Bill: Rick Steve advises people to travel very light, as in 'two pairs
of underwear and wash them in the hotel sink.' And you'll be on the move
a lot. Given that, small and light is paramount. Italy has a much
closer standard of personal space than the U.S., so you will be using
normal and wide more often than tele. You also want good IQ, as this is
the trip of a lifetime.
For me, the thing that meets all the criteria is micro 4/3. When I had
"frozen shoulders" and could only carry a small amount, for several
trips I used a Panny G1, the 14-45 kit zoom (28-90 equiv, slow but quite
good optically), and the 20/1.7. That corresponded in coverage roughly
to my L-word rangefinder outfit. The lenses were fine. The G1 itself was
just barely adequate IQ-wise, but it was better than not photographing.
Fortunately, the current crop of m-4/3 cameras are much better.
For years, I shot a film M camera with 35, 50 and 90 lenses only. When I
got the M8 (1.33 crop factor), I added a little Voigtlander 28/3.5 to
get the wide end back. These outfits served me well on trips to Italy,
France, Switzerland and Israel.
Lately, I've traveled in N. America with an E-M5 and either 20, 25 and
45 primes, or the 20/1.7 and the kit zoom.
What I'm getting at is that you would be well served by one of the newer
micro 4/3 bodies, a compact zoom for daylight, and one fast lens of 35 -
50mm equivalent, depending on which is your "normal" focal length. This
would give you the best ratio of weight to performance, and the E-M1/5
and the GX7 are good as you'll need in the IQ department. I believe
there's a new E-P-something that has the E-M5 sensor, that might bear
looking at.
That's my experience. Your mileage may vary if you're a real tele or
superwide person.
--Peter
> This summer I will be going on a 2 1/2 week tour of Italy which will be
> opportunity to mark that off my bucket list. We will be on a Rick
Steves
> tour for most of the trip and will be limited to a day pack and one
airplane
> carry on piece of luggage. You can probably see where I'm going
with this.
> No, I won't be packing either my OM or e-thingy kits. For that matter
the
> medium and large format gear will also be staying home. I really
hate not
> having my film gear with me, however . . .
>
> So, if you were to buy a small digital camera in today's market what
might
> it me?
>
> Basic requirements would be interchangeable lenses (although I would
> probably carry only one), smaller than an e-5, video capable and
under $2,000.
> I'm thinking one of the Olympus, Sony or other similar offerings. I
like an
> optical view finder rather than composing on the screen on the back
of the
> camera however don't know that would be a deal breaker.
>
> So what camera body/system and if only one lens, what might that
be. I'm
> thinking a 35mm equiv. zoom range of 28-135 would be adequate.
>
> Bill Barber
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|