A New Camera

Over the last few years, I’ve been looking for a new camera. I have a DSLR that I like a good bit – a Nikon D80 – and it has proven to be quite durable and reliable, but it’s heavy and bulky. In the field we have tended to use Nikon Coolpix P5000, P6000, or P7000 point-and-shoot cameras at times when I probably wanted something more robust. These are fine camera but for their size and price, they aren’t nearly as flexible or as high quality as a DSLR. I found myself carrying the smaller Nikon point-and-shoot

When the Micro4/3 format appeared, it was pitched as the between point-and-shoots and DSLRs, but they tended to be expensive and have too many options for me to figure out quickly what I wanted and I am always worried about a new format (I narrowly avoided owning a disc camera). Fortunately, some photographerfriends convinced me that the format was mature, dynamic, and high quality enough for me to take the plunge. So I got a

with a 20 mm 1.7 lens. I also have a 14-42 mm lens. Since the Micro4/3 does not have a full-sized sensor these lenses are roughly 40 mm and 28-84 mm respectively. 

Here are some photographs using the 20 mm 1.7 lens (a new camera can only help so much…):

Pretty nice! Don’t tell my DSLR, but I might have a new favorite camera!

Oh and since he endured some endless questions about cameras from me, it would be wrong for me not to tell you to check out Kyle Cassidy’s humming beast photos. They’re pretty sweet and tiny and cost only a little.