I have bought and sold tens of cameras and lenses: Canon, Nikon, Ricoh, Pentax, Olympus, Panasonic, and that’s only for the digital ones. If we look at film, then we can add all kind of soviet made cameras, and then Yashica, Rollei, Olympus, Holga, Diana, AGFA, etc.
I never believed in amassing objects, that’s why I constantly sold the cameras and lenses I was using less or not using anymore: it seems a good idea to own just what I use, what has a some sort of continuing role in my live.
It’s also good to put in the used market something that others can enjoy more than I do, for a cheaper price than retail . That’s how I see it anyway!
I rarely felt regret for selling my camera gear.
I confess I wish I didn’t have to sell my small collection of beautiful AGFA Isolette medium format cameras! They were amazing, so compact and fun to use! Imagine this: to put in your pocket or small shoulder bag a real medium format camera that took 120 film (not the pseudo medium format ala Fuji).
In that moment of my life things were not going well and I had to sell some stuff for survival. My Honda motorbike followed the same destiny as the AGFAs, and in the end it was all fine and good that way.
Still, I would not call it “regret”. I had no choice, and for me a “regret” is connected to the act of choosing to act or not to act.
The funny thing is that if I look at some sort of proper “selling regret”, I realise it’s mostly about micro four thirds stuff, and this made me think and ultimately write this post.
My reasoning when selling my micro four thirds gear was this: since the image quality is similar in latest models, I wanted to keep only the camera I enjoyed the most.
So I sold the EM-10, the Panasonic GM5 and the Panasonic G9 while keeping the Pen-F. The G9 and the Pen-F offer the same image quality, but as much as I really liked the G9, the Pen-F just speaks to me, and it is considerably smaller and lighter.
I also sold basically every micro four thirds lens I had and kept only the Zuiko 25mm 1.8, because that was the lens I would keep on the Pen-F all the time, if I had to choose only one. It is small, light, it has a beautiful rendition, it is bright and it has a versatile enough focal length.
By the way, if you are interested and you didn’t read it yet, here is my review of the Olympus Pen-F.
I didn’t like the Zuiko 17mm 1.8 much, so I gifted it away quite early in my m43 journey. Being a 28mm fan, I tried the Panasonic 14mm 2.5 but its rendering wasn’t that good, and in micro four thirds the difference between 1.8 and 2.5 is not that trivial, because it means that on 1.8 I can save me some noise trouble.
So what do I regret selling? A couple of items, to be honest, but the most notable ones are the Panasonic GM5 with the 15mm 1.7, and the Panasonic Leica 12mm 1.4.
The GM5 seemed like a perfect camera for me. I was looking for an everyday camera that was even smaller than a Pen-F and well, was the GM5 small!
Paired with the 15mm it offered me a bright and very defined 30mm equivalent, close enought to my 28mm goal, and the image quality was quite good. And it looked like a miniature Leica Q!
So why did I sell the GM5? Image quality was not on par with the G9 and the Pen-F. So I felt weird bringing around a camera that gave me less quality, just for saving a bit of space and weight.
For this reason I sold it, and I now regret that, because that combo was so practical and fun to use, and it is extremely difficult to find a new one on sale, especially in kit with the 15mm.
There are many times when I don’t need better image quality, and using the GM5 would have been fun. So, that is a small regret.
A few words about the 15mm. On paper it seems like a perfect choice for someone looking for a 28mm equivalent and bright lens for m43. It was much better than the 14mm, for sure, and I gave it a try on the Pen-F and GM5 for some time, but I just never really liked using it.
I don’t know why but something looked off when using it. Framing seemed unnatural to me, uninspiring, and I found the image quality to be inferior to the Zuiko 25mm. All the tech data showed how wonderful the 15mm was, but it just didn’t work for me. So I was rarely picking it up, and I ended up selling it, this time without much regret.
Back to regrets now: I am often sorry I sold the Panasonic 12mm 1.4! Stellar lens, very good image quality and resolution, beautiful to look at and to mount on the Pen-F. I loved using it (despite not being a fan of 24mm) but at some point I just felt that the Pen-F was made for small lenses, not for big and heavy ones.
For me, the Pen-F shines when used with the Zuiko 12mm f2 and the 17, 25, 45 f1.8. Everything bigger becomes a niche lens for special occasions. Bringing around the Panasonic 12mm seemed counterintuitive for what I intended to use the Pen-F for: an everyday camera I enjoy using.
So I sold it, and I ended up regretting it a bit, because there are times when a bright wider lens could have come handy.
I am considering getting the Zuiko 12mm f2, for this reason. Its rendering is less sharp, and the lens is less bright, but it weights so much less and it is so much smaller, and that balances it all for me.
After all, I stand by my own rule of not amassing gear I don’t use. It helps me contribute to the used market and it forces me to focus on actually using what I have. My selling regrets are rare, and it is surprising they are all concerning m43 gear.
I really like the m43 system and I wish Panasonic and OMD would invest on it and keep it alive, though I confess I don’t have high hopes.
Panasonic just released the G9 mark II, that is a m43 camera inside a Panasonic S5 II full frame body. What were they thinking, I don’t know!
OMD released the OM-1 mark II, a camera that introduces few features compared to the previous OM-1, which was itself a repackaged Olympus EM-1 mark III, which itself was adding very few to the EM-1 mark II. Still I will sooner or later buy one of those, maybe an E-M1 mark III, it seems the sweet spot to me.
Where are the compact cameras with newer sensor technology? Panasonic could bring back the GM line and give the GX8 a proper successor. OMD could create an improved Pen-F or at least a Pen with actual reasons for an upgrade.
The success of the Ricoh GR and or the Fuji XV100 proves that there is a market for quite compact cameras, and m43 can offer a more compact solution thanks to the smaller lenses. Some will argue that smartphones are the issue here, but I don’t think that’s completely true, as I wrote in my comparison of the iPhone and the Ricoh GR II.
I already gave my opinion on the m43 system in another post, so I won’t repeat it much here, since it didn’t change much!
I am keeping my Pen-F and Zuiko 25mm and I won’t sell them ever, I hope. That would be a serious regret! Maybe at some point I will buy back the 45mm 1.8 — right now I use an adapted Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm 1.7 as “portrait lens” on the Pen-F, when I need one. And one day I will finally buy the 12mm f2, who knows.
I love the micro four thirds system and I believe it could have its place and a bright future, if only Panasonic and OMD started again creating small, courageous, brilliant cameras. An updated GM5 with a modern sensor could be a hit. The same goes for a well-priced and updated Pen-F.
I doubt we will ever see them, but never say never.
In meantime, let’s enjoy what we own and let’s have fun taking photographs, that’s really the most important thing!
I am hosting a Ukrainian refugee family: please help us!
As many of you already know, I am hosting a Ukrainian refugee family with a three years old baby and their cat. I managed helping them escape war and reach Italy — I luckily have a little country home for them to stay, where they can enjoy nature and safety, far from war.
Many of you already helped and we are so thankful for this display of kindness and empathy! Donations are still welcome and extremely important, because there is so much to buy and pay for.
I am using the donations wisely and doing my best for getting the most out of your generosity.
Thank you from the deep of our hearts.
If the shit hits the fan, it’s much easier (and cheaper!) to get your Nikon D850 repaired.
Your ideal camera’s the leica q (Typ 116). No frills. Terrific lense produces terrfic images. Great for documentary & street photography (my trade). Addictive. You’d never look back. The one camera I’ll never sell. Avoid the fuji hype.
Hi Andy! I have considered the Leica Q/Q2/Q3 for some time, it’s truly a wonderful camera! I don’t rule it out and the option is still on the table, but I guess I am not ready to spend that much on a fixed lens camera. I just like to have the chance of changing lens if needed, and cropping is not an acceptable solution for me. We will see, maybe I will change idea!
Fuji hype never got me 🙂 I actually don’t like the brand very much, I instinctively feel repulsion toward brands that are constantly promoted online and that become trendy.
Hi Andrea! Well written and thoughts-provoking article again. I am glad I came across your blog some time ago, I really like to read your reflections – and your photos are beautiful.
Regarding Micro Four Thirds, my experience there is with Olympus and I more or less share your view – I like the system a lot, have been using it for cca 8 years (leisure only) and so far I came back to it every time I tried something different. But for me too the beauty and might were in the original compact form of small bodies and lenses (and their prime lenses are so great, even those ten or more years old). Those virtues are now almost forgotten, yet I don´t see their replacement very meaningful, at least for me – I even tried some newer bodies, such as E-M1 mk II, but for me there is not significant difference in the quality of the picture (sometimes I even feel like I like the old 16 MP sensor better) and the camera with its functions is overkill for my needs. Not mentioning current niche in which the company placed itself recently. With proper care, the system could be so much more!
Take care, I am looking forward to your next articles 🙂
Thank you for your comment, Bohuslav!
It sadly seems OMD is really focusing on wildlife / adventure, with bigger bodies and a special attention towards long zooms. They probably decided that’s their niche, and I wish them all good, even if I think they are wrong.
Panasonic is following a similar route, with some existential crisis where their full frame and m43 lineups are ending up sharing the same bodies weight and size.
There is the diffuse idea that smartphones killed compact cameras, and I don’t believe at all, as I wrote in my post about iPhone vs Ricoh GR.
We will see, I really hope we will get some updated compact m43 cameras! In meantime we can appreciate the small m43 cameras existing, they are usually more than enough for most use cases!
Thanks again for your kind words and for commenting on the blog!
“There is the diffuse idea that smartphones killed compact cameras, and I don’t believe at all, as I wrote in my post about iPhone vs Ricoh GR”.
So many online reviewers of cameras compare cameras with a smartphone camera of one type or other. I consider this to be totally absurd because the cameras in smartphones are quite rubbish – the sensor and lens/lenses are mediocre at best.
The software and processor, on the other hand, are rather brilliant – as is the live access to algorithms by the millions.
Hi Andrea, thank you for your thoughts: Inspiring and with a perspective I haven’t read anywhere else. You helped strengthen my decision on acquiring a copy of the Olympus Pen F. Never dabbled into the m43 world so I was nourished by the narrative you so well shed light on in your review from 2019. I’m glad to see that years later it is still by your side, it speaks volumes !
Lately, photography has been for me all about creating memories. Having a fun camera, not intimidating that I can easily bring anywhere is what I’m looking for. I really hope the camera industrie does not give up on quality compact gear because I don’t find joy neither with a phone nor with a beast like camera.
Congratulation for the beautiful pictures accompanying your articles. I’m glad I found your blog. Might drop by again !
Cheers
Thank you very much for your comment, Max! I also hope compact fun cameras will keep being made. Like you said, photography is a lot about capturing or creating memories. And also about having fun practicing it. The Olympus Pen-f is a lovely camera and I am glad I bough it years ago. At the time it received some unfair treatment by media and by people that didn’t even use it. It was a common opinion that the Pen-F was only beautiful but also overpriced and lacking in many aspects. Fast forward 8 years or so and this camera with a cheap M.Zuiko lens is crushing the image quality of over-hyped cameras like tha Fuji X100V — now, that’s an overpriced camera! I did multiple tests and the lens monted on the X100V is nowhere near the quality of a Zuiko 25mm. And the X100V also lacks stabilization, for instance. But in the end, trends and media drive the industry. The Fuji X100 line was blessed by a huge hype, thanks to Fuji massive investent in influencers on YouTube, and the Pen-F became an outsider that never got the recognition it deserved. Still, I am happy many are still using it or, like you did, started discovering it right now! May you have lots of fun with it and creating many beautiful memories! See you on the blog!
Many thanks Andrea for this thoughtful post. I just found your blog and as of now I’m a follower. Last May in Tokyo I took advantage of the excellent exchange rate to snap a brand-new OM-5. Since then my revered Pen-F is out of a job. Somehow OMDS managed to marry the best the Pen-F and the EM1 III had to offer while improving on AF-C performance. It is so good that even my OM-1 Mark II is feeling envious of the attention! I have no doubt that if you give the OM-5 a try with your MZ 25mm f1.8 you’ll be a convert as well. Loved your headshot by the way. The resolution is amazing!
Hello Federico! I’m glad you are enjoying your OM-5 🙂 I sometimes wished to buy an OM-1 or EM-1 but never did. Maybe one day! The OM-5 also look very interesting, yes. I wish you lots of fun with it!
The OM-1 did improve the resolution of the EVF. It makes a great difference. Few cameras come close, no matter the system! The Mark II brought AI image recognition technology for human subjects. Despite all the marketing hype about how good AI-based focusing is for outdoor photography, having it available for portraits or even street photography is great. By the way, I may have posted twice my previous posting. Feel free to delete the earlier one. Keep up the excellent work!
I confess I use single point focus for basically all of my photography, so I never really followed the AF evolution and the AI trend. When perfect focus is not essential, I do focus and recompose. When it is important to have perfect focus, I move the focus point. This served me well over the years 🙂 The OM-1 seems a lovely camera, at some point I will pick up one!
OM3 is here now 🙂
Definitely interested! I did read a bit and tried to survive all the video reviews with the usual suspects, and it seems an interesting camera. Price is hard to digest, if it’s true it will be around 2000 euros, but we will see! It would be a nice companion / substitute for my Pen-F!
Hi Andrea,
Curious, which cameras do you own and use presently? (Since you wrote that you try to pare down to as few as needful.)
Warm wishes,
Jason
Hello Jason! Talking about digital cameras, I sold everything except Nikon D850, Nikon Z8, Nikon D700, Olympus Pen-F, Ricoh GR II.
The GR II has some issues and I need to fix it, so I am using it quite rarely at the moment.
The D700 is a little experiment I am doing for a future post, I am not sure yet if to keep it (probably yes).
Thanks for commenting the blog 🙂
A.
P.S. Also, incidentally, have you tried and do you have any specific feelings about the aesthetic quality of Leica M11, SL3, and Q3?
I’ve been on a sort of quest, as it were, to find a digital camera that can produce aesthetically riveting results (tho obvs not quite the same) on par with my film cameras, but so far no luck.
Tested the SL3 and M11, and honestly found the results underwhelming and somewhat prosaic, particularly compared to my 35mm film cameras/lenses (including Leica M3 & several Canons). Then tested a Canon R5 and actually got significantly better results on whole – though still not quite up to what I’m looking for.
People speak of Leica’s amazing color chemistry as a differentiating factor for art photography, but only noticed a slight difference between them and the Canon (when a few settings were easily tweaked), and the latter actually seemed to have superior quality and latitude and various other respects.
Would be great for someone to make blog posts taking multiple photos of the same subjects using multiple cameras and similar lenses for comparison — a real ‘blind taste test,’ as it were.
Warm wishes, J
Ah, Leica! It’s quite a recurring topic in my life. I started taking photography seriously when I began shooting with film rangefinders, in early 2000s. I could not afford a Leica or a Voigtlander so I was using soviet era models, and despite their shortcomings, I felt happy with the system. They were small and fun to use.
Years ago, when job started improving and I could afford a Leica, I gave it a try: I was set on getting a used M9 and played with it for a bit, but as much as I loved the user experience, I found the images to be nothing special. On the contrary, I was not liking the reduced dynamic range and the high noise in the shadows. It felt like a camera for taking good photos if everything is perfect and you only had to do minor edits to the raw file, and I didn’t like to give myself such a limit, considering the big price. I am all for getting the photo right in camera, but sometimes you need to bring down the exposure on the sky, or dodge and burn some areas of the picture without having them fall apart. So I didn’t get it.
Fast forward and the same happened with the M240: images were nothing special, and they were actually lacking compared to what I was already using at the moment (Nikon D810 cameras and good F glass).
After that, I kept being interested with Leica rangefinders but I didn’t have the chance to get my hands on a M10 or M11.
Still, I understood that there are no cameras that produce truly unique colors, and no camera is magical and perfect. As you start dealing with RAW, most of the rendering matters shift from being a passive element to an active one, and with editing we can get the colors we want. Lenses are much more important for the final look. And there are much cheaper systems with amazing glass.
I have never been interested with the SL systems: I doubt it could bring me anything better than my Z8, and it would make costs levitate to an absurd level: I might as well look at an Hasselblad then, for my profession. But another thing I realized is that working with crazy high megapixels is not wise. I shoot properties that cost up to 200 million euros, and never an owner or architect complained that my images were not enough defined or in high resolution 🙂
I recently considered again the Leica Q3, since I love the 28mm and my favorite combo is the Z8 with the Nikkor 28mm f1.4 ED. But it turns out the Q3 28mm is actually a 26mm, and its properties are less than stellar, so I am probably better off with what I have. Still, I never tried a Q3 and I will sooner or later do it so that I can form a proper opinion about it.
So, to make it short: I love the rangefinder experience and so I am interested in digital M cameras, but I can see they offer nothing measurably unique in terms of rendering: I am among the ones that consider the Leica Look to be mostly a myth. Leica lenses are amazing and they may give a particular look, but I am not willing to spend 7k on a Summilux 28mm f1.4 ED, because that lens is not 3 times better than my 2500 euros Nikkor 28mm f1.4 ED. I am moderately curious about the Q3 and not interested at all in the SL line.
Sorry for the long answer! 🙂
A.
As micro four thirds owner and user, I don’t experience many concerns with ‘noise’.
Maybe because I don’t shoot much quick movement, or use the camera in dark or very dim scenes. I own and use the EM10 Mark 3 and the OM-5 with small prime lenses and the little 12-45mm f4 zoom, and have learnt to respect these models because of their small and light proportions as I age with severe arthritis.
I agree with you on the direction taken by Olympus /OMDS and Panasonic to emphasise niche animal action photography. They saw no financial gain in smaller cameras and lenses.
You can see the success of the Ricoh GR3 series as proof that Olympus/OMDS and Panasonic got it wrong – that there were big numbers of people all over the world who still wanted a small body camera with lots of capability.
Hello Robin! It’s sad Panasonic and OMDS don’t believe in the smaller bodies and the chance of selling everyday cameras and attracting the lifestyle market, for instance. To this day I still recommend cameras like the Olympus PEN series to people that ask me about a small camera with good quality, and they are all happy about it. Some were used to only shooting with the phone and were conflicted about the need of bringing a small camera with them, but they all changed idea after seeing the quality of the photos. OMDS made the Om-3 and it seems a good camera (I didn’t use one yet). I wish they could also update the Pen line, not necessarily the Pen-F, but a compact PEN would be so nice. I am quite disappointed in what Panasonic is doing, I just can’t understand their strategy.. the G9 II body being as big as the S5 one… and then cameras like the S9… I have no idea of what they are wanting to do with their m43 lineup. Thanks for reading the blog and commenting!
I completely confer. I just lost my GM5 while relocating with family to another country. Somewhere beaten the plane and the airport. I grieve it deeply. Not only it is hard to get a used one now, I lost it with some months of photos of my kids. I’ve had it for over a decade, and it still kept during and enduring, and never lost is charm.
I am so sorry! Both for the camera and the photos, I can imagine how frustrating it must have been. I wish Panasonic would produce a GM5 II with a better sensor and pretty much everything the same.
Hi Andrea, first of all, your photos are really stunning!
I stumbled upon your blog as I was researching M43 system while contemplating buying Pen-f vs OM-3, any thoughts on the latter?
I am currently a Fujifilm X100VI user (I was very lucky to get it off the retail price here in Japan), just a hobbyist, and just started my photography journey and always have a soft spot for small setup as that enables me to take more photos and become more unintimidating for my subjects.
With the fixed lens, I’ve came to some situations where I wasn’t able to take photos that I wanted but I am not sure if getting either Pen-f or OM-3 plus some lenses would be worth it. Maybe it’s just GAS as I feel I haven’t outgrown my current setup.
Thank you very much for you words, Azra. The OM-3 seems a lovely camera! I wanted to get one but I felt my Pen-F is still covering my m43 needs quite well. Maybe in the future!
I am usually ok with a fixed lens, unless I need to shoot something quite distant. Since my GR II is currently broken, I have two different everyday combinations that I alternate in my backpack: the Pen-F with 12, 25 and 45 zuiko f1.8 primes, or the D700 with a 28mm f2.8 ai-s and 50mm f1.8 g. The Pen-f is definitely much more versatile and lighter, but the D700 has numerous advantages that make me ignore the extra weight and size. I’ll publish soon a post about the D700 (and maybe some comparisons with the Pen-F).
GAS is always an issue, yeah 🙂 Lately it seems I became quite immune to it, let’s hope it lasts! Today the Leica M EV1 was released and I couldn’t care less, and this is a good sign 🙂
Hi Andrea! I found your blog thanks to a share in the Nikon D700 facebook group. I’ve recently settled into my favorite cameras for recreational use being the D700 as well as the original Canon 5D…originally falling into the youtube hype for these cameras and then realizing for myself they are for more than all the buzzwords make them out to be…
I’ve tried maybe 5 different Fujis over the years and I’ve finally sworn off the brand as I never end happy/content with the results (especially editing in LR) and it’s a keeping up with the Joneses culture I really don’t want to attach myself to…that said, I’ve stumbled into micro 4/3 as a smaller documentary camera option (NOT GOING TO SAY EDC!!!) and got myself a Lumix GX9 and starting with the Lumix 20mm 1.7 prime. So far I am quite happy with the results; the camera is a joy to use (minus the EVF) and it’s more or less, the more affordable Lumix equivalent to your Pen F at 20mp. Have you thought about this model before? Loving your m43 and D700 blogs! Best,
Hello Cody! The Lumix GX9 with Lumix 20mm 1.7 seems a very nice combo! Many Panasonic lovers criticized the GX9 at launch, because it was not the proper successor they envisioned for the GX8, but all in all it’s a very good camera! The only Panasonic m43 I had was the G9: amazing cameras but I sold it because in the end I was picking up the Pen-F more often, because of its size and weight. For the times I was willing to bring with me a big body, I was choosing a Nikon full frame instead. I will never sell the Pen-F and my little three Olympus primes (12, 25, 45), they are just such a fun and light setup! Thank you for your comment!