Actually this barred owl was close to a "swampy little river", as well. This is the first time I recall of ever seeing this particular species.

Thanks for looking, I'm still experimenting with the m4/3 format, and it is proving to be very interesting thus far.

Thanks, it was quite a thrill to see it, just dozing there in the sun. I hope there is a nest nearby.

Thanks for the correction, you are 100 percent correct. I have never seen a barred owl in our area.

Thanks for the comment.

Got lucky this morning when my wife spotted this owl on our morning walk. He was just sitting and sunning himself. I was carrying my Oly EM-5Mk2 with the oly 14-150 II, shot at 150 mm, f5.6 . About 75 feet away in bright sunlight. The lens is surprisingly good, and nearly the same IQ as the 40-150 2.8 Pro,much lighter and a great walk-a-bout lens. I'm liking the m4/3 system more as I use the gear. John

(Download)

Further comment, these steamers were typically used in California, Oregon and Washington logging in the very early years after opening up the Pacific Northwest. Iron was very hard to come by then as it all had to be shipped around "the horn" of South America, and before first intercontinental RR. Most of this type of heavy equipment, including the castings for the metal parts were fabricated in foundries in San Francisco or Portland. These locomotives typically had double flanged wheels to stay on the 'rails', also had cast-in crosswise 'cogs' to get traction when the rails were wet. Those were some tough hombres that worked the woods in those days..hard workers and short lives.

Glenn, you're welcome. Those are actual weights as weighed on a fairly accurate scale. The info is out there, but I did not research it well enough to know those sets of facts. That being said, I am happy with MY choice, but will probably not add to the mirrorless gear that I currently have. And it is a great choice for those who are just beginning their journey down the photography road. There are many advantages to be found in mirrorless, not the least of which is IBIS, and the ability to see pretty exactly what you image will be on the sensor as you look through the viewfinder. I find the biggest single advantage is the onscreen, live histogram and ease of adjusting the compensation level to the brightness you want.

I like carrying two cameras, each with it's own high quality lens, one wide and the other long. It suits my style and the Oly works as well as I had imagined for the wide camera, but does not add as much weight as a separate DSLR with a 24-70 f2.8. I find the lag time is acceptable for landscape usage.

As a closing and final note, I find it interesting to read on this forum, how the current users of any particular set of brands and gear seem to be overly defensive of their individual choices. As for myself, I use and enjoy whatever horse is handy, and lives in my stable. To each his own, but I'm willing to share whatever info I have that will help to make someone else life a bit easier or better.

Gd Bless, John

Rook,
The lag time I mention is the time between pushing the shutter button and having the electronic viewfinder light up and be ready to use, and does not even include the initial startup time when turning the switch on. I know I can leave the viewfinder 'always on', but then consider the added weight for all the batteries the electronics will use in an all-day shoot.

John

[quote=jcboy3]First, you are comparing an E-M1 with grip to an 80D without. That adds bulk and weight, and does make the size/weight trade less appealing.

I have large hands, so I use RRS bottom plates on all of my cameras. That adds a bit of height; enough so all of my fingers are on the camera.

Second, you are comparing the heaviest PRO lenses. The real size/weight savings is to be found in the non-PRO zooms and especially in the prime lenses.

Finally, a 24-70 lens on crop sensor shifts the equivalent focal length into a great portrait range, but out of landscape range. Unfortunately, the lens selection for crop sensor cameras is limited with Canon and Nikon, because their heritage is 35mm film and their focus is 36mm sensors.

I love shooting with mirrorless cameras, but they are limited especially in autofocus on moving subjects as well as in low light. But carrying a full frame rig for hours can be pretty tiring, so I shoot most events with m43.[/quote

I misspoke when I used the generic term "grip", actually I got a Fotodiox metal hand grip, no batteries included. It does weight, but makes holding much easier.

I am aware of other lighter lenses, but am comparing the lenses that I have and use, not something else. I do not want to buy different lenses just to save weight and lose quality. And please note that I am comparing Pro lenses in both cases.

I used my 24-70L lens so as to give as nearly exact lens length, and as I stated, I do mostly landscape and that lens does a great job on my crop sensor 80d, use it a lot along with the 70-200L. And by the way, any lens can be a landscape lens, you are not required to go wide. It just depends upon your choice and perspective.

John

Thanks for the comment Glenn. You are the first respondent that truly understood my underlying message. My point was that for similar lens lengths, [for the lenses that I presently own]
there is not that much difference in weight between the "lightweight" mirrorless setups and the comparable gear that I [and many other folks] currently have at my disposal.

I will repeat, for those of you who misunderstood the [not so hidden] message, you might do better keeping the slightly heavier gear you presently have, and just lose some of the excess baggage [weight] that you presently carry in your bag, or gut. That being said, GAS will sometimes just overwhelm our better judgement. BURRRP!

I'm not unhappy with the camera, per se. I use it pretty much as I envisioned. I carry both the Oly w/ the 12-40 as my wide lens camera, and the 80d w/70-200 as the tele component, switching as needed, works perfectly. I'm more concerned about cautioning guys who are selling their gear to go mirrorless before THEY properly research it.

John

Bob,
Not an attempt to convince anyone either way, but I see a lot of guys selling off their other gear to buy mirrorless without knowing the negatives, and I'm glad I didn't do that without getting my feet wet first.
John

Hi Guys,
First, let me say I own some M43 gear, an Olympus EM5-2, the 12-40 f2.8 Pro and the 40-150 f2.8 Pro. I also own Canon 70d, 80d and FF 5dMark 3 and a lot of quality L lenses. So I can speak with at least a bit of authority.

Last September, I was looking for an EF24-70 f2.8 IS lens for the Canons, so decided I’d check out (at Roberts Camera) a used Olympus with a 12-40 f2.8 Pro and discovered the pair was just a bit more in cost than was an EF24-70 f2.8, and lighter. So I pulled the trigger, knowing I could send it back if not what I wanted. Nice setup, but too small in my big hands. So, I had to get an add-on grip—that helped. I next bought the 40-150 f2.8 Pro lens from Robert’s (good folks, by the way). But as I became more familiar with the mirrorless concept, I began to see some deficiencies. As you may have read, the learning curve is steep, but I learned enough to become fairly proficient for basic landscape type shooting. And the 24-80 f2.8 is useful for the indoor usage as I envisioned.

The biggest single problem for me is the very slow startup time when you initiate the shutter button. Mine is about 3 seconds before the viewfinder comes up and ready to compose, etc. That is fine for landscape use, but sadly lacking for spontaneous shooting of kids and wildlife. I find I can only shoot perched birds. Battery life is notoriously less than most Canon or Nikon cameras, but batteries are not that expensive, so I can live with it. Picture quality is OK, and except for higher ISO, is typically no better or worse than either crop or FF cameras. I also belatedly failed to realize I could simulate and see if I liked mirrorless, by just attaching a viewfinder hood loupe.

The next thing I discovered, which I should have checked before purchase, is the small weight saving between the better mirrorless cameras and my 80d. With similar lens setups, there is really not a significant difference, basically only onces. Examples follow in pounds, and with fractional ounces rounded off:

Canon 80d body = 1# -10 oz. 1.6 crop, built in flash
With Canon 24-70 f4 L IS = 2# -15 (38 – 112 cropped value)
With Canon 70-200 f4 L IS = 3# - 7 (112-320 cropped value)

Oly EM 5 Mk 2 body w/grip = 1# - 3oz. 2.0 crop, separate flash
With 12-40 f2.8 Pro = 2# - 2 (24- 80 cropped value)
With 40-150 f2.8 Pro = 3# - 3 (80-300 cropped value)

The Canon 5d3 in combination with L lenses is appropriately heavier, but not unduly so.

So what am I trying to explain; namely this. The M43 concept is nice in many respects, but is not the “end-all”, and has drawbacks. The weight savings is not all that significant, and likely could be made up by leaving a few pounds of “stuff” behind, and probably should also include losing a few unhealthy pounds of your, (and my) excess body weight. Just carry the gear you REALLY need.

Bottom line, I’d suggest doing your research before selling off all of your treasured current gear; I kept all of mine. And will until it, or I fail, and the widow’s sale happens. But, I’ll also keep the Oly gear as it makes a somewhat overall lighter landscape package for certain special applications. Also, losing a few pounds and inches is high on my priorities, and that’s a good thing.

There, I’ve stated my personal, informed opinion; I expect you will as well—have at it!

Nice. I got up to watch it too, but too damn cold to set up a tripod, etc. in far northern MN. So all I got was handheld of the earlier stages, and not much of the totality image.