After spending weeks agonizing over what to put in my bag for longer hiking days I believe I finally settled on a decision and was ready to put it to the test. To test I would put in 13 miles and over 3,000 feet of ascent last Sunday with 7 hours of driving. This meant a 5 am wake up, 13 miles of alpine terrain followed by a midnight arrival at home. I knew i’d be tired and the less kit I brought the better. So what did I bring?

• OM-5 witht he 12-45mm f/4 pro attached and clipped to my backpack strap
• Lumix G9 witht he Olympus 8-25mm f/4 in my bag primarily for video, but also any shots wider than 12mm.
• Ultrapod ii for rare cases where I wanted a tripod mounted high res shot for added resolution.

I think this worked out well. I found myself using HHHR on the OM-5 for many of my landscapes to gain a modest resolution and, more improtantle, noise improvement. This is critical since it was smoky and I knew i’d be using a fair amount of dehazing in DXO Photolab. The extra bit of resolution doesn’t hurt either. I know the quick release systems that use the tripod mount are generally frowned up on on the OM-5, but cases i’ve seen of the mount breaking have been with large f/2.8 lenses attached (looking at you 12-40 f/2.8!). The 12-45 f/4 is considerably lighter and I don’t think this is a real concern in this case, but time will tell. I’ve used the OM-5 in this way now for about 30 miles in some rough terrain without issue.

I elected to bring the G9 instead of the e-m1.2 for video primarily. I knew i’d probably grab some timelapse shots and the G9 and OM-5 both create great 4k time lapse video. The e-m1.2 does not. Lastly I just love the ergonomics of the G9 so much and it’s a joy to use.

And now for the results…

Artist Point and Reflection Lake

I actually arrived at the North Cascades Saturday late afternoon and was able to traipse around Artist Point for a few hours and grab some golden hour shots.

I also got to witness a wedding. As someone who got married outdoors I really appreciated the choice of venue these folks made.

Finally I hung out at picture lake. While I never got any great light during sunset, the smoke did create a nice evenly exposed scene.

It’s clear why this is called Artist Point, there are so many wonderful views from here that are rather accesible, and it’s a very popular place for family photos and apparently weddings.

Chain Lakes Loop

After sleeping in my car I woke up at 5am, drank a cold coffee, ate some food and drove up to the trail. I was on the trail about 5:45am with just enough light to see without a headlamp. I started the trail from Artist point going clockwise, the opposite of most recommendations online. I chose this direction hoping to get sunrise light hitting Baker.

It was a bit early in the day to get reliable Hand Held High Res shots, as my shutter speed here was 1/1.3. I moved along the trail fairly slowly hoping for the sun to rise above the ridge and set the mountain glowing.

As I reached Ptarmigan Ridge junction I decided to take a short detour to get the best views of Baker. Unfortunately, the light I wanted never came. The smoke layer was too deep and I could tell at this point it was going to be a good hour or so before light really started making it’s way through the smoke. I continued back to Chain Lakes Loop and continued to peer over my shoulder at Mt Baker; a view that never really becomes old.

Finally I made it to Iceberg Lake, and at this point I was appreciating the smoky conditions for enabling me to easily expose my shots and work within the constraints of the dynamic range of my sensors.

I continued along past several more lakes before beginning the climb up towards Herman Saddle. Along the climb the views just kept improving…

Finally rays of light began breaking through the smoke, and the sun kissed the landscape with a warm orange glow through the smoke. The light was beautiful, and the timing for hitting the saddle was perfect.

Finally I began to descent from Herman Saddle and then the ascent to complete the loop back to Artist Point.

Rainier Bench and Snow Lakes

After comleting Chain Lakes I did a few short hikes to wew waterfalls along the highway on the drive away from Mt Baker area. The I drove to Rainier to catch sunset light at Bench and Snow Lakes.

On my way back down from Snow Lake the wind calmed and I hopped back into Bench Lake to see some very still waters with beautiful reflections, so I decided to take a quick timelapse.

I hiked back to my car with the aid of a headlamp and continued driving home, arriving around midnight.

Conclusions

I think this kit was perfect. The G9 body, while big, is not that much heavier. I find the video it produces to be a notch ahead of my OM-5 or e-m1.2. I also find the 80mp tripod high res shots to be a bit more detailed than the 50mp shots produced by the OM-5 or E-m1 mark ii. For scenes where I have a tripod available this works great. That said, If the OM-5 video was just a bit better, I would probably just buy another OM-5 and make my kit two OM-5s. I have hopes for an OM-5 mark ii with a metal body and the new stacked BSI sensor in the om-1 series.

Now you might be wondering, why not just hike with only an OM-5 to significantly reduce weight. I hate changing lenses in the field, especially on hikes with waterfalls. Having two bodies neables me to move much faster and grab the shots I want without fumbling around swapping lenses and risking damage to equipment. The 8-25mm f/4 lens already weighs more than the G9, so adding a second body is hardly noticable in my backpack comapred to the weight of the water, food and other supplies i already have with me. And since my OM-5 is attached to my backpack strap and always at the ready, there is plenty of room in my pack for a camera.

Overall I think this is going to be my go to setup. It leaves the question though about what to do with the e-m1. I will do some controlled comparisons of video this weekend between the OM-5, E-M1 mark ii, and the G9 as well as comparisons of the high resolution modes.

Finally, i’m looking forward to doing some backpacking and I beleive I’ve settled on a kit for it:

• OM-5
• 12-45mm f4 pro
• leica 9mm f1.7

I think this kit would cover the vast majority of my shooting including night sky opportunities. My schedule likely won’t allow testing this use case this year before the weather turns too cold for backpacking. So that will have to wait late spring 2025.