My daughter is looking for a smaller compact system for travel and hiking. Currently she shoots with a Canon 20D and a few lens ranging Wide angle to shrt telephoto. She would like the same flexibility in changing lens, but wants to reduce both the bulk and weight.
I'd like to hear your suggestions on both cameras and lens.
Fuji X-mount, Olympus OM-D or EPL5/EPM2, and the NEX Sony cameras will be at the top of the heap. Lots of variations amongst those three brands, but all are excellent cameras with slightly different pros/cons.
m43 (Olympus/Panasonic) or NEX (Sony) are going to be your best options. The general trade off is NEX bodies are slightly smaller but the lenses a bit larger and heavier than the m43 options. I'm guessing she is going to be doing mostly slow zooms and perhaps a single prime for low light/shallow DoF. m43 has the most options lens wise by far, but the NEX lens line-up does tick the major points even if it doesn't have as many choices as m43.
I'm partial to Fujifilm, with an X100 and X-Pro 1, but there's lots of alternatives.
Jim
Jim, I have the X100 and love it...but my daughter needs a couple zooms that will span wide angle to light telephoto.
As far as budget goes...it's coming out of my pocket as a gift to her for her travels coming up this summer. I'd say under $1,500 for the camera and lens.
kwalsh wrote:
m43 (Olympus/Panasonic) or NEX (Sony) are going to be your best options. The general trade off is NEX bodies are slightly smaller but the lenses a bit larger and heavier than the m43 options. I'm guessing she is going to be doing mostly slow zooms and perhaps a single prime for low light/shallow DoF. m43 has the most options lens wise by far, but the NEX lens line-up does tick the major points even if it doesn't have as many choices as m43.
Ken
Between the m43 and NEX system, which have the better "consumer grade" zoom lens. She is not yet ready for the 2.8 zooms or 1.4 primes.
chez wrote:
Between the m43 and NEX system, which have the better "consumer grade" zoom lens. She is not yet ready for the 2.8 zooms or 1.4 primes.
µ4/3 has more selection. NEX just has an expensive ultrawide zoom (10-18mm), 2 normal zooms (one collapsible for tiny size), one big long zoom, and a few giant 18-200mm zooms. µ4/3 has more options in each range.
if you think she will want ultrawide or long telephoto i would definitely choose µ4/3. the oly 9-18mm is particularly attractive. it's tiny, reasonably priced, and performs very nicely. if you think she could get by with just a single normal zoom and maybe pick up a more specialized prime at the long or short end i would choose a NEX-6 with 16-50mm collapsible zoom for compact size and iq or the fuji xe-1 with zoom for best iq.
There is a NEX-6 kit for sale now including the 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 and 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3. Both lenses have image stabilization. It runs $1146 new from online retailers. I only just received the NEX-6 and 16-50 and haven't used the kit lens enough yet to comment on optical performance, but it makes for a very compact combo with DX sensor.
Unfortunately, getting wider costs more monetarily with Sony, and going longer costs more in terms of bulk/weight. That's where the advantages of the mFT format kick in. Last time I used mFT was with the GH1. I was not enamoured with it at the time, but the system has come a long way since then.
chez wrote:
Between the m43 and NEX system, which have the better "consumer grade" zoom lens. She is not yet ready for the 2.8 zooms or 1.4 primes.
Probably m43. You have far more lens choices of all types with m43. Both Olympus and Panasonic make a variety of "consumer grade" zooms that are excellent performers for the price and very compact and lightweight. The NEX consumer zoom is certainly not bad at all, just a bit bigger and heavier. NEX has been very slow to roll out lenses, but at this point they aren't really missing much. On the m43 side you have multiple choices of all lens types.
One thing with m43 is to stick to the newer bodies. The older bodies that can be found very inexpensively have compromised low light performance, the NEX bodies will have significantly better sensors than these older m43 bodies. The newer m43 bodies (E-M5, E-PM2, E-PL5, G5, GH3) all have excellent sensors that come as close to NEX performance as they can given the slightly smaller sensor. Not surprising as it appears that these m43 sensors were made by Sony or else are a very similar design and process.
I'm not sure price-wise what you are looking for in a body, but if she still wants a good VF with a 20D like form factor but smaller and lighter the E-M5 or G5 are both good choices. The G5 is getting some great pricing these days, recently you could pickup a G5/14-42/45-150 kit for $500 on Amazon. The E-M5 is a more feature rich camera with a slightly better sensor and IBIS which can be nice if you shoot primes later on (the Panasonic zooms do have OIS, but none of the primes do).
I agree with Ken on pretty much every point. The NEX system is growing, but still doesn't have nearly the lens selection that micro 4/3 does. The nicest thing about m4/3 right now is that you can do a full range with consumer grade lenses that are decent, and you can also do a full range with pro-grade lenses as well. There are several very good primes at the $500 mark and below (14/2.5, 17/1.8, 20/1.7, 25/1.4, 45/1.8, 60/2.8 macro) and several more expensive, but very good primes as well (12/2, CV 17.5/0.95, CV 25/0.95, Oly 75/1.8), two very good ultra wide zooms, two f/2.8 high end zooms, and more high end gear coming (43mm f/1.2 and 150mm f/2.8 from Panasonic...some f/2.8 zooms from Olympus).
On the consumer side, the Panasonic 14-45 OIS (not the 14-42) is really outstanding, and the Panny 45-175 and the Olympus 40-150 are both quite nice consumer-grade telezooms...much sharper than consumer grade telephotos I've used for DSLRs.
Grabbing the Oly 9-18, Panasonic 20/1.7, Oly 45/1.8 and one of the consumer telezooms is a relatively inexpensive and quite capable little kit. Very small too.
Best kit for $1,500...I'd probably choose a Panasonic G5 with 14-42 kit zoom (not quite as good as the 14-45, but the kit is $500 right now at Amazon...same price as body only most places), Panasonic 45-150mm ($270) and either the Olympus 9-18 ($600 at B&H until tomorrow) or both the 20mm f/1.7 and Oly 45/1.8 ($350 and $400 respectively).
That gives you a pretty flexible kit for either $1,370 (with all zooms) or $1,520 with dropping the UWA and gaining the 2 primes. As much as I love UWA, I'd get the two primes if going for the most flexible and capable kit...an ultra-wide can always be purchased later.
Sub out the E-PL5 for the G5 if she doesn't need a viewfinder and wants the smaller package with IBIS. You'll add $100 with the Oly 14-42 over the G5 kit right now.
Jman13 wrote:
Best kit for $1,500...I'd probably choose a Panasonic G5 with 14-42 kit zoom (not quite as good as the 14-45, but the kit is $500 right now at Amazon...same price as body only most places), Panasonic 45-150mm ($270) and either the Olympus 9-18 ($600 at B&H until tomorrow) or both the 20mm f/1.7 and Oly 45/1.8 ($350 and $400 respectively).
You can get $200 off the 45-150 from Amazon when bought with the G5/14-42 kit which makes Jordan's kit even cheaper. Deal good for a few more days I think:
So for the best compact system with decent image quality I should stick with a 4/3 system? What are my choices in 4/3 in the 4/3 system if I want a viewfinder?
With viewfinder and low-ish price, you're looking at a Panasonic G5. You can step up to an OM-D or a GH3, but those will add a few hundred dollars on to your price tag.
The G5 should have essentially identical image quality to her 20D with regards to noise, color and dynamic range, though with 16MP resolution vs 8. Stepping up to the OM-D or GH3 will net you about an extra full stop of dynamic range and a little better noise control.
Another option is picking up a Panasonic GX1 (same sensor as G5, though the G5 is tweaked a little), which is going for surprisingly cheap, then adding the LVF-2 viewfinder accessory, which will allow you to have a VERY small body when wanted, and add a viewfinder when you want that (at the expense of the hotshoe). The GX1 has been massively discounted recently ($319 body only or $449 with kit zoom), plus $190 for the viewfinder. If she wants a viewfinder most of the time, though, the G5 is the better buy.
. It was on sale clearing for incoming (rumored) GX2.