Goodbye old mate …hello new chum

I had been putting off jumping into mirrorless because I’m quiet happy with my two (sometimes 3) DSLRs. You know those very old fashioned big clunky cameras with mirrors. Well my Canon slipped from its camera bag a couple of week back and a favourite lens separated rather than broke (its the second lens to suffer this fate but this time it is still kind of usable at a pinch.) However it was time to seriously consider getting a mirrorless!

I’ve had the Canon EOS 1100D (she’s called the Rebel T3i in the USA, but I just call her Tess) for over a decade and it has been a perfect camera for what I used it for in my business. Filming training clips and documenting various procedures involved in mining, pretty well always in harsh environments, The video was pretty damn good, well except the sound was ordinary (no external mic port) and it was difficult to get anything but jerky results handheld (no stabilisation). Yet the video could be great (on a tripod) and the still photos even better. It has just the right balance between automated features and classic settings. In my view this would make it the perfect sort of camera to give someone young as their first camera to learn on. Similar models are still available today but there should be plenty of second hand ones around also. I’ve already figured out mine can go to a friend and be well looked after. So Farewell and Bon Chance my old friend.

Even though I have a higher megapixel camera already in my Pentax K20D, I opted to stay around the same megapixel size as the Canon, because I really don’t see the need for any more. So I was happy looking at micro 4/3rds systems and once I picked up the new Olympus OMD 10 mark III I knew that’s what I wanted. It is more than capable of doing all the work the Canon performed (only better). Despite being a tiny camera, its a metal build so it feels substantial and it is full of the features only found in a lot of the top models. Better still other than a few things I could not find straight away, I just picked it up and got decent photos straight up. So its back to learning new dials and menus, hmm… that M S A P stuff, but I bet that will be fun. The dials are nice and big so I’ll manage.

Welcome to a new chum and I trust you will be happy in my hands.