In recent years I've used various Canon DSLRs and it's Canon cameras we have in school. I'm no expert when it comes to cameras so I don't know that much about the various pros and cons of particular models. I've never had the resources to buy Pro equipment so I've made do with more affordable models. To be honest, I'm very much an amateur when it comes to photography.

I have a colleague in school who is something of a camera collector. I suppose it was talking to her about the cameras she owns and uses that inspired me to look on eBay for old film cameras. I'd never owned a Rangefinder and so my first purchase was a 1970s Canonet 28. I enjoyed using it, replaced the light seals and should really have stopped there but I'd seen a couple of other cameras that looked fascinating. One of these was the Yashica Electro 35. After doing a bit of research I decided to bid on a black GTN, one of the later models which has a hot shoe. I was also keen to make sure that the seller provided an alternative battery to the now defunct original. In the end I paid £40 for mine and have been using it regularly ever since.

It's a brilliant street shooter. The f1.7 lens is fast and sharp. It's almost all auto with very little to get in the way. I select an appropriate aperture and set the focus to 10 feet. Most of the time I don't have time to use the big rangefinder window to check the focus. It's simply a matter of judging my distance form  the subject, raising the camera to my eye and clicking the silent shutter, hoping for the best. I love the sense of anticipation, waiting for the prints to be developed, wondering which of the photographs I think I've taken have worked.  For me, there's nothing quite like the thrill of shooting on the street. My favourite photographers are those American heroes of street photography from the seventies: Garry Winogrand and Joel Meyerowitz. As Meyerowitz describes so perfectly:

I'll never be able to afford a Leica M6, or even a Contax G2. I might one day treat myself to a Konika Hexar. Until then my beloved Yashica Electro 35 GTN will always be the camera I reach for when I feel the urge to head out into the crowd.

These wish-list specs  led me away from a traditional  DSLR into the realms of Compact System Cameras (CSC). Many of these were too slow, or had stuttering Electronic Viewfinders (EVF). Or, were simply too expensive for my budget.

After some research I bought and Olympus OMD EM5 with simply the best kit lens in the market at the time.

The Oly is packed with features, but for me the best thing is the ability to select manual and have the benefit of the outstanding ‘What You See Is What You Get’ (WYSIWYG) EVF showing me how the choices I made impacted on the final exposure prior to shooting. If you really crave creative control, then this is really something to look at.

Ninety percent of the time, the Oly with its kit lens suits me fine, but for the other 10 percent?

Back in the 1970’s when David Bailey was the Olympus guy, the OM1 and OM2 were cameras to dream about. Partly this was their small  size; something the new Oly cameras have adopted, but for many it was the superb  Zuiko lenses.

One of the massive advantages of the smaller CSC cameras is that, with an inexpensive adaptor, you can fit older ‘classic’ lenses. As I had a 50mm f1.8 Zuiko lens, it was an obvious choice for use on the new body.

A disadvantage of smaller sensors is that they create more depth of field. It’s really quite hard to separate the plane of focus from it’s surroundings.  The Micro four thirds sensor used by Olympus is a case in point. In the camera, it is very difficult with the kit lens to obtain any real sense of differential focussing.  However, the addition of my ‘classic’ 50mm to the OMD  body means that I can achieve something that would normally cost a substantial sum.

This does mean that I actually have to adjust the camera settings (including focus) manually, but again the WYSIWYG  EVF is very useful.

The image stabilisation within the camera helps as well. In my Nikon, the sensor is simply stuck onto the back of the camera. In the Oly, the sensor floats in a magnetic  field, and constantly adjusts to movement I make. Shooting at F1.8 usually means high shutter speeds, but the combination of a large aperture and the image stabilisation means that I can reduce the ISO to 100, and even in poor lighting conditions safely hand-hold the camera for static subjects.

Is it perfect? Of course not. Even within Olympus, there have been great technological advances since the introduction of the model I use, and other manufacturers have pushed the boundaries in other ways.

For me, though, it allows me to use my knowledge and skill to produce the type of photographs which have a distinctive style; a style which cannot easily be copied.

This post originally appeared on Ian's fantastic photography blog. Check it out!