On my recent trip to the U.K. and Norway I carried with me two photographic tools; my trusty Olympus OMD E-M5 II and my iPhone 7 Plus. My primary reason for bringing a dedicated camera was to capture the incredible vistas I was sure to encounter in the Norwegian fjords with some consideration for general travel photography for time spent in the U.K. I even packed my 12–50mm lens so I would not miss out on any wide-angle shots that landscape photographers love so much. So that was my plan…use the Olympus for the serious shots and the iPhone for candid “on-the-go” photos…except that’s not how things worked out.
First off, I totally love my Olympus OMD E-M5 II. I really do. The image quality this camera can produce can be amazing….with the right lens. And this leads me to the crux of the problem. While on this trip it became quite obvious that my 12–50mm lens was just not up to the task of dealing with some of the varied lighting conditions I encountered during the trip. It’s fine in bright sunlight but anything else resulted in mushy photos forcing me to use a faster (but less wide) 14–150mm or *gasp* my Nikon 28mm / lens turbo combination along with manual focus. Not good.
