In a sea of smartphones, the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II with the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 prime stands head and shoulders above the crowd.

This affordable kit is compact enough to accommodate arena regulations for admittance, yet can bring the action close with a fast aperture telephoto.

The kits currently sells for $449 for the camera and $349 for the lens. So for less than $800, I have a powerful, interchangeable lens camera that I can walk through security with, and in all honesty, costs less than my current iPhone.

"T-Shirt Toss" - Warriors vs Nets, Oracle Arena. Photo by Derrick Story.

I'm able to shoot at 180mm effective focal length at f/1.8. How do I do this? I use the Jpeg SuperFine setting, Aperture Priority, and the 2X digital doubler that I set via a function button so I can switch back and forth between 90mm and 180mm. These settings also provide some softening to the background, which is difficult to achieve with a smartphone under these conditions.

"Decked Out for the Game" - Warriors vs Nets, Oracle Arena. Photo by Derrick Story.

If I set the ISO to 1600, I can capture at 1/1000th of a second, wide open, for the play on the floor. This gives me the ability to stop action.

"Dray Gets Rejected" - Warriors vs Nets, Oracle Arena. Photo by Derrick Story.

The E-M10 Mark II has all the other features that I need for fan photography, such as built-in image stabilization, pop-up flash, tilting LCD screen, electronic viewfinder, HD video recording, and good battery life. I can send the images to my iPhone via the Olympus app, so publishing on the spot is easy as well.

"Halftime Show" - Warriors vs Nets, Oracle Arena. Photo by Derrick Story.

Smartphones are handy, but when I want the ability to get close to the action in the arena, plus soften the backgrounds a bit, I want my Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II with the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 prime. For spectator photography, it's a winner.

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