Basic interchangeable lens camera with good IQ

Amp34 · 1 Jun 2016 at 07:40

Parents are looking to merge their old Panasonic bridge camera and 400D into a small package with better IQ than they currently get (from the bridge at longer focal lengths.

Use is mainly travel, so general, landscape and wildlife (which is where they are struggling most at the moment). They want something small and simple (to me that means more buttons rather than reams of menus), it'll be on auto most of the time.

I'm thinking something m4/3, but really don't know where to start, other than getting a mid range Panasonic or something like the Olly OMD M10. I'm thinking something like a 100-300mm lens to go with it for the long end and just a standard 14-42mm lens for the all purpose lens. Any recommendations on which, or experiences with lens selections on the m4/3?

They would also like reasonable macro ability. From a quick glance there don't seem to be any dedicated macro lenses for m4/3 and I don't think think they would particularly want to carry another lense round. Are there any standard lenses with good closeup ability?

wozzizname · 1 Jun 2016 at 08:12

There is a dedicated Olympus macro lens , the 60mm f2.8 which is excellent.
You can also get a screw-in close up adapter for the standard Oly 14-42 lens if you don't want the expense of the dedicated macro lens.

Thaifood · 1 Jun 2016 at 08:20

I am using a em 5 with the 12-50 (both weather sealed yay). The macro function on that lens works pretty well and I am using he 75-300m (version 2) and pretty happy with the results so far.

Amp34 · 2 Jun 2016 at 05:52

The thing that worries me with the 75-300 is the aperture at the long end. Does focus speed suffer? I'd also guess that the aperture would decrease any bokeh left from a m4/3 camera? Not that I'm sure that worries my parents much but I'd be interested to know. I find 5.6 slow now so anything slower than that makes me nervous.

King4aDay · 2 Jun 2016 at 16:04

Re: closeups, as stated there's the Olympus 60mm and Panasonic 30mm and 45mm for full on macro, and the 12-50 kit lens has a very useable (albeit somewhat dim) semi-macro mode.

I'd definitely also recommend getting at least one pancake prime for true pocketability and low light situations. There are lots of nice ones to choose from.

Thaifood · 5 Jun 2016 at 15:47

Amp34 said:
The thing that worries me with the 75-300 is the aperture at the long end. Does focus speed suffer? I'd also guess that the aperture would decrease any bokeh left from a m4/3 camera? Not that I'm sure that worries my parents much but I'd be interested to know. I find 5.6 slow now so anything slower than that makes me nervous.

Oh I completely agree. Sometimes it does search for focus but when it does the pictures imo are really decent.

Minstadave · 5 Jun 2016 at 18:23

I've recently got a GX8 with a 14-140 lens.

The 14-140 is really very good in good light across its zoom range. It's pretty good as a tele macro too. It's a great walkabout lens and cuts down a lot of lens swapping.

I'd also consider the Sony RX10, not interchangeable lens but covers a wide range and performance is very good.