Just A Man With A Camera

After almost ten years, I made a major change in my life: I bought a new camera body.  The camera I've been using, since it launched in early 2015, is the Olympus OM-D E-M5 mkII.  When I bought it, I had already been using the original OM-D E-M5, and while I really enjoyed that camera, the mkII made it feel like the prototype that somehow made it to market. Everything was better about it: from the obvious things like image quality improvements, to the controls and the ergonomics. It was just so much better, and over the last ten years, it has been my favorite camera I have ever owned. Paired with the Olympus 25mm 1.8, that camera travelled all over the world with me. It was in my bag as I walked local parks, hiked forests, wandered the streets of Havana, and climbed through the Great Pyramid of Giza. It never broke down or gave me any grief. It was absolutely rock solid. Not only did it perform incredibly, it was a sexy looking camera! When I ordered it, I made sure to get it in black and silver.  It just looks and feels to me how a camera is supposed to look and feel. Over the years it's just been a really fun camera to use because it the way it looks and feels in my hand.  I would get people all the time walking up to me, and telling me how nice of a camera it is.

So why did I replace it if  I love it so much?  Honestly, I felt it was just kind of time for a change and an upgrade. In addition to better image quality, I wanted better high ISO performance, faster autofocus, the built in ND filter, the in-camera focus stacking, and improved IBIS.  That's not to say that the E-M5 is bad by any means, but I just wanted an improvement on what I had.  It's been ten years so there's improvements everywhere.

Now what did I replace it with? Well back on black Friday,OM Systems had a sale running on pretty much everything, and the price of the OM1 MkI was discounted $900 CDN. Even at that price I was slightly hesitant to buy it, because I love the form factor of the EM5/OM5 line and was originally thinking of waiting for the next iteration of that to be announced, but I they way they stripped it down over the last few couple revisions and changed it to a plastic body rather than metal had really turned me off from it.  Additionally, it wouldn't be any less expensive than the price of the OM1. Seemed like a no brainer to me honestly.

Everything on paper about this camera is an improvement, but it all the specs in the world can't change one thing: the shooting experience.  The EM5 MkII was such a fun camera to use.  It was so pocketable and fun to just pick up and go, especially with a small prime lens on it.  It's honestly taken some adjustment getting used to using such a bigger camera again.  Before I switched to M43, I shot with a Canon 50D.  Going down to something like the EM5 from that was like switching to a point and shoot.  Now, the EM1 isn't so much bigger like a 50D, but it's still a big step up in size.  Now, that's not a bad thing, I just have to get used to having a bigger, heavier camera again. 

What I can say though is that I'm really happy with the change in image qualilty, and the IBIS.  The way I was able to handhold macro images has been increadibly (and I plan on making a post about this), and the improved dynamic range.  It's safe to say, while I kind of mourn the retiring of my old EM5, this new EM1 makes me excited about my photographic future.