The best camera is the one you've got with you... or a mirrorless convert

I really hate that my new phone doesn't have a keyboard. I've been using phones with keyboards on them for quite some time and I'm kinda annoyed that the whims of the marketplace have meant that nobody buys a keyboarded phone anymore. On the bright side, my phone now has a decently good camera, maybe as good as the previous generation of iPhone cameras. It's pretty good and it really demonstrates why people aren't buying compact cameras anymore. Why carry a camera that's only mildly better than your phone's camera when your phone is there in your pocket?

Having hiked all sorts of places with my RB67, I'm not exactly the greatest advocate for small camera gear. A big sensor, a fast lens, a long lens... they are all kinda handy to have. All things considered, the higher-resolution image that will stand up to being blown up huge is going to make you more money on Getty than a low-res image that sells for a buck.

Life is a balancing act, however. I love my RB67 and the pictures I can get out of it, but I also love my E-P3 and the pancake lens. As it turns out, the E-P3 and 20mm f/1.7 Panasonic pancake lens represents a wickedly good amount of quality in a small package... and I'm usually quite content with the fixed focal length.

Enter one of my coworkers. She loves photography but hasn't spent much time with it. She had a full Canon dSLR setup with a bunch of lenses. And it was frustrating for her because she didn't actually have it out when she wanted to take a picture and therefore, she didn't use it too much.

After a while, a bunch of conversations, and some thinking on her part, she decided to ditch all of her Canon gear and get the Fuji mirrorless system and enough lenses to replace her existing lenses.

Her Fuji is still fairly large. It's got the hump for a electronic viewfinder and she didn't end up with pancake lenses. But it's just that nice degree of smaller such that she finds herself carrying it with her a LOT more often and thus I'm seeing her photograph much more often.

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Of course.. the plan to liquidate the Canon setup didn't work out as well as it was supposed to.

I should also note that I've never actually gotten rid of any camera gear. Then again, I'm actually really slow to purchase new gear.