DSLR vs Compact Camera with interchangeable lens.

WaterWolf

Hello,

My current camera, a Canon Powershot G6 is dying a slow death at the moment (dust on the sensor, dead pixels, dodgey screen) and with it my interest in Art Photography has been dying somewhat as well.

So it's time for new camera and I was looking to see if anyone has some general advice. I could just get a G10 but that doesn't seem to be much of a step up from my old camera. I think I've used every feature of my current camera to the max so the more flexible my next camera is, the better. Moving on to a camera with interchangeable lenses would seem to be the most obvious next step.

I'm a bit worried about losing the lightweight portability of the camera though. I like to take a lot macro shots of insects and I don't know how easy it would be to do this with a hulking great camera.

So I have two options - try to go for a small DSLR or else try one of those new compact cameras with the interchangeable lenses that they're advertising so much on TV, such as the Sony Nex series or the Panasonic G's. Has anyone had any experience in using these cameras? I like the idea of getting rid of the DSLR mirror and I never use a viewfinder anyway but I'd be a bit worried about getting locked into a 4/3rd lens system. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My price range would probably be anything up to €1000 for the basic setup though if something more expensive gave massively better results then I could always reconsider...

Here's some extra info that might sway your decision:

Things I like about my current camera:
Articulating screen - this is one of the biggest pluses of this camera. I think I would find it very hard to go back to having a fixed screen.
Live view - another thing I'd find it very hard to live without. I can't imagine actually having to hold the camera up to my eye every time I want to take a picture !
Good macro ability - as I said, I like to take lots of insect photos. To be honest, I'm not sure what qualities a camera needs to be good at taking this kind of photo?
Reasonably light weight - I like to take photos at slightly strange angles every so often (such as waving it over the edge of a cliff!) so if it weighed 20kg that would be a bit of a disadvantage!

Things I didn't like:
Poor auto focus - it was very slow and didn't work at all in low light levels.
Bad at dealing with haze - distant objects in landscape photos were barely discernible. I assume having an interchangeable lens would allow me to use a filter to deal with this.
Poor image quality at low light levels - it would be nice to be able to take dark interior photos without a tripod.

Anyway, thanks for reading, I would be very glad to hear your opinions!

melekalikimaka

# Olympus
# Panasonic

both do excellent 4/3 systems, seems like its what ya need

pearljamfan

hiya, im no help to you but i wanted to subscribe to this thread because im in the same situation with regards to making the choice between a professional compact and smaller dslr, so will be interested in any answers you get.:)

bongi69

One thing that I would check OP, is the usability of any lenses on a DSLR in the future, if you decide to move on. It would be fairly useless if you buy, say the sony, and upgrade in the future to a sony DSLR to find that the lenses aren't the same socket, or aren't compatible after building up a nice collection.

CabanSail

It sounds to me like the G11 fits most of what you are seeking.

PCPhoto

i just got a g11 for my holidays......if you want you can borrow it after i get back and see if its something you would go for.

If you have used the g9 then you will notice the differences, worst case you get to play with a new camera and test it out.

I will be away till sept 12 ....so drop me a pm after then and we can arrange to meet up.
Please dont send a pm now....my inbox is almost full and i wont be online for much time over the next 3weeks....at least i dont plan on being online much.

TinyExplosions

A Nikon D5000 would fit the DSLR part of the question

Ballyman

PCPhoto wrote: »

i just got a g11 for my holidays......

Will you not miss the 600 in Hawaii for whale watching?????
Enjoy the hols!

cnocbui

Definitely, the 4/3 system or micro 4/3. Wikipedia will have articles explaining them.

In terms of getting locked in. The 4/3 system bodies can use both Canon and Olympus 35mm OM lenses with the use of adapters:

Because the flange focal distance is significantly shorter than most mounts (such as Canon FD, Canon EF, Nikon F and Pentax K), lenses for many other SLR types, including the old Olympus OM System, can be fitted to Four Thirds cameras with simple mechanical adapter rings. (Such mechanical adapter rings typically require manual setting of focus and aperture). In many cases this produces excellent results, especially with longer focal-length lenses and lenses at smaller apertures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4/3

The micro 4/3 system has really taken off in Japan. These so called mirrorless cameras are now taking around 40% of sales of cameras with interchangeable lenses - apparently.

Photokina is coming up in Sept. I would wait until at least then as there are all sorts of rumours that point towards Olympus possibly introducing something interesting and different, such as a modular camera with possibly a modular mount section.

WaterWolf

Hmmm.... sounds like I need to do a bit more research on which lenses will fit onto which cameras, it's not an area that I know enough about. But it doesn't sound like anyone here has actually used one of these 4/3rd systems yet?

hopelessOne

I've had a Sony NEX-5 for a few weeks now and I've just finished writing up a full review. It'll be published this week and I'll post the link in this thread when it's ready.

From what you've said, I'd say that one of the NEX cameras would be ideal. They're small & light and I've been mightily impressed with the image quality (much better than my a200 DSLR). The ISO noise is also good... ISO1600 is no problem and Lightroom will easily clean-up ISO3200 files to my liking (and I don't like noise). I assume since you're doing macros that manual focus is your normal mode of operation? The NEX provides a 7x or 14x magnified view when you start focusing manually. Also, the NEX screen tilts out both up and down which makes getting down to the ground much easier.

Overall, shooting with the NEX has been an awful lot of fun.

The NEX uses a new lens mount called the E-mount. There's currently only 3 lenses available: 16mm f/2.8, 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 and 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 (I think) but Sony and/or Zeiss should be announcing some more son (hopefully). None of these have a dedicated macro function but I am convinced that macro is the perfect use-case for these camera and I'd be surprised if one of the next lenses announced won't be a macro lens (probably something like the existing 30mm f/2.8 or 50mm f/2.8 macro lenses for the Sony A-mount).

However, like the micro 4/3s cameras, there are lens adapters available for every type of mount: Nikon, Canon, Leica, M42, micro4/3s, Sony A-mount. They're all manual adapters but that's preferred anyway for macro work.

In the meantime, I have a few articles about the NEX cameras at http://nextended.com. Unfortunately I'm in Cork otherwise you'd be welcome to have a play with the NEX.

hopelessOne

Here's my review of the NEX-5 (including photos) on the Warehouse Express blog (I haven't been paid or rewarded for this - I just agreed to publish it there for a bit of linkage to NEXtended)

http://blog.warehouseexpress.com/sony-alpha-nex-5/

Also, you can find a selection of full-res unprocessed photos in this gallery, along with a sample HD movie:

http://hopeless.smugmug.com/Photography/NEX-Samples/

I hope that helps your decision!