I was asked to photograph an installation for my sister-in-law today. I asked whether she wanted film or digital, and was asked to shot both. For film, I took the OM-4 with the 50m f/1.8, Winder 1, flash bracket holding 4-C batteries to charge the T-32 flash. For digital, I took the E-510, 14-42 zoom and FL-36. I also used an old Sunpak flash bracket and used the Sync cable on the 510.
The film outfit was about 3-times the weight of the digital. Certainly a lot of the difference was the 4-C cells. In fact, the film set-up used a total of 14 batteries (4-AA's in the winder, 4 more AA's in the flash, 4-C's in the bracket and 2 watch batteries in the meter of the camera), while the digital outfit used only 2 (1 CRV3 in the flash and 1 in the camera).
The T-32, no surprise, charged much faster than the FL-36, but between switching cameras to get the same shot with both, I never found myself waiting for the FL-36 to charge. I even bracked shots, shooting the same at F/11 and F/5.6 to ensure the right exposure and best depth of field, an ddidn't have to wait for the FL.
I must also say, I've been shooting the E-510 for a while now, and I found it has somewhat spoiled me. I had to consciencely think about focusing the OM-4, something that I've been doing for years.
Not knowing what shots my sister-in-law wanted, I took my tripod. I was glad I had it. I put the OM-4 on the tripod, was I ever glad to not have all that weight hanging around my neck.