What's up Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week! Me? Pretty good! The year is half gone and I'm thinking about camera gear. Not to worry my new years resolution is still intact! I haven't bought any new gear this year and don't plan too. But that doesn't mean I can't think about it. Last weeks blog got me thinking how I do photography now compared to how I used to and I found out that I really like small cameras that don't hinder my moving around especially since I'm getting older. My needs are different. Most of my photography now is Travel/Street and just general photography and photowalks. I rarely need a big professional camera. When I first started shooting digital I was doing some portraits, a few events to include a few weddings and Landscape. But not so much now. Camera's have come a long way since I started shooting digital and especially from when I started shooting film. Lets look at my current digital setup.

My Current Digital Setup: My main camera is a full frame Sony A7III. In its day it was the bee's Knees but it is dated but for me it still doesn't hold me back. If I have to do some sort of "Professional" type work. Say a big Wildlife or Portrait or even Landscape trip this is the camera that I bring. I have all of the lenses that you think I would have for a Professional set up to go with it. My next camera is the A7C the C stands for Compact and the body is smaller but lenses are the same size. I can use the same lenses on both camera's. This is mostly my Street when I serious but if I'm shooting film too I tend to leave this one home and bring a Canon Point and shoot with me which takes up less room and still I get great photo's from it. It's almost like I have to talk myself into bringing the larger camera's anywhere because this point and shoot will do what I need although maybe not as much quality as the full frame. What I would really like to do is replace my Sony A7C and the Canon Point and shoot with something small with interchangeable lenses that I can easily carry. Lets talk sensor size because I know you're thinking about it .

Sensor Size: Most of my digital photography journey has been with a crop sensor (APSC) or Full frame. I have gone back and forth a few times and to tell you the truth there isn't really too much difference in them (the way I shoot) They both have advantages and disadvantages. Most of my photography on this website have been shot with crop sensor cameras . So to me the size really doesn't matter that much. I'm really happy with the photo's I get from my point and shoot and it has a type 1 sensor or a 1" sensor if you will. That is smaller than the crop sensor. So to me sensor size for quality isn't a factor but where it does matter is the size of the lenses. Crop sensor Lenses are much smaller than full frame. To me that is a big factor because I'm looking for something small.

What I'm Looking for In a Camera: First of all I want it to look good. I do like the retro look in a camera. I want it to be small, not tiny but small like one of my film cameras. I want a view finder (EVF) and I want the back screen to at least tilt. Touch screen would be nice my little Canon point and shoot has that and I love it. I want it to have 24 ish megapixels. A little more are less is okay. I don't need anything that is 40 or more. I would like In body stabilization. I would like smaller lenses than what I have been using. I would like it to be weather proof. Not really worried about Frames Per Second or any Video Capabilities . Not much to ask huh? LOL

Well if you've got this far you have probably figured out that I'm looking at Micro 4/3 camera. There are two companies that make them Panasonic (Lumix) And OM Systems (formally Olympus)  both have a universal camera mounts so lenses can be shared between them. So the Availability of lenses is very good. They are still producing camera's and their followers are almost cult like. OM Systems just came out with a camera this year that I'm very interested in the OM-3 Its built like a film camera with real metal and it has all the specs I'm looking for. Of course it's new and I don't get new cameras but by next year it will be used! LOL I'm looking to get a few lenses with it with at least one Prime. The micro 4/3rds cameras are two times smaller than full frame but larger than the 1" sensor I have in my Canon point and shoot. So I would be trading in or selling my A7C and a couple of lenses to get this camera. I would still have my full frame set up but this little camera will work well with my travel and street photography and my film photography.

I'm still six months away from committing to anything but that's what I'm looking at right now. What do you think? Am I Crazy or what? Until Next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link