I've been shooting a Nikon Z8 for the past several years, living closer to Yellowstone area with a lot of opportunities for wildlife. Now I've moved back to the desert and am doing quite a lot more hiking or travel where photography is secondary. I don't want to throw out wildlife forever but am having a hard time justifying owning a big, expensive lens that I never bring. I'm barely ever bringing even the Z8 + 24-120 now.
Long story short, I'm looking to downsize dramatically to something that'll fit in a big backpack hip-belt pocket. My can't-live-withouts are decent IBIS, very compact body, at least one good pancake, at least one small wide angle. Ideally, I'd also get weather sealing and image quality better than say the 16MP m4/3 camera generation.
I tired a Canon Powershot V1 and worried it wasn't dust/sand proof enough to survive outdoors, plus no filters. I bought a Fuji X-M5 and am not getting along with it. The controls are really small and fiddly, I'm not wild about Fuji menus, and no IBIS.
What are some other good options? I'm willing to look back a few years for the right camera. So far my best ideas are...
- X-E5: new 13-33 is compact and useful zoom, slightly bigger body, no weather seal, still Fuji menus/controls
- OM-3: computer photography, weather-sealed, smallest telephotos by far, much bigger body with viewfinder hump, no compact and wide zoom for m4/3, worst sensor
- A7Cii: best image, best AF, very limited small autofocus lens choices, probably just leads me to buying big lenses
Is there something I'm not thinking of? m4/3 seems like the thing, but where are the rangefinder-style, no hump bodies?
May 29, 2026 at 05:08 PM
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