I used to go around without a camera, without taking photos during travels or events. It wasn't too long before I realised that I will have a difficult time recalling these precious memories if I do not capture these events.
The first time I brought a dedicated compact camera was in 2010 when I went to Hue, Vietnam as part of my school's exchange program. I brought along a Samsung S760 camera that ran on 2 AA batteries. It was a very fun trip where we went over to visit the students there, before they subsequently came over to visit us in Singapore. Whilst small and fairly simple, the image quality beat whatever phone cameras we had back then - I was probably using a Nokia E63 or something similar.
On the few family and sailing trips before this, my parents or my brother would be the ones with the camera (my brother had a Nikon D3100 and was in his school's photography club). The very few photos I took with my phone camera back then were blurry, and often not backed up.
I would next pick up a SJ4000 and use it on our small euro-trip in 2014. GoPro was the leader in action cameras at the time, but it was out of reach for a student like myself. Trawling through the the interwebs, I found a tech blogger called Techmoan, and began learning about Chinese alternatives to the GoPro. I took a chance and bought it off some dubious website - there were no major online retailers like Shopee/Lazada, and it wasn't so convenient shipping from Taobao back then. Thankfully the low-valued package arrived, and I brought it out for use on our tour. Till today, I have not yet reviewed much of the footage as the convenience of carrying it around and pressing record meant that there was just too much content to sit down and run through at home after the trip. It is far easier and much faster to review stills compared to videos.
In 2014, I used my family's Nikon P310 on my trip to Taiwan for a university exchange, and then on a trip to South Vietnam with my army friend. It was very easy to use, and I recall being amazed at some of the images it could capture. The image quality and color representation was much better than anything I used before.
2015 was the year I bought my first camera, a Sony RX100 Mark 1. It was a used copy, proudly Made in Japan. I bought it off someone from Carousell for $300. I don't pixel peep, and didn't really notice that much of a difference with that and the Nikon P310. There were many art styles and picture effects available on the RX100 - features like monochrome, single color selection, miniature effect - all of these were fun to play with. Both cameras equally brought joy to me.
It was during my university summer exchange in Japan 2016 where I felt a wave of sentiment - where if I do not capture images now, I will not be able to recall them in the future. I over-did myself and brought a camera backpack (a knock off Lowepro Photo Hatchback) loaded with my brother's Nikon D3100, the Sony RX100 M1, and the SJ4000. Carrying the RX100 around, I recall one incident where a local guy also had a similar camera and was trying to ask me more about mine. He looked happy and proud that foreigners were using these Japanese products. It was too many cameras for me to carry though. I found that by the time I am off the subway and at my destination, I am already exhausted and sweaty from carrying all the gear. The RX100 proved itself to be a very portable and lightweight solution for both photos and videos, in both the day and at night. I brought it around on the longer trips out of town, for example along the Shimanami Kaido Cycling route and to Ōkunoshima Island. Together with yet another knock-off Gorilla-Pod, I took many photos that I am quite happy with with this small compact 1 inch sensor camera.
I continued using the RX100 all the way from 2015 through till 2019-2020 where I had a bigger trip. Somewhere along the way (probably in 2017 during at trip to Taipei at Yehliu where I got caught in the rain), the RX100 started developing fungus that progressively became more visible. I had never bothered with a dry cabinet nor felt the need to, but now the photos were increasingly unusable.
Post 2020, I switched to a phone + DJI osmo action 1 combination. Sometimes moments are so fleeting that it is just more convenient to use your phone camera. As they say, the best camera is the one you have on you. The phone practically lives on my hands as a navigation and messaging device, so it naturally is the best readily available camera. The upgrade from a Xiaomi Note 9 Pro to a used Samsung Galaxy S20FE ($400 on carousell) in 2022 made a big difference in the image quality. This further decreased the need to use a dedicated camera.
2022 was also the year where I added a drone to the mix. I started with a used DJI Mini SE 1 purchased for $375 on Carousell, and first took it to North Vietnam. At <250 grams for just the device, it is very portable and brought a new perspective to photography.
Another big trip we did in 2024 was to Central Asia, where we went with the Phone + DJI Osmo Action 3 + DJI Mini SE 1. Flying through the sand dunes of Xinjiang with the DJI brought about some gimbal failures as sand entered the device. I still managed to salvage it somewhat to make a respectable short video of the trip. Editing the video whilst on the trip - on a recovery day after I had a severe bout of gastroenteritis, it sparked again a new desire to capture more photos.
When we did a trip to Maldives later on in 2024, I had with me a RX100 Mark V and a DJI Osmo Action 3. The RX100 M5 was noticeable step up from its predecessor, and I can understand the seemingly exponential price increase across the different iterations. It was still not satisfactory in capturing the starry sky, and otherwise offered limited additional utility than a phone camera above ground.
Late 2024-early 2025, I made a decision to enter into the interchangeable lens camera scene, starting with the micro-4/3 system. I wanted a compact kit and chose to start with a used Olympus E-M1 Mark II with the 12-40mm f2.8 PRO lens. This set was both decently lightweight and weather resistant. I added a 75-300mm lens (EFL 150-600mm) for wildlife. I had previously dabbled abit with micro 4/3, with the Panasonic Lumix GX 1 with the 14-42mm power zoom lens and a 45-150mm lens. This was an even more lightweight kit, but did not offer much in terms of dynamic range and had no IBIS, not unexpected given its age.
Bringing along the Olympus E-M1 M2 with the 12-40mm and 75-300mm lenses on a trip to Bali with my parents, I found it a joy to use, and the images looked amazing straight out of camera (SOOC). Since then, I have made several changes to my micro-4/3 kit which I will detail below.
Other notable additions to my kit is the DJI Avata 2 FPV drone, and the OM System TG-7 weather resistant compact camera.
This is not an inexpensive hobby to maintain, but I value experiences and memories. Having the tools to help preserve some of these is priceless to me.
Micro-4/3
Olympus OM-1 camera body x 2
8-25mm f4 PRO
12-100mm f4 PRO
14-150mm f/4-5.6 ii
40-150mm f2.8 PRO
6mm f2.0 Laowa
9mm f1.7 Panasonic Leica
12mm / 25mm / 45mm f1.2 PRO - aka "The Holy Trinity"
20mm f1.4 PRO
25mm f1.4 Panasonic Leica
45mm f1.7
60mm f2.8 Macro
300mm f4 PRO
MC-14 1.4x teleconverter
Compact
RX100 M1
OM System TG-7
Drones
DJI Mini 4 Pro
DJI Avata 2 FPV
Others
DJI Osmo Pocket 3
DJI Osmo Action 1 and 3
Samsung S24 base phone camera
Camera Bags
Shimoda V2 30L (knock-off)
Lowepro Flipside Trek 350
Lowepro Passport Sling II
Uniqlo Messenger with foam insert