Spec me .... Something that costs a grand.

SickAsAParrot

SickAsAParrot

SickAsAParrot

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I have a dilemma, I've got a long service award coming up where I have to chose a 'thing' and they'll pay for it.

I have an old Sony A200 and a few lenses, and since the A77 came out I've wanted one of those, and get a wide angle zoom with the rest.

But, 95% of my photography is days out and holidays, which I use a Lumix TZ P&S because taking the SLR is a pain, so I'm seriously thinking should I get a CSC instead, it would get used a hell of a lot more.

I could get a fairly high-end one with one lens, or a middling-end one with a couple of lenses. It's very tempting, but I'm yet to be convinced that the IQ is as good.

It would be nice if it had a proper viewfinder and a hotshoe.
 
Xpro1 at the moment comes with an 18mm lens for 999 and then you can choose either a 27, 35 or 60mm lens FREE via rebate. Depending on where you get it from you can also get a free bag as well.
 
SickAsAParrot said:
I have a dilemma, I've got a long service award coming up where I have to chose a 'thing' and they'll pay for it.

I have an old Sony A200 and a few lenses, and since the A77 came out I've wanted one of those, and get a wide angle zoom with the rest.

But, 95% of my photography is days out and holidays, which I use a Lumix TZ P&S because taking the SLR is a pain, so I'm seriously thinking should I get a CSC instead, it would get used a hell of a lot more.

I could get a fairly high-end one with one lens, or a middling-end one with a couple of lenses. It's very tempting, but I'm yet to be convinced that the IQ is as good.

It would be nice if it had a proper viewfinder and a hotshoe.
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One of the Olympus m43 cameras and a nice set of lenses. Modern m43'csmeras have image quality equal to canon aps-C DSLRs. You might be able to get an OMD for that money. You can also consider the Panasonic m43 cameras, I prefer the Olympus bodies for a fee reasons, sensor based IS is nice for a csc.


The M43 system is the only csc that is remotely close to a complete system that can compare to canon or Nikon in choice of lenses, and is very mature, well optimized system.
 
SickAsAParrot said:
Indeed, X-e2 w/lens £999

But, A77 w16-50/2.8 £989, Aaaaaarrrrgggggg!!!

Also, is the X-E2 really worth £300 more than the X-E1?
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Yeh if I was getting a Fuji I would opt for the X-E2 over the X-E1.
X-E2 has much better viewfinder and autofocus. Little things like decent auto ISO makes a difference also (you need to be able to set min shutter speed).
X-Pro 1 is a bit too antiquated imo. Also wasn't keen on the optical viewfinder as you can see the side of the lens, so an EVF makes more sense anyway.

If I was going to buy a DSLR, it would only be because of the FF sensor and overall performance. Personally I'm looking to get a camera you can take anywhere and that doesn't scare people. It isn't even so much about size and weight, I don't wan't people looking at me thinking I'm a pro or something.

Also I'm not certain, but I was under the impression the X-E2 sensor is now the best performing APSC sensor, and it even competes with current FF in terms of quality.
The only thing that stops me biting and dumping my DSLR's is only the centre AF point of the X-E2 has phase detect AF, the rest are contrast detect and are slower.
 
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D.P. said:
One of the Olympus m43 cameras and a nice set of lenses. Modern m43'csmeras have image quality equal to canon aps-C DSLRs. You might be able to get an OMD for that money. You can also consider the Panasonic m43 cameras, I prefer the Olympus bodies for a fee reasons, sensor based IS is nice for a csc.


The M43 system is the only csc that is remotely close to a complete system that can compare to canon or Nikon in choice of lenses, and is very mature, well optimized system.
Click to expand...

I would also recommend m43, but the aspect ratio is a deal breaker for me. Messes up my composition.
 
SickAsAParrot said:
Indeed, X-e2 w/lens £999

But, A77 w16-50/2.8 £989, Aaaaaarrrrgggggg!!!

Also, is the X-E2 really worth £300 more than the X-E1?
Click to expand...



The XE-2 is a nice camera but be aware that the lenses are large, bulky and heavy relative to other CSC systems like m43 and Nikon 1. The sensor is APS-C sized so you don't gain anything over other DSLR lenses deisgn for APS-C. Also the Fuji lenses have a fantastic build quality, but that results in much more weight and bulk. Panasonic and Olympus have reallly been pushing their lens sizes down and you have a good choice of smaller lighter lenses with more plastic to keep the weight at bay, or more solidly built metal lenses but even these are much smaller than for other systems due to the smaller sensor.


Another choice would be a Sony NEX, if you already have some alpha gear then you can build a better system.
 
But the lenses are still much smaller compared to DSLR lenses of similar speed.
If nothing matters except size and weight, then you might as well just get something like an RX100ii.
 
An Exception said:
I would also recommend m43, but the aspect ratio is a deal breaker for me. Messes up my composition.
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I know what you mean. It is harder to compose but with time I have learned to see a 3:2 image by letterboxing the LCD. The squarer sensor has some advantages, all lenses project a circular image so having a more square sensor maximizes the area captured by the lens, leaving you to crop in post. Some of the large format cameras captured a square and left you to crop in development. Definitely takls some more thinking to visualize the final frame.

Thing is for my landscape work 3:2 is not wide enough and I am typically cropping to 2:1 anyway (and sometimes just 16:9 since most people view photos on a screen, displaying landscape images on a 55" TV works very well).
 
Sorry, nothing useful to add other than I got a certificate, printed on the office laserjet and shoved in a poundshop frame for my long service award. :(
 
I really wish more m43 bodies utilised the multi-aspect sensor from the GH series. Such a good idea, I miss mine already and I only sold it 2 days ago.
 
since you already have some sony lens, would you consider throw £300 in yourself and get the sony A7 (non-r)?
 
King4aDay said:
I really wish more m43 bodies utilised the multi-aspect sensor from the GH series. Such a good idea, I miss mine already and I only sold it 2 days ago.
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The multi-aspect sensor really just does cropping which you can do your self (well the sensor is i think made slightly wider so a wider crop has slightly more horizontal resolution but it isn't a big difference). What would be nice was for the liveview image (and EVF) so have options to gray-out the top and bottom to see a 3:2, 16:9 and 2:1 AR.
 
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D.P. said:
The multi-aspect sensor really just does cropping which you can do your self (well the sensor is i think made slightly wider so a wider crop has slightly more horizontal resolution but it isn't a big difference). What would be nice was for the liveview image (and EVF) so have options to gray-out the top and bottom to see a 3:2, 16:9 and 2:1 AR.
Click to expand...

For super wide shots, switching from 4:3 or 3:2 to 16:9 on the GH2 could sometimes make a crucial difference. 16:9 has something like 17% more pixels and an 8% wider FOV on a multi-aspect GH2 compared to a fixed aspect GH3 (they're the same size at 4:3). Not something that'll make enormous differences all the time, but there's been a fair few times that I really appreciated it when shooting at 9mm. And the liveview image did scale appropriately, although you could only see one AR at a time.
 
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An Exception said:
Yeh if I was getting a Fuji I would opt for the X-E2 over the X-E1.
X-E2 has much better viewfinder and autofocus. Little things like decent auto ISO makes a difference also (you need to be able to set min shutter speed).
X-Pro 1 is a bit too antiquated imo. Also wasn't keen on the optical viewfinder as you can see the side of the lens, so an EVF makes more sense anyway.

If I was going to buy a DSLR, it would only be because of the FF sensor and overall performance. Personally I'm looking to get a camera you can take anywhere and that doesn't scare people. It isn't even so much about size and weight, I don't wan't people looking at me thinking I'm a pro or something.

Also I'm not certain, but I was under the impression the X-E2 sensor is now the best performing APSC sensor, and it even competes with current FF in terms of quality.
The only thing that stops me biting and dumping my DSLR's is only the centre AF point of the X-E2 has phase detect AF, the rest are contrast detect and are slower.
Click to expand...
the viewfinder is unchanged from XE1 (in fuji's own word in their lattest magazine). the LCD is upgraded however. :)
 
BadMojo said:
Sorry, nothing useful to add other than I got a certificate, printed on the office laserjet and shoved in a poundshop frame for my long service award. :(
Click to expand...

Yeah we get one of those too!

Thanks for your comments, as you can probably tell from the bargain basement gear I currently own, this amount of money is a huge opportunity for me to get something actually good, and I don't want to get the wrong thing.

I don't think any of my alpha lenses will work with the full-frame A7.

To me, Image quality (especially at high ISO's) is by far and away the most important thing to consider, I'm not bothered about video, slow autofocus or slight differences in size and weight. I know I could get a high end NEX but i'm not convinced the IQ is that good, certainly the Fujis wipe the floor with them in that respect. I would consider a M4/3 system there is a lot to chose from.

I still have a couple of months to decide, lets see what transpires.
 
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