The "family life doesn't leave much room for my DSLR" thread.

[deprivedofsleep]

Hello all.

I expect my story will be familiar to a great deal of you. I'm firmly routed in the amateur camp, photography is one of my many hobbies and I'm enthusiastic if not overly gifted.

I already have a modest DSLR kit (D3100, 18-55, 55-200 and a lovely 35 1.8), but as my thread title gives away, we have a 2 yr old son and another baby due in less than a month. These days I'm either too short on time to get any creative photography done or too loaded down with bags to take the Nikon on any family outings.

So when I saw a GF2 with the 14mm 2.5 reduced to £200 I jumped in with both feet.

First impressions are that its fun! I love the way it feels in the hand, and the focus speed is great for off the cuff captures.

Cycling, running and recently climbing are my other interests and I'm hoping to put it's compactness to good use and take it with me.

Anyway this is a great board, already helped me out having read the jpeg tuning threads. Look forward to learning more.

Cheers all

[goldenlight]

Having read your current familly circumstances I can see where your user name came from! Good luck juggling your hobbies around the expanding family! Sounds like the Panasonic is just what you need with all the other paraphonalia you need to cart around with you. Enjoy your photography.

[deprivedofsleep]

It really is a revelation to be honest, I bought it on a whim due to it's low price and to serve as a slightly-better-than-a-pas backup to my SLR.

But, ISO performance aside, I'm really very impressed by the results.

[blue]

You know, you can get an adapter for your Nikon stuff ? The 35mm 1.8 may be worth using as a nice portrait lens.

[BSH]

I love, LOVE your subject title. I used to have hobbies. I had a planted fish aquarium that I took care of and built a stand for. Our last fish finally passed away recently, and there are no more animals, and no fish tanks in the house. I used to take photos for fun, and I have a box full of prints & slides from 'back then'. I've taken scarcely any pictures NOT of family in the past 7 years. Heck, I only bought a digital camera to make family snapshooting easy. Only just now am I starting to tentatively get back into any kind of hobby shooting. Our youngest is 4.

Micro Four Thirds may be ideal for photographers with families. You can't pack your DSLR gear in a diaper bag, but you can the GF2. That's all that needs to be said. :)

[deprivedofsleep]

Originally Posted by blue

You know, you can get an adapter for your Nikon stuff ? The 35mm 1.8 may be worth using as a nice portrait lens.

Cheers for the tip, unfortunately all my Nikon lenses are G variants so no aperture ring on them. Still might give one a try though for shooting wide open.

Originally Posted by BSH

I love, LOVE your subject title. I used to have hobbies. I had a planted fish aquarium that I took care of and built a stand for. Our last fish finally passed away recently, and there are no more animals, and no fish tanks in the house. I used to take photos for fun, and I have a box full of prints & slides from 'back then'. I've taken scarcely any pictures NOT of family in the past 7 years. Heck, I only bought a digital camera to make family snapshooting easy. Only just now am I starting to tentatively get back into any kind of hobby shooting. Our youngest is 4.

Micro Four Thirds may be ideal for photographers with families. You can't pack your DSLR gear in a diaper bag, but you can the GF2. That's all that needs to be said. :)

Yep, 95% of my shots feature my little boy as the subject these days. I'm not complaining, he's very photogenic! But, I miss taking time out to do it for my own sake. Same goes for the myriad of other interests which gather dust these days. Hence why I intend to combine some of them together to maximize my time.

I've even taken to getting up at 5am some days for a couple of hours to myself, means I can get the best of the days light as well. Planning to do some early morning urban photography and see what I can get.

[sprocket87]

Nice thread. I'm indeed in the same boat.

I was really getting into hobby photography around the time I got married 6 years ago. I went from a point-and-shoot to a Panasonic superzoom to a Konica Minolta DSLR to a Nikon DSLR (to another Nikon, and another until I got a D700). But then we had 2 kids, and now we have a third on the way (3 in 3 years, woohoo!).

I was at the point where the idea of getting the camera out of the closet/bags, mounting huge lenses, and messing with all that weight was just too much on top of wrangling the kids. A little over a year ago I picked up a used GF1 + 20mm 1.7 to see if it could be "good enough" for the around the house/walkabout/vacation shots. It was, and then some. It got to the point where I never touched my D700 except for the occasional paid gig.

Since MFT was working so well, I decided to sell my whole Nikon kit, get an OM-D and a handful of compact lenses, and start actually shooting again. It's only been a couple weeks but so far it has been great! I get the manual control of my D700, most of the quality, and sooo much more convenience.

If it weren't for my family I don't think I ever would have considered it. But there's a lot to be said for having this much photographic power in a compact, go-anywhere package. Plus I had enough left over from my Nikon fire sale to pay for all my new goodies PLUS a bunk bed + mattresses for the kiddos... with #3 on the way it's time to consolidate! :)

Don't have any kid samples from my OM-D handy but here's some from the GF1+20mm:

[WT21]

Oh my goodness! This is my life! Haven't even read the thread yet, but thanks for posting and at least writing that title!

[deprivedofsleep]

Originally Posted by sprocket87

Nice thread. I'm indeed in the same boat...

...Don't have any kid samples from my OM-D handy but here's some from the GF1+20mm:

Lovely pics, one of the great things about taking photos of your kids is when you manage to nail all their little personality traits and ideosyncrasies in a single shot.

Edit: In fact, whilst we're sharing - here's one of mine: :)

P1000284 by deprivedofsleep, on Flickr

Please no more though - it's hard enough to resist spending out on the 20mm as it is, I don't want to be swayed any further!
Doesn't help that Panny have a rebate offer on in the UK at the moment....

Originally Posted by WT21

Oh my goodness! This is my life! Haven't even read the thread yet, but thanks for posting and at least writing that title!

Solidarity my brother.

[Bhupinder2002]

Originally Posted by deprivedofsleep

Hello all.

I expect my story will be familiar to a great deal of you. I'm firmly routed in the amateur camp, photography is one of my many hobbies and I'm enthusiastic if not overly gifted.

I already have a modest DSLR kit (D3100, 18-55, 55-200 and a lovely 35 1.8), but as my thread title gives away, we have a 2 yr old son and another baby due in less than a month. These days I'm either too short on time to get any creative photography done or too loaded down with bags to take the Nikon on any family outings.

So when I saw a GF2 with the 14mm 2.5 reduced to £200 I jumped in with both feet.

First impressions are that its fun! I love the way it feels in the hand, and the focus speed is great for off the cuff captures.

Cycling, running and recently climbing are my other interests and I'm hoping to put it's compactness to good use and take it with me.

Anyway this is a great board, already helped me out having read the jpeg tuning threads. Look forward to learning more.

Cheers all

LOl..welcome to the wonderful world of MFT . You can name ur next baby after a MFT camera model..lol

OlyOMD Smith etc .. or Catherine GF3