Finally! I Made The Hard Decision And It only Took 2 Years!

One of my three camera systems had to go.  Which one?  Read on. (click to enlarge)

After struggling with a really tough decision, I finally figured out what I wanted (and needed) to do to winnow down the excessive amount of gear I own.  I've been waffling back and forth for about two years on how to reduce the amount of gear I have yet ensure that I will be fully satisfied with what I keep.  The problem has been that I loved using it all!  I didn't want to give up any of it.  But...

After acquiring the Nikon Z7 a few months ago, primarily for my summer project to copy my slide archive (and an upcoming winter project to copy my negative archive), my gear list covered three formats—full frame (24mm X 36mm), APS-C and Micro4/3.  That is too, too much gear to have around.  Also, I think it is just too much money tied up in cameras, lenses and accessories.  I've felt gluttonous, somewhat embarrassed by all the gear I own.  But that is just me.

Even before acquiring the Nikon gear, I have been trying to decide whether or not to keep both my APS-C system and my Micro4/3 system.  I've been trying to decide which will fully satisfy me now and in the future for the types of photography I practice and plan to practice in the future.  I've taken each on past road trips and have been satisfied with both.  For two years, I've been waffling about this.  Why don't I keep all of it?

The result of having so much gear and redundancy has been that having that much choice degraded my photographic experience before I even left my house—just having to decide which gear to take.  You may not have that problem.  I find too much choice reduces experiences.  If you have interest in what too much choice brings take a look at Barry Schwartz's 2004 book, "The Paradox of Choice." You will find it very interesting.  But I digress.

I had a primary camera, back up camera and a pretty full range of lenses with each format so I could take any gear for any particular outing or travel.  Deciding what to take each time I left the house became tedious and not fun.  I really liked it all!  I needed to sell off some but which?  That has been my problem. 

In late July, the answer came to me unexpectedly.  I was reviewing my images from last fall's 4-week Rocky Mountain and Desert Southwest road trip and I discovered that I made many more images with my Olympus gear than with my Fujifilm gear.  But why?  Both have terrific capabilities and the Fujifilm cameras are the ones I've liked using the best out of any cameras I've ever owned.  After doing some thinking, I think my answer is "convenience."  Yes, convenience.  But should convenience play a role in this?  I think convenience definitely has a place in our photographic thinking in that if we try to do things that aren't convenient, we will slowly stop doing them.  

If you don't think convenience plays a role in today's photography then somehow you have missed the millions of individuals out there using the cameras in their phones instead of carrying a separate camera.  Certainly those phone based cameras don't have the best image quality and in most instances are not the best for the situation that is being photographed but doggone they are convenient to carry and use.  Most people, in my opinion, would rather have a poor (or any) image that is convenient to make than carry a proper camera to make a good image.  Convenience plays a huge role in today's photography.

Thinking back to specific circumstances on that trip, I most often picked up the Olympus E-M1 Mark II with the 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens because it was easier and more convenient to have a small camera with one very versatile lens that covered from 24-200mm equivalent full frame field of view.  I had it in one very small bag, which was lightweight, unobtrusive and didn't get in the way.  I didn't have to carry two or three lenses which would result in a bigger bag, more weight and bulk.  The answer was convenience.  

The second answer to my question was that I was completely happy with the quality of the images I made with that Olympus combination all throughout the road trip.  No matter where we walked, explored, what light we encountered, I was completely happy with what I brought back.  If the image quality wasn't there, I don't care how convenient it was to use that camera/lens combination.  I wouldn't have used it.  Period.  But that wasn't the case.  That camera and lens combination are, indeed, excellent and covers the vast majority of what I expected to photographically encounter.

The trade off, in my case, was one camera/one lens versus a camera and two to three lenses but having a larger sensor.  But, there was no trade off in image quality, in my view.  Both are pretty equal in the kinds of photography I practice.  Differences would be splitting hairs.

So the answer to the "but why?" question is convenience and versatility while retaining excellent image quality.  I'm sorry to disappoint some of you who are Fuji fans.  As I said, I've been trying to make this decision for two full years and I had been unable.  Fujifilm makes great cameras, no doubt.  Also, I think that if Fujifilm made an equivalent lens to the Olympus 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens, I would have kept the Fujifilm gear.  Feel better?

This little internal exercise allowed me to finally decide what to keep and what gear to sell.  During the month of August, I sold off all of my Fujifilm gear.  Yep.  All of it.  So far, no second guessing myself and no regrets.  This is unusual as I normally second guess myself when I decide to sell something I own.  Did I make the right decision?  In this case, yes.  No doubt in my mind.

Before I discuss some additional reasons for selling my Fujifilm gear, I must say that a) my Fujifilm cameras were the best cameras I've ever enjoyed using.  Hands down.  I also felt they weren't the best at anything but darn good at everything.  Probably the best thing about them was how they fit in my hand and how they just "worked,"  from the shape, to the buttons, to the dials, to the controls, to the menus.  Don't forget the colors from the Fujifilm files.  The colors are the most pleasing to me from any digital brand I've owned.  Everything was to my liking.  I really enjoyed using them.  

Why then, did I sell them?  Several reasons.  

First, as I stated, in all of my experiences and road trips over the past few years I've always been happy with the image quality from my Olympus gear.  

Second, the Olympus cameras are about the same size as the Fujifilm but the lenses I use are smaller.  I really do wish Fujifilm had an equivalent lens to the Olympus 12-100mm f/4 PRO. I The Fujifilm 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 just isn't the same quality or versatility as the Olympus lens.

Third,  I owned three digital camera formats—full frame, APS-C and Micro4/3.  It seems logical to me that to keep the largest and smallest made more sense than to keep the largest and intermediary size or the smallest and intermediary size.  The formats would be too close together for much difference in image quality.  Selling the APS-C sized gear seemed logical.

Fourth, I've come to like the 4:3 image ratio better than the 2:3 image ratio.  This is exactly the opposite of what I felt a few years ago—at least for horizontal or landscape oriented images.  I've always disliked 2:3 for vertical images as I felt they were to "long."  I prefer the less elongated format now.  This is just a personal preference.  We evolve.

Fifth, and this has become an issue in the past year, I'm tired of looking for "additional" editing software to get the most out of my Fujifilm files.  Lightroom is and has been my "go to" editing software but, as we all know, Lightroom for whatever reason doesn't fully exploit the resolution and sharpness of the Fujifilm image files.  Just look at what Capture One, Luminar, X-Transformer and other software can do and which I use when I want to get the most out of my best files.  I shouldn't have to do that.  I shouldn't have to go through all kinds of gyrations to get maximum quality from my Fujifilm files. Again, convenience becomes a factor.  Convenience shouldn't mean giving up quality.  I don't have these issues with my Olympus or Nikon files.

Sixth, What about the Fujifilm colors?  I've love the Fujifilm colors but I now can pretty much replicate them with my other camera systems through presets.  The true Fujifilm colors were only available with JPEGs and I don't often use that file format.  Over the past few years, I've conducted a series of experiments so I could replicate the Fujifilm film simulations in my Olympus RAW files.  Of course my presets are not exact but close enough for me to be pleased.  Color ceases to become an issue.

Seventh, what about high ISO noise in the small M4/3 files?  I'm not very concerned about high ISO noise.  I rarely shoot at high ISOs and, if I do, I found the Topaz Labs plug-ins, AI DeNoise and AI Clear, to be rather amazing at eliminating any  noise that I deem problematic.  The plug-ins eliminate that noise but keep fine detail.  Additionally, there is the technique of taking many identical images, then compositing them into one and run the "median blending" algorithm in Photoshop to completely eliminate noise.  I've written about that before.  That works amazingly.

Eighth, what about how much I've talked about how great the Fujifilm cameras handle and operate?  Well, I'll just have to miss that, I guess.  It isn't a deal breaker, obviously, and I didn't have them before the X-T1 came into existence, so, I can work around that little pleasure.

Finally, I've now stopped shooting stock photos and submitting them to my agency.  Now I photograph only for myself and don't have to worry if the image files are large enough to satisfy some potential client.  I have to say, even with M4/3, it never was an issue in licensing my images.

Now I become primarily a M4/3 photographer.  I bought my first M4/3 camera in 2013 and have had one since.  Will I be completely happy in all circumstances with M4/3?  Obviously, I can't predict that.  Maybe not 100% but I could imagine 98% satisfied.  However, I still have my full frame Nikon gear (after I complete copying my negative archives, I'll decide whether or not to keep the full frame gear) which will be there if a situation arises I think that the Olympus can't handle for some reason.  I think that would be a very small percentage of the time.  And—with the next generation sensor that is surely to be introduced next year, the image files will only get better.

On the side of keeping the Olympus over the Fujifilm gear, one has to take into account the features available on the E-M1 Mark II that either aren't on any other camera out there or are not as developed and versatile as Olympus has engineered them.  But that kind of thing changes as one manufacturer leaps ahead, then the others catch up and leap ahead in other areas.

So there you have it.  After two years of waffling and agonizing over this, I finally made the decision.  If I ever feel I made the wrong decision, I'll write about it and let you know.  But, as always, I'm ready to take on tomorrow and get out and make photographs!

Join me over at Instagram @dennisamook or my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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