Notes on Photography

Equipment

My equipment for this trip consisted of pretty much the same gear I've been using for five years or more now: an Olympus E-1 with 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 lens, with a small 40-150mm f/4-5.6 telephoto as an extra. For storage I had 8GB, 4GB, and 2GB compact flash cards, which was plenty since I shoot jpgs and with the 5 megapixel E-1 those are only 4MB in size. (I also had my little netbook, onto which I backed up reduced quality versions of the day's photos every evening.)

This worked pretty well most of the time.

My biggest problem was that the camera is just too big and too bulky. What with the netbook and the chargers, more than two thirds of the weight I was carrying was electronics. I also went out a few times without the camera, because it was so bulky, and then wished I'd had it with me.

Flashes weren't allowed in many places and I didn't have one anyway — the E-1 doesn't have one onboard and my flash unit plus batteries and charger would have been too much extra bulk. So I took quite a few photos at ISO 800 trying to hold the camera steady at 1/4 of a second. Better high ISO performance would have been nice here.

There were a few places where it would have been good to have had video capability. So I've started thinking about getting a modern DSLR that will do video and take decent images at higher ISOs — and be smaller and lighter.

There is no upgrade to the Olympus E-1!

Released in 2003, the Olympus E-1 is now seven years old.

The amazing thing is that, despite the prominence of miniaturisation in other areas, even after seven years there isn't a single digital SLR, from any manufacturer, that is smaller and lighter and has weathersealing and a 100% viewfinder! Read more about my camera upgrade ideas.

Up: Turkey