Second Time Around – Olympus E-M5 Mark III
THE DAYS OF having to hunt around to find good quality used camera gear are, thankfully, long gone, and the second-hand market is thriving and is packed with bargains that can make upgrading kit affordable at a time when everyone is watching their outgoings.
Trailblazing companies such as MPB have helped to simplify and safeguard the entire process, by taking a fresh approach that has made trading up gear strikingly straightforward. The process whereby you once had no alternative but to scour the small ads or head online to an auction site to buy used kit that came with no guarantee and the risk of scammers has thankfully evolved, and you can now hit the MPB website to browse the substantial stock that’s held, check through images of the actual kit you’re looking to purchase and buy in the knowledge that the product you’re acquiring has been checked over and comes with a six-month warranty.
It’s also super-easy to trade in kit you might no longer be using, giving you the opportunity to raise money towards the upgrades your business needs. It’s good for your pocket, brilliant for the environment and it’s a whole new way of working that more and more professionals are embracing in these cash-conscious days.
We’re celebrating this approach by working with MPB to offer readers of Professional Photo the opportunity to borrow gear from their fully stocked warehouse that they might be looking to try out. It’s a chance to potentially trial a new format, a different system, an upgrade on your current camera model or to take a dream lens you might have always wanted to try out on a live assignment. It’s atantalising offer, and we’ve already had a great response, so feel free to get in touch if you want to be a part of it all.
The Experience
Charlie already had a couple of Go-Pro action cameras, which are perfect for many skydiving tasks, and these can work well if the aim is simply to film someone having the experience of a tandem jump, which the participant then pays an additional fee for. However, as he’s been getting more involved, the airfields he’s been working with have requested he use a camera that can offer higher resolution results, and so an upgrade was clearly required.
“I asked some of the other skydiving photographers what they were working with,” says Charlie, “and everyone seemed to be using with something different, ranging from advanced interchangeable-lens compacts through to DSLRs. “When I looked further, however, it was obvious that mirrorless was the way to go, since these were much smaller and lighter than their DSLR counterparts. I borrowed a Panasonic GH5, but this was still too bulky, and then someone suggested that a MFT camera such as the E-M5 Mark III might be perfect, since it’s so compact. I needed a lens to pair it with, and the Panasonic 7-14mm looked to fit the bill, since this was also really light and compact.”
