Camera gear discussions

Thanks for the feedback guys. I need to get back out there and have another go with them all and see if the Fuji is really as laggy and sluggish as it was the first time I tried it.

@Eric_C - The EM-1 is their top one in that particular range, it goes upwards 10, 5, then 1. Every Olympus I tried felt really good in the hand and very natural to use. It was a bit more hit and miss with the other brands. I'll try and check out the EPL-7 too - thanks!

@BrettMatthews - you know I didn't even pick up any of the Sonys. I need to rethink that. I think I got put off by some reviews about their ease of use. I'll give them a go - thanks! More choice...blowing my mind.

There are some terrific prices around on these cameras at the moment. I think there's an X-T2 on the way and the EM-1 is getting on a bit now, so there's some good deals used/new on the X-T1 and EM-1. Have to just take the plunge soon.

 

If stills are your thing a NEX-5/5R/6 with kit for a lower prices can be an amazing system. It has the big DX-sensor and old lenses can be fitted with adaptors for manual focus. Before I went EM5 mark I, the NEX-series was really tempting for the money.

 

Do you guys use polarizer or UV filters much? I never gave them much thought, but will be travelling to Japan in September and will be outside alot (climbing Mt. Fuji and some lesser mountains), so have started looking into them (for protection as much as for optics). Any pros or cons I should be aware of? Thanks.

 

@Jeb bear in mind the EPL-7 has no EVF--something I find myself missing every now and then! (I had a DSLR before this)
@fraggler no filters for moi, paranoid about them affecting the optics. Then again I'm also cheapskate, so I wouldn't spend on good quality filters where this may not be a factor...

 

@Jeb I don't find the Sonys hard to use. With any camera they all take a bit of getting used to, but it's definitely worth taking a look at to see if it is something you can get used to.

 

I'm a professional cultural tour photographer. Here's my website: www.zeissiez.com. I mainly use a Nikon D800E system, but I have a Fuji X-T1 system when I wish to travel light. I have owned some big sensor compact cameras in the past, such as the Canon G1X II. Then I found myself to keep them at home, because I thought the IQ was not satisfying for my purposes. After all the experiment, I regard APS-C to be the minimum size I would go. I the past I have also used Canon with a range of L lenses. Of the 3 systems, Nikon, Canon and Fuji, I like Fuji's color the most. With the excellent Auto dynamic range feature set to DR400 to safe guard the high-light, it's the only camera that I prefer to shoot JPEG instead of RAW.

The OMD cameras focus faster, more snappy. I think that partly has to do with a bigger DoF than the Fuji, and big aperture lenses. The JPEG works for some other ppl, but I find the JPEG a bit rough. I imagined that I would have to shoot RAW all the time to get what I want. I also prefer the 3:2 ratio of the Fuji's images, which is inline with my Nikon.

Another important aspect that I like about the XT-1 is external dial operation. Shutter speed, aperture, ISO, drive mode, metering mode are all accessible with external dials. I would preferred the button pads of the X-Pro2 though, as those on the XT-1 are too small and shallow. I'm a bit disappointed that the new XT-2 looked to be having the same smallish buttons.

Another feature that the Olympus cameras have I like is touch focus, which make focus selection faster in some situation.

Lastly, it's likely that the future iteration of EM1 would carry over the multiple-shot high-resolution feature. Which I think is good to have.

It's one of those difficult decisions, and one that you have to plunge in and work with it until you find out whether it's the system u want.

 

I stopped using UV filters for at least a year now, those seem to degrade image quality at the prices I'm willing to pay and aren't going to offer much protection in any case. Polarisers and ND filters might be useful, but you'll need some familiarity with them. I haven't tried filters from many brands but the ND and polariser from Breakthrough Photography are of pretty good build and haven't given me any problems apart from the learning curve.

 

btw, @zeissiez, I just had some time to really look at your photo galleries and they are absolutely fantastic! Wow - beautiful work! Thanks for sharing your experiences and some of the pros/cons with the XT-1 too. It really helps.

 

I have an A7 and I wouldn't say it is difficult to use at all. All the buttons are user configurable so you can customize it to suit your needs (and there are more than enough buttons). With the 55 1.8 it takes such beautiful pictures, I just love the way it renders.

The only downside of the whole A7 series is the size of the body and lack of lenses. Sure it is smaller than a DSLR but I wouldn't consider it compact. While the lenses that are available are really good, they are also quite large and expensive, especially compared to the Fuji lenses. I wish I could use compact 35mm or 28mm rangefinder lenses with the A7 because there is a ton of great vintage glass available for a reasonable price but they just don't work that well with full frame sensors.

Recently I have been using a film Leica M, which I find to be the perfect size to carry around all the time. I never found a similar size digital that convinced me to give up the A7. I looked at some of the Fuji's, Sony A6000, Sony RX1, but for various reasons they just didn't do it for me.

 

Lens hoods offer better protection than any filter can, plus they reduce flare. Bonus. Dust on lens elements doesn't really show up in images in the vast majority of conditions. Dust on filters, and worse - flare, nearly always does.

I only use filters if I want the specific optical effect/purpose they are made for. Not protection.

 

Thanks! Just a point of clarification. The link you posted sends me to a filter classified as a UV filter by BHphoto. Is it just their classification or will this reduce a stop as well?

This might all be moot since it will likely rain a bit while I am there. I might end up taking more shots than I'd like using my smartphone in a waterproof pouch -_-

And thank you all for your opinions and advice.

 

A UV filter should not reduce more than a small fraction of a stop. No compensation is usually needed.

 

I don't believe digital sensors are particularly susceptible to UV light. If you use one with a digital camera the only benefit real benefit would be lens protection. I am not convinced that a UV or clear filter of reasonable quality will degrade output in a noticeable way. Personally I would rather have one on to prevent scratches and bumps on the lens. A lens hood works well too but I find them a bit unwieldy.

A polarizing filter is useful for blocking light reflection. If you want a clear photograph into windows or water it is pretty much mandatory.

 

I think I will pick up a polarizer since I will be shooting water and through windows. Last time I went, I had a lot of reflections on shots of the city skyline though observation windows.

 

Wow, I've never thought to try that. Definitely something that I am going to need to try, thanks!

 

Just bought a Ricoh GR-ii so far I really like it!

 

The first APS-C GR has been the best compact camera I've used to date, glad you're liking the GR-ii!

In other news, I've convinced my boss to get us an Fuji XT-2 whenever that comes out, so that should be fun to play around with. We've been meaning to get a camera for action stills for the longest time and the XT-2's specs pretty much fill out everything on our wishlist. As great of a camera the a7s is, you can definitely tell that it was designed with video in mind and stills as almost an afterthought. While the image quality is fantastic (as expected from a modern full frame sensor), the limited resolution and sluggish AF make it a bit of a pain to use for stills outside of product and studio shots, especially since I work for a fitness company....