Taylor Swift is a Micro Four Nerd

Billionaire Taylor Swift has overcome an affliction all too common for photographers: gear acquisition syndrome, or GAS. The pop superstar has been spotted out and about with boyfriend Travis Kelce, Super Bowl-winning tight end for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, with an Olympus E-M10 IV camera in hand.

Swift’s affinity for photography isn’t necessarily surprising in and of itself; she has mentioned her enjoyment of shooting photos before, as 43 Rumors reports.

According to Elite Daily, Swift has been potentially using Olympus cameras for about a decade. On the Olympus Camera subreddit, user Foreverbeccatake2 notes, “Yep! She’s used this camera for years and is even known in her fandom for always using the vintage filter on it. You can tell when photos that her friends/other celebrities post were taken on her camera by the filter, which is unique to Olympus cameras!”

However, it is a little surprising that the camera she prefers these days is an entry-level Micro Four Thirds camera from 2020. In a world where Swift could buy any camera she wants, her go-to choice is a $600 Micro Four Thirds camera.

That isn’t to say that there’s anything wrong with Micro Four Thirds as a format — quite the opposite. Micro Four Thirds is awesome, as PetaPixel has said time and again.

The E-M10 IV isn’t bad camera, either. It’s not an OM System OM-1 Mark II, one of the most feature-complete interchangeable lens cameras on the market, but the E-M10 IV can take great photos. It also has the advantage of being compact and lightweight, while offering the flexibility of interchangeable lenses, which are also typically relatively small. For someone always on the go like Swift, having a fun-to-use camera that slips into a small bag is probably pretty handy.

Swift seems to understand something that resonates with so many photographers: The experience of taking photos is just as important, perhaps more important, than using the latest and greatest equipment. A person who could buy any camera she wanted at any given time without a second thought decided, “I like this one.”

Taylor Swift is far from the only celebrity with an affinity for photography. Still, the potential impact of someone like Swift, who has nearly 300 million Instagram followers, being into photography is enormous. There have been plenty of instances where someone much less famous than Swift hypes a camera on social media, leading to sky-high prices and sellouts.

As a Redditor says, OM System may want to take note: “If OM System did a collab with her on a special edition, it would erase all previous financial issues,” writes user mrjoshmatteo.

Some of the people Swift inspires to go out and buy a camera, whether it’s the E-M10 IV or something else, will inevitably be bitten by the photography bug like so many PetaPixel readers. And who knows, some of them may go on to create beautiful, acclaimed art. Others will just love taking photos, becoming part of the larger community, and that’s awesome, too.

Image credits: Header photo created using an image licensed via Depositphotos.