I just checked Amazon and you can get the m.zuiko 9-18 for $575, which is a whole lot less money than the Panasonic 7-14, and you'd not be giving much up to the Panasonic from what I've read. The Panasonic 14 f/2.5 is currently priced at $349, but if it were me I think I'd spend the extra $ to get the added versatility of the variable, although the enhanced light-gathering abilities of the fixed power would be tempting. Let us know what you end up with and how you like it.
I went to an indoor musical concert on Sunday (my son is a member of several musical groups) where flash photography was discouraged. I was wishing I had my recently ordered Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens, but it hadn't arrived yet. What I ended up doing was taking a bunch of pics with my 45-200, hand-held and in pretty low light, and some of them came out great. It wasn't an ideal situation or lens, but it still worked out okay. I like the size of the E-P2 for this sort of thing. Oh, and the 20mm f/1.7 arrived via FedEx today! I can't wait to go try it out.
If you don't have lightroom 3 look into it, it does magic with that sensor making ISO 800 images perfect and 1600 only have the slightest hint of grain.
That Voigtlander/Nokton 25mm f/0.95 looks like an awesome lens. I'd love to have one but don't seem to be able to find many for sale for under about $1100. I think that's well above MSRP, although maybe I'm thinking back to when the dollar was worth more. Do you have one? If so, where did you find it? I'm definitely interested but would like to know a little more. The reviews I've read have been universally positive.
I finally made my decision and went the mirrorless route with Sony Nex 5. Yeah it's no dslr but it's pretty close to those in the under 1000 bucks category. It was on sale and I got the wide angle lens for next to nothing as well. In the end I liked the size and convenience factor, and the Dslr's in that price range seemed kind of cheap and gimmicky. I'll get a Dslr when I can afford to get something a little higher on the totem pole.
Really? I haven't been able to find anything about that. I inquired on one of the photo threads and was told that they just hadn't anticipated the demand and that the lenses do show up from time-to-time, but get snapped up quite fast when they do. I put myself on a notification list and will see how that goes.
The NEX is a mirrorless mount that uses an APS-C sensor from Sony's line of DSLRs. The lenses are the Sony 'E-mount' and at this point are limited to a 16mm pancake, 18-55, and 18-200. Sony/Minolta SLR lenses can be used with an adapter.
So I take it that it's not a micro 4/3, but a different format altogether. What would be the advantages over, say, the Olympus or Panasonic micro 4/3ds? It sounds as though the camera is in the same price range as the m4/3ds.
The sensors are a very slightly different size and shape, and the mounts aren't compatible, but they are very much in the same category. The Sony's are very slim, outside of that I don't know much about them.
I did a bit of checking too and, while I'm not 100% sure of this, it appears that Noctor is a company that was bought by SLRmagic as you say, but that company had nothing whatever to do with the Voigtlander lenses. Those were designated as Nocton which is just a badge for fast lenses from the likes of Voigtlander and are still being made, just not fast enough to keep up with demand.
Not quite. Samsung has their own mount as well. There are rampant rumors that Canon, Nikon and Pentax will enter the fray. It really isn't any different than the proprietary mounts the companies have had, and developed since the fifties, for their SLRs.
Just went through the same quandry. My wife still shoots film and our digital point and shoot died. We were looking for a good quality 'pocket' camera for hiking, climbing, etc.. The sx95 and G11 were the front runners and the cost of those were up in the 4/3 area. I had been looking at them for awhile but the sales people at the camera shops in town kept saying they were a dying technology like the aps film cameras. We just bought the Olympus E-PL2, just delivered the other day and it is killing me because I have been on duty for 72hrs and can not wait to get home and play with the new toy (camera and hopefully a ktm adventure if the guy selling would call me back!). Going to get a pancake lens to make it easier to carry in the pocket or purse for those indoor family gatherings. The G3 was just announced also and there are several other new models being released. It is obviously not a format that is going to die, IMO.
If you like the form factor of the NEX, & you were coming from a P&S background, IMO, you're going to love using it. It's got a pretty slick interface. I really like the context-sensitive controls--well thought out. Personally, I didn't end up with one myself (I ended up on the m4/3 platform), but I helped my buddy pick up one, & I spend a good bit of time using his...very enjoyable!
What lens did your camera come with? I'm guessing the 14-42 m.zuiko which is a decent, versatile lens, but not as compact as a pancake by a stretch, even in the compressed "carry" mode. The two commonly available pancake lenses for m4/3 cameras seem to be the m.zuiko 17mm f/2.8, and the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7. The Olympus lens is less $ and maybe a millimeter or two 'shorter', but from the reviews I read they were really raving about the Pana lens, so that's the one I got. I've only had it a couple of weeks and haven't had a lot of opportunity to shoot with it, but preliminary impressions are very positive. If you're going to do indoor family gatherings, and not use a flash (I personally don't like most amateur flash pics), the extra speed of the 1.7 is a big plus.
The Olympus pen can use a micro to 4/3 adapter to mount older 3/4 (non-micro) lens and doesn't add a lot of weight or size, I use it with a 40-150 3/4 zoom lens they had on sale that came with adapter (the lens was essentially free) and Olympus now has 6 lens to fit the Pen line directly. I got the E-P1 when it first came out and love it for traveling, hardly ever use my DSLR for that now, esp. when traveling to warmer climates when carrying a camera and lens around all day can negatively impact your enjoyment due to excess weight. I may pick up the E-PL2 since it has the built-in flash and takes the VR viewfinder option and some of the features I use most are not buried in the menu but have direct access via controls. the big down side to the E-PL2 rather than the E-P2 is the lack of the second thumb-wheel which I use a lot in manual and overall the layout of controls is not a good in the PL-X line over the P1 or P2, IMO. Both though have a new faster focusing lens and software over the old E-P1. The lack of a good eye level viewfinder mostly limits you in bright light and trying to track action both of which I do a lot of so the upgrade seems really worth it. Overall I'm very pleased with Pen; its a good investment in light weight quality photo gear. RM
