Looking for a new camera system

yaeld

Regular
Location
Monte Vista, CO
Name
Yael DeFaye
I currently have a Nikon gear and hopefully I could sell it for $1300. With that money my plan is to buy a new mirrorless system camera, the question is witch one?

I shoot primary landscape, nature, family shot, low light and some times portrait.You can check my website: Yael's Stuff | photography, high tech and stuff… mainly anything there is to know bout me.

For me, I see 2 options, m43 or NEX.

The camera I would be looking for needs to have the following
  • flash hot shoe
  • dual control
  • viewfinder
  • 1/250 flash sync
  • large variety of lens
  • good in low light (not that much noise)
  • grip
  • OLED touch screen
  • good menu interface
  • good battery life
  • fast focus

From that list, I have found either the Olympus OM-D EM5 or the Sony NEX 7.
The Olympus comes with the 12-50 which seems to be a perfect walk around lens and it can do close up up to 1:3. Though I heard the menus are pretty bad compare to other manufacturer. I'm worried about their menu and about the 4/3 ratio, it seems to me you have to do lots of planning compose your frame if you want to get all the details you want in a print.
The Sony NEX, looks great but doesn't have that much lens selection as m43, though it's improving.

Sadly, I'm 3 hours away for the closest store where I could try those cameras, I'm requesting your help to help me figure which camera could be better and if my worries about the m4/3 and the EM5 are valid or not.

If you know of any other system that would be great, please list them and tell why you think they are good.
Thank you,
Yael
 
While both are very good cameras, if I had to choose between them, I'd go for the Olympus any day, due to its weather sealing, in body image stabilization (so it doesn't matter which lens you use, it's always stabilized), jpeg engine, and lots of great lenses available. I don't think the menus are all that important once you've set up the camera the way you want to - and with the Olympus there's a lot of setting-up possible.

I'm not really sure what you mean with your worries about the 4/3 ratio and its relation to the planning that's required to compose your frame for the details you want. If it's solely about which aspect ratio you prefer, I'm sure you can set the Olympus to a 3:2 ratio if you prefer - but I personally wouldn't want to throw away part of the image before I even shot it. If you're worried about the amount of detail that's rendered by the camera: first of all, I think 16mp is more than enough for the vast, vast majority of user cases - including large prints (unless you intend to view them with your nose 6 inches from the paper, which isn't how large prints are usually viewed). Secondly, the NEX 7 requires some seriously good lenses to make optimum use of its 24mp sensor - I believe several of the Sony NEX lenses aren't quite sharp enough to do that. So with those lenses, you won't really be getting the full 24mp of detail.

The new Panasonic GX7 seems to come close to what you desire (in terms of features, it's a bit of a mash-up between the Olympus and the Sony, actually!). The GH3 is very capable but a good bit larger than the Olympus. I don't think Samsung's NX series has a touchscreen, but otherwise they're great cameras. Fuji's X series cameras are great, but aren't renowned for their fast focus, nor do they have touch screen.
 
Thanks!
I'm not interested in the GH3, to bulky for me. The GX7 looks interesting but with the amount of money I have I won't be able to get the 12-50 from Olympus. Weather sealing is a great feature as well as the in body stabilization!
Regarding the 4/3 ratio, my issue is if I compose my picture correlty and them I want to print it, there is no print (to my knowledge) that has a 4/3 as well, meaning I will have to crop the picture I compose. Does that make more sense?

I'm currently looking into the Fuji system with the E-1, not sure if that would be good for wildlife, though I have check their lens roadmap yet.
 
Ah I get the aspect ratio issue now :) although if I were to do any printing, the company I'd go to (Whitewall, strictly a European business I believe) allows you to print in pretty much any aspect ratio you desire. For home printing or some smaller / less specialized printing businesses that might not be immediately possible, but you could always print it with white margins and then cut away those margins yourself (or maybe have that done at a copy shop).

[edit] By the way, some very nice shots you've got on your website!
 
I'm in the US, I print canvas the most but I can crop a bit for 14*11 or 8*10, I think I should be able to find a bigger size.

Anyone with a Fuji E-1 around here that could help out? The pictures from it look more than great and it seems like there is a 55-230 coming out at the end of the year, nothing great but good none the less. And it seems there is a lot of adapter for it to mount third party lens.
 
For me, I see 2 options, m43 or NEX.

The camera I would be looking for needs to have the following
  • flash hot shoe
  • dual control
  • viewfinder
  • 1/250 flash sync
  • large variety of lens
  • good in low light (not that much noise)
  • grip
  • OLED touch screen
  • good menu interface
  • good battery life
  • fast focus

Between the OMD and NEX7, I'd go for the OMD. I had the NEX7 for about a month, and I've had the OMD for over a year now. If I recall correctly, the NEX7 uses some proprietary hot shoe, although I've never tried it. The dual control of the NEX7 is pretty cool, and I like it slightly better than the OMD dual controls as far as positioning is concerned. The viewfinder is slightly bigger in the NEX7, but IMO, the OMD's EVF appears to have a faster refresh rate. I don't use external flash, so I'm not sure about the flash sync speed. m4/3 has more lenses, many of which are very good, although the NEX lens lineup is starting to look better. Low light IQ is a toss up. The NEX7 tends to show more noise because it is a 24 mp file. If you downsize the 24 mp file to 16 mp, the noise level is about the same at low light. If you shoot JPG, the OMD's JPG engine is better than the NEX7. The grip of the NEX7 is nicer, but you can add grips to the OMD as well (and battery grip too). The touch screen of the OMD is very very good. I love using the touch shutter to pick a focus point and take the shot instantaneously. The menu of the OMD is better than the NEX7, and requires less menu diving. It has a "super control panel" where most of the controls can be available in one screen. Plus, once you set up the OMD with its many customizable buttons, you will rarely have to access the menus. Battery life ... not sure. But I always carry a spare with me for all my cameras. Fast focus in good light and low light goes to OMD.
 
I think you'll find autofocus with micro four-thirds cameras is still faster than most other mirrorless systems. Granted, some are adding on-chip phase-detection autofocus, but we're still in generation one for that technology.
 
Thanks for that great info, so OMD it is.

That Fuji sensor looks pretty good, I'm interested in learning more about the X E-1 and how fast in can auto focus.
 
I had the XE1 with the original firmware. The OMD runs circles around the XE1 in good and low light. The OMD locks focus faster and is more accurate as well.

The recent firmware updates may have increased the XE1's AF performance. But I'll leave that to the number of folks around here that own both cameras to comment.
 
I shoot RAW 100% of the times, are the RAW files cleaner of just the JPG?

Also, found this online, explaining how to save battery and do about 1200 shot per battery on the OMD, scroll to the bottom:
How to tweak your Olympus OM-D E-M5 to shoot sports by Jim Huffman | STEVE HUFF PHOTOS . It remove the use of the LCD, but it can be very useful.

The Oly's overall sensor performance is similar to your Nikon D90, although a little noisier. DxOMark - Compare cameras side by side

Whether shooting RAW of jpeg, the Fuji will have cleaner files.
 
better to have noise and a focus picture than the opposite

I agree. I'm not one who's especially bothered by noise. And anyway, from what I've read, the Oly's in-body image stabilization is pretty amazing, so (depending on the subject matter) you might be able to shoot at a lower ISO with the Oly than other cameras.

Just figured I'd mention the noise comparison, since you asked about it.
 
thanks,
I'm still reading around about the Fuji E1... looks fun. Too bad I cannot try one just to see.
I think I will go with the OMD, it makes more sense for what I need.
 
I have the OMD and the Fuji XE 1. Each has strengths but....if I'm going out at night or to an indoor performance, I take the OMD. For auto-focus in low light, my experience is the OMD does it better. With a fast lens, the Fuji is doable, but you have to really work areas of contrast and take your time. This is a group of pictures I recently took at night, mostly with the OMD. Zenfolio | Padre Photography | Motorcycle Art Some in the gallery were taken by different cameras but you can see that by running your cursor across the top right of each picture to view the exif.
 
I don't have the money to try a camera or two then buy one, but it's a good thought though.

bluzcity, thanks for those pictures, they look good. Are they JPEG or RAW? If RAW which program did you use?
 
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