calblacksmith Moderator Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 5,684 Location: Riverside, Ca, U.S.A. Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: ECM Veneziano A1 Grinder: Many different commercial Vac Pot: 40s era Silex Drip: Milita, Bunn&Curtis... Roaster: Cast iron pan, gas burner
Posted Tue Apr 24, 2012, 12:56pm Subject: Re: Any photographers? Debating which camera to get
Just a little different point of view here. My personal cameras are in the Minolta line, going back over 20 years, pro bodies and lenses. Sony took over the Minolta line and I am very happy with my Alpha body and my Minolta lenses. The OLD Minolta glass was nearly always good glass and you ceartinly could spend more. The lenses fit the Alpha line as the mounts and electronics are the same. There is a bonus too as EVERY Minolta lens is a stabilized one because the ISS is in the BODY not the lens.
OK, got that out of the way. The best camera for you is the one you will use! My Alpha will run circles around my camera phone but guess which on I have with me at all times and which one takes the vast majority of my photos? Yep, the phone camera. Is it as versitle as my Alpha,,, NO but it ain't bad either.
I have a lot of money in my bag but my phone gets the greatest amount of use.
When I set out to specifically shoot, then the Alpha gets taken but for day to day stuff, you will use what you have on you.
Just something else to think about.... Good luck!
In real life, my name is Wayne P.
Feed the newbs, starve the trolls and above all enjoy what you drink!
Thanks! It's a 1983 610. It was in nearly perfect condition minus a slightly bent rear left dropout which was fixed gently with a rubber mallet, lots of cloth wrapping and a bit of patience. Not bad for a free bike! Those guys new what they were doing in the good old days of hand-crafted bicycles...
Wayne, you make a good point; I do find myself using my phone camera a lot for convenience.
~Nick
There's a big difference between drinking coffee to wake up and waking up to drink coffee.
jwsnyder919 Senior Member Joined: 28 Jun 2011 Posts: 87 Location: All over Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: QM Andreja Premium Grinder: Baratza Vario
Posted Tue Apr 24, 2012, 9:02pm Subject: Re: Any photographers? Debating which camera to get
Wayne, This is the ethos I drift around more and more, and why I've all but given up on DSLR systems at this point -- I don't think I'll carry it around on a daily basis, where I'm far more likely to toss a x-pro1, NEX-7, fuji x100 (not interchangeable lenses, but that might be okay for now), etc into my bag. I've also been waxing poetic about my old olympus OM film camera I had while growing up and have been peeking more and more at the very soon forthcoming (edit: actually out, just not in stock anywhere) Olympus OM-D EM5. The autofocus on it looks spectacular and, even though it's a MFT, looks pretty impressive. Surely won't be all I remember, but might be a good option (especially at a $999 body price rather than 1700 and more developed lens system)
Nick, I think that's an awesome find...especially for free.
calblacksmith Moderator Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 5,684 Location: Riverside, Ca, U.S.A. Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: ECM Veneziano A1 Grinder: Many different commercial Vac Pot: 40s era Silex Drip: Milita, Bunn&Curtis... Roaster: Cast iron pan, gas burner
Posted Fri Apr 27, 2012, 2:20pm Subject: Re: Any photographers? Debating which camera to get
Though it has been a while ago, the Olympus cameras had the smallest sensor and just like film, bigger is better regardless of pixel count. My camera phone is a 6mpxl but it would not print well above about 5x7, well not for a photographer anyway!
I love ....LOVE my 4x5 film camera but the SLR is so much easier to carry around. Just as a small fixed lens camera is easier to carry and use than a SLR. The new mirrorless SLRs are nice and you might find the best of both worlds in a compact mirrorless, fixed lens SLR. NO shame in that! (if you can find such a thing I dunno??)
The main point is, regardless of how "good" it is, if you are not carrying it, you might as well not have it.
jwsnyder919 Senior Member Joined: 28 Jun 2011 Posts: 87 Location: All over Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: QM Andreja Premium Grinder: Baratza Vario
Posted Sat Apr 28, 2012, 9:44am Subject: Re: Any photographers? Debating which camera to get
yep, the om-d still uses the micro 4/3 standard, unfortunately. They beefed up the resolution, but still a small sensor which will make shallow depth of field difficult. It's why the x-pro1 and NEX-7 stood out to me in the current crop of cameras -- they use APS-C, which is likely where I'm situated with a DSLR anyways, in terms of budget.
Long story short, I found some good deals on amazon warehouse deals for the x100 and x-pro1. I figured, if I don't like them, I can return one or both of them. Haven't shot extensively (had them for a day), but they're both quite good cameras. Love the rangefinder styling and the manual controls for shutter, etc.
Keep in mind I haven't upgraded the firmware for them (unsure if that would make them non-returnable), so there's that. But here are some quick impressions.
The x100 feels nice. super quiet. at least they decided to fix the lens at 35mm and not something else, but still a bummer it's fixed. That said, because it's fixed, it's very small. I'm a big dude with large pockets, so it fits, albeit not all that nicely, into my pocket. Would certainly fit in a my jacket pockets (though maybe I should try this before making such bold proclamations). Manual focus is unusable. I know there have been firmware updates but I can't imagine they made it any more than barely passable considering how bad it is. Viewfinder is great and a pleasure to use. Camera just feels good. Good, not great, lowlight performance.
The x-pro1 really is amazing in low-light. That new sensor design is legit. (One might say, "how do you know, this is your first big-boy digital camera?" This is true, but I've still borrowed extensively from friends and family and worked on my own stuff. It just wasn't financially or lifestyle prudent at those times for me to buy, so I can confidently say I know more than the average beginner). Autofocus wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as so many reviews are throwing out there. The killer is current manual focus. Same fly-by-wire design as primes on m4/3 format and the x100. Faster than x100, to be sure, but damn is MF slow. Useless unless really composing your shots, which, honestly, is plenty okay for me. I'd probably do a lot of zone focusing and I bet you could work around MF a bit by half-pressing to autofocus and flipping the switch to manual for quick tweaking. Not ideal, but workable. Since it's fly by wire, I'd hope they fix manual focus in future firmware updates. Still a bummer they designed the manual focus in this way. These are just quick first impressions, but so far it's definitely interesting. Oh, and the lens hood for the 35mm (53mm equiv) lens is absolutely hideous.
So, neither camera jumped out as a must have. The viewfinder on both is great, love that it's OVF and EVF, but has minor quirks. I found myself hitting the switch lever to go from OVF to EVF very easily on the x-rpo1, but that's an easy adjustment on my part. I think a soft release button is a must for either camera, and love that I have the option to do so with how they designed the shutter release. But, that's just me and how the camera feels in my hands. One neat thing is their sweep panoramic modes, which actually work very well. I would probably never use this (maybe 5-10 times over the life of the camera), but I could see my fiancee using it sometime.
If I had to pick right this moment, I don't know which I'd do. probably the x100 as I was able to get it for $850 vs the $2150 of the xpro1. with the difference, I could pick up a nikon d5100 and some lenses for those times I do want a dslr and have a more compact camera for carrying about and shooting street, all while still probably being under budget. (or wait for rumored d600 which will supposedly be an affordable full frame camera). But, we'll see how these impressions hold up!
Just thought I'd post this here in case those chiming in were curious. Still open to suggestions, and will likely make a trip to B&H next weekend when in NYC to play around with things further. Definitely haven't made the final decision. This is fun. And annoying. Ha!
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