Recently I had another one of my spells where I started wondering about getting another camera.  It seems that I have always been enamored with changes, no matter whether it was my career or my cameras and lenses. 

Since I’m retired and getting older by the day, I now limit my thoughts relative to changes to my photography.

In the past I used many different Pentax DSLR cameras and lenses and since most of them are still available to be purchased used, I went back to my older images made with Pentax gear and played with reprocessing them with the latest version of Lightroom.  I found that I still liked the kinds of images I had made and that they responded well to the latest capabilities of Lightroom.

I was almost ready to order another Pentax camera with the 55-300mm PLM lens, a lens that I liked using at its maximum focal range.  But, then I forced myself to remember why I left Pentax systems, they were larger and heavier.  I didn’t, and still wouldn’t, always have problems with their weight, so should I give them a try again knowing that I gave up Pentax DSLR cameras several times because of size and weight?

One of the things I would like to concentrate on this winter are monochrome images.  Would the APS sensor in the Pentax cameras be better than the micro 4/3 sensor in the Olympus camera?  Maybe, but not likely as much as most would expect.  The larger issue is the aperture of the lenses used with micro 4/3 and APS cameras, especially in low light.  

My particular concern is being able to blur out the background with the Olympus system, so I tried another example with the Olympus 14-150 mm lens at 150 mm focal length and wide open, which was only f/5.6.  Those are the settings for the image shown above made through a window.

My real issue is making or finding simple compositions and sometimes it means using faster apertures and reducing the depth of field, but not always like in the image above.  If I can isolate the subject, f/5.6 in micro 4/3 system can be sufficient.  When photographing things in the field that isn’t always as easy.

There are several alternatives, but one alternative is using a faster Olympus 75 mm f/1.8 lens.  Since I have other uses for the 75 mm lens, I am going to try one.  I could use it along with my 20 mm f/1.7 for a pair of fast lenses at night and in other low light situations.