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| The Needles Highway, Custer State Park, South Dakota, USA |
The short answer is yes and no. Want a longer answer? Read on.
I consider myself a professional as well as an amateur photographer. Why? I shoot for stock and fine art (wall art) as well as for myself. I am passionate about photography and if I had never made any money from it, that would have been fine. I love making images and capturing those interesting scenes and things I encounter in life.
When I left on my recent 24 day road trip, I took two camera kits. Keeping in mind that I would be making images for stock and fine art as well as "record" shots of my travels, I felt I needed to take my Nikon D800E kit with several lenses and accessories as well as my M4/3 camera. I brought lenses for the Nikon with focal lengths from 16mm to 280mm. I felt that this wide range of focal lengths would serve my needs and it did. I have found that I almost never need anything over 300mm in focal length. With 36mp, I can crop somewhat if I can't quite reach what I am photographing with the lenses I have.
For this trip I also took my Olympus E-M1 with a Panasonic 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. The 35mm equivalent for that lens is 28-280mm. I decided to take only one lens. Not quite the range I had with the Nikon gear, as I didn't plan on using this gear for anything but recording the places and friends along our way. I thought I would be using the Nikon for most of the stock type of work and using the Olympus for picking up and just carrying as well as making images for my own record.
Well, it didn't work out that way. Not at all. And, I should have learned a lesson from a previous trip. The same thing happened as on this trip. On this trip, I made 2188 exposures. Of those, 85.33% were with the Olympus and only 14.67% were with the Nikon. I found myself being totally satisfied with the performance, convenience and image quality of the combination of the Olympus camera and Panasonic lens, that this lightweight gear became my "go-to" gear for most of the trip. Using a small camera and primarily one lens makes photography even more enjoyable. At my age (62), I am done carrying the big, heavy digital SLR gear.
I found the 14-140mm Panasonic lens served my needs, focal lengths, speed and quality, quite well. However, there were times I needed a wider lens. I have a Panasonic 7-14mm f/4 lens, but did not take it for the reasons stated above. Now, I wished I had. Two lenses would have served all my needs, in this case.
When I needed a wider than 28mm equivalent lens, I brought out the Nikon gear. Immediately, I missed the EVF and the histogram in the viewfinder. I have come to rely upon the histogram, as well as the viewfinder itself lightening or darkening when changing exposure, quite a bit. I call it "pre-chimping" as I can see what my image will look like before I press the shutter button. No need to remove my eye from the viewfinder and look at the image I just made after I pressed the shutter. No shots to miss by doing that.
A funny thing happened concerning the Nikon gear. I started feeling a bit guilty over not using it. I have been a Nikon user for most of the past 44+ years that I have been practicing photography and I was feeling someone guilty over not picking it up most all the time on this trip. But, I got over it quickly, again, as I said above, I really felt the smaller, lighter and more nimble Olympus was serving both my needs (stock and documenting my journey) quite well.
So, the question posed in the title of this post—Can a travel photographer travel with only a mirrorless camera and only one lens and be successful? Yes and no. Yes, you can get all the professional quality out of the M4/3 system that you will need 99% of the time, even as a professional travel photographer. No, one lens can't do the job unless you have very narrow needs. I found I needed wider focal lengths than the 28mm equivalent that I had brought which made me grab the Nikon with the 16-35mm f/4 VR to handle the job.
Plans for the future? Most likely, I will acquire the Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 lens when it is released, which will complete my M4/3 kit of a Panasonic 7-14mm f/4, Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8, and the Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8. Since the Olympus 12-40 focuses very, very close, I can forego a macro lens and instead use a high quality dual element close-up filter (Nikon 6T) instead for the little macro work I do. As for the Nikon gear? It may be gone by the end of the year...
Thanks for looking.
Dennis Mook
Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com. Please pay it a visit. I add new images regularly. Thank you.
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Interesting thoughts! I still can't let go of the D610+lenses, as my wife and I use it almost daily. With primes it is not very heavy, only the 70-200/2.8 is a monster, but I use it only if I really need that bokeh for portraits. Image quality is superb I'm sitting now on three systems, EM1, XT1 and D610. The files of the D610 are amazing and comparing the EM1s to it I was unhappy with time. Additionally, good lenses aren't cheap and I like fast lenses for shallow DOF work. So with the Pana 42.5 I had high hopes for and the announced wide-angle zoom a point was reached where I can't justify spending that much for effects I want in a lightweight package (1500 Euros+1700Euros estimated). For me the XT1 serves this better as the better lenses are comparable in price but deliver shallower DOF if needed in the focal lengths I like (23mm/1.4, 35/1.4,56/1.2, announced 90mm/2.0 and 16mm/2.0 + 14mm for landscape use where shallow DOF is not that important).
ReplyDeleteLast weekend I compared shots of both (using a Voigtländer 25mm for the EM1) with lots of green foliage detail and couldn't see any artefacts at 100% for the XT1 any more using Irident or PhotoNinja. So I will sell my OMD now, because the only feature which really makes it stand out for me, the stabilised macro possibilities with the great 60mm, aren't enough to justify three systems. But it's good to here that you found your system. Keep up the interesting posts.
HF, thanks for the comment. I think each of us has to determine what gear is right for us. I love my D800E and Nikon lenses, but as I age, I find myself wanting to carry less weight but maintain image quality. For about 20 years, I carried a Pentax 6X7 camera and 4 lenses around all over the country. Too heavy for today. Your D610 is considerably smaller and lighter than my D800E and that certainly is an option in reducing camera size. But those lenses aren't any smaller. I tried the X-T1 and really liked the camera, lenses and image quality, with the exception of detail in the foliage while using Lightroom and Photoshop. At this point, I'm not willing to add in Photo Ninja to my editing routine as my two editing software programs should do as good a job.
ReplyDeleteI have found, through making very large custom prints, that in real world comparisons, not looking at images at 1:1 on a computer screen, there is no practical difference in images using excellent technique with a M4/3 camera and full frame cameras, contrary to what you might have read. Real world testing is much more meaningful than artificially comparing at magnifications that no one uses on a computer screen, especially if you invest in the highest quality lenses. At this point, M4/3 provides all the necessary quality that my stock agency requires and my customers are very happy with the quality and I'm happy with the size, weight and cost of the system.
Bottom line-buy what suits you and your needs as you and I both have done.