Iceland Adventure calling! – Professional Photo Magazine

Travel Light, Travel Right

The way I pack gear for photo adventures has changed dramatically over the years. I remember on my first trip to Norway, I packed four cameras, every lens I owned and, more or less, the kitchen sink. Over the years I’ve learned that travelling lighter is always the best option, since too much heavy gear gets in the way and just slows you down.

This approach is why I gravitated to the OM System brand. For my Iceland adventure I packed the flagship OM-1, a lightweight camera that comes with pro-spec features such as dual SD cards and a stacked sensor. It also happens to be one of the best weather-sealed cameras on the market, perfect for the harsh conditions of ice and snow that occurred during my adventure.

Backing up the OM-1 was my OM-5, an absolutely tiny mirrorless body that tips the scales at just 414g. The OM-5 was perfect for my time exploring Reykjavik, and I even chose to leave the camera bag at my hotel as the OM-5 and a 12-40mm lens fitted neatly in the pocket of my winter jacket. The OM cameras both offer a High-Res mode, which enabled me to capture 50MP images while handholding the camera, or 80MP ones when using the tripod. This is important, as a lot of my imagery ends up being sent to stock sites, which demand higher resolutions to guarantee quality and allow for the image to be used at large scale if required.

When it came to lenses, I relied mostly on my two workhorse optics; the 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO – which gives a 24-80mm focal length thanks to the 2x crop factor and is an excellent walkaround optic – and my favourite lens, the 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO, which is one of the sharpest optics I’ve ever used, and enables me to capture some compressed perspective landscapes thanks to its 80-300mm equivalent focal length.

Like the cameras, both Zuiko lenses are weather sealed, so I had absolutely no qualms about shooting in the snow or under the spray from the waterfalls. What’s more, the OM System set-up enabled me to switch effortlessly from stills to movie shooting. The combination of the OM-1’s slow motion mode and the fantastic 5-axis IBIS system meant I could capture shots on the move without the need for a heavy gimbal.