Biography

I am a middle aged young guy from Norway, and I have had photography as my first and most passionate hobby since I was 14 years old.

After a few years with Praktica and Ricoh, I went for Nikon and have been using that since early 80's and up to now. That's a good 35 years steady going with the same brand and it has been a really nice ride, first with the film SLR's and later with the DSLR's as they evolved up to what we have today.

One month ago, (mid January 2017), I was starting to search for a set of smaller equipment without the loss of quality, be it both image quality and the equipment built quality. My need was that the new equipment had to be at least as good as my Nikon D810 and the line of pro lenses I have from 14mm up to 600mm.

There were two reasons for me to start looking for a lighter system; I wanted to take the gear with me on my motorcycle trips without overloading it with heavy photo gear, and I just had a knee surgery that kind of forced me not to go hiking with a large 34lbs. LowePro Pro Tactic bag, or a similar heavy ThinkTank roller bag on my travels.

I have now used my Olympus OM-D EM-1 MK2 with the Pro line lenses for a month now, even on a couple of trips, and I am really happy with both the image quality, the way I can customise the settings, buttons and wheels, the size and the weight. I am now travelling with all of the lenses, and I don't have to decide if I want to bring this or that lens. In addition to the Olympus lenses I have also got the Panasonic 100-400 and the whole setup is less than 18lbs. I don't even use a backpack, all equipment fits into a ThinkTank Sling-O-Matic 10, or a ThinkTank Retrospective 30 if I want to use a shoulder bag.

I have not yet decided to get rid of my Nikon equipment, it's not easy to let go "35 years of marriage", but every day I get more and more fond of my Olympus gear. I am quite sure that this will be just as nice a trip for many years as it was for me with my Nikon gear.

Have fun

Paul