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Looking at Cameras

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tomos:
Been looking at cameras, my old trusty 5MP Olympus C5060 died a death lately.

Thought I'd share :-) based on my notes:
PS I'm a total amateur so feel free to correct or advise ;)
All links are from http://www.imaging-resource.com

First, I wanted a small camera with a good lens -

* reasonably sharp into the corners of image
* preferably with low chromatic abberation (the colour fringes you often get, especially in high contrast areas towards edge of image)
I wanted to be able to photograph in low light, so either

* a "fast" lens (i.e. with low aperature number, e.g. 2.0) or
* a camera that makes good quality images at high iso
Of the compact cameras I only found the Olympus XZ-1 has a good sharp lens. I considered it, but it's around €400 and I saw that I could get a compact system camera from Sony for the same price. (Compact system cameras have larger sensors and exchangable lenses, but have no mirror in the camera so are a lot smaller than SLRs.)

The Sony NEX-3 seems to have the best image quality/ high iso performance of any non-SLR camera, matching some SLRs which have much bigger sensors. (There is a newer version, NEX-C3.) It's very small; lenses are not as small as some other makes. Problem is the kit-lens is not so good. Also there's not much choice in lenses till next year. I guess that's why it's selling so cheaply..

Then comes my favourite, the Olympus PEN E-PL2. Good kit-lens (14-42 = 28-84mm equivalent) which is collapsable, so especially small when not in use. Costs under €500 new here, but you can get it with two lenses for €582.



I really wanted to try it out but havent yet had a chance to go to an actual shop. Anyways I was thrown by the announcement yesterday of three new cameras in the same line:

* Olympus PEN E-PM1 - the "lite" version
* Olympus PEN E-PL3 - with tilting LCD
* Olympus PEN E-P3 - the "flagship" with touch screen, Organic LED panel and built-in popup flash - but doesnt have the tilting LCD (~$900)
All are supposed to have super-fast auto-focus.
Hum-di-dum.
Think I'll wait a bit and see what the first two are priced at (not yet announced).

There are other compact system cameras but image quality didnt get good reviews.

Finally, have a look at the Pentax Q - will be available in September - definitely the smallest compact system camera around, but also with a very small sensor so image quality will suffer.
But, (with apologies) it's soooo cute . . .

tomos:
Forgot to comment about video - the Sony NEX cameras are also aimed at making good videos - but there is also a video camera that uses the same lenses as the NEX cameras:



the Sony NEX-VG10
Looks groovy :P

Dormouse:
The Sony NEX-3 seems to have the best image quality/ high iso performance of any non-SLR camera, matching some SLRs which have much bigger sensors ... Also there's not much choice in lenses till next year. I guess that's why it's selling so cheaply..
-tomos (July 01, 2011, 04:23 AM)
--- End quote ---

You can get an adapter to allow you to use any A Mount lens. You get AF, but most A mount lenses don't have image stabilisation (A mount DSLRs have it in camera). Of course, the adapter itself isn't cheap. :(

tomos:
The Sony NEX-3 seems to have the best image quality/ high iso performance of any non-SLR camera, matching some SLRs which have much bigger sensors ... Also there's not much choice in lenses till next year. I guess that's why it's selling so cheaply..
-tomos (July 01, 2011, 04:23 AM)
--- End quote ---

You can get an adapter to allow you to use any A Mount lens. You get AF, but most A mount lenses don't have image stabilisation (A mount DSLRs have it in camera). Of course, the adapter itself isn't cheap. :(
-Dormouse (July 01, 2011, 06:24 AM)
--- End quote ---

I mainly just looked at kit lenses cause I dont want to spend a fortune either...
Another advantage of the Olypmus models though, is that they use the same lens system as Panasonic compact system cameras -so the lenses are interchangeable- so there's more choice there too...

IainB:
@tomos: I too have been looking at cameras lately, and ended up buying a couple a few months back:

1 x Sony DSC-H55 Cyber-Shot camera: NZ$286 - refer Sony DSC-H55 Cyber-Shot camera - handbook (GB).pdf

1 x Sony HDR-CX110 camcorder: NZ$408 - refer Sony HDR-CX110 camcorder - handbook.pdf

I had also looked at the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3, and that was very good, but I have been unable to get it or a more recent model at a significant discount, let alone at ½ price.

I already had:
2 x Samsung L100: (got these great little cameras a couple of years ago for myself and my wife, and they are due to be put up for sale on an online auction site) - Samsung L100 camera - user manual (English).pdf

The two Sony items were as new refurbished and priced at half normal retail price at the time I bought them.
The cyber-shot camera has some great features - e.g., 10x optical zoom, anti-shake, panoramic view capture (not stitched in memory, but taken by panning the camera in panoramic mode).

The handycam is small enough to fit in my hand and has tons of incredible features - e.g., 25x optical zoom, 300x digital zoom, face-tracking (no shake). It was priced retail at NZ$850 in Dick Smith at the time, but is now NZ$700.
My daughter - who has just got her Hons. in multimedia and graphics design studies - wants to borrow the handycam for its slow-motion feature alone as she reckons it is better than the cameras in her labs.

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