I have bought into a new camera system! My first impressions and images.

Oh no! Rumours were rife last week that I was leaving the Fujifilm ecosystem behind. That couldn’t be further from the truth, I was just selling things I don’t use or don’t like. And what better way to replace them than buy a compact system for a different kind of photography.

So, I sold my XF18-135mm as I never liked that lens, it was just too big and missed focus too much for me. I sold the TTArtisan 40mm macro lens as I just prefer to use my extension tubes, I just find them more fun for what I do. I also sold one of my two Fujifilm Instax cameras, as they cost money to keep buying film and I really don’t need two, so I sold the SQ6. Finally I sold the Canon FD 50mm 1.8 vintage lens.

In actual fact, just selling the XF18-135 and Canon FD gave me enough money for this little haul, and I’m more than happy having the extra cash to spend on the kids during this school holiday.

So, what did I get? If any pictures haven’t given it away already, I picked up a “as new” Olympus Pen EPL8 micro four thirds camera, along with an “as new” Olympus 14-42 pancake lens and the Olympus 17mm F/2.8 prime pancake lens.

I’ve been looking for a compact interchangeable lens camera for a while, and the EPL8 cropped up time and time again. It’s a fantastic camera, giving fantastic output and has great low light performance. I chose the 17mm F/2.8as it’s the 35mm equivalent of a standard 35mm lens, which will turn the body into the perfect small point and shoot camera. The 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6 is equivalent to 28-84mm approx so a very happy focal length for walking around.

Am I replacing my Fujifilm X-T3? Not at all, I’m moving to a duel-ecosystem for one simple reason, the Olympus can be a camera I can slip into my coat pocket and have on me at all times. I know the X-T3 is fairly small, but taking it on holidays a few times recently, I realised it’s actually bigger and more cumbersome than I thought. I always went Fujifilm to be smaller, and as a main camera its perfect, as a family point-shoot-and-forget, it’s not!

Some people have asked why I don’t just use my phone? I do use my phone, a heck of a lot, and a camera is a camera, but a dedicated camera with such a large sensor and small sensor is even better. I’ve been really impressed by the Olympus images I’ve been seeing, so before I even use the camera, I know I’ll be happy.

Ideally, the 17mm F/2.8 will live on the camera for my personal use. I just adore the 35mm field of view, it’s perfect for everything from portraits and landscapes, to architecture and interior shots. You know the composition before you even press the button. It’s just perfect! The zoom lens will be for family days out. It’s also a camera I can happily give you I’ve if the other family members and they won’t be overwhelmed. There’s no viewfinder, so you use it like a phone, via the back screen. I have no issues with this, we will see how it is in bright sunlight.

Where do I go from here? Well firstly, my website at onecameraonelens.com will be tweaked and have an Olympus section added. Secondly, it will allow me to just take more photos, in better quality! As much as I like mobile phone shots, your can often tell it’s a mobile phone, so with the extra dynamic range of the EPL8, things should improve!

I’ve seriously cut back on a lot of camera equipment now, as well as selling things, I’ve given things away and thrown away things that I simply don’t or didn’t use, so I’ve only got the X-T3 with 4 lenses (2 primes and 2 zooms), this new Olympus with 1 prime and 1 zoom and my Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo. All my film cameras, except a family inherited piece have gone, and I have so much more room to store things!

It’s going to be an exciting time! Stay with me for the journey. Here are a few images of the camera, along with some test images.

This first set are raw edits. The files were mostly taken with the 14-42mm lens (see EXIF data for full details). All these images were edited in Darktable.

This second lot of images are straight from camera jpegs. All are full sized for this blog, so you can see them with no resizing.

This isn’t really a review, but I am mighty impressed with my initial usage of the camera. Images are sharp, the camera is half the size of my X-T3 with all of the functionality and its really well built. Its certainly a camera I will be using a lot of the time.

Let me know what you think of the images, and if you own an Olympus, let me know your thoughts.

Mark