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which direction

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philsparks

pfm Member
Hi all - apologies right at the start for the slightly long post, but I'm looking for some general thoughts to help me clarify which direction I should be heading. I'm thinking of changing my main camera and am really struggling to decide which route to take.

My "film" history is Olympus OM and I still have a bag full of bodies (couple of OM1s and a 4 and a 4Ti) and plenty of lenses (21,24,28,35,50,85,100,135,200). I still occasionally dust this off, especially the OM1 with 28 or 50 combo.

My first attempt at digital was a Nikon D50 with the slightly better 18-70 kit lens. I still have this. However as it is really a bit of a lump and I found myself using the wife's s90 more often.

I therefore decided to head in the direction of a CSC and got a Sony NEX-6 with the standard 16-50 kit lens. I also added a 55-200 zoom and a really wide Samyang 12mm. One of my objectives with the sony was to be able to use my legacy OM glass, which I do occasionally. I love a lot about the sony, especially the small size, the EVF, I'm even OK with the menus and interface.

My problem is that I just don't seem to get anything like as many keepers with the Sony as I did with the Nikon. I can't point to anything specific -detail of course is way better, colours can be fixed afterwards, etc. It's just that lots of the pics are a bit "meh" as my kids would say. One particular area of awfulness is it's handling of flash - I don't think I have a single good flash picture with the NEX6, whereas my old D50 is great.

So I'm wondering which way to go.

- I love the form factor of the sony, so maybe I should just get a couple of much better lenses for my NEX6. However when I use my lovely OM glass, the "hit rate" doesn't seem any better. Also the NEX zeiss lenses are really expensive.

- One alternative would be to go with the Sony A7/A7r - gets great reviews, full frame, could still use my OM lenses, still relatively small. However, perhaps Sony just aren't as good at making "real" cameras as proper photo companies like Canon/Nikon. Also the decent lenses to go with it seem to only get average reviews and cost a bomb.

- Perhaps I should return to a proper DSLR, a new one would be less of lump than my D50, and I cold probably get a pretty decent lens or two, especially if I went 2nd hand. I'd also feel a bit more supported with a real camera system.

I reckon I have about £1k to spend, and could flog the D50 and some Oly stuff to add a few hundred. If I replaced the NEX6 I'd also have probably a few hundred more as proceeds.

Sorry for the very vague question, any thoughts on which system to with, and any other directions I should consider would be gratefully received.
 
I went from a OM2n to a Nikon D80 then D300 and finally a D800, I have a D50 D300 and D800 at the moment.
If I did it again I would try to go straight to the full frame sensor, so second hand D600 D700 and lenses etc.

Pete
 
What sort of genre do you shoot?

If it's sports or wildlife, then SLR is the way to go.
People, kids, reportage - CSC, M4/3 or rangefinder
Landscapes - any

I bought my son an OMD-10, which is small, has decent low light performance, decent EVF and decent AF speed. You can use your old OM glass with and adapter. If you have more money and are serious about your photography, then you could go for an OMD-1 with your budget.
 
thanks guys

re "genre" I'd say just normal stuff. Photos of the kids, photos of places we go on holiday and days out, the occasional attempt to be arty (buildings, landscapes, etc), photos of the kids playing sport. Nothing particularly unusual, so just need a camera that's good at most stuff.

Heading towards full frame does seem appealing (bigger is surely better?!) although it means the camera and lens is bigger.

decisions decisions....

Phil
 
I guess it depends on how much weight you're prepared to lug around. If you don't want to be weighed down by hulking great DSLRs then Micro Four Thirds is a great and mature compact system with a quality and varied set of lenses. I use mine for exactly the same purposes as yourself, holidays, outings, toddlers etc.

TopOxfordDoc's recommendation of the Olympus OMD EM10 is a wise one. I have the OMD EM5. The 45mm f1.8 is a wonderful portrait style lens (90mm equivalent). I also have the Panasonic Leica 25mm f1.4 (50mm equiv). Olympus own 25mm is also very good and much smaller. So many great lenses for this system but I make do with those two and my FujiFilm X100, another great little camera. I rather fancy the top of the line EM1 or it's successor eventually.

philsparks said:
thanks guys

re "genre" I'd say just normal stuff. Photos of the kids, photos of places we go on holiday and days out, the occasional attempt to be arty (buildings, landscapes, etc), photos of the kids playing sport. Nothing particularly unusual, so just need a camera that's good at most stuff.

Heading towards full frame does seem appealing (bigger is surely better?!) although it means the camera and lens is bigger.

decisions decisions....

Phil
Click to expand...
 
Take a serious look at the Sigma Merrills
quality is mouth watering but these are fixed lens & take patience
 
"Take a serious look at the Sigma Merrills"

Just had a look at these and they look really interesting and at only £350 I could buy a couple of whole cameras for less than the price of one decent Sony lens. However I'd much rather have a viewfinder than a screen, so not for me. Interesting suggestion tho. ta.

cheers
Phil
 
Take a look at
http://e-group.uk.net/
they run an Olympus hire service, rent an EM1 for a few days and see how you get on. If you buy from an authorised source (rather than from a grey source) you get a good chunk of your rental fee back - however check up on the details.
 
philsparks said:
"Take a serious look at the Sigma Merrills"

Just had a look at these and they look really interesting and at only £350 I could buy a couple of whole cameras for less than the price of one decent Sony lens. However I'd much rather have a viewfinder than a screen, so not for me. Interesting suggestion tho. ta.

cheers
Phil
Click to expand...

look upon them as the modern equivalent of the plate camera, put one on a tripod, put the black cloak over your head, and peer at the (ground glass) screen...
 
philsparks said:
Heading towards full frame does seem appealing (bigger is surely better?!) although it means the camera and lens is bigger.
Click to expand...

I think the important thing here is to think about this choice as being about getting into the entry level of building a system.

If you went straight away for a high megapixel count full frame body such as the Nikon D810, then immediately you would need top quality glass to do the sensor justice, and that means over a grand for a decent 58mm lens, nearly £2k for a zoom etc

Cameras like the Olympus OMD EM1 or even the EM10 are designed from the ground up around the MFT range of lenses. The 16megapixel sensors are top quality with just enough detail for even the biggest possible print, but they don't out-resolve lenses like the 25mm F1.8 m.Zuiko.

Don't forget the Fujis - the X series lenses are superb as is the 16megapixel XTRAN sensor.

Some people object to the Olympus and Fuji cameras and indeed the new Sony cameras for being EVF only, but actually once you get over 2 megapixels in the VF and you get focus peeking, you can get away with the need to look through the lens optically via a mirror.

My D810 does have a better viewfinder than the OMD EM1, but once you take the results down to a common size for display or printing the end results are remarkably similar.

If it was my money and I was starting again I'd probably get the OMD EM10, the 25mm lens and start saving for the F2.8 zoom

Then again, if I wanted everything all in one camera, I'd be buying the LX100 from Panasonic. Pretty much the same 16 megapix 4/3rds sensor that Olympus uses but mated to an inbuilt lens that goes from f1.7 to F2.8 and equivalent to 24-70 (ish) and in something the same size give or take as an LX7!
 
cliffpatte said:
Don't forget the Fujis - the X series lenses are superb as is the 16megapixel XTRAN sensor.
Click to expand...

Seconded. My first decent camera was an Olympus OM1, so from my late teens I've expected a focusing, shutter and aperture ring, a meter, a film speed dial and nothing else. I now use a Fuji X-Pro 1 and love it. Sure, there are menu options, auto-focus etc if one wants them (and I do use auto-focus most of the time), but the core functionality of having a simple aperture and shutter speed dial remains. The thing is just so easy to use: if you want it to be aperture priority just set the aperture you want on the lens, if you want shutter priority just set the shutter speed. If you want it totally manual just set both. There's no farting around with menus etc, it just feels like a proper camera. I've no time for the typical DSLR with all their fancy 'modes' and having to dig around to find the real 'camera' controls.
 
Tony,

I've no time for the typical DSLR with all their fancy 'modes' and having to dig around to find the real 'camera' controls.
Click to expand...
I have two words for you — Nikon Df.

Granted Df isn't a word, but let's not pick nits.

Joe
 
guys - thanks all for the suggestions. Tony - great sales job on the Fujis particularly. TBH - the Sony should do what I want, I'm quite happy with using it, it just seems to only get me OK pictures rather than the occasional WOW picture. Perhaps something that simply feels a bit more manual will do the business - I'll head off to a shop or two and have a play.

cheers
Phil
 
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