Hi everyone, most of you already know that I like to experiment with my gear. As the pistol grip has a tripod thread on the bottom I attached it to two of my small tabletop tripods to try it out. The only thing that I dislike about the grip is the positioning of the lock button which is far too easily accidentally pressed and, as I don’t require it for my interests, I’m going to glue it in the off or unlocked position.

Kind regards

Leigh

PS. The lock button is no longer a problem since I super glued it 🙂

Hi everyone,

For my last two local trips out I decided to take my relatively little used Olympus E-PL5 camera and Lumix 12-32mm as I had other things that I needed to do and carry and I didn’t want to carry around some of my other somewhat more bulky camera gear. I dug out my tiny Samsonite Trekking camera bag and managed to squeeze in a fair bit of gear.

Firstly, to get a sense of scale, here’s the bag sitting on top of an A4 sheet of paper.

In the main compartment my E-PL5 with lens attached and my EV-4 electronic viewfinder ready to attach and in the top mesh pocket, a 58mm ND filter.

In the the front compartment, my Holux GPS data-logger, two spare camera batteries and, in the front zip-up mesh pocket, my Nikon Coolpix A-100 camera with my Manfrotto mini tripod attached in a red waterproof pouch so I even managed to fit in a backup camera!!. 🙂

Lastly I attached a very small tabletop tripod through the two belt loops and used one of my handy Thinktank red-whips to secure it tightly. Behind this is another zip-up pocket into which I put a few lens wipes sachets and a lens cleaning cloth.

Amazing what one can get into such a tiny bag. 🙂 . As for the weight, I don’t know, it was so light that it didn’t even register on my electronic bathroom scales!.

Kind regards,

Leigh

Hi everyone,

Another short video today.

Here’s an alternate loadout, Olympus E-M5 and M.Zuiko 14-150mm, a snug fit width-wise but doable. 🙂

Kind regards,

Leigh

Hang the bag containing the camera, four lenses and a couple of spare batteries from my thumb. Oh the beauty of the Micro Four Thirds system! 🙂

All the best,

Leigh

Hi everyone,

I thought I’d do a quick post on my recent outings to Bognor and Chichester. A short while back I did a video and in it I promised that I would do a post with some images taken with my chosen camera and lens selection.

For the trips I managed to squeeze one more lens into one of my small Manfrotto camera bags. In addition to my Olympus PEN-F, M.Zuilko 30mm f/3.5 ,Lumix 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 and 35-100mm f/4-5.6 lenses I also took my 20 mm Lumix f/1.7 but in the end I didn’t find the opportunity to use it but, when I do I’ll post some images here.

All packed, but where’s the 20mm ? 🙂

Well, it’s below the Lumix 35-100mm attached to it using my MOVO lens changer. This device did come with a strap which I quickly discarded, one because it didn’t look that great a quality and two because I don’t want my lenses hanging from my neck or shoulder but one could do so if one wished. Instead I fitted a small wrist strap for added security when changing lenses. The main advantage to me in using this is that one can dispose of a couple of lens back caps thus reducing the chances of loosing them and, primarily, the lenses don’t bang against each other in the small bag. I’ve also fitted JJC lens hoods to 20mm, 30mm and 12-32mm lenses and the 30mm lens is in a small soft lens pouch..

I’ve posted most of these shots previously but I’ll repost them here. First some taken with my M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 macro lens.

Now some shots taken with my Lumix 35-100mm lens, a very sharp, compact little lens.

A few (of many) taken with my favourite Lumix 12-32mm lens.

Hope this is of interest, with the exception of the 12-32mm lens, both the camera and lenses have all been purchased used in great condition and, as always, I travel compact and light. 🙂

Kind regards,

Leigh

Hi folks,

Kind regards,

Leigh

Hi everyone, as I guess most of you know I love to get all the gear that I need for a shoot into the smallest lightest bag that I can find to do the job, in this case one of my older Tamrac Digitrek bags, a nice small well made bag which I’ve had for many years now. I’ve fitted my Heroclip to the carrying handle and it’s held in place during transit by one of the two side buckle clips passing over it so that it doesn’t slip around.

The bag is quite versatile and has an outside pocket in which I’ve stored my intervalometer and a most vital (and cheapest) 🙂 piece of kit, a section cut from a neoprene mouse mat which is a really useful if one gets a filter and/or lens hood stuck.

In the front zip up pocket I have stored my tiny Nikon Coolpix A100 with Joby mini tripod fitted, an SDHC card case, an 82 mm lens cap for my wide angle hoods, 2 spare camera batteries, 2 spare AAA batteries for the intervalometer, my GPS data logger and (in the red bag) my grey/white and black cards.

With the cards unpacked.

The inside comprises of a zip up transparent pocket in which I’ve stored several step up rings, a cleaning cloth, some lens wipes and the lanyard for the colour balance cards. In the main compartment I have my E-M1 camera plus VF-4 (right angle adjustable) electronic viewfinder (really useful for low down shots) which saves my old aching legs and back 🙂 , two lenses, my 12-32mm Lumix and my 9-18mm M.Zuiko and, in another one of my small red drawstring bags, two metal wide angle lens hoods to fit my ND filters.

With the hoods unpacked.

The bag is very compact for travelling as you can see from this shot of me holding it.

Using the Heroclip to hang the bag from one of my lightweight tripods both for added stability for the tripod and to keep the bag and its contents off of wet ground or, for that matter, hanging it from anything!. 🙂

This is my heaviest loadout at approx. 4 1/2 pounds but, not shown here, the bag also has two belt loops on the back of the bag to help distribute the weight. Stick my filter pouch into a jacket pocket or on my belt and I’m good to go. 🙂

Kind regards,

Leigh