I’m impressed! Manfrotto Compact 1 Advanced Shoulder Bag for CSC in use.

Hi everyone,

I’ve now taken my new camera bag and my gear on three local trips to test it out for weight, compactness and convenience. I’m impressed, it fits my needs extremely well. Over the years I’ve owned so many camera bags that I’ve long since lost count. Along with my choice of camera gear my experiences have also informed my choice of camera bag, what works, what doesn’t and why. What I’ve constantly been looking for in a bag is low weight and size, good quality manufacture and ease of access to my gear. This is where having a good number of compartments comes into play but they have to be readily accessible. Some stuff I need quick and ready access to eg. a spare camera battery and rain covers for both the bag and my camera need to be accessible without having to open the main compartment especially in heavy rain and that’s where the top compartment on this bag is really useful to store such items.

Then there’s the main compartment, obviously it has to be large enough to hold my choice of camera gear but having two additional small velcro-fastening pockets on the underside of the “lid” is handy for smaller items such as filters (approx. 58/62mm size or smaller or thereabouts) , lens wipes, microfibre cloth and lens brush. Lastly the back zip-up compartment although shallow is also handy for more smaller items. This compartment is pretty stealthy and I guess you could put a small wallet, purse or loose money/cards in it as it’s not very obvious as it sits close to one’s body. Personally I don’t do this, nor do I habitually put my mobile phone in my camera bag. If there’s one thing worse than your camera gear getting snatched it’s also loosing your wallet and phone especially when travelling. A good idiom when travelling that I’ve always adhered to would be “never put all your eggs in the same basket” 🙂 . Likewise never readily believe anyone saying “there’s no problem with mosquitos here”, eaten alive by vicious, insatiable Tiger Mosquitos in Rome, or “it never rains here at this time of year”, soaked to the skin in Corfu Town in peak season, as the saying goes, “one lives as one learns” or, to put it another way, isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing. 🙂

For more info on the bag see this post: https://leighkempphotoblog.co.uk/2024/04/04/papas-got-a-brand-new-bag/

Kind regards

Leigh

Duracell Olympus BLN-1 replacement battery.

April 5, 2024 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel | 3 Comments

Hi everyone,

As my Olympus BLN-1 batteries are ageing I thought I’d treat myself to a couple of these. As Olympus want £53 UK each I thought I’d try these instead. If one buys them from Duracell Direct online one pays £22.99 each but as they have a buy one and get a second at half price offer I ended up paying £34.49 inc. V.A.T for two with free 3-day courier delivery. Got to be worth a try out, they have a slightly less capacity than the Olympus one’s, 1140 mAh vs 1220 mAh but, at this price it’s worth it and it’s at least a brand name that one’s heard of and they should know a thing or two about battery manufacture by now methinks 🙂 . I’ll post again when I’ve given them a thorough test and they come with a two year warranty. I’m sure that they do them for other makes and models of camera.

Kind regards, Leigh

Update: I just charged them both up in one of my dual USB camera battery chargers with no problems.

I love it when a plan comes together.

April 4, 2024 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel and tagged filters, Photography, reviews | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I’ve managed to solve a dilemma I’ve had for a while now. When I start thinking about travel landscapes, all that lovely blue Mediterranean water and skies and sunshine (whatever that is) :), bring it on! 🙂 I also start thinking about using one of my various CPL filters and just maybe occasionally an ND filter. What often deters me about using a CPL is that one has to tediously keep removing and re-fitting the lens hood on the go which doesn’t suit my walkabout style of working else it’s very fiddly as there’s not enough room inside the manufacturer’s lens hood to get one’s fingers in and turn it and even with my slimmest CPL filter it still vignettes at the 12mm (24mm equivalent) end of my zooms with the hood fitted. I’ve tried various after-market hoods to no avail and finally found one that works with my 12-60mm Lumix f/3.5-f/5.6 zoom lens which doesn’t cause vignetting at the 12mm end. As it turns out it was a humble metal screw in 58mm wide angle lens hood that I’ve had kicking around for years which I had somehow overlooked. This means I can leave my 58mm Marumi DHG Super CPL filter mounted and just turn the hood to adjust it, quick and effective, which was exactly what I wanted to achieve. 🙂 Trying to remember of course to turn it clockwise else it’ll be a case of “it came away in mi ‘and guvnor!” 🙂

Happy Days 🙂

Best wishes,

Leigh

Papa’s got a brand new (camera) bag :)

April 4, 2024 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel and tagged bags, gear, Manfrotto Compact 1 Advanced Shoulder Bag for CSC – Black, reviews, Travel | 8 Comments

Hi everyone,

Apologies to the late and great James Brown, I couldn’t resist it 🙂 . For my next trip I was looking for another small, lightweight bag with an extra bit of storage when compared to my older Manfrotto bags. I like the Manfrotto bags as they’re lightweight, compact, well designed, well padded and rugged. Another good thing about their bags is that they do a mind-boggling range which seems to be continually changing so one can pickup their previous generation designs at a fraction of their original price, I paid £19.99 UK for my new bag. The model number is Manfrotto Compact 1 Advanced Shoulder Bag for CSC – Black (MB MA-SB-C1). Outer dimensions – ‎26 W x 12 D x 18 H centimetres. weight – 0.54 Kilograms according to manufacturer’s specifications. Important to note that the 18cm height includes the top compartment. I’m happy to say that, unlike one of my other Manfrotto bags, they have included a rain cover that doesn’t require having to detach the bag strap to fit/remove it every time one wants to use it, nice touch! as everything can get very wet very quickly whilst faffing around detaching the strap, threading the cover through and re-attaching it if one’s caught out in a sudden heavy downpour as has happened to me on occasions. I also noted that the bag’s fabric is smooth and not coarse like my older bags so water should run off it and it should be fine in all but heavy rain.

Here’s a few pictures, the first a size comparison with one of my older, smaller bags, a shot of the back of the new bag and, lastly, a shot of the bag’s main compartment. It has a top zipped compartment in which I’m stowing two rain covers, the one supplied with the bag and another for my camera with enough room left for my mobile phone and case. The main compartment comes with two dividers and I’ve packed my OM-D E-M5 MK II camera with Lumix 12-60mm f/3.5-f/5.6 zoom lens and hood fitted on its side, my Lumix 20mm f/1.7 lens and hood. two JJC battery/SDHC card boxes, each of which contains one spare camera battery and two SDHC cards and lastly one of my dual USB camera battery chargers and one of my Anker 6700 mAh USB power banks. There are also two small velcro-fastening pockets in which I put a microfibre cloth, several Zeiss lens wipe sachets, an extra filter and USB charge cable. Lastly as shown in the shot of the back of the bag, there’s one additional shallow zip-up pocket big enough to store my very small table top tripod and a lens pen. All the zip pockets open from the back so, when the bag is hanging from one’s shoulder or crossbody, (my preferred method as it’s less easy to snatch), they’re against one’s body, a nice feature to help prevent pickpockets gaining access to the bag contents, the main compartment opens outwards away from one’s body. The supplied shoulder strap has a nicely padded shoulder pad and not the rigid plastic/rubber type which cuts into one’s neck when wearing lightweight summer clothing and I like having a grab handle on the bag. I always like to try and accommodate a USB camera battery charging solution in addition to the charging gear I pack in my hold-luggage as, if the latter goes walkabout, I can still charge camera batteries or my mobile phone at least for a while and also as a backup camera battery charger should the other one fail or get damaged.

All-in-all another nicely designed Manfrotto bag that accommodates all the gear that I want/am restricted to having to take with me as hand luggage eg. rechargeable batteries and still small enough to fit under the seat on an aircraft. Also worth noting that, if you register your purchase online it comes with a 60 months warranty. Whether it’ll be my go-to travel bag in five years time only time will tell but for now, it ticks all the boxes.

Kind regards

Leigh

Microphone/Camera stand/tripod adapters

March 29, 2024 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi,

These are really useful to adapt microphone holders to fit on camera tripod threaded accessories and also vice-versa to enable a microphone stand to accept cameras and to attach microphones to camera tripods. brackets etc.. I have used these to attach microphones to camera flash brackets and also to attach a camera to an otherwise surplus to requirements small but sturdy metal tabletop microphone tripod stand as shown below.

Search Amazon for – Prasacco 8 Pieces Mic Stand Adapter, 5/8 Female to 3/8 Male 3/8 Female to 5/8 Male 5/8 Female to 1/4 Male 1/4 Female to 5/8 Male Screw Thread Adapter for Microphone Stand Mount to Camera Tripod

Kind regards

Leigh

Long time, no see.

March 28, 2024 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Corfu, Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel and tagged camera, cameras, lenses, Photography, Travel | 4 Comments

Hi everyone, hope you’re keeping well,

Well, it’s been quite a while since my last post. I just haven’t been able to get out and get any shots. Firstly my health hasn’t been that good, then there’s the weather which, with relatively few exceptions, seems like its been raining every day for months. We’ve also had and are still repeatedly having very high winds and we’ve had local flooding. I’m also reliant on public transport which is few and far between in this part of the World and financially it’s been a tough time. So, putting it all together, there have been very few days when I’m feeling up to it, the weather’s been sufficiently favourable and I’ve had the funds, usually one, the other, but rarely all at the same time. Notwithstanding all of this, we’ve booked a much-needed short holiday return visit to the beautiful Greek island of Corfu which we’re both very much looking forward to after last year’s disastrous week-long trip to Malaga Spain which saw me confined to our hotel room for days on end with a nasty bout of food poisoning resulting in very few opportunities to get any shots or, for that matter, do pretty much anything else.

Pontikonisi, Corfu – Olympus OM-D E-M1 I and M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 lens.

Naturally my thoughts have recently turned to which gear to pack. I considered taking my smallest, lightest camera, my PEN E-PL8 but decided that, for a few extra ounces I’ll take my much-loved, much-travelled and much-trusted OM-D E-M5 II camera principally for it’s weather-sealing, faster maximum shutter speed (particularly useful in very bright conditions and when shooting HDR) and electronic shutter. The large eyepiece I fitted some years ago after my laser ops in both eyes that resulted in halos in bright light. Regarding lenses, I’m typically going to travel light with only two lenses, my Lumix 12-60mm f/3.5-f/5.6 (24mm to 120mm equivalent) weather-sealed lens for general shooting and my Lumix 20mm f/1.7 for low light/interior and evening use. Both of these lenses have great image quality and have travelled with me on several previous trips abroad as well as in the UK particularly my Lumix 12-60mm which has the useful bonus of extra telephoto reach, punches well above it’s cost and weight and is significantly lighter when compared to my other “standard” zooms. All of this along with a few small accessories: spare battery/s, rain cover, lens wipes and CPL filter in one of my very small Manfrotto camera bags, another of my best buys at £8.00 UK each. 🙂

I’ve only splashed out on one new item a new camera strap by Tarion (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0194X71JQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) for which I paid the less than princely sum of £9.00 UK 🙂 seen here attached to my E-M5 II. The strap is pretty wide at approx. 1 3/4 inches, nicely made, it’s classic styling is esthetically pleasing and, most importantly of all, it should spread the weight and prove comfortable in usage. I’ve fitted my Peak Design type connectors and buckles to the strap enabling quick release. Worth noting that the strap does come with triangle rings which is a nice touch if one requires them. It’s funny how one’s tastes/needs in straps change over the years as one’s age, gear and physical condition changes, think neck and back pain 😦 . I did notice that they show a less secure method of attaching the strap than I’ve been using for years. For anyone wanting to adopt a more secure strap fastening method, if they don’t already, I suggest looking at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_paXysiGsxs&ab_channel=ShotKit I did contact their support and, to their credit, they responded quickly and positively,

I have so many different types of straps and for that matter camera bags, which have worked well for me at one time or another but not so now. I’m thinking I should have a stall in the local market selling used camera straps and bags. 🙂

Olympus OM-D E-M5 II camera, bottom-opening leather-like half case, Tarion strap, Panasonic Lumix 12-60mm and 20mm lenses. The 20mm has a 46mm to 58mm step up ring fitted to act as a lens hood and also allow my 58mm CPL filter to be fitted without adding very much bulk to a very small, compact, pancake design lens.

Take care, best wises,

Leigh

Some close up shots with my Olympus M.Zuiko 12-45mm f/4 lens.

November 19, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

This morning I thought I’d fit one of my small Godox LED36 lights and take some closeup shots using my M.Zuiko 12-45mm f/4 constant aperture lens. One really nice feature to this lens is its close focussing feature which I’ve used a few times. Not strictly a macro lens at 0.25x magnification (0.5x 35mm equivalent) across the entire zoom range. The closest focusing distance is 12 cm at the wide-angle end, and 23 cm at the telephoto end which is useful and a lot of fun. Mostly taken at f/4, at circa 10th second (got to love the Olympus IBIS) 🙂 and at ISO 200, all handheld. The lens well built, weather sealed and extremely compact for a lens of its type.

Kind regards

Leigh

Trying out a sort of DIY off-camera flash grip and bracket. [Updated – “A shot in the dark”]

November 18, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel | 4 Comments

Hi everyone,

In advance of the Christmas holidays I’ve been trying out an off-camera flash setup using whatever bits and pieces that I had rattling around in a drawer. I dug out a flash bracket, and my JJC pistol grip. I unscrewed the cold shoe from the bracket and screwed it to the top of the pistol grip and, as the grip has a tripod bush in the base I was then able to screw it onto the bracket. The grip also has a trigger which, when connected to the camera’s remote port by cable allows the camera to be fired from the grip. The Godox TT350o flash is fired by the Godox X1To radio flash trigger mounted on the camera so as to keep the cabling to a minimum. I could also dispense with the flash gear and fit one of my small Godox LED36 video lights to the grip instead.

I tried this arrangement out by taking some portrait shots of my wife and I’m very pleased with the results and the way the gear handles in use. She absolutely detests having her picture taken but she reluctantly agreed so as I could test out the gear as she wants some new shots of the grandkids in particular and she would hang, draw and quarter me or possibly worse 🙂 if I posted them online. In fact I never publish private family shots online anywhere especially so of the grandkids. Somewhat of a sad commentary on the world we live in perhaps, too many unsavoury characters out there in my opinion. But many years ago I used to do quite a bit of portraiture and model photography before my photographic interests changed from photographing people to mostly landscapes.

I’ve since added a small quick release plate arrangement mounted between the bottom of the grip and the bracket so that I can quickly attach and detach the grip and use the flash handheld.

PS. I awoke this morning very early whilst it was still dark and couldn’t get back to sleep so I made myself a nice cup of tea and thought I’d take a few test “shots in the dark” inside the house to try something out so I additionally fitted one of my small dimmable Godox LED36 video lights to my flash bounce grip arrangement. It worked very well as a focus assist light source. Dimmed down to a setting of my choice the light from the LED unit was overwhelmed by my choice of flash output it was really just there to see what I was doing stumbling around in the darkness and to stop me from tripping over and breaking my neck however when on full brightness it is pretty bright and the light source temperatures didn’t clash. I think that it would also make a nice modelling light, catch light, fill light etc. or just an alternative light source to throw in the mix and its very small and light so I can accommodate it in my choice of bag. Like the flash and trigger units it also runs on 2 AA batteries which is convenient.

Kind regards

Leigh

Small portable flash diffuser for my Godox Lux Junior flash.

November 9, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel | 4 Comments

Hi everyone,

I’ve been busying myself recently by posting mostly about photographic gear whilst the main road has remained closed to public transport for more than a week due to the flooding following Storm Ciaran and I’ve been unable to get out and get any new shots or pretty much anything else for that matter, I’m going a bit stir-crazy but should be able to get out somewhere soon.

I got one of these small flash soft box diffusers with an elasticated fitting and part silvered inside specifically for my Godox Lux Junior flash. As the Lux Junior is a direct manual flash it can be a bit too stark with harsh shadows when mounted directly on the camera unless that’s the look one’s looking for. With the diffuser fitted I think that one would probably need to compensate for the loss of light by increasing the output power by one or two stops equivalent or, if not possible, by increasing the ISO setting by the same degree. The diffuser would also fit my Godox TT350 flash or I guess pretty much any other flash gun, but the 350 unit has a bounce head, bounce card and attachable diffuser so it’s probably not required so much as with the smaller unit. You can get these diffusers “as cheap as chips” at circa £5 UK on E-bay etc. and they don’t take up much space as you can see in the pictures below, side by side with and fitted to the Lux Junior. I’ve tried out other types of diffuser in the past which have all proven to be either too flimsy and/or too bulky so this one looks like a better bet. I suppose if all else fails I could always draw a nose and two eyes on it and use it as a glove puppet to keep our youngest baby granddaughter amused for a while. 🙂

All the best,

Leigh

Horses for Courses.

November 8, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

I like to organise my camera gear into kits to suit my different needs. When thinking about a choice of the camera and lenses to take with me size and particularly the weight has ever increasingly become of paramount importance to me. The longer and more frequently that I have to carry the gear the lighter I want the load to be. Another factor that determines my choice is of course the type of subject. Generally, with the possible exception of travelling, I know pretty much what to expect and what I will need with me to give a good all round balance of focal lengths. They say “always expect the unexpected” but I do not want to carry the kitchen sink around with me all day on the vague off chance that I might require a certain bit of gear so, based on experience I pretty much know that my choice of gear for a day out or short stay will differ compared to a lengthier trip. Whether I’m going to shoot lots of landscape shots or maybe a selection of different subjects or a few family portraits shots. With all of this in mind I’ve put together four kit choices. There is a certain amount of overlap between the kits but I know which focal lengths I want with me and I’ve aimed to keep things down to a minimum whilst retaining a good degree of flexibility for shooting in different light conditions.

This kit is the lightest and most compact and contains my Olympus E-PL8 camera + EVF-4 electronic viewfinder and 12-32mm Lumix, 20mm f/1.7 Lumix (in the pouch) and 45mm f/1.8 Olympus lenses. So a small zoom and a couple of fast prime lenses. Great for a day out or a short trip, family shots etc..

2. This kit contain my Olympus PEN-F camera, Lumix 14-42mm II and Olympus 17mm f/1.8 (in a soft pouch) and my new Godox Lux Junior flash. Again good for a short trip or day out with the addition of a flash gun. This time one zoom lens and a fast prime lens.

3. A weather-sealed kit for travelling comprising of my Olympus E-M5 II camera and Lumix 12-60mm lens with small Olympus on-camera bounce capable flash . I used this combination several times in the past when travelling abroad and it provides me with the focal length range I require whilst keeping the weight manageable. The thing in the red pouch is a camera rain cover.

4. Another weather-sealed camera/lens combination, my Olympus E-M1 I and Olympus 12-45mm f/4 lens and Godox TT350 flash gun in the red pouch. The small Olympus on camera flash could optically trigger the larger flash if so wished. The heaviest, but still manageable, of the kits, The “Full Monty” 🙂

Kind regards

Leigh

As I sit here looking at my modern digital cameras I’m reminded of my first camera and, in particular, the first photograph that I ever took. Nowadays we take cameras and camera technology pretty much for granted but when I was a child I can’t remember many photographs. The only time our camera saw the light of day, and it had to be the light of day, as there wasn’t a flash, was on a few family occasions, the usual thing, school sports days, birthdays, etc.. My interest in photography didn’t start until my grandfather “loaned” me his camera to take with me on a week-long school trip, sleeping under canvas, in Snowdonia, North Wales. It was a somewhat battered old twin-lens reflex camera in which one looked downwards in to the viewfinder when taking a photograph.

I remember being very excited at being entrusted with the family camera, film wasn’t cheap and I had very little to no idea how to use it. The experience must have made some kind of impression on me as, after all these years, I still remember taking my first photograph. The coach stopped en-route at Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill and it became the subject of my first photograph. Although, sadly, like my other photographs from the trip, it has long since disappeared, however, I really don’t need the photograph to remind me as the experience is indelibly etched on my mind. I wonder if this is perhaps where my interest in landscape photography stems from but that’s probably too much of an assumption. As far as I remember I was the only kid on the trip to have a camera, that’s how different things were, nowadays, just about everyone has a camera of some sort built in to their mobile phones. It also taught me to be disciplined to the point of being frugal when taking photographs as the trip was for one week and I only had a 12 exposure black and white film in the camera.

Some years later I really got the photography bug and bought my first camera, an Olympus OM-1 35 mm film camera and I went on to own their OM-2 and OM-4ti cameras and a range of lenses. Film was still pretty expensive considering I earned about £20 a week in my first job so I got in to developing and printing my own black and white and, later, colour films to help keep the costs down and make things more affordable. Not only did this experience teach me an awful lot about image-making start to finish, many of the techniques and skills that I learned in my makeshift darkroom, a small room adorned with genuine World War 2 blackout curtains fitted to keep out the light, another hand-me-down from my grandfather, these skills would re-surface and be invaluable some years later when I started working on processing my digital images.

I put myself through University as a mature student and I badly needed the money so I had to very reluctantly part with all my photographic equipment, but needs must. After I graduated I bought my first digital camera, a small fixed lens Kodak compact camera, reduced in a sale. It had, by today’s standards, a laughably small maximum image resolution of 640×480 pixels or, to put it another way, a stunning 0.4 Megapixels!. For all of this and further equipped with screw on wide angle and telephoto lens attachments, it proved to be a fabulous little camera which I took all over the place with me. Put simply, digital photography was a revelation, to me, no requirement for film, no real running costs and a lot of image capacity on a small memory card which I found absolutely liberating.

A few years before that I had discovered some free graphics editing software on the cover disk of a computer magazine and that started off my real passion for working with graphics and, ultimately, photo processing. So I then had all the tools I required to develop, pun intended and further, my interest in digital photography. Processing is where the magic starts for me, I am totally absorbed in and fascinated by the range of options that digital processing affords me. It encourages me, if, that is, I ever need encouragement, to constantly experiment with new styles, new techniques and is such an important part of my enjoyment and interest in photography.

I went on to own several DSLRs but, as I got older I began to find that they were simply too heavy and bulky. I switched over back in 2013 to Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses. My choice of MFT system was heavily influenced by my experiences with my Olympus film cameras, maybe it was, in truth, part based on nostalgia that I decided on their OM-D system. As a landscape/travel photographer I have to carry my gear around all day and the weight and bulk saving is highly significant. I’ve been very impressed with the image quality of my Micro Four Thirds equipment, it has traveled with me extensively, never let me down and I have never had cause to question my decision to go over to that format.

So my 50-plus year photographic adventure has led me from twin-lens reflex and single-lens reflex film cameras to digital cameras, from stumbling around in a dimly-lit darkroom to working with my images on my computer. I’ve heard it said on occasions, including a comment I read some while back by a very famous photographer, that cameras being so much an every-day item now and available in mobile phones etc. devalues photography. I feel quite the opposite, I firmly believe that it empowers everyone with affordable technology to take photographs and enjoy photography and that, in my opinion, is fantastic. Although I’ve very much enjoyed my personal photographic journey I do confess to feeling a slight tinge of regret that the technology wasn’t available when I started out but one can’t put the clock back and I intend to keep on embracing all these great technological advancements, experimenting and enjoying my work.

Cameras:

Olympus: OM-D E-M5 Mk II (titanium) & HLD-8G grip, OM-D E-M1 Mk I (black) & HDL-7 grip, OM-D EM-5 Mk I (silver) & HDL-6 grip, PEN EPL-5, PEN EP-5 (silver) +VF-4, PEN E-PL8 (Silver) +VF4, Tough TG-5 (red), PEN-F (silver), Canon Powershot G10, Nikon Coolpix A100

Lenses:

Olympus: M.Zuiko: 12 mm f/2, 17 mm f/1.8, 25 mm f/1.8, 45 mm f/1.8, 30 mm f/3.5 macro, 9 mm f/8 body cap fisheye, 15 mm f/8 body cap, 9-18 mm, 12-50 mm, 12-40 mm f/2.8 PRO, 14-150 mm II, 40-150 mm II, 12-45mm f/4 PRO, MCON-P02.

Sigma: ART 60 mm f/2.8.

Samyang: Manual focus 7.5 mm f/3.5 fisheye.

TT Artisan: Manual focus 17mm f/1.4, 23mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4.

Panasonic Lumix: 14 mm f/2.5, 20 mm f/1.7, 12-32 mm x2 (black and silver), 12-60 mm, 14-42 mm II, 35-100 mm, 45-150mm.

PEN E-P5, 9-18mm,12-32mm, 40-150mm II. A lightweight kit with virtually continuous coverage from 18mm wide angle to 300mm telephoto.

OM-D E-M1 I, 14-150mm II, 12-40mm PRO. . Heavier than my other kits but with complete weather-sealing. Coverage from 24mm wide angle to 300mm telephoto with some overlap for backup.

OM-D E-M5 II, 17mm, 35mm, 12-60mm. A balance of two fun manual focus lenses with a weather-sealed body and zoom lens.

PEN E-PL5, 9mm, 15mm, 25mm, 60mm, 12-50mm. Another lightweight fun kit with a zoom option.

TG-5, OM-D E-M5 mk1, 7.5mm, 12mm, 17mm, 45mm, 30mm macro. M-CON.

PEN-F, 14mm, 20mm, 12-32mm, 35-100mm. Probably my favourite lightweight day-to-day kit. Two fast primes and two zoom with almost continuous coverage from 24mm wide angle through to 200mm telephoto.

Software:

Corel: Paintshop Pro Elite 2020 & Video Studio 2019.

Skylum Software: Aurora HDR 2019, Luminar 4, Luminar AI and Luminar Neo.

DXO Labs: PhotoLab 5 Elite, Viewpoint 3, NIK Collection 6, Film Pack 5 and PureRAW.

Anthropics Technologies: Landscape Pro Studio 3 and Portrait Pro.

EyeQ: Perfectly Clear

Topaz Labs: Studio 2, Sharpen AI, A.I Gigapixel, AI Clear, AI Adjust, DeNoise AI and Various legacy plugins.

Adobe: Lightroom.

GreenScreenWizard Studio Pro.

Serif: Affinity Photo

Microsoft: Image Composite Editor (Free).

Darktable (Free).

Olympus: Olympus Capture, Olympus Workspace and Olympus Webcam (Free to Olympus owners).

Sony: Movie Studio Platinum.

Lighting Gear:

Godox TT350o flash, Godox X1T radio flash trigger, Godox Lux Junior flash, LED ring flash, GVM RGB LED light, Olympus MAL-1 Macro Arm Light. Two Godox LED36 lights, Godox Litemons LED6R light. Three Bowen studio flash heads, barndoors, honeycombes, umbrellas and flash meter.