Mirrorless micro four thirds Choices?

[Stephen]

Time to get a micro four thirds camera and keep the cost down, what are members experience of the Olympus E-PM1, (dated a bit now, but available cheap new, buy it now, with G/tee, bodies on Ebay) verses the Panasonic and Sony Nex series.

The new Canon Eos micro seems out of the race as it is still costly, I have tried one, but far too expensive.

It has to take the manual adaptors for various lenses, which the Olympus does, as does the Panasonic, but Sony is not often mentioned on adaptor adverts as compatible with some adaptors, I expect they mean the fully auto types rather than the simpler Leica and M42 types, which I assume are compatible across the makes.

The Olympus has no built in flash, (not important), but does have the vital "B" function, do others have this on manual?

Not concerned with movies, makes no difference, the Olympus seems to have stabilisation in the body rather than in the lens.

So has anybody got views on the Olympus? The cost and features score well.......
Stephen.

[hansz]

Stephen,

Recently I purchased a Nex 3, the cost will be about the same as your Olympus.
I don't film, so a Nex 5 is too much.
I went for the Nex because of the cropfactor of 1.5 in stead of 2 (Oly).
Adapter availability is about the same.

My two cents...

Hans

[Stephen]

There seem to be brand new bodies for the Olympus at £129 and Sony for about £200-£239, both seem about the same on adaptors.
Standard lenses are no worry, I dislike any zooms, except on compacts. The main lens to be used is the Kern Macro 50, which has an adaptor available, along with various Leica thread lens.
I have had a look at both specs and instructions, some reviews are biased deeply as to convenience, style, etc, rather than performance, makes the choice a bit difficult.
Price is important, but not an absolute.
Stephen.

[lloydy]

I use a NEX 5 with adapters for M42, PK, MD, OM, QBM, and M39. The NEX is now my camera of choice - for digital. I have a Pentax K10 which I like a lot as well, but with legacy lenses the NEX is king.
The focus peaking, and magnifying the live view make it so easy to use. And the sensor size is the same as most DSLR's so the quality of enlargements is good.
I also like the ergonomics of it, the tilting screen makes it a hand held camera rather than a traditional eye level camera, and that is very liberating, you can place the camera at ground level, hold it above your head or at arms length and see the viewfinder screen.
It does take some getting used to, but the key is - forget everything about SLR's, the NEX is a different animal altogether, and once the user gets used to that it really is a joy to use.
All the useful things are there as well such as bracketing and exposure compensation, and many many other things that most 'photographers' might never use. But I love the sweep panorama function, which works better with a manual focus lens.
I got my NEX from the QVC television shopping channel returns shop, brand new and unused in the box, for £250, Jessops had it for £360.
I bought the NEX while my K10 was away for repair ( long story ) with the intention of re selling it. That's never going to happen, it's the best camera I've ever owned.

Edit
And...some of the NEX range, the 5 is one, have a die cast aluminium chassis rather than polycarbonate. I use lenses like the Tair 300 on my NEX, which does have its own tripod lug. but I've used other heavy lenses on the NEX with the NEX mounted on the tripod, and it's rigid, despite its tiny size. With a big lens you really have to change the way you handle the whole thing and treat it as a lens with a camera and not a camera with a lens - if that makes sense. Like I say, it's a joy to use.

[Stephen]

The Sony NEX 5 is going to be too expensive, £400 or more for a body new. I have read up more today and the Olympus still scores on price. The screen does not really matter that much, the tilt types are fine, but add expense.
Anybody had Panasonic four thirds experience? Thanks for the comments so far......

[lloydy]

NEX C3 ? They are around secondhand for bargain prices. Less features than the 5 but I think they have the aluminium chassis, and they have the bonus of the 16mp sensor, compared to the 5's 14mp.
A lot of the people who bought the C3 have upgraded, there's a lot about.
The Olympus is excellent, it has a deservedly good reputation, but for me the difference in sensor size - 23.4 x 15.6mm (APS-C size) to the 4/3 size of 18 mm × 13.5 mm is enough reason to go for the NEX - or something like the Samsung NX200 ( there are others in the range ) with the same size sensor.
It might just make a difference when you get that fabulous image that you want to print at a large size.

[Stephen]

Not many on Ebay, only two Sony NEX C3 at over £200 for s/h bodies, but I'll keep it in mind.

[kodaker]

I have no experience with the PM1, but I do with the PL1. I really, really like it. I liked it so well that I bought 2 of them. In fact I bought 3 of them, but gave one to a grand daughter who has a better eye for photography than I ever did. I have used several different lens adapters on the PL1 and have been very pleased with them all. I am away from home right now and I don't remember all of the adapters, but at least I have the Minolta, Canon, Nikon, Leica, and Pentax adapters. The PL1 can be found very low priced and I highly recommend it.

[Berndt]

Do NEX cameras not have an APS-C sensor ? ( because the original thread was about micro four thirds cameras ). I used a GH1 ( this is a MFT camera ) for a while, with different classic lenses and adapters, but mostly for video and have been very happy with it. For still pictures, I still prefer real film for several reasons.

Extending the choice to bigger sensored APS-C cameras ( like the NEX ), if I would need to buy a digital camera now, my personal choice would be a Fuji XE-1 ( best, coming with a 35 mm/f1.4 prime ). I used digital Fuji cameras in the past ( a Finepix S6500fd for example, which I still love ) and the colors have been always best.

I still use digital cameras, but mostly for snapshots along the way ( that's where they can be very powerful in difficult light situations and the compactness is appreciated as well ). But then, I don't walk around with a tripod and exchangeable lenses anymore ( getting old ? ). A simple Casio Exilim is the portable weapon of my choice. Unfortunately still having a tiny P&S sensor, but the capabilities in difficult ( or almost impossible ) light situations are simply amazing. Night shots hand held, no tripod, no motion blur, no picture noise ... simply crazy. The trick is a technology called "high speed shooting". Casio Exilim cameras of the ZR series are capable of shooting several pictures in a very short time and merge them to a final and surprising good looking picture. Super zoom, anti shake, night shots, ( a very natural or ART like looking ) HDR or even an artificial bokeh is possible. I tried this camera at really impossible conditions and it worked. I am not a big fan of all those electronic gadgets and like analog film photography most, but I had to admit, that I could have never taken pictures at those conditions with any other camera yet.

Another good recommendation for all digital stuff: If you can wait a little bit, you can save a lot of money. Sometimes, technology makes a huge step forward ( the GH1 for example as the first mirror less camera with exchangeable lenses and Full HD video capabilities ), but most of the time, the differences between one model and the next are just cosmetic.
I paid app. 1.500 USD for my first GH1 and just 200 USD for a second ( actually new ) body one year later. The new Casio Exilim ZR1000 costs app. 400 USD while I got the older ZR200 model for just 150 USD ( New ) last month. The actually only ( technical ) difference between both models is. that the ZR1000 can shoot HDR movies at 30fps, while mine can just do 15fps. The rest is all the same. Just the design is a little bit different here and there.

[Stephen]

I think it is going towards the Olympus Pen Mini PM-1, brand new body in black or silver for £109 on Ebay, (just reduced from £129), the cost is so much lower than other brands. It has no built in flash, but that's no real worry, I have plenty of flash equipment that is useless with compacts or most bridge cameras.
Stephen.

[Stephen]

Definitely getting the Olympus Pen Mini PM-1, at £109 brand new body only it is a bargain not to be missed, a zoom lens can be bought later on for general uses. Most of the time I can use my Leica fit manual lenses, there is a TTH standard, Russian M39, and a couple of French lenses in M39 thread, all of which equal or beat modern lenses in quality.

Has anybody come across a Miranda to 4/3 adaptor? I see from the net they do turn up on Ebay US, there seem to be no Chinese makers of Miranda fit as yet.

I have M42 to micro 4/3, Leica M39 to micro 4/3, and Exakta Bayonet to Micro 4/3 coming via Ebay and a set of micro 4/3 extension tubes, all Chinese/Hong Kong, later I''ll get an Alpa lens adaptor, but they are far more expensive, at 8x times the price of more common adapters!

The other way to get a Miranda 4/3 adaptor is a cheap 2x tele converter and the Micro 4/3 bayonet from cheap extension tubes and machine the pair in the lathe to work, after gutting the 2x elements out of the tele converter body.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

An Ebay oddity for purchasers in the UK, of adaptors etc., sourced from Hong Kong or China, ....check the listing is international free post,..... and then see if the same seller lists in the US Ebay, they are cheaper!!!

It is quite fair to the seller, it is postage free on both listings to worldwide, just pay via pay pal in dollars.

The reason I spotted this was the Alpa adaptor for Micro 4/3, listed at about £30 in the UK lists, but the same Chinese supplier sells for $18 in the United States. On the German site they sell for even more priced in Euros, and charge postage.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 II R (latest model, UK stock), has anybody any experiences with this standard zoom, (some being offered split from new bodies), on Ebay ..? Seems to be the standard outfit lens offered with the Olympus Pen.