Micro 4/3 In praise of my serious compact (M4/3) system

Pelao

All-Pro
Location
Ontario, Canada
Name
Stephen
Yesterday I completed two reasonably demanding shoots. They were in support of an engineering firm. They recently gained a massive contract for the engineering aspects of upgrading a mobile operators system to 4G. This means reviewing all existing installations, making recommendations and where necessary designing new or upgraded mounts. For safety and insurance purposes it's all tightly regulated, which means a lot of care and attention.

My small part was to photograph the installations at two sites, with another 10 next week, then another 200 over the next few months. This means going onto the roof area of various buildings (usually 12+ floors) and photographing each antenna in detail: area shots, close ups of all mountings etc. Technically it's not demanding, though it is exacting, but the careful annotation and management of the shoot is tiring. The shot angles are often awkward, which means that after a few hours your arms can ache, depending of course on the gear you are using...

Anyway, these buildings were not designed for any such installations, and are a mess of pipes, air ducts, outbuildings, wires, cables, dead birds, wind, and severe wind gusts. Lots of railings too. So it's physically demanding, and means lots of scrambling, crawling, ducking and diving etc. Kind of fun really, with great views.

The thing is, I had my GF1, 14, 20 and 14-45, Lenspen, EVF, cloth, notepad and paperwork all tucked up nicely in a Tamrac Velocity 7. It was not a tight fit, so everything could be quickly accessed by feel, allowing swift lens changes etc. I have used this to carry a full-size DSLR and maybe a spare lens or two, depending on which ones: it was always a tight-ish fit. More importantly it was heavy.

I really appreciated my gear yesterday. As I scrambled and crawled and manoeuvred myself around I never once felt the weight. Yet I had lenses for every occasion. The bag may be heavier than the gear...

248 perfect high-res pictures delivered and way less fatigue than on past occasions.
 
Back
Top