“Honey, are the Cameras in the Dishwasher Clean?”

I did something only too predictable. I bought another camera.

A desire for an Olympus camera has been coming and going, like psoriasis. I kept suppressing it, but I finally gave in.

I’m fundamentally a Sony guy, because Sony is the Glock of camera makers. It’s the practical choice. Unless you’re weird, there is almost certainly a Sony that will do what you want. The lens selection is unparalleled. There is a ton of information about using them. There are zillions of helpful reviews. Editing programs know all about Sony. The supply of aftermarket stuff for Sony is endless. But Olympus, or as the spun-off camera division is now known, OM System, does some things much better.

1. You can rinse your OM clean under a tap. They have excellent water resistance, so do at least some of their lenses. You can take an OM fishing with you.

2. They have the best IBIS in the business, and not by a small margin. You can hold an OM in your hands and take a sharp photo with the shutter open for half a second. That is wild.

3. They have the best buffers. When I half-press my shoot button, the camera starts shooting silently, and it stores a whole bunch of shots temporarily while I wait to commit. If something good happens before I press, and I have my camera settings right, the camera will keep it. This is good for photographing wildlife, including babies.

4. They shoot bursts so quickly, you need extra-fast cards with them.

5. They do focus stacking in-camera. You can use this in macro, where depth of field is a problem. The camera will shoot a bunch of photos with different focus planes, and then it will put them together for you, giving you a finished JPG as well as the raw shots. Nobody else does this. Combine this with the IBIS, and you can do very good macro with no tripod and no rail.

6. The lenses are smaller and, I believe, less expensive than APS-C. The camera I bought is actually heavier and slightly bigger than an A6700, but I got it with a very good kit zoom, and the overall package is handy. The lens is not bad at all. It’s a 12-40mm f/2.8. Very well built, water-resistant, with good optics and even a focus clutch.

7. They have little Micro 4/3 sensors, smaller than APS-C. Wait…small sensors are bad, right? Well, sometimes. The small sensors mean you can get a longer reach for the same focal length, so if you ever decide to shoot birds in the field, you can use a lens you can carry instead of putting it in a wheelbarrow. I would like to do a little wildlife shooting.

What are the down sides?

The depth of field is bigger, which can be good or bad, but if you’re a bokeh Nazi, it’s a problem. The photos can’t be blown up as much as APS-C or full-frame. There is less support for Olympus/OM. The auto-focus features can’t compare to Sony.

The sensor is just about the same size as the unusual sensor Canon put in my Powershot V1, and I get by beautifully with that camera, which, I have to say, is lighter and handier and can’t overheat while shooting video. The OM’s sensor will do just fine.

I wanted to ignore the desire to get yet another camera, but it gnawed at me. I wondered if God was in there somewhere. I believe he has been telling me to be less worried about spending, including giving.

I bought it from Amazon, not a smaller place like B&H. I returned a Sony to B&H, and they gave me full price even though it was lightly used. I didn’t want to stick a smaller Jewish-owned retailer with another loss if I didn’t like the OM. Maybe they would have preferred I risk it.

So what did I buy? I considered getting a used OM (will not keep typing Olympus/OM), but the latest flagship has better autofocus and some other helpful advances, so I got an OM-1 Mark II.

One of the nice things about OM is that you can buy the flagship model without questioning your sanity. It’s not cheap, but when you compare it to other industry flagships, it seems like a gift.

I already love it. The zoom range is ideal for everyday carry. I like the feel. I’m already getting good shots from it.

The AF is going to be a drawback. I have already gotten shots where it focused on the wrong person without me catching it. My A6700 automatically decided my son was “Infant,” not just “Human Being,” and it tracks him ruthlessly. I can overcome OM’s focus quirks. Everyone else does. There used to be people who got by with film cameras with three settings and manual focus.

That’s not a perfect argument, because those people lost many, many photos a modern Sony would have saved, but anyway, I can compensate to some extent, and the pluses outweigh the minuses.

Sooner or later, I will get a macro lens, but even now, I should be able to get great near-macro shots.

Regarding sensor size, my current belief is that you shouldn’t even think about it unless you plan to blow photos up. If you want a photo to cover your computer screen, or you want a yard-wide poster, you want pixels and a big aperture. Otherwise, it makes no difference. If you plan to put salad-plate-sized photos of your kids on your walls, Micro 4/3 is as good as anything made. Change my mind.

Well, there is the bokeh difference. I admit that. The bokeh potential is lower, on the whole, but that’s because of the depth of field advantage, so take the good with the bad.

Here’s a great question: why doesn’t OM put its killer features in APS-C or full-frame? Maybe they don’t have the budget.

I’m up to 4 real cameras now. Is that excessive? I don’t think so. It’s catch-up buying, which is always expensive, and I’m not like the people who have 75 cameras displayed on shelves. I’ll probably feel bad when I buy the pricey OM 90mm macro lens, however.

I don’t count the used Canon 200D I stupidly bought in 2023 or the 2006 350D it replaced. Those things are ready for the Salvation Army. I guess I should count the ZV1M2 I got in ’23. I did spend real money on it. I just don’t think of it as a real camera, because it has so many limitations and has been superseded so well by the Powershot. I don’t count action cameras. I’m not sure where mine are. They are cameras, and they have real uses, but nobody who wants to learn photography and get good uses a Gopro. If my Gopro is a Sony, my old Samsung Galaxy S5 cell phone is a Hasselblad.

The 200D was an enormous mistake. People say you can take great photos with bad equipment, and it is true when you stay within the equipment’s limitations, so you can take SOME great photos. But you will miss so many other photos, it won’t be worth it. Also, you are going to blow photos the bad camera can take well, because it will do less to catch you when you mess up, and because you will be busy fighting with it, trying to make it do what a better camera will do without a struggle.

I took the 200D and mid-grade lenses to Switzerland and Italy, and the photos are okay, but not A6700 or A7RIV okay. Even the better ones are just not as good.

People say, “Buying gear is what people do instead of learning to take good pictures.” Uh…no. It’s what they do when their cameras hold them back, which is something that can start happening a month into the hobby. Then you end up with an expensive camera you use and a cheaper camera you have to put on Ebay, taking a loss.

Sure, there are wealthy dentists and venture capitalists who buy flagship cameras and then use them on “auto” all the time, but that’s not me.

This isn’t my final camera, even in the near-term. If we travel again, I am almost certainly going to get a DJI Osmo Pocket 4. It’s not out yet. I am sick of screwing up video while using cameras designed mostly for stills. The Osmo Pocket 4 is an amazing video solution for consumers who shoot while moving around. It’s not out yet, but the predecessor camera is great, and the Pocket 4’s improvements sound like they are worth the wait.

Regarding my various baby-photo epiphanies, I am buying a canvas tarp today to use as a backdrop. If I don’t like the look, I’ll go to Hobby Lobby and get some cloth, but canvas actually looks nice to me. I ordered an LED panel to use to give fill light from below. We are going to put some stuff in an empty bedroom, sit on the backdrop with our baby, and take his one-year shots. If they stink, we will take them again. It will work.

Maybe we can actually produce polished shots that will not look pathetic next to our badly-lit hastily-taken candids, which are excellent.