This is a PIP: a Pandemic Inspired Purchase. It has pre-pandemic roots, but it was the lack of travel and its associated reasons to take pictures that triggered the purchase of another device for taking them. I know that’s not very logical but I think quite a bit of what we did, and continue to do, during the COVID-19 pandemic is like that — especially what we purchase. I’ll tell about the purchase before I say much about the camera.

There are two sorts of those pre-pandemic roots I mentioned. One is my experience with Olympus in the days before the digital revolution. I was extremely satisfied with the two OM-1s I owned. The wonderfully small size was one reason; reliability was another. A third reason, and one that I never missed an opportunity to mention, was their lack of dependence on battery power. Yes, a battery was required for the built-in meter, but everything else, including focus and shutter, was manual and would function just fine with a dead battery. I guess that’s the same sort of thinking that had me using only cameras with standard AA or AAA batteries for so long after I left 35mm film behind.

The second root can be traced to my curiosity about the new breed of “mirrorless” cameras even though I dislike the name for the same reason I dislike the label “unleaded gas”. The idea of feeding an electronic viewfinder with the same information going to the image recording sensor makes sense but my experience with the concept had not been encouraging. I’d owned a couple of what used to be called “bridge” cameras because (I think) they bridged the gap between compact cameras and DSLRs. They were practical and yielded satisfactory images, but the sluggishness and low resolution of the eye-level viewfinders left me unimpressed. Curiously, I didn’t whine about it in any of the bridge camera My Gear posts (DMC-FZ5, DMC-FZ8, DMC-FZ70). I did mention the sluggishness of the DMC-ZS40 despite it being much improved from the older cameras. By then I’d gotten used to a real SLR again. I now got to wondering just how good were the EVFs in these even newer offerings?

With that background, two things converged in the stay-at-home days of 2020 to make the purchase happen. One was my constantly walking past two containers of coins in my bedroom. For a little more than twenty years, they had frequently, though not regularly, received handfuls of pocket change. The largest, a jug I’d started on after a snack can had become full, was too heavy to move, and I asked myself just what the purpose was. When I’d started the hoards, the possibility of one day dumping them out for gas or groceries was real. That really was no longer the case, and, unable to explain to myself why they were there, I decided to empty them. I began taking the coins to a nearby counting machine where I had the option of getting 93% of their value in cash or 100% of their value in Amazon credit. I went for all the value all the time. Then, just as my Amazon credit balance was reaching an all-time high, Olympus announced a new E-M10IV and folks started discounting E-M10IIIs.

I am surprised to see that Olympus still offers the OM-D E-M10 Mark IIIs (not sure what the ‘s’ means) with a 14-40mm lens for $600. The E-M10 Mark IV is available with the same lens for $700. In September 2020, I bought the pictured kit, which includes a 40-150mm lens that Olympus currently offers for $200, for $598 in what was once pocket change. The included case and SD card were icing.

I was quite impressed when the kit arrived. Although I didn’t list it as a “root”, I think I was just about as curious about the Micro Four Thirds form factor as I was about “mirrorless” viewfinders. The camera’s size reminded me of those distant OM-1 days. Other things about the E-M10 also reminded me of the OM-1 including the general feel and the perceived quality. Photo quality was also good with a sensor of approximately 16 megapixels. With the pancake style 14-40 lens mounted, the camera fits into many pockets and another pocket might hold the 40-150.

So, with all those good things going for it, why has it taken me more than a year to finish this post? The short answer is “lack of use” and the reason for that lack of use is almost the camera’s only negative and it is actually just a personal problem. Even with the tiny size of my cast of cameras, it wasn’t easy finding a role for the E-M10 to play.

The Olympus shares work with a Nikon D5100 and a Panasonic DMC-ZS40. Note that none of these cameras is at all high-end. All three are more or less entry-level for their type. When size is no object, the Nikon wins. It’s hardly the best camera in THE world but it is the best camera in MY world. When size is very much an object, the Panasonic wins. It’s not only the smallest of the three but with a 30X (24–720 mm equivalent) zoom, it is the most versatile. Of course, when the word versatile enters the conversation, my Pixel 4a phone demands attention. It’s almost always at hand and I must reluctantly admit that it does a mighty fine job of taking pretty good pictures in pretty bad situations.

I did find a role for the Olympus during my most recent road trips, but before I reveal what that is I’m going to get in a couple of digs. One is the major flare seen with backlit subjects. This is something it shares with the Panasonic and I theorized it was due to their smallish sensor size. I haven’t totally thrown that possibility out but people more knowledgeable than me have suggested it might be lens quality. The actual problem at the heart of my second dig was operator error but the camera encouraged it. At a point when I really intended to seriously put the camera to use, I found the camera’s field of view so narrow that I simply scrapped my plans and used the Nikon in situations I had thought to use the Olympus. I blamed this on the Micro Four Thirds system. I eventually figured out that the default setting of the rather prominent Fn2 button is to activate 2X digital zoom and that I had apparently pressed it at some point. It was a misunderstanding brought on by unfamiliarity with the camera (which I’m still drenched in) but it was irritating nonetheless.

That role I found for the Olympus? Car seat companion. I like to take road pictures; always one-handed and often, though not always, through a dirty windshield. Doing this with the Nikon or Pixel is too awkward to even think about except on an empty highway or at a dead stop. The Panasonic is actually pretty good at it — once it’s fired up. But firing it up, even when it is on and just sleeping, is a sluggish affair. When sleeping, the Olympus wakes up rather quickly with a touch of the shutter button. It is a bit heavier than the Panasonic but is nearly the same size with a rear screen that is at least the Panasonic’s equal. Even with my digital zoom interfering faux pas, it was good at this and it became even better once I rectified my goof.

As shown by that digital zoom thing, I’ve made little effort to understand what is obviously a very capable and somewhat complex camera. Heck, there might even be a setting that would vanquish that backlit flare. The Nikon D5100 has been in fairly heavy use for over eight years and I know I still don’t understand half of its capabilities. I don’t expect to master the Olympus E-M10 anytime soon but I do expect to take some OK pictures with it. All in all, I’m pretty happy with my PIP.

My Gear – Chapter 21 — Garmin zūmo 396LMTS

I knew within a week of purchasing the Panasonic DMC-FZ70 that I’d made a mistake. When the camera was not quite six days old I set out on a short road trip and used it for several of the pictures posted in that trip’s journal (It’s a Wanderful Life). It performed flawlessly and recorded some fine photos. My mistake was not in buying a bad camera but in buying the wrong camera. The FZ70’s quality seemed good and it was certainly quite capable. There was simply no slot for it in my personal arsenal.

It’s nearly as big as my Nikon D5100 and, while it is good, it’s not as good. Anytime camera size was not an issue, the Nikon would win. The only place where the Nikon did not fit and the Panasonic did was in a fanny pack and even there it was bulky and awkward to extract. Technically usable as my “concert cam”, it wasn’t nearly as convenient or discreet as the FZ8 had been.

As my buyer’s remorse grew, the Consumer Electronics Show opened in Las Vegas and with it came some new camera announcements. A pair from Panasonic caught my eye. The 20.1 MP Lumix DMC-ZS100 would list for $700 and the 18.1 MP Lumix DMC-ZS60 would list for $448. Of course pixel count wasn’t the only difference but either seemed more than capable of satisfying my desires and both were priced well above my target zone. Neither was actually available with the January 5 announcement but they were available for advance ordering on Amazon. I placed no order but did put the ZS60 on my wish list in case some money fell into my lap.

The most important thing those camera announcements did for me was make me aware of predecessors. The ZS60 was a direct replacement for the almost identically sized ZS40. There were several improvement, of course. Some were definitely desirable but none were necessary. Prices began to slowly drop on the discontinued camera and I pulled the trigger at $212 or 47% of the original $450 MSRP.

I could have had the more desirable all black model for about $40 more but could barely justify the $212. Aside from aesthetics, which can go either way, pros prefer black cameras for the same reasons snipers don’t care much for shiny gun barrels. Although the model I purchased is called silver, it is predominately black and the parts that aren’t are mostly more gray than silver. There are indeed a few bits that could create a glint but that’s hardly an issue when the area around you is likely to be filled with glowing smartphone screens.

This is the right camera. It’s about three times as thick as my Samsung Galaxy S4 and actually smaller in the other dimensions. Equally important to me is the eye-level viewfinder. It is electronic, of course, which means its on the course side and a little sluggish but not terribly so. In terms of speed, it’s probably a little slower than the FZ70 but significantly faster than the FZ8 and FZ5 I used for years. Yes, I would like the better low light performance of the ZS50 or ZS100 but the difference in prices makes this the right camera for me for now.

When I purchased that Lumix DMC-FZ5 in 2005 it was a real change for me. To that point I had refused to own a camera, or much of anything else, that used proprietary batteries. I had also stuck with products from “camera companies”. During the previous forty-plus years of semi-serious picture taking I’d owned Olympus, Nikon, and Canon cameras. Even my 100% price driven first digital was from a company, Agfa, known for film and cameras. My concerns were considerably lessened by the Leica lens on the FZ5. As I said in the FZ5’s My Gear post, digital cameras are “made of electronics and optics” and those are fields where Panasonic and Leica excel. The FZ8 also had a Leica lens but not so the FZ70. I can’t prove that my perception of the Lumix Vario lens on the FZ70 being slightly inferior as anything more than my own prejudice but the ZS40 makes the question meaningless. My latest purchase has a Leica 30X (24-720mm) lens that somehow fits itself inside that 1.34 inch body when power is off.

Another thing that changed with the the FZ5 purchase was form factor. The Canon compacts that preceded it had been small flattish cubes when power was off and the modest zooms parked. The FZ5’s shape was more like a SLR with the long-throw lens protruding from the body even when fully retracted. With the ZS40 I’m back to a small cube that slips easily into pockets.

There are a couple of features on the Lumix DMC-ZS40 that I wasn’t looking for and would not pay extra for. One is a built in GPS receiver that supports in-camera geotagging. For some time, I’ve been geotagging my photos after-the-fact via software and the tracks recorded by a Garmin GPS. The only negative I see with the in-camera unit is reduced battery life. For that reason, I’ll likely have it turned off most of the time but I can certainly see using it for some away-from-the-car geotagging. Wi-Fi is also built in which allows using online services to store photos or post them directly to social media. I have doubts that I’ll ever use it that way but it’s possible. It also allows me to transfer pictures between the camera and my phone or laptop and that does seem like something I might have a use for someday. The camera can be used as something of a wireless SD card reader meaning I could use it to get photos from my DSLR to my smartphone. It’s not something I’ve been itching to do but having the capability does make me go hmmm.

My Gear – Chapter 18 — Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70

My gear had been stable for quite some time. The most recent newcomer was a Garmin zūmo 220 in January of 2012 and the newest camera a Nikon D5100 acquired the preceding September. The way the image capturing devices in the lineup were used had developed into something a little different than what I originally anticipated but it was all good. The D5100 is small for a DSLR but it’s still pretty big. When I’m carrying it my primary intent is, more likely than not, to take pictures. On the other end of things, my mobile phone is almost always with me and can be used when I’m not planning to take pictures but an opportunity — or need — appears. In between was a Lumix DMC-FZ8 originally purchased, back in July of 2007, to be my main camera. It went into service as the “big” camera in partnership with something more pocket-able. But the FZ8 fit into a belt bag and, while too big for a jeans pocket, into jacket pockets rather easily. After a DLSR started filling the big camera “I’m definitely taking pictures” role, I came to think of the FZ8 as a smallish camera that was easy to have with me when I thought I might want to take a picture. It became the workhorse camera for concerts and presentations where I wanted to grab some decent photos but did not want to be obtrusive.

It was a comfortable situation but it couldn’t last forever. In September the FZ8 died and I immediately became painfully aware of just how much I’d come to depend on it. On one hand, improvements in technology made smartphone photos equal in quality — in certain situations — to those of the Panasonic camera. In fact, although the spec is often misleading, my Samsung Galaxy 4 has nearly twice the pixels of the FZ8, 13 MP to 7.2 MP. But in terms of usability there is no comparison. There are few things more obtrusive or less stable than a smartphone held out far enough to compose a photo on its brightly glowing screen and very little as frustrating as trying to do it in bright sunlight. I even dug out the old Nikon Coolpix 3200 just to have a small camera with an eye-level viewfinder but that was far from satisfactory. I can hardly blame the decade old Nikon, though. I had become accustomed to higher quality images and, more importantly, less shutter lag. The 3200 was usable as a stopgap but it was a rather poor one.

There was no great urgency but I did start looking about the Internet once in a while for a replacement for the dead FZ8. The problem was that low priced cameras with eye-level viewfinders were pretty much a thing of the past. Offering only LCD screens for framing photos make them closer to a smartphone than to my idea of a camera. The latest in the line of FZ8 successors was the DMC-FZ70 which originally listed for $399.99. While that was very much in line with what I had paid for my FZ8 and the FZ5 it replaced, I had bought those as primary cameras and I wasn’t comfortable paying that much now for what would, from the very beginning, be an auxiliary to a Nikon DSLR.

The camera is no longer available from Panasonic and I’ve found postings about it being discontinued dating back to July of last year. Apparently there were bunches of these in the pipeline because even today I can find plenty of them for sale on line. Prices range up to $325 despite the last price on Panasonic’s website being $299.99. Panasonic may have lowered the price around the end of November because that’s when I noticed prices from some sources starting to dip below $300. On a day in mid-December it occurred to me that some brick & mortar stores might have the camera available to look over. I quickly learned that Best Buy carried the camera but was obviously closing it out. The store nearest to me had none left but the next nearest did. The closeout price was a wallet tugging $150.

At $400 the camera specs are impressive. At $150 they are almost unbelievable. Topping the spec sheet are the 16.1 megapixel sensor and the industry leading 60x (20-1200mm) zoom lens. Other impressive numbers are the 100 to 3200 ISO range (1600-6400 High Sens mode) and 4 to 1/2000 second shutter speed. Unfortunately those aren’t the camera’s only big numbers. Its 1.34 lb weight is about twice that of the FZ8. Its 5.12 x 3.82 x 4.65 inch dimensions are 15% to nearly 50% larger than the FZ8. I feared that size would be a problem and holding the camera in my hand in the store did nothing to alleviate that fear. The bargain basement price did.

Of course what the bargain basement price really did was cloud a problem not eliminate it. The FZ70 did fit into my belt bag but getting it in and out was nowhere near as easy as popping the FZ8 in and out and getting it into any of the jacket pockets that had held the FZ8 was simply impossible. For many people, the Panasonic DMC-FZ70 would be the ideal camera. Sadly, I’m not one of them. As I write this, it remains in my possession but its spot in the rotation has already been taken by another Panasonic camera. I’d love to make someone a very good deal on a very good camera and may soon actively pursue doing that on eBay.

My Gear — Chapter 17 — Garmin zūmo 220

I didn’t need this camera. My three year old D40 was working just fine and was all the camera I really needed. But, while facts and logic may have slowed me down, they didn’t stop me. Although I can’t entirely deny the attraction of more pixels, that was not the the primary or even secondary reason I wanted this camera. The main attraction was the supposed superiority of the D5100’s CMOS sensor over the D40’s CCD. Secondly, I desired vibration reduction (VR) lenses. Yes, I could have simply bought VR lenses without the camera but I had convinced myself that putting money into lenses then attaching them to the lowly D40 was not wise. As I said, facts and logic only slow me down.

So, when finances allowed, in September of 2011, I spent right at a grand on the D5100 and a pair of lenses. One lens was simply the VR equivalent of the 18-55 mm D40 kit lens. The other was a 55-300 mm zoom that gave me some more range (300 mm vs. 200 mm) over the lens it replaced in addition to VR.

In many respects, the D5100 is just a slightly better and slightly bigger D40. It is still near the bottom of Nikon’s DLSR offerings. The higher resolution is nice and I believe that the VR lenses have helped from time to time but I’ve no hard evidence to support that. The CMOS sensor does deal with low light better than the CCD but I can’t shake the feeling that the D40 produced some brighter images in the “middle light” of an overcast day. That could certainly be an illusion and I’m really quite pleased with the D5100’s overall performance.

Not everything about the camera is just a step up in specifications over the D40. There are three obvious additions and all are related. First, the D5100 does 1080p video. Then, since you really can’t have the viewfinder mirror flapping around while recording video, a “live view” has been added which locks the mirror in the up position and puts a through-the-lens view on the rear mounted 3″ LCD screen. Both video and stills can be recorded in this mode. I’ve experimented a little with video and do use live mode occasionally for one handed shots. It’s also handy when I ask someone to take my picture who is baffled by an eye level viewfinder. Lastly, to make live view even better, the screen is fully articulated so you can record in assorted odd positions.

One subtle difference from the D40 that I’m starting to appreciate is the ability to record JPEG and RAW files simultaneously. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I just use the JPEGs as I always have but once in awhile I’ll salvage a picture with a little HDR processing using the RAW file.

My Gear – Chapter 15 — Garmin nüvi® 2460LMT

The two Panasonics were very capable cameras. They and cameras like them were sometimes referred to as “super zooms” and sometimes as “bridge” cameras. That second name comes from the view that they “bridge the gap” between simple point-and-shoot cameras and more versatile SLRs with interchangeable lenses and such.  I guess that’s a pretty good view because that’s exactly what the FZ8 did for me. It led me straight down the road and right across the bridge to SLR land.

I had been in SLR land before. Back in the ’70s and ’80s I owned a couple of Olympus OM-1s. The second one had sat idle for awhile when it, like the first one, was stolen. I didn’t replace it. I remained camera-less for several years then decided that I needed to take some pictures while traveling in Florida. That’s when I bought the little Nikon zoom film camera that I mentioned using for “real” pictures along side my first digital.

Previous My Gear installments have told the tale of my climb (or descent) from the barely usable 0.35MP Agfa to the very usable 5.0 then 7.2MP Panasonics. Using the Panasonics reminded me a little of those OM-1 days and I started thinking about digital SLRs. One friend had recently bought a Nikon D50, another a Nikon D40x, and both had brought out a little camera envy in me. The D40 was Nikon’s entry level SLR. It came out near the beginning of 2007 and something called the D40x arrived just a few months later. I believe I even considered these cameras when I bought the FZ8 Panasonic in July of of that year but the price difference was still a bit much for me.

The D40x was a premium 10MP version of the 6MP D40 whose introduction pushed down on the price of the D40 and my visions of detachable lenses were further fueled by some of the deals being offered. Although I figured it was still a year or two in the future, I decided that my next camera would likely be an SLR. That’s about when I dropped the FZ8.

It’s for certain that I didn’t drop it on purpose but there could be some doubt about the purity of the thoughts that followed. It didn’t immediately occur to me that the damage might be covered  by warranty. Then, once it did, I had to get authorization and send the camera off to possibly be repaired. I am, of course, scanning camera ads the whole time. I had a road trip approaching and I convinced myself that I absolutely had to have a good camera for it and that the Panasonic would probably not be returned in time. I was wrong about the Panasonic. It arrived in good working order the day before I left on the trip. But I was right on the other thing. I am totally convinced that I needed the Nikon D40 that I purchased.

For $791.40, I got the D40 body, 18-55mm & 55-200mm zoom lenses, and a small flash. The Nikon was bigger and heavier than the Panasonic but not horribly so. Though I was at the very bottom of Nikon’s tall line of SLRs, I was once again in SLR land.

The little flash, a Nikon Speedlight SB-400, was also at the bottom of the Nikon line. It wasn’t as powerful as its pricier siblings but it was a bit more powerful than the D40’s popup flash (GN 21 vs. 17), sat a little further above the lens, and offered bounce capabilities. It was also small enough to fit in a pocket or into a belt bag along with an extra lens.

Today’s Digital SLR land is quite a bit different from the film SLR land I remember. In the 1980s, automatic exposure was kind of costly and not always satisfactory. Auto focus was an exotic blip on the leading edge of photography. Today these features and a lot more automatic wizardry are present in virtually every camera and cell phone made. The vast majority of situations are handled quite well by a modern camera running on full auto pilot and that includes SLRs. The manual controls are nice when you need them. You don’t need them much.

My Gear – Chapter 12 — Lumix DMC-FZ8