March 31, 2026

What’s in my camera bag – Miel van Hutten

Maurício and Hugo requested me to write an article about the Olympus (OM System) gear I use, after I subscribed to ‘Olympus Passion’ and left a comment on an article.

Let me introduce myself first. I am a retired civil engineer, and the passion for photography was passed on to me at a young age by my father and grandfather.

Beginning with a simple Agfa Clack camera, I gradually stepped up to more advanced equipment, such as Canon, Yashica, Rolleicord, Rollei 35S, Minolta XE-1 and Olympus FTL.

At a later age, earning enough funds from my professional job, I could even afford Hasselblad gear, which I still own and unfortunately have not used for a long time.

When analogue photography faded away, I stepped into the digital arena.

It started with Olympus IS 1000, followed by Olympus E-30, Olympus E-3, and Leica D-Lux4.

Olympus, being famous for its fantastic quality of lenses (and known as fabricator of medical microscopic equipment), I started investing in the Four Thirds Zuiko series lenses. The backpack became quite heavy, containing amongst others the following lenses:

Zuiko Digital ED 50mm f2,0 macro;
Zuiko Digital ED 12-60mm f2,8-4,0 SWD;
Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm f4,0;
Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm f2,8-3,5;

The Olympus E-3 was later traded in for the Olympus OM-D E-M1.

It is very sad that all this perfectly working photographic equipment has hardly any value anymore these days, and it seems nobody is interested in this digital camera gear.

I submitted all this to the OM System European HQ in Germany after they started a trading in action; sadly, it was returned to me with the remark that OM System was not interested as the equipment was too heavily used. Of course, I have another opinion.

The Micro Four Thirds Olympus gear is in the other backpack and consists of the great Olympus PEN-F and the OM System OM-3 with the following lenses:

M. Zuiko Digital 17mm, 1:1,8
Lumix Leica DG Summilux 12mm 1:1.4 ASPH
M.Zuiko Digital 25mm 1:1.2 PRO
OM System M.Zuiko Digital 45mm 1:1.2 PRO
M.Zuiko Digital 75mm 1:1.8
M.Zuiko Digital 40-150mm 1:4 PRO

Which lenses are my favourites? That is difficult to say, but these belong to the top three:

Zuiko Digital ED 50mm f2,0 macro (can still be used on the Micro Four Thirds cameras with the Four Third Adapter MMF-3);
OM System M.Zuiko Digital 45mm 1:1.2 PRO
M.Zuiko Digital 75mm 1:1.8

Recently, I purchased flash gear from Godox, and I am familiarising myself using these gadgets for my photography. I am very pleased with the build quality, and the pricing is very competitive. The Godox equipment in my M.Zuiko backpack consists of:

Godox V480 O;
Godox iT30 Pro O;
Godox TR O;
Godox X3Pro O.

My favourite photography subjects are landscape photography, travel photography, street photography, technical subjects (a spin-off from my profession as a civil engineer), and, not to forget, since I am a grandfather, our two grandsons.

From a young age, my father taught me to develop and print my own pictures, although restricted to black and white photography. In our attic, there is still all the dark room equipment available, and I plan to load films (which have been waiting for a long time in the refrigerator!) in my Rollei 35S and Hasselblad 500 CM and start making pictures the old way. I would then develop the films and subsequently scan the negatives. Getting the enlarger out of the box and setting it up together with the developing trays is too much of a hassle, besides, I do not have room enough for a complete dark room as before. When we were stationed in Nigeria for my assignment, I brought the dark room with me and set it up there. Operating a dark room in the tropics was an interesting experience, but that is another story.

I do not use any social media, apart from Flickr. Here are a few links to some of my photo albums on Flickr: