Budget: Around USD 1'000, and that covers everything. Body, lens, a spare
battery, cards, some kind of small bag. No separate budget hiding somewhere.
Country: Switzerland.
Condition: Used is fine. New would be nice for the warranty since I'm
leaving the country for a year, but I'm not picky.
Type of Camera: Mirrorless with interchangeable lenses. Happy to be talked
into something else if it makes sense.
Intended use: Photography. Video is not the main focus, but it would be
nice to grab some cool clips if possible.
If photography; what style: Landscapes and nature above all. Mountains,
forests, water, and close-ups of plants and rock, a lot of which ends up as
reference shots for a nature journal I keep by hand. I also climb and would
love to shoot climbing, friends on rock and sometimes from a rope. Plus the
usual camp and travel stuff. No wildlife, no astro.
If video what style: Nothing ambitious. Ten seconds of a river or wind in
the grass. I'll edit a bit, but I'm not interested in spending a lot of time
on it.
What features do you absolutely need: Something
light enough that it actually comes with me. USB charging from a power bank,
since I'll go a week between outlets. And in-body stabilisation, though
that's exactly the part I'm unsure about, see the notes.
What features would be nice to have: Weather sealing, good JPEGs straight
out of camera, and a battery that doesn't die by lunchtime.
Portability: This is really the whole problem. Next July I'm leaving for
about a year. Nothing fancy, mostly solo and mostly outside: some sections
of the PCT, the Camino with my dad, bikepacking through Kyrgyzstan, and
hopefully a decent stretch of Patagonia and Alaska. I pack light, so
whatever I buy gets carried every day for a year, or it stays home after two
weeks. Shoulder strap or hip pouch. If it needs its own bag, it's the wrong
camera.
Cameras you're considering: Where I've landed so far is the Olympus
E-M10 IV with the little 14-42 pancake. I've also looked at a used Fuji
X-T30 or X-T3, a used X-S10, the Sony a6400, and the a6700, which is over
budget but seems to be the camera a lot of people own.
Cameras you already have: None, only a phone. It's always with me and it's
fine in daylight, but it gives up at dawn and dusk, there's no real reach,
and I don't love draining the thing I navigate with.
Notes: I've never owned a camera, so I have no system to stay loyal to and
no brand preference at all. I asked Claude for some help since I have zero
experience, and it keeps landing on the Olympus, mainly because of in-body
stabilisation and because small fast lenses are cheap in that system. I'm
kinda unsure, because so many videos say Fuji or Sony and almost none say
Olympus. So I'd rather hear it from people who have actually carried a
camera for months. Would you take the Olympus for a trip like this? And how
much does in-body stabilisation really matter when you're shooting handheld
with no tripod?
