New Camera Ideas?

[wildernesswanderer]

If you can't see that all the shadows are blocked up (bad dynamic range of sensor) and can't see that every image is not tack sharp (cheap plastic lens) then thats the camera for you.

Unfortunately for me I can see the difference in cheap cameras to expensive cameras, it was no different in film days although the body didn't make much difference. Even if you stuck a $2000+ lens on the camera you would get sharper images but you can't improve dynamic range

But I shoot portraits and weddings so I'm probably not the best when it comes to asking about cheaper gear, I don't use it, there are reasons why but I also have some friends that do not do photography for a living but still buy expensive gear. Reason is they can also see the difference.

[wayno]

and if you cant afford to spend more on horrendously priced camera gear. then it's the camera for you

[wildernesswanderer]

I guess it's why some spend more on cars, audio, hiking gear, its what ever your into really.

So what is the right camera? The one that does the job you want it to, simple as, matters not what I think what someone else thinks as long as it does the job you want then whats it matter

[wayno]

your screen might be able to see pin sharp images. but most screens wont do justice to photos taken by high end camera gear..

[Chris]

About time to revise this topic (I wonder whether Zane has made a decision after all the confusing and conflicting advice )

My original DSLR - an almost antique Canon D300 - is in urgent need of replacement. Was expecting to go for something like 650D or E-M5 but then asked a salesman if I would be silly to restrict myself to Canon. Now I've been introduced to the OM-D EM-5 I'm smitten.

Currently I choose between macro and tele zoom for a walk due to bulk and weight, and have experimented with various arrangements to keep the camera readily accessible without risking a broken jaw if I go head over heels . Something as lightweight as this apparently well-performing mirrorless camera would open up a whole new world.
Having done quite a lot of on-line research since my initial introduction I'm prepared for a very steep learning curve, and happy to compromise on a few things like poor autofocus with a moving subject.

Almost repeating my question to the salesman who made the introduction - would I be silly to choose this without looking further?

[photohiker]

would I be silly to choose this without looking further?

It always pays to consider alternatives, but the EM5 has some good qualities for a bushwalking camera.

* Small and relatively light.

* Weatherproof with one or two weatherproof lens options

* Decent quality images

Downside is cost and most lens options do not include weather sealing.

[taswegian]

I bought one recently.
There's a lot to learn about it if you want to.
It's not your point and shoot and the menus are expansive.

Battery life is poor and get 2. I've got 3.

It's a fun camera and I'm still learning from it.

I enjoy playing with the macro. Bought the 12-50 macro lens, didn't worry about the longer zoom they also offer.

The images have what could be described as a softer look. Landscape ie.
I bought it as my G12 has a pathetic viewfinder and the screen hard to view in bright sunlight.
I still use my G12 and wouldn't give it up.

For a bush walking camera its great, just be wary of battery life.

[wayno]

the lcd/led screens are the biggest power drains on battery, i only turn my camera on when i'm about to take a shot then turn ot off and dont spend much time viewing the shot I've taken. and I find i can pad the battery life out way beyond the documented shot life.
i've got an nex 5... massive lcd. very short battery life..... cold will suck your battery power. in cold conditions it can pay to keep the camera inside a jacket and or have at least the battery inside your sleeping bag at night. seems to depend, later camera batteries seem to endure the cold better than past cameras i've had..

[taswegian]

The E-M5 has many areas that suck power, not just the screen.
It's a busy camera inside.

There is quite a lot written about the settings in some useful blogs.
Robin Wong writes extensively in plain English http://robinwong.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/olympus-om-d-e-m5-review-batu-caves-kl.html
Might need to explore that site.
DPR Review http://www.dpreview.com/articles/9115179666/user-guide-getting-the-most-out-of-the-olympus-e-m5
some tech guff http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/omd-em5/omd-em5A6.HTM
Other postings out there detail what settings to avoid to minimise battery drain.

I have it set to minimal battery use but it's still not brilliant and would not last all day on a walk where there's a lot of interesting stuff to photograph.

There's some dirt cheap batteries out there, but to avoid ANY warranty issues I opted for genuine Olympus ones.
The difference at time may hurt but at least no one can't blame anything on a "dud/dodgy battery and that's what you expect from third party suppliers" type stuff.

[Chris]

Thanks for all the replies - lots of useful info and suggestions there.
I took the plunge today, and now have E-M5 and 12-50 Macro lens + 3 batteries. Tele zoom to come soon - only silver ones left in stock - but plenty to keep me happy on the huge learning curve.

[taswegian]

That's good Chris
Hope your experience is a rewarding one.

One aspect that amazed me was its image stabilisation. It's purported to be best available.
I noticed some photos I'd taken in a manfern area were at about 1/10th of a second. And that was handheld. Quite amazed by its sharpness.

The function buttons are customisable. I changed the default video one as I found I'd accidently turned video ON whilst scrambling up a cliff to grab some wildflower shots only to get there 5 minutes later to have a flat battery and an interesting video of me getting to the ultimate place along with all the sound effects.

[Chris]

Again many thanks for all the useful info/advice TW. Haven't reported progress earlier as I'm somewhat embarrassed at my slow progress in coming to grips with all that the EM5 has to offer - don't think it's failing intellect - just lack of time to settle down with camera and on-line advanced instructions. The menu really is as counter-intuitive as everyone says. Might get there faster if all the instructions were in the book - taking the laptop with me to practice isn't very convenient, and I'm too much a greenie to print nearly 100 extra pages. (Amazing how little spare time I seem to have now compared with when I was working > full time, but can't really complain about that when I'm managing much more bushwalking than back then ). Major project for winter is to master the EM5 fully and set it up properly to my preferences, with all the excellent advice I've been given.

Anyway so far so good - I'm very happy with it, particularly appreciating and exploiting the IS technology. Don't think I've tried out 1/10 yet though! Also love the size and weight after the D300.

Have posted some results:
http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13206 and http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13206&start=60

[taswegian]

Yes that menu is somewhat daunting and I really haven't bothered with much of it.
I was very happy with mine overseas and appreciated the weatherproofing in the downpours.

I bought a 17mm F1.8 and though not weatherproof am happy with the results.
Good in low light without extending to high ISO settings.

Whilst the macro on the 12-50mm is good, useful, I now find I get better results with my Canon G12.
I bought some lens adapters for my old Pentax lenses and have found results with those to be very sharp and nice to use.

I also have a circular polarising filter which I enjoy using.

So after 8 months use I would definitely but again.

[iandsmith]

Wow, I think the best thing is to avoid reading all of this. If I wasn't confused before, I certainly am now! Lots of useful info though.
I'll just stick to my Nikons. Cheers all

[phan_TOM]

yeah second the rx100 for image quality, has a better sensor than any micro four thirds camera.. it's amazing, no viewfinder though, hard to see screen in bright light. if you're doing long trips the batteries don't last as long. so might need a spare.... but you can still get several hundred shots off a charge

I've got an RX100 on the way and I'm been trying to find a case, what do you use for yours wayno or anyone else who owns one? I'm thinking a semi-hard case logic style for a bit of extra protection, I had one for my last compact and it was a bit more rugged than those soft padded type bags.
How's the camera going, are you still happy with the IQ. It does seem to get a good review as far IQ goes but I have heard a few niggles about durability. Do you still get several hundred shots from one battery? Sounds like a lot.

[wayno]

[wayno]

pretty good camera. not as good in low light as my canon gx 1, noticeable difference, but the gx1 is around slr quality in its images, and has a one and a half inch sensor. but the rx is a great camera for its size, generally it takes great photos on auto, hard to believe it comes from such a small camera but then you've got a one inch sensor in it.. seems to take reasonable shots up to 800 ISO.

i think the official battery life is generated based on normal use of leaving the screen on for a while.
if you minimise the photo preview and only have the camera on when you want to take a shot then turn it off straight away you can get far more battery life than the official figure.
seems a strong enough camera. A mate uses his under a drone copter , he's damaged his the lens won't retract now. too many hard landings...
if photohiker doesnt see this thread ask him or look at his link he posted about the tgo challenge where he hiked clear across scotland in some pretty miserable weather., he was supposed to be using an rx for that trip. he's a bit of a camera connoiseur and knows his stuff, he has much higher end gear, but he specifically chose the rx to use for the TGO, he has yet to do his writeup on how his gear held up on the trip. so that will be interesting information

[wayno]

dpreviews review
78% silver award
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sony-cy ... dsc-rx100/

[wayno]

photo 3 is mine taken with the rx
heavy overcast conditions, it lost its sharpness in the conditions, the photo didnt capture the scene adequately

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=12547&p=165629&hilit=other+states+january#p165629

[phan_TOM]

That's a decent looking bag, the weather 'resistance' and room for extra batteries / lens cloth might make it the winner. I have a lowepro for my DSLR and it's reasonably good quality gear as far as I can judge from the 5 years I've had it. I've got an external charger and 2 spare batteries coming for the RX100 as well, the idea that you have to charge from a USB seems a bit stupid to me. The batteries I ordered are third party and much cheaper than the sony branded items so I hope that the camera won't disappear in a short circuit and puff of smoke when I use them - I'm sure that's just hype put out there by the manufacturers to get more sales, I hope!

seems to take reasonable shots up to 800 ISO

It doesn't seem that long ago I was using a film camera and thinking that 400ASA film was borderline too grainy. To think that images shot at ISO 800 from a camera as small as the RX100 are virtually noise free is truly amazing, it reminds me to remember how important it is to keep things in perspective I'll look forward to photohiker sharing some of his thoughts about it too, the TGO would be good testing ground for most kit.

[wayno]

photohikers tgo trip report

http://bellavist.com/blog/?p=671

[wayno]

larger photos of photohikers tgo trip here http://photohiker.zenfolio.com/p7714632 ... #h6efc840a

[phan_TOM]

photohikers tgo trip report

good stuff, I'll have to go and put my Ugg boots on and have a read

heavy overcast conditions, it lost its sharpness in the conditions, the photo didnt capture the scene adequately

You know what they say "a poor tradesman etc..." haha No, its a nice shot, bit hard to see the detail or how sharp it is looking at a heavily compressed jpeg on the net though. I think I've read enough reviews to have realistic expectations now though, I doubt I'll be disappointed. I wouldn't be surprised if it matches my 40D to be honest.

[wayno]

the original shot wasnt much better its a reasonable reflection of what the original was like.... hosed me off that i didnt have my gx1 there to capture it better

[phan_TOM]

Thanks for the advice on the camera pouch wayno, it's a perfect fit with the camera and a couple of batteries.

I'm pretty impressed with the RX100 so far too, it's a powerful little beast with surprisingly good IQ from the few shots I've taken, Sony has outdone themselves. Actually it's so small that the first thing I did was put the wrist strap on it and I have noticed that it's a bit fiddly even though the build quality is solid. It doesn't appear to have the fidelity, the rich colours and tonality I get from my 40D but for a compact it's image quality is pretty remarkable. Like you say the noise isn't an issue up to 800 but even the 1600 files look okay to me!! the noise at higher ISO's isn't too offensive either, more like a fine film grain, which kicks my canons *&%$#! whose files start to get some of that ugly colour noise starting at around ISO 400 and become borderline usable at 800...

I regret not having a camera with me sometimes because I'm to lazy to carry my SLR but I wont have any such problems grabbing the sony before I head off, it truly is a pocket sized camera

[GPSGuided]

For utmost convenience, my iPhone has been the default pull-it-out-quick camera on walks (I am sure it's similar with what other smartphone you have. It's fine for all the casual BTW shots and some FB sharing. Their convenient panorama is great along with some of the pano type apps! But when there are images that I really want to capture, nothing beats a dSLR with a good set of interchangeable lenses. In the bush, the images obtained in the 16-24mm range makes it all worthwhile, one that a compact (commonly 28mm on the lower end) can't provide. And then there's the perpetual debate on whether to suffer the weight of a tripod... The agonies over blurry shots when back at the desk.

[photohiker]

Thanks for the advice on the camera pouch wayno, it's a perfect fit with the camera and a couple of batteries.

I'm pretty impressed with the RX100 so far too, it's a powerful little beast with surprisingly good IQ from the few shots I've taken, Sony has outdone themselves. Actually it's so small that the first thing I did was put the wrist strap on it and I have noticed that it's a bit fiddly even though the build quality is solid.

One thing that improves the handling of the RX100 a lot, and especially if you have normal to large size hands, is the Richard Franiac Grip:





You might notice the extra ring on the front of the lens, that's part of the mag filter system it works pretty well.

I'm using a BlackRapid Snapr10 case. Not waterproof, but reasonably resistant. Anytime the precipitation was getting too much, I stowed the camera.

Whilst up at the snow, I carried the RX100 in the same BlackRapid case, and managed to get it totally clogged with snow in the high winds and a couple of falls in the powder. I was just brushing the snow off the outside and I didn't realise the case and camera was packed with snow until I decided to check it in the lift queue. At that point, I decided the damage, if done, was done so wiped out the snow and brushed off the camera with my hanky. Took some more shots with it too. Back at the lodge, I gave it a quick but more careful clean and wrapped it tightly in a bath towel leaving it in the warm overnight. Unwrapped it and checked with trepidation in the morning, but it came through unscathed.

[phan_TOM]

Thanks for the tip about that grip Michael, it is a very small and slippery little bugger, I'm sure it'll help. I'll have to get one sooner rather than later too as I dropped it twice this afternoon lucky I have the wrist strap attached to it, so I can forget to use it and drop the camera all over the place haha

I did some testing this afternoon trying to see what the sharpness is like at different apertures and how high I think I can crank the ISO before it gets ugly and it is, to my eye, acceptably sharp at all apertures in the centre of the frame and amazingly sharp from f4 to f8. It is a little more limited in the corners but for the size of camera/lens/sensor it is more than decent. I also think the images look acceptable up to ISO 3200, the noise is very fine and I doubt it would be visible unless you were making largish prints, camera tech has come a long way in a short time.

The only real problems I've found apart from it's size (which is also one of it's strong points) is the menu system, which seems complex and tricky to change often used settings. I'm sure I'll get used to it and set the function button etc to the most often used settings but it does seem a bit convoluted. The other thing is adobe lightroom 2 doesn't support the raw files, what a pain. I don't really want to fork out $100 for an upgrade and I don't want to have to use the adobe dng converter, which I downloaded this afternoon, everytime I want to process my photos. I could just shoot in jpeg but after playing around I discovered that the raw files are pretty malleable and much more usable than the jpegs which have a bit of a hard crunchy look to them, same case with my 40D though so I'm not surprised.

[wayno]

problem with small cameras. easy to loose, I lost my RX. fell out of my pocket....
i won't be spending that much on such a small camera again....

[photohiker]

problem with small cameras. easy to loose, I lost my RX. fell out of my pocket....
i won't be spending that much on such a small camera again....

Always tether!



Actually, the secondhand price must be dropping since the mkII has been released, you might pick up a good deal on ebay.