavier and larger but had higher frames per second (FPS) for wildlife, my favourite subject alongside landscapes. Wanting to shoot wildlife better, I purchased the Sigma 150-600. You can see where this is going. My kit was getting heavier.

Canon 6D

Fast forward to 2016, and I now also had the Canon 6D, with 24-105 L F.4, 100-400 L F4.5-5.6 and a Canon 16-35 F2.8, plus filters and a host of spare batteries. Flying with the gear was a nightmare. With a 7kg carry-on allowance,  I couldn’t take it all on board and didn’t want to trust it to the checked luggage. So it became a strategic game of wearing a coat and filling the pockets. Then walk through like the coat didn’t weigh 4-5 kg on its own.

Crunch time came when I took a trip to Qld. We were planning on shooting birds in Lamington National Park, so the 100-400 had to come along, as did the wide angle as we were going to be doing landscapes. And, of course, the 24-105 for my walkaround lens. Hoping to find waterfalls, I packed the filters. The entire bag weighed around 10kg. This time I had no choice but to trust the 100-400 to the checked luggage. It was well ensconced in bubble wrap, placed in the centre of the suitcase with clothes all around it for padding. Fortunately, it made the trip there and back with no damage. But, realising this wasn’t sustainable, I started researching the move to mirrorless.

Mirrorless Options

Sony was the first I looked at, as a few friends have them and seem to like them. However, the battery life wasn’t impressive. I was not too fond of the shape and ergonomics of the Sony. The Sony was quite slim and square and call me shallow, but I wanted a camera that still looked like a DSLR. While I could have used the Canon lenses with the Sony via an adapter, I would still have canon lenses’ weight. If I was going to change over,  I decided I would totally change over and use native lenses. Otherwise, there was no real weight saving. 

Olympus

Then I came across the new Olympus M -D-E MI Mark II. It was a nice weight at 574g, had a good grip, was splash-proof, dustproof and freeze-proof. Further investigations found it has excellent five-axis stabilisation, a touch screen, 121-point cross-type phase-detection AF, a minimum burst rate of 15fps, battery life of around 400 shots, and an articulated back LED screen. Sound too good to be true? NO. 

I was still researching by Christmas and decided to bite the bullet and get it. It has proved to be one of my better decisions in life. I love, love, love the Olympus. It’s got a solid metal casing, plus the Lenses feel solid and are all metal with no plastic bits. In the field, it’s light and comfortable to hold. I went for the Pro lenses, which are all F2.8 because they are fast and accurate. Image quality is fabulous. Yes, it’s a micro four-thirds, so the sensor is smaller than the crop of full-frame sensors. But I don’t buy into the whole ‘must have a full-frame to get good pics’. 

Olympus Lenses

The 12-40 F2.8 Pro lives on the camera – and for wildlife, I have the 40-150 Pro 2 .8. You double the focal distance on the micro four-thirds, which equals 24-80 and 80-300 on a full-frame. I also purchased the teleconverter for the 40-150, and when that’s onboard, the 40-150 becomes a 112 -420mm. The 7-14 F2.8 Pro is on my wish list, and I’ll be closely looking at the EOFY sales this year.

According to the reviews I read, the menu on the Olympus was ‘overly complicated, but I didn’t find it too much of an issue. Yes, it’s VERY customisable – there are so many options. Most I ignore and will worry about when I need to know. Maybe if your first camera is the Olympus, it would be overwhelming, but if you are moving from a DSLR, you already have a working knowledge, and it shouldn’t be too daunting. An excellent video by Tony Northrup helped fill in the blanks and get it set up for me.

Problem Solved

Canon makes fabulous lenses, no argument there. And I was happy with the gear and the shots, but the weight became a deal-breaker.   My kit now weighs around 2.5kg, and the 7-14 will add 534g, so in total, by the time I add batteries, filters, etc., the bag will be max 3.5kg …  a loss of  6.5 kg of camera weight. So flying with carry on should no longer be an issue. My images not only have no drop in quality going from crop to micro four-thirds, but I think they are better (the lenses are a standout). My shoulders and back sooo thank me also.