And..... We're Off..... or Planning to Be Anyway.....

This year, for Spring Break; we're planning on going to Washington DC. This has been on the docket for some time now and "come hell or high water", we're going! As it works out, with children 3 years apart, here in the state of Texas, both of them are taking some version of American History in school, so it's the most obvious time to go. We sure don't want to go in the summer. Nobody wants to be in DC during that time of year! 

One of the obvious things about any trip there is that there'll be lots of pictures taken. I know what you're thinking! He's going to talk about replacing his camera..... ah..... no..... Doh! Let me go ahead and say that I evaluated this strategy long and hard.

The Olympus Pen-F has had me salivating for some time now. Just think about it: it's up-to-date current state-of-the-art, it's new and stunning. I could channel my long forgotten inner "range-finder" camera street photographer..... Besides, it's way smaller than the beast!!!

Let's cut to the chase. At the end of the day, my old Nikon D300 with the 18-200mm lens mounted can shoot virtually every photo I need to shoot. When I do my part, it can shoot them all well. I have pretty much all the lenses I need and I own it. Don't have to buy a thing!

Except this. What the D300 can't do is video, nor can it remake itself into something that can go anywhere inside a pocket. If those of you with long memories think this reminds you of my short affair with the Panasonic GF1, you'd be close.... but no cigar.

Here are the 2 cameras compared. You can easily put the LX5 in a jacket pocket or even some pants pockets, but certainly not the GF1. Even when it has the 20mm pancake lens on and the VF-1 viewfinder off. Where the GF1 can rightfully have "big camera" pretensions with it's Micro 4/3rds sensor, the LX5 is a compact from the ground up with a sensor a quarter of the size. However, with the resolution at 10 Megapixels, it does a nice job without a lot of noise... unless you get frisky with the ISO! It's main calling cards?

It can go anywhere and not call attention to itself, very unlike the huge D300!

It's lens starts at a 35mm equivalent of 24mm! With lots of inside (yet panoramic) photo opportunities such as above in DC, it's pretty much be with me the whole time. 

Would I love to get a new camera? YES! Would I love the new Olympus? YESSSSS!!! Do I need it? Can I get done what needs to be done with what I have? Will switching systems fix the thing that the D300 can't do? Ahhh.... No...... Sometimes you just have to be satisfied with what you have and do the cheap fix. Yup; it was cheap. I picked up my slightly beat up LX5 off of Craigslist for $95. Yes, I had to jump through hoops, meaning that I had to get a former student who's going to school down in Waco to pick it up after giving the money to her brother to give to her mom to deposit in her account! But hey. Problem solved..... frugally.