Traveling lighter. What's in my bag? A comnparison...

Traveling lighter. What's in my bag? A comnparison..., a photo by fangleman on Flickr.

A comparison of 2 camera systems.
The MFT 35-100mm and 7-14mm are rented.

On the left:
Olympus OM-D E-M5 with battery grip.
Panasonic GF3 with Panasonic Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 ASPH Lens.
Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-50mm F3.5-6.3 EZ Lens.
Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 Lumix G Vario Zoom Lens.
Panasonic Lumix G Vario 7-14mm f/4.0 ASPH Lens

On the right:
Canon 40D body with battery grip.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Lens.
Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens.
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens.

On the left is 3 pounds of weight. On the right is just under 9 pounds of weight. Not shown for either kit, is the extra batteries, memory cards, straps, or other miscellaneous stuff that always goes with the camera kit.

Please note that the effective range of the systems is 7-100mm for the micro four thirds system and 10-200mm for the Canon cropped sensor system.

This is 14mm to 200 mm "equivalent" for the Olympus.
And is 16mm to 320mm for the Canon small sensor system. The multiple for the focal length equivalence ratio is x2 for the MFT camera and x1.6 for the Canon I have.

I have found so far, in the few days I have had to explore the 2 Lumix rented lenses that the 35-100 is a wonderful lens that lets me see how good the E-M5 camera is. The 7-14mm wide angle doesn't please me so far. Even though the 10-22 on the Canon is a little less wide, it gives me much more pleasing results. The Canon kit can reach a out a little more. The lighter kit even has one extra lens and camera body, so could be lighter and smaller than shown here!

The "big" camera system wins in every way, except size and weight. Oh, and my particular old dSLR doesn't compare well regarding high ISO or resolution, but it is an older model.

I was thinking of transforming my camera kit to a smaller and lighter system. Yes, it can be much easier to carry...but the image quality still isn't there for me, even with the best MFT lenses I have seen. There's other small differences also, like the fact that the wide angle Lumix lens cannot accept screw on filters, as an example. Also, the 12-50mm lens on the MFT cameras is also a decent macro lens. The Canon system on the right has no macro ability without another lens.

Overall the abilities and capabilities of these 2 systems I have here are similar, but with significant differences that mean neither really replaces the other. Decisions...