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It's finally happened. I replaced my DSLR, the faithful Nikon D300. I love that camera, lusted for it before I possessed it and now in retirement, remember it fondly. Mine was configured just the way you see it above: D300, MB-D10 battery pack and the Nikkor 18-200mm "super-zoom". I toted that thing everywhere. The Dallas Arboretum for family pictures, top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, all over Taiwan, to every kid sporting event and to every family outing. I bought it used of course, but it never game me the slightest hiccup. The lens packed it in once due to a dead stabilization motor, but that was my fault due to forgetting to turn that off while using it on a tripod. But that got repaired and it just kept right on taking pictures.
Over the years, I did manage to use a couple of other lenses on it; the Nikkor 18-70mm and the legendary 50mm manual focus Nikkor f1.4. The former came on the D70 that I own previously and the later a gift from my brother after he had it electronically converted to talk to current Nikon mounts. Nice equipment that still shoots nice pictures..... why change now?
This isn't exactly the way I look, but it sure is the way I feel these days. While our vacation trip to Disney forever changed what I'm willing to drive long distance with kids and luggage; our trip to DC forever changed what I'm willing to carry in photographic equipment!
This was the instrument of change! I don't mean I replaced the D300 with the Lumix LX5! Here's what happened. I felt like I needed to be able to have something small enough to fit in a pocket, since there are places that don't allow the big professional style cameras, plus I wanted to be able to shoot video as well. Given that we were going to DC and would be inside of buildings a lot, I wanted something that gave a little wider view than most pocket cameras were capable of giving. It turns out that this little Lumix would do all that and was cheap since it was a few years old at that time. I found one down in Waco for about a $100 and grabbed it. Since that time, most things that was too much for the phone got assigned to the little Lumix.
So, I've been periodically keeping an eye on cameras of this type for some time. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I came across a few of the GX7s bidding at a low price on eBay. One of them, even came with a lens, so I bid on it and got it for just over $240 shipped. At this point, I'd better back up to the point where I had decided that the D300 was too big and heavy. Not only that, it wouldn't do video which I've increasing found that I needed.
Some of you might remember that I had gone down this road before, when I wanted to build an alternate system that was small, light and easy to carry. As much as I liked that camera, I couldn't live without an eye-level viewfinder......
....and trust me when I say that I tried to live with the rather awkward attachment viewfinder. So I gave up and sold it for what I paid for it. In the meantime, Panasonic had brought out the GX1 which fixed most of what was wanting on the GF1, but it was too much and the recent failure too fresh. Then the GX7 came out and it was everything I wanted.... just cost too much. But that was the last quarter of 2013 and in the world of consumer electronics, 5 years is a long time. By the last quarter of 2018, that $1100 GX7 is now sub-$250 and this particular one came with the 12-32mm lens. For those of you not familiar with Micro-4/3 format, that's 24-64mm in the 35mm world. Barring the 14-140mm superzoom, or the 20mm/f1.7 pancake lens, this was my next most coveted glass.
Wouldn't I have rather gotten the more current GX8? Sure, but I didn't want to give $500+ for the body alone. Besides, my days of envisioning myself as a Cartier-Bresson are long gone. If I really were willing to spend more money, I'd have bought this...
The Olympus Pen-F that I would argue to be the perfect combination of most beautiful and capable digital camera today. But alas, we who live on teacher salaries, have to make hard choices. Enough of dreaming. What do I really want/need to be fully converted over to the new system.
2 lenses and a flash. The main lens will be the 14-140mm and that will live on the camera most of the time, the 20mm/f1.7 for low ambient light. And of course the other solution for low ambient light; the Godox TT350, because unlike Nikon; there's no advantage to paying more and going with Panasonic. This will make traveling a one bag experience without the back pain of carrying a full-sized DSLR.
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.
