GH1 - Micro Four Thirds the ultimate travel camera ?

So background - I fit firmly in the prosumer category, I've loved photography forever starting with developing film when I was a kid and making my own prints in B&W. But I'm not a pro photographer and no delusions of grandure around blowing shots up to billboard sizes. I've lived by "The Best Camera is one you have with you" philosophy. Some of my best shots have been with little 'toy' point and shoots. I can't stand the idea of dragging round an SLR everywhere, they're heavy and cumbersome which is the antihesis of travelling. 

 

However, when you are going to Africa on Safari - everything changes!. I agonized for a good month or two at the beginning of this year, braced for getting in trouble and splurged on the Panasonic GH1. My reasoning - video quality and size. I wanted to take kick ass videos of animals on safari. Throughout the year I played with it, getting accustomed to what it could do and learning to use everything practically blindfolded. 

In the bag 

 

A month out from our trip, I needed to get what was needed. While Panasonic had released the 100-300mm it hadn't arrived in stores yet, so an online mission to B&H Photo netted the Olympus 70-300mm, a spare battery, monopod, SDHC cards. Finishing it off with a Crumpler 5 million dollar home bag, some lens tissue, power adaptor, charger, the trusty Lumix LX3 and my bag was full. 3 lens' covering from 14mm all the way to 300mm, two cameras and accessories in one little bag we were ready for Africa. 

 

As soon as we started travelling I started realising the huge advantage over traditional DSLRs. I had the equivalent focal range of 28-600mm in one bag for not a heck of a lot of money. To put that into perspective, to buy one lens capable of 600mm you're looking at 5k plus on a single lens and they are HUGE! (eg ... weighing 5kg). Even going back to 500mm, we're still generally talking 1-2kg for a lens.  When you're bumping around in tiny planes, safari vehicles, have ridiculous weight limits (15kg for 3 weeks), every few hundred grams counts, and if one lens cost that much money well the paranoia factor would be off the charts. I get pro photographers who do it for a living need that gear, but when 99.99% of everyones photos land up on the web, the law of diminishing returns kicks in. My bag with everything in bar the monopod and mic, would fit under an economy airline seat, and I could get my feet in as well !

 

 

 

One thing I was nervous about was battery life. Many reviews had talked about battery life being an issue - so I'd bought a second battery, and was on the fence about a third. Turns out the 2nd battery was hardly necessary, most everywhere we went we had some form of power so I could keep one charged all the time. I pretty much got 2 days out of one battery charge shooting a good 200 shots on the busy days. 

 

 

In use the camera performed flawlessly. The viewfinder was great even in the brightest sunlight, I was married to my Tilley hat which gave shade over the EVF - quite welcome but not necessary. The controls I'd memorized before I went, and that was some of the best advice I'd seen written. Commonly I was tweaking ISO or changing exposure a smidge, without moving away from the viewfinder. I set the LCD to the controls/settings display after a few days which was great for making sure the camera was set right before taking a shot. In reality I probably missed through poor focus/settings less than 5% of shots over ~2000 shots. 

 

Here's that advantage of 4/3rds. Doubling the focal length - the little 300mm lens is doubled in 35mm terms. 600mm let's you get some spectacular shots, shots you would have no hope of getting otherwise. Here's my one drawback - I wished there was some faster glass, f4-5.6 is *okay* but that extra couple of stops and shallower depth of field would have been most welcome. Still I'm sure I saw lots of people with lots of other very expensive lenses not getting any better shots being so far off. 

 

 

 

In Uganda it wasn't an option as our luggage was lost so I couldn't use it with the Gorillas, the second time was the lion kill, which by the time action was happening I was too busy taking shots to get to the monopod (or more to the point wasn't allowed to, as we had to keep super still lest a Lioness get ideas about human food). Lesson learned, I missed some good shots that I kicked myself for.

 

 

 

 

- Forgetting a clear lens filter. Mandatory purchase. There is so much dust everywhere. 

- Not testing out properly SD cards. Two new cards (Delkin - stay away from) both failed ~20-30 shots in with write errors. Awesome. 

- Bringing a Mic, too much wind, people talking, camera's clicking. Unless you were going by your lonesome then it's a waste of time. 

 

 

- Bought a GF1 instead of the LX3 and stuffed a wide angle on it, maybe the 9-18mm oly, to get landscape shots without having to change lenses.