It’s been a while since I shot u43 (or m43 depending what you prefer). I spent the better part of 2020 up until now (Summer ‘24) shooting Sony FE.

With my recently acquired E-M1 Mark ii and OM-5 I figured I would head to Silver Falls State Park, one of my favorite places to try it out. I mainly set out to take some video

Evaluating Video

I primarily made this trip to practice shooting video. In fact, video was the main thing that brought me back into the M43 fold. Normally I’d go Lumix here (I previously owned a G9), but I wanted a small hike-able kit and the OM-5 size and stabilization is hard to beat.

I brought along the Olympus 12-50 f/3.5-6.3 for this trek, hopign to take advantage of the power zoom capabilities to capture close up shots of the falls while slowly zooming out to reveal their grandeur. The results were mixed, and I am unsure I’ll use power zoom going forward. From a video perspective the trip was a bust, but I also took lots of stills.

Lens and Body Color Coordination

Revisiting the benefits of M43!

I was pleasantly surprised by some capabilities of M43 I had long forgotten. Of course the smaller and lighter lens and bodies were there, but the ability to take 1 second long exposures that were totally usable with ease is a huge benefit. I didn’t even bring a tripod on this trip but took several 1-2 seconds long exposures.

Now, I know I could have cranked the ISO 2 stops on my full frame to get 1/4 or 1/2 second shutter speed. Even at 2 stops faster shutter speed though I struggle to get usable results with my Sony. Even when I get a reasonably sharp center, the outer third tends to be a garbled mess from the poor IBIS.

It was dark enough to require head lamps to light the trail (the sunet had set 30 minutes earlier). But a 3-second exposure from my e-m1 was no problem.

Summary

I learned some important video lessons and enjoyed the lightweight system with long exposures. It was a treat after years of hiking with my large Sony FF.

I Intend to keep my Sony setup for more things like night skies and easier hikes where a tripod is not a terrible nuisance. But I am determined now to build an ultiamte M43 hiking and backpacking kit.

To that end, I purchased many M43 lenses recently and am workign now on a detailed evaluation of each of them. Some familiar to me, many are new. My goal is to put together the ultimate hiking kit that best balances weight with image quality. Watch out for a future post (probably in 1-2 weeks) detailing my findings.