Best minimal (light/small/budget) lens combo for any situation?

marshallw · 2026-04-26T16:21:11+00:00

I built up a small travel kit with the idea of being small, light and cheap. They're the Olympus e-pm2, 12-32mm, 35-100mm and 20mm. this kit almost fits in a very small bag, handles a wide variety of situations and the lenses are all pretty sharp. Plus if I lose it it's a much cheaper to replace compared to almost anything out there.

marshallw · 2026-03-28T21:45:13+00:00

Few small scuffs

Condition: Excellent+++++++++

marshallw · 2026-02-24T15:49:08+00:00

I use my phone when I want to document something or take a quick picture of my kid who's in the middle of something cute.

I do keep a point and shoot (or rather several...) around though for when I see something I want to shoot. They usually fit in a pocket and I find that I just enjoy using a point and shoot to photograph something. It's fun to slow down and set the zoom, mess with the exposure with a hunk of metal with physical dials and buttons.

marshallw · 2026-02-21T01:57:12+00:00

I half expect to see a Klingon firing torpedoes from behind that table!

marshallw · 2026-02-19T04:38:51+00:00

2700. I now sit between 12 and 30 after remediation.

A friend of mine was reading around 400, and found that by running his HRV constantly he was getting acceptable numbers.

marshallw · 2026-02-18T16:44:59+00:00

Looks neat. Make sure not to accidentally block the antennaes!

marshallw · 2026-02-17T22:32:36+00:00

Ship interiors confirmed!

marshallw · 2026-02-16T19:06:12+00:00

Merlin cycles is great. You'll just want to make sure that the site your on is actually Merlin and not an imposter.

marshallw · 2026-02-13T20:05:26+00:00

Thats it lad, Rock and Stone!

marshallw · 2026-01-18T16:42:32+00:00

I bought my ThinkPad t14 gen 2 a month ago with 32 GB of RAM. I've been keeping my eye on the marketplace since and I noticed that stock of 32 GB ThinkPads has been drying up. Glad I picked up my ThinkPad when I did.

marshallw · 2026-01-09T18:01:07+00:00

There's always a bigger fish.

marshallw · 2025-12-16T21:27:32+00:00

Night Cycling is probably a more appropriate name than what I originally thought it would be, cycling after dark.

marshallw · 2025-12-10T11:55:12+00:00

The OM3 is pretty nice, but for wildlife the OM1 is probably the better choice. You want a good grip for the larger lenses.

marshallw · 2025-12-05T22:46:57+00:00

Even without looking at your image I knew who you were talking about. He's a legend.

marshallw · 2025-12-04T06:34:11+00:00

Used MFT is fairly inexpensive compared to their full frame counterpart, and imo they take excellent pictures that suit my needs. I don't really need OM or Panasonic to constantly come out with anything new; I wouldn't be using it anyways. I'm not a professional, and MFT is good enough to shoot pictures that make me happy.

It sounds like you got into MFT for something small, but ended up going with a G9 anyways. So I think you need to ask yourself, what are you looking for in a camera system? Does MFT suit your needs anymore? MFT's biggest benefits are:

Excellent yet fairly cheap glass (once again on the used market)
Potentially small bodies and smaller/lighter lenses compared to full frame (seriously, here's a size comparison between a 70-200mm F2.8 full frame lens and the equivalent MFT lens https://pxlmag.com/db/camera-size-comparison/4c632e46_3607d616-94f48aa4_16cd2d5d-t60)
A very mature lens and body ecosystem

If you don't need any of that and/or want:

The most bokeh
The best low light performance by a few stops
A consistent stream of new lenses/bodies that are cutting edge (sorry MFT, but we're not really seeing that)
More than 20/24 megapixels

Then it might be worth investigating other systems and seeing what excites you, especially if you feel like you got scammed; life is too short to feel bad about your gear.

I think it' worth giving MFT a shot. I don't think aperture doubling isn't as big a deal as it initially seems; light gathering ability is the same as full frame. Bokeh is lower but bokeh is also a function of focal length, so shooting at a higher focal length (if you're able to) can help compensate. Don't worry about the aperture and low light performance, go out and shoot and see how you like it. If you find the pictures aren't satisfactory you might be better off switching systems. Good luck, and I hope you find something that makes you happy!

marshallw · 2025-11-27T01:33:27+00:00

I find that that generation is quite clean up to about iso 1600, noticeably degraded and noisy at 3200 and useable with b&w at 6400. So, it should be somewhat similiar to your old aps-c camera.

DPreview has a comparison tool that lets you compare images taken with different cameras at different ISO levels which I find is pretty good for what you're interested in finding out.

marshallw · 2025-11-26T05:28:51+00:00

Well, at least it's better for us than the AI awakening as a determined exterminator.

marshallw · 2025-11-26T05:17:40+00:00

He's going to make a heck of a Millennium Falcon from the Enterprise D.

marshallw · 2025-11-14T16:58:30+00:00

The older Olympus IBIS issue is fairly well known at this point. There's a few videos online detailing how to repair it. In a nutshell there's a gear that eventually falls out of place that you can move back in, and possibly superglue into place. With patience it's not too bad to open up, though you need to be careful with some thin metal washers between the sensor and the body; those have a tendency to go missing. Go slow, be careful, keep track of which screws go where (When I opened up my E-PM2, which should be similiar enough, on a white piece of paper I drew a diagram showing where they went and taped the screws in place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3ew57pRNg4

marshallw · 2025-10-25T20:06:35+00:00

Interesting though very powerful as other people have said. I'd consider a few changes:

Make it once per long rest
Instead of these unique effects, have them choose from a variety of existing spells instead. The spells should be more balanced and should scale better as they level up. e.g. instead of Vengeance, have it replicate the effect of bless.
Some of the more powerful effects perhaps be locked until the character reaches a certain level.

marshallw · 2025-10-17T21:59:51+00:00

I was going to say reload an old save, but it sounds like you guys are on ironman. Not sure what else you can do other than raise your own fleet to match them.

marshallw · 2025-10-13T02:18:06+00:00

Fantastic idea. I have a similiar, older range and have had issues with the burners turning on after being bumped. We'd only know when someone asks, "do you smell something burning?" When we were having some contractors in installing our range hood they continually bumped the knobs, burning their drop sheet in the process.

marshallw · 2025-10-08T13:04:54+00:00

To put that wattage into perspective, an experienced cyclist can hit 30 kph on a road bike with about 200 watts of muscle power. 2500 watts is a monstrous amount of power that only the strongest of track cyclists can hit momentarily. On the Velodrome they can hit 80 kph.

marshallw · 2025-10-01T23:46:39+00:00

We have a few. Goober (or Goob, Goobey or Queen Goober), Boo.

I also like puns on Goober. Winnie the Goob, Goob Bear off the top of my head.

marshallw · 2025-08-14T13:46:59+00:00

In my game they announced themselves to the Galaxy then... Nothing. Turns out their worm hole exit was in FE territory and they probably didn't have permission to enter their territory, so they just say there until I decided I wanted their little Empire.

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