New Camera!

I have wanted to get an interchangeable lens camera for a long time, but I never had enough motivation to spend the money.  The baby's impending arrival gave me the incentive to finally pony up the cash.  I thought I would get a Nikon DSLR. They take awesome pictures. However, the large body and huge lenses are a lot to lug around. We're already going to be carrying enough junk around for the baby; we don't need a dedicated backpack for our camera. There is no replacement for their performance, but we were willing to live with a lesser camera in order to save money and size.

Most likely I was going to buy a mid-range shooter; not one that would allow me to swap out lenses.  Then I discovered the micro 4/3 cameras.  They offer most of the same benefits of a full-sized DSLR, but in a much smaller package.  The body and lenses are significantly more compact.  You surely don't get everything that a big-dog Nikon would offer, but I am not enough of a photo snob to notice. Not yet anyway. I chose to get the Olympus E-PL1. It has really good reviews. I also like that it looks "retro", and not like every other DSLR you see. I would still like to get a DSLR down the road, but this will be a fun camera to get me started.

There are quite a few m4/3 lenses to chose from, or you can always get an adapter and put a full-sized lens on it. That is what I will probably do when I save up enough to buy a good zoom lens. It is all about the lenses anyway. Camera bodies come and go.  The lenses you can use for long time. Another deciding factor is that the price of the EPL1 was quite a bit less than the Nikon I was considering.  Anyway.... I don't want to sound like a camera advertisement. I really can't recommend the Olympus yet cause I haven't used it.

We ordered it and received it this week, but I haven't got a chance to test it out much.  I was really hoping to go out and play with it today but it is raining, and extremely cold. I guess I will practice with it indoors. Most of the baby shots will be indoors anyway.  I'm sure I will be posting a lot more pictures on my blog. That should spice things up a little bit. My posts shouldn't be just a block of text anymore.