My camera journey is long. I have used most brands and formats, been through the big changes, collected, shed, regretted, rejoiced.

I have travelled a journey and it has mostly been good.

1980’s

In the 80’s I had Canon, but wanted Nikon. The F1, F1n and T90 cameras were all top tier, in many respects better than their Nikon counterparts, but the mystique of Nikon was strong. All the big shooters were using Nikon or Leica, Canon was the “other” brand and Pentax, Olympus, Minolta and co were all good, but for amateurs (totally unfair and incorrect, but that was the perception). I also dabbled a little in Olympus late in this period and still regret dropping it completely, especially the lenses.

1990’s

In the 90’s I had Canon and felt smug. I switched to EOS, which by any measure was a success employing the larger mounting point, giving them an advantage in AF and as it turned out, early digital, even if it did feel like another brand for an FD mount user.

Canon had everything to gain and little to lose, being the obvious second brand, so logic and loyalty stayed on point and I switched, even if Canon offered nothing to assist me.

I had at that time a relatively new 300 f2.8 lens, a full arsenal of primes and decent enough zooms. Canon supported none of these*, so out went the old, in came the new. This was normal for many, but unusual at the time. Few switched brands, because there was little to gain. Film was film, a camera was a camera and things wore out slowly, only AF made any changes necessary.

There was also a little medium format stuff happening, but I soon regained my footing and stayed with 35mm.

2000’s

I still had Canon, but as the decade went on, I felt like a change. Digital started with a third hand 10D, a great camera, then into the usual suspects until I had a 5DIII…..for a weekend.

I had dabbled in a few mirrorless brands about this time, the curse of working in a camera shop in exciting times and (Canon) SLR’s were already feeling stale and a dead end.

Sony were even more soul-less than now and bizarre in application (NEX-7 & 5), Fuji were interesting but very sluggish (XE-1 & 2), Olympus and Panasonic were getting it together as a team (Pen 2, GF 1), but neither had all the answers (or view finders), Nikon and Pentax were lost and in denial and Canon were a mirrorless joke early on.

The breakthrough came in 2012 in the form of the Olympus EM5, a camera that finally allowed me to shed all the others and I still have two working units. I bought my first at the same time as the 5DIII and at the beginning of the next week, bought the Canon back and got another EM5. Never looked back, even though many were sceptical.

2010’s

The 2010’s was the M43 decade.

I accepted I would probably never shoot sport again (very fast AF, but no tracking), but surprised myself with some successes. I also moved away from landscape to street and travel and generally revelled in getting as least as good files from my mini sensor cameras as the full frames of my last existence. I also enjoyed dumping the occasional SLR lens calibration issues.

This was the decade I started working as an actual photographer. Nobody is more surprised than I by that, but I cannot state enough how M43 helped make that happen. I could not have made it on my own.

I also broke away from Adobe, the industry “Toyota” at the end of the decade and moved to Capture 1/ON1 and later DaVinci Resolve, something I will never regret.

2020’s

The 2020’s are still M43 based and I have never been more stable or productive, but with the emergence of video, full frame has been accepted back into the fold on a semi-probationary basis, something in all honesty probably I could have skipped.

I almost slipped with the S5IIx vs G9II thing, but thankfully stayed on track.

Winding the clock back to last year, I could have easily bought a GH5II ($1600au at the time), bided my time and added the G9II and the 10-25 f1.7, some cinema glass (7Art Vision, Sirui anamorphic and/or Nightwalkers) and been in a similar space. The S5 was the best buy last year, but a year is a long time.

Where next?

As is, I can shoot high enough quality images in almost any light beyond the needs of screen or print resolutions.

To be honest, I have only been submitting web sized files to the new school and they have been used for large screens, posters and the like with no complaints, so quality to burn. Video is the same. I can theoretically shoot 6k open gate in ProRes, but 1080p output from a variety of capture formats seems above and beyond anyones needs. The reason the G9II was the better choice is it gave me more practical capture benefits.

To be honest I doubt it will matter from now. I am not sure how long any of this matters, but any cameras these days are plenty, you just need to like what you have and use it.

We live in an age when the Sony FX3, a sub $6000au camera can make blockbuster movies (The Creator) and little M43 cameras can shoot billboards (I have, three times), so the only excuse we have is ourselves.

No more changing and second guessing, just use it.

*There was a compromise 1.2x teleconverter for long lenses.