michaelwatkins
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On
|
 p.1 #11 · GXR vs. NEX 7 Vs. Fuji XPro1 | |
More generally speaking, when I look at these three cameras and others coming out (like the Pentax K-01) I see a pattern as to what interests me:
A) Open, as opposed to closed
Cameras that are more open simply by virtue of having a short back focal length has meant that often we can adapt other lenses and that idea remains interesting to me. At this point in time I am not keen to buy heavily into any maker's system because it seems too early to entrust that much confidence in one maker of bodies and lenses.
Adapting M mount or other lenses so far has been useful in providing lens portability which has allowed me to be more free to explore different cameras. I hope this becomes a trend over time.
B) Support my lenses well
Early on rather naively I expected any good lens to perform equally well on camera A, B, or C. Over the past several months we've learned a lot about how cameras with short back focal length may not treat all lenses well, especially rangefinder glass, depending on the sensor arrangement. This is a new must-have on the feature check list and definitely for me will slow down adoption of new camera bodies until samples from trustworthy sources show how such lenses fare.
Since my lenses are all manual focus, support also means provide adequate means to achieve reliable focus as rapidly as possible which at this point in time means providing focus peaking/assist and magnification, ideally both.
C) Flexibility in viewfinder arrangement
I did not expect to be a big fan of optional, tiltable, EVFs but thanks to the EVFs on both my NEX and GXR I've come to appreciate the flexibility they offer. Any camera that threatens to displace my GXR that doesn't offer a tilt EVF will have to offer something else in return such as a tilt rear LCD. A tilting viewfinder of either sort is simply so useful that I don't know if I would ever buy another camera that doesn't have one or the other type or both.
I think the ideal camera for me may still be a body with an internal EVF and a tilt rear live view panel. This was my thinking when I placed a pre-order for the NEX-7 early fall 2011, as I was looking for a DSLR replacement and for me the one thing some other cameras can't do that I ask of my DSLR is support hot shoe mounted flash or cabled off camera flash or flash triggers and call me old fashioned but unless working from a tripod, when I have a flash on top of the camera I really want to pull the camera up to my face for focus and support.
Of the three cameras up for discussion, from least attractive to most:
XPro 1: A(1), B(1?), C(-2) - Fujifilm announced a M mount adapter would ship this year, and on paper the camera should perform well with rangefinder glass of all types, but proof is in the pudding. Maybe the camera will in the end out perform in the first two dimensions, but at present how it works with rangefinder glass just isn't known. The viewfinder arrangement in this camera seems the least flexible of all; I'd probably give it only a -1 if Fujifilm had updated the EVF in the hybrid finder.
NEX-7: A(2), B(-2), C(2) - I'm giving the NEX-7 a big downgrade in "support my lenses" because my Zeiss Biogons are not treated very well by the camera's sensor arrangement, but there are of course plenty of lenses that will do well on that camera. If I were to change around my lens selection this would be a camera to consider. Very open, but not open to symmetrical wide angle rangefinder glass. Could be a DSLR replacement though, with the right glass on it.
GXR: A(1), B(2), C(1) - not as open as the NEX but supports M mount lenses exceedingly well and offers a tilt EVF. If one is keen on the optional lensor modules you might rank it higher still as it is a very versatile system.
And what doesn't exist but I wish did:
GXR-II with M Mount-II (Built-in high quality OLED EVF, tilt rear LCD, less display lag, improved buffering, minor ergo tweaks; M Mount-II - 16 megapixel or thereabouts, no AA filter - an evolutionary upgrade): A(1), B(2), C(2)
Incidentally, I'd worried that Pentax would come out with a mirrorless compact to challenge the GXR but the Pentax K-01 seems to be a big fail, at least when compared with my ABC hot button items being considered. With no EVF apparently available, fixed K mount meaning adapting other lenses is out, it comes up as negative, negative, negative: A(-1), B(-1), C(-2).
I think the camera was designed with the Pentax faithful in mind, where NEX and GXR and even Fujifilm's cameras to some degree have been aimed at drawing in users from other camera communities.
Hopefully the Pentax K-01 being so Pentax centric means GXR will continue to be developed around modularity and openness.
|
