help

[howard b. schwartz]

<p>i wish to purchase a mirrorless digital system. i am an experienced film and slr user. this would be a camera to supplement my dslr. looking for sharp stills. do not particularly care about video. <br>

should have system lens. thanks.</p>

[david_smith110]

<p>What camera and lenses do you have now? Do you still use your old film SLR lenses? If so which ones? Is full frame important to you? What type of subject matter do you shoot? Portraits, landscape, sports? Whats your budget?</p>

<p>Give us some info and we can recommend a good fit. I will go out on a limb and say if you want full frame, Sony A7 and A7r are the only kids in town right now. Really nice if you want to adapt your Digital and film SLR lenses. But for a really filled out system camera with very nice lenses to choose from I say go for the Fuji X-T1 if apsc is ok with you.</p>

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>For the best range of lenses and compactness I would go for the Olympus system.</p>

[SCL]

<p>I went out on a limb about a year ago with a refurb. Olympus E-PL2, with the thought of using my legacy Leica, Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Zeiss lenses. It came with an electronic VF and 14-42mm lens (28-84mm in 35mm equivalent language) for about $300. WOW was I surprised...I would say that I have used it for about 50% of my shooting since then. I understand more recent models are even better, especially for low light shooting noise reduction - but that's irrelevant to me. Outside of an unusual menu system to accomplish a variety of things, I really like it. Size wise, it is slightly smaller than my Leica M3 when I remove the EVF. I use it mostly to supplement my DSLR, and generally for pictures which I share online, although I am certain I could get more than acceptable 8x10, and probably 11x14 prints from it. I think the way to make the best choice for yourself, would be to go to a dealer and try some of the recent models of various mfrs and see whose feels best from an ergonomics standpoint, and ensure that the one you choose has a range of legacy lens adapters.</p>

[fred_c1]

<p>The Sony NEX 6 is heavily discounted now. Fujifilm X series are less compact but have more selection of primes. An APS-C system is better than m4/3 if you look to adapt manual focus lenses.</p>

[songtsen]

<blockquote>

<p><em>I think the way to make the best choice for yourself, would be to go to a dealer and try some of the recent models of various mfrs and see whose feels best from an ergonomics standpoint...</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>+1 (especially if you have large hands).</p>

<p>I found the E-PL2 very frustrating to use. My thumb tended to rest on the control dial, frequently resulting in settings being changed inadvertently. </p>

[laur1]

<p>It's easy:</p>

<ol>

<li>If you don't like to use a tripod, you'll probably care about image stabilization - this can narrow down your choices because in-camera image stabilization is offered just by Olympus and Panasonic (and by Panasonic just in select models). Other makers have the technology, but there is no clear plan of introducing it in their cameras.</li>

<li>Figure out what lenses you want to get</li>

<li>Figure out what system offers those lenses and if there are multiple options, decide based on cost/value and camera body style/features</li>

<li>Leave some budget for software</li>

<li>Place the order</li>

</ol>

 

[eric_arnold]

<p>budget?</p>

[laur1]

<blockquote>

<p>budget?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I am assuming by the "m.d." that it is not a problem :)</p>

[eric_arnold]

<p>@Bruce, i always think budget is as logical a place to start as any. i may want to shoot close-ups of the moon from outer space but without a budget, that's not going to happen.</p>

[eric_arnold]

<blockquote>

<p>The Sony NEX 6 is heavily discounted now. Fujifilm X series are less compact</p>

</blockquote>

<p>IDK about that. the XE series arent much bigger than some point and shoots and with a 27mm pancake you get a very compact, high-quality set-up. the m1 and a1 are even smaller. </p>

<p>i would probably go with Fuji for the discerning high-end user who values image quality and compactness. the Fuji primes are hard to beat and the m4/3 sensor format has its limitations. the fuji kit lenses are better than just about every one else's kit lenses and are stabilized, too.</p>

<p>the Sony A7r has the best IQ in mirrorless but there's a lot of caveats with that setup, such as mediocre kit lens and currently only two primes available. also its not that much smaller than a DSLR.</p>

[jcuknz]

<p>MFT comes with cameras that have EVF and others that do not ... from using the Olympus add-on version while it works fine it is a PITB compared to an integeral EVF ... just not 'natural' sticking up on top of the camera .... like what Leica users had to put up with way back when they got more than the 50mm lens :)</p>

[fred_c1]

<blockquote>

<p>IDK about that. the XE series arent much bigger than some point and shoots and with a 27mm pancake you get a very compact, high-quality set-up.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The XE series are the size of a typical manual focus film SLR (e.g. Nikon FM2). Yes the pancake is small but the rest of the lenses are as big as Nikon's Ai-S equivalents having twice the frame coverage. Coupled with a higher price and they drove me to get the NEX 6.</p>

[eric_arnold]

<p>the XE-1+ 18-55/2.8-4 kit lens is $719 right now. nex 6 is $650 body-only; to get a zoom capable of 2.8 in MFT you might have to spend more than the camera body itself, and the 17/1.8 MFT pancake is $500, while , the 27/2.8 is on sale for $200. .. so... you dont necessarily save money with other manu's. i only briefly considered Nex because Fuji has better native lenses. the XE1+35/1.4 is pretty small for the imaging capabilities it delivers.</p>