It has been seven years with my trusted Canon EOS 20D and my little stable of lenses. At this point in 2011 I was working all day and did not really have the time to go on proper photo tours. I would rather just grab my camera whenever I left the house. You can guess that a few kilograms of gear was not really comfortable to lug around.
I was reading photo magazines and I saw something about the Olympus PEN E-P1 and was intrigued. Not only due to its stylish looks, but it was so small because it did away with the mirror and prism assembly of regular DSLRs. It was I think the second MFT camera on the market.
It weighed less than 350 grams, and with one of the smaller lenses I could keep it under half a kilo. This was an almost pocketable camera. At minimum, I could grab a small sling bag and carry the camera, a spare battery and another lens or two and come out less than my big old Canon. Also, the PEN E-P1 had a built-in image stabilizer. Something that was of immense interest due to me being too lazy to carry a tripod.
So I bought this camera as kit with 14-42 mm kit zoom and 17 mm pancake lens. There was also a clip on viewfinder (just glass) but this turned out to be rather more a gimmick than useful.
Being a first generation product, the camera had some flaws. It was a sluggish and the autofocus was not great. Something that DSLRs would continue to have an advantage until really just recently. Having no viewfinder, using the camera in sunlight was challenging.
But I really did enjoy this camera. It was so light and comfortable to use. The image stabilizer was great, and the image quality was generally better than the old Canon. I went on holidays to the Baltic Sea and I brought along my camera backpack. Two little compartments were used by the Olympus plus lenses and charger. The rest was taken up by the Canon EOS 20D. I thought I would buy the PEN as a secondary camera, but after this holiday I saw that it would serve my needs perfectly and soon after I sold all my Canon gear.
I used this camera from 2010 to 2012 and took (kept) 214 photos between both lenses. Not that much, but it was mostly a secondary camera. The images here were taken with the 14-45 mm kit lens with its unwieldy Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42 mm 1:3.5-5.6 name.
I visited a small town in Saxony. It is a beautiful town, but like many of its kind, only the old people stay while the young move into cities for education and work. Some come back to buy a house for their families, but not enough to keep the population up. It is so sad that some communities simply die out. This town is near enough bigger cities so it will survive, but other ones have a less bright future ahead. I do hope that the proliferation of home office, delivery services and remote medicine makes it more viable and attractive for young families to live in these smaller places. They do have a something to offer. A sense of community, a calm environment, more nature and less anonymity.I took this photo on a holiday to the Baltic Sea during winter. I really like the sea in winter (or any other season than summer). Summer beaches are terrible with the heat, sun, and people. But in March no one was there, it was quiet and calm. Almost serene were it not for the cold winds. The little PEN was also easier to protect from the elements. I just put it into my winter coat's pockets.The same holiday but on another day with pleasant weather. In March, the sun was already beginning to warm the place. I love the spot where the beach ends and the land begins, right behind the tree line. Suddenly the wind and noise are gone and it is calm. Take a step forward and you are back with wind and waves.A train station in central Berlin. Grey, dirty and trash everywhere. These empty bottles of hard liquor are ubiquitous. They are mostly consumed by the many alcoholics and homeless people gathering around train stations. It may be an unpleasant place to be or travel, especially at night. Unfortunately, since 2011 the situation has not improved, in fact it got worse. The city is quite dysfunctional nowadays, and many long time residents move out into the country. Still many people (and many from abroad) are still lured in by the city's cachet even though it is mostly gone. Homelessness remains a huge problem.One thing that Berlin has still going for itself are the world-class museums. Although, they are still stuck in the past and the use of digital media is not very advanced. While other museums made wonderful guided video tours during the Corona pandemic the Berlin museum's YouTube channel looked decidedly amateur. Nevertheless, I love to visit the Alte Nationalgalerie because they show the artistic periods I most like. From the 18th to 19th century. Here we have Prometheus greeting every visitor next to the entrance.