Photography, new camera, can't decide

[Doseone]

@Crackle I use a viewfinder all the time. You quickly get used to not having one, but then when you do have one you realise how much you missed it. Wouldn't buy a camera without one now.

 

[Crackle]

Unfortunately, you cannot always go to a good photographic store anymore, and have a good salesman show you the differences in picture quality. I had a very capable fellow worked for us who would often shoot pictures under the same situations and explain the differences to customers (as did I) and that was always a great deciding factor. Nowadays, you have reviews online, or an 18 year old in a box store that doesn't know s---- about bokeh, lens resolution, or color and grayscale contrast of a lens.

Yeah, slight tangent but they've all gone. There used to be 4 photo shops in Liverpool in one street and another 3 across town, now there's one, with fancy glass cases and lurking salesmen plus John Lewis's where you can actually handle the cameras and no one pressures you but I'm not sure how much the very young looking salespeople know. Online reviews are frustrating and you need to read several to gain a picture and then read the forums. it's hard work to even get to a point where you feel you might know enough to pitch in.

 

[Gravity Aided]

I live in a large town, 100,000 plus combined between twin cities, and have no shops at all left, last one closed a few years ago, soon after the one I managed. Used to have 5 or so. Much like professional photographers, those who actually have some skills with people, posing and composition have been replaced by people with lots of equipment, who used to have a lot of money. I remember what my test was, when first approaching the camera dealer where I spent most of my career. He handed me a case with a 4x5 Burke and James camera in it and said"Show me how to use this".

 

[Gravity Aided]

@Crackle , I think the G3 may be a good way to go for now. Do the Lumix series still take Leica's lensmount? I never came off losing any money on Leica's lenses come trade-in-trade-up time. I may have to fix up and sell a few bikes to fund something in the near future, but that would be heresy, wouldn't it?

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Might be worth going back and having a chat with the guy in John Lewis, I bought my last camera from them and the sales guy really knew his stuff. Plus you can't beat their guarantee.

 

[Learnincurve]

If I could afford it I would replace my DSLR with this Fuji XE1 with a great 18-55 lens in a heartbeat.

Another of my cameras is the x100 and it's extraordinary, sublime and amazing. It's not an easy camera to get along with, but there are no other cameras that can do ISO like the fujifilm crop sensor cameras can. It's not ordinary digital noise, it's non-intrusive film noise and you can crank it up to iso 3200 and it just gives the pictures more depth, converting to black and white makes it even better. I've done children's parties with an x100 before. I would absolutely recommend the X series.

I have my dream set up, I know people will think that this is imposable but it isn't and you too can reach your dream and bring blessed sweet relief to your bank account. I wheeled and dealed cameras/lenses and built up my collection to the point where I never need to buy anything again. We have been at the point for about 3 years ago where the only thing that can really be improved on is marketing and the crop sensor or M4/3 camera you bought 4 years ago is damn near identical to the one they are bringing out now. This is why the major brands are sort of starting the cycle again with full frame cameras

I have:
Sony A37. it's very light, I found it on a ebay auction with a "scratched rear screen" for £70 and took a punt, turns out the scratch is a slight mark on the non-glass bit. It's where my nice macro lens (a37 has focus peaking) and lenses from my old minolta film camera live

Fujifilm x100 fixed focal length camera, perfect street shooter, amazing colours and iso. Temperamental but built like a tank, stick a case on it and don't worry about it breaking.

Olympus OM-D EM-5 (silver). Panasonic G1 and Panasonic Gf3. With the best M4/3 glass including Leica. I should really only have the OM-D but the G1 is amazing at black and white and my daughter uses the GF3 with the sigma 30mm on it.

Rule 1. It's all about the glass.

 

[slowmotion]

Rule 1. It's all about the glass.

For me, it's all about the size, the weight and the sheer blooming faff of taking a picture. My wife went to a talk at the RGS a little while ago. Steve McCurry was talking about his photo-journalism. Here's one of his. Somebody asked about the settings he tended to use to take pictures....." I just put it on Auto...it's far better than I could do."

 

[Gravity Aided]

It is all about the glass. It used to be about the glass and film, and now it's about the glass and the sensor and processor. But the glass makes the picture what it is.

 

[Keith Oates]

@Crackle , I think the G3 may be a good way to go for now. Do the Lumix series still take Leica's lensmount? I never came off losing any money on Leica's lenses come trade-in-trade-up time. I may have to fix up and sell a few bikes to fund something in the near future, but that would be heresy, wouldn't it?

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Gravity Aided]

I thought so.
Dang.

 

[mustang1]

My sony RX100 compact is excellent. About £400. Takes fantastic pics and has full manual control. I think most cameras are just too big so you can't take them with you when you want to go light. Just slips in your pocket. Zeiss lens and f1.8 max aperture.

View attachment 50828

I was going to buy the rx100 but I knew I would start hankering after the m2 so I bought that instead. But like you say, excellent camera and I always shoot wide open because ethen lens quickly drops off the aperture when zooming in.

I also bought a couple of Nikon's, a d5300 which is OK and a d7100 which is fantastic. Along with a few lenses, a 50mm 1.8, a 18-35 1.8 to join my 35mm 1.I and 18-200.

I also had a more or less camera but I didn't get on well with it. Focus too slow, battery not good, still too big to put in pocket, low light images are rubbish, no optical viewfinder. That's why I bought the Sony rx 100 m2, its everything I want that a more or less should have been.

 

[mustang1]

Oh BTW op, some of those Pentax cameras have crazy cool weather proofing. Check the YouTube video about the army guy coating his with sand and washing in the camera in the shower.

 

[Crackle]

@Crackle , I think the G3 may be a good way to go for now. Do the Lumix series still take Leica's lensmount? I never came off losing any money on Leica's lenses come trade-in-trade-up time. I may have to fix up and sell a few bikes to fund something in the near future, but that would be heresy, wouldn't it?

I don't know, researching the lens mount was next on my list.

I missed one yesterday, I think summer hols is putting the prices up. Therse's one coming up without a kit lens which I don't think will be as popular, so I might go for that if I can get it at the right price, I didn't bid on a white one and yes, heresy. Well we are on a cycling forum.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Another of my cameras is the x100 and it's extraordinary, sublime and amazing. It's not an easy camera to get along with, but there are no other cameras that can do ISO like the fujifilm crop sensor cameras can. It's not ordinary digital noise, it's non-intrusive film noise and you can crank it up to iso 3200 and it just gives the pictures more depth, converting to black and white makes it even better. I've done children's parties with an x100 before. I would absolutely recommend the X series.

Before I bought my X20 I also looked at an X100s, it is a lovely camera, surprisingly chunky, I wasn't convinced in the end that a fixed 35mm would suit and also I'm not sure my photography capabilities could justify a £900 camera.

 

[byegad]

Another thing about m4/3 is that there are several manufacturers with more coming in. It started as a Panasonic/Olympus collaboration The technical details of the format are open source so Sigma, Kodak, Leica, Samyang and several others make lenses and there are supposed to be two other firms on the point of introducing their own bodies too.
With very cheap adapters you can attach almost any lens, under manual control only. With the correct adapter you can gain automatic control of Four Thirds lenses.
I use several Four Thirds lenses, m4/3 lenses from Olympus, Panasonic, Sigma and Samyang* (The latter are manual lenses in all their fitting options.) plus legacy lenses from the days of film using the correct, and dirt cheap, adapter. My camera bodies come from Olympus, in m4/3 and Four Thirds fittings and Panasonic. All the lenses fit the m4/3 bodies, the older Olympus Four Thirds cameras can only use Four Thirds, and legacy lenses, the latter with a cheap adapter.

As to quality. A recent post on a Panasonic forum boasted that a National competition sponsored by a Motor sport organisation placed a Panasonic Lumix DMC G6 photo in second place. This is the same camera as my Panny and I can vouch for its performance in taking Birds in Flight shots. I also find that my Olympus OM-D E M10 is a better camera than the Panny G6.