Hi all,
I arrived here after wanting something lightweight, compact and durable to take with me on multi-day hiking trips. Naturally, I found M43 and Olympus cameras appealing. I don't have my body purchased yet, but am looking at either an E-M5 III or E-M1 II, from what I understand the relevant differences for me are that the E-M5 is a bit lighter and smaller which is nice, but the E-M1 II has larger battery capacity and more robust frame. I should note I really admire the effort Olympus has put into IBIS and 'shooting without a tripod' - that's very appealing to me as tripods are big, heavy and time consuming when on the trail.
Anyway, I'm mostly wanting to take landscapes (including at night, it'd be great to capture the ol' Milky with my tent and mountains below) and wildlife shots. I wouldn't say I have a 'budget' per se, and instead it's a function of what the the lens accomplishes.
For astro, I'm looking at the Pana 12mm / 1.7 for astro, but I've heard it has purple fringing issues with the Olympus bodies (which may or may not be fixed with a Weston 2A UV filter). OTOH, the Olympus 12 / 2 is used successfully and also recommended, it just didn't seem to have the bokeh abilities of the 12 / 1.7, but is also much lighter and smaller. One last option I'm considering in this category is the Olympus 12-40 / 2.8, having a zoom lens would be a lot more versatile so I don't have to carry as much on a hike. I still need to come up with the remainder of my kit, but I'd like to settle on an astro lens first and build out from there (since astro seems inherently challenging with M43, I'd like a good lens to compensate).
If someone could help me come up with a reasonable set of 2-4 lenses, I'd really appreciate it! I'd like to get my system figured out before making any purchases.
Hi!
I'm also a photographing hiker and do some casual interest of astro. I can understand Your doubts.
1) Start from choice between FF (like Sony A7**) and MFT first: for pure astro FF would be always best, especially wide angle. Due to bigger sensor and physical aperture. But it never be as lightweight travel set like MFT. Possible to carry, slightly lighter/samller than DSLR, but stil way bigger and heavier than MFT. You probably may find a particular combination of FF body and 1 lens that would be comparable in weight to MFT with a lens of similar FL, but... Consider, that Your ulimate travel set would be body + at least 2 lenses. If You want to optimize it for many aplications in terms of FL range, F/stop etc., the difference in form factor would become obvious. So it's all about priority: astro or hiking. People do sam starscape with MFT, photograph auroras etc. With less efficiency, but they can carry their tiny cams everywhere.
2) As for MFT: My ultimate travel set is ultrazoom + 1-2 fast primes: Oly 14-150, O. 17/1.8 and O. 12/2.0. Initially started from Pana 14/2.5, but replaced it quickly with 17/1.8 due to more universal FL and better F/stop. Your need may be different from mine, but if You want o start from prime lens, I can recommend 17/1.8 as a starter. It works well indoor, for night/evening/dawn landscapes, street, and so on, even some astro. FL is that universal, that I could take it as the only lens for a specific hiking trip to northern Finland at the very end of formal polar night near Saariselka (actually I took some other prime lenses, but never switched to them). Probably P. 15/1.7 could play similar role for You as a general role fast prime. But anything down from 14 mm FL would be very limited in use compared to 15-17 mm lens. There's a Sigma 16/1.4. I possibly buy it one day exclusively for astro purposes (including aurora trips to the north), but it's 400 g - to much weight for taking it on every hike.
3) If You start from fast prime, the next add on would be a zoom for general daylight photography. If You don't need anything for wildlife, You don't need long FL zoom. You may start with (already proposed) P. 12-32 as extremaly cheap and lightweight universal zoom, or just one of it lenses 14-42. As more ultimate solution for the future I would recommend here one of P. 12-60 - 2 lenses differing with F/stop. There's also excellent O. 12-100/4, but this is rather heavy lens for ultimate hiker. However, my friend paired it with OMD E-M1 II, which is excellent set, but quite substantial in size in MFT world. He is hiking with it - even in Himalaya & Karakorum. Previously he was doing the same with FF DSLR but changed to MFT (once again we land in no. 1 question). If You need longer zoom for animals, ultrazoom of kind O. 14-150, P. 14-140 are well proven choice for travel and hiking.
Regards,
-J.
P.S. I have somwhere my 17/1.8 starscape photos (nothing special, just single frames 15 s at F/2.0) from Baltoro/Concordia (>4900 m). Just K2 with unnamed stars
and some view of Saggitarius/Scorpio area over upper Baltoro, in opposite direction (left of Mitre Peak). On that second one there were quite a few Messier objects visible. Here are some cropped versions I have sent to some astro forum:
All from 17/1.8, the 3-rd one is with Mars over upper Baltoro
