Teach Me About Mirrorless Systems

I currently shoot with an old DSLR...Canon XTi with some firmware hacks to be exact. I have semi-kept up with the new DSLR gear out there, but despite the attractiveness of it all, I haven't been able to justify in my mind the necessity of an upgrade. I honestly don't shoot as much as I used to so it seemed pointless to blow a lot of money.

But the last couple weeks Micro 4/3 systems have caught my eye in one way or another. Looking at the price for say an Olympus E-Pen, this seems to be a more reasonable purchase especially I am a casual shooter nowadays. The size and the flexibility, while still being able to retain decent IQ seems to be a plus as well. Any opinions on running a setup like this? The Fujifilm systems also caught my eye. Any word on those?

Well, to better help, what and how do you shoot? Is this going to be pretty much just a family snapshot camera? Or do you put more thought and effort into your shooting, requiring more flexibility and ability in the camera? Fixed lens or interchangeable? Budget?

If you already have Canon lenses then check out the EOS M. You can use your current EF lenses with this adapter.

They also offer lenses just for the M system. EOS M bodies can be had for a song.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/883304-REG/Canon_6609b033_EOS_M_Digital_Camera_with.html

I've heard lots of good things about the eos-m. I'm not a Canon shooter, but it's a good rig and might fit with what you already have and are used to.

Avoid the m.

If you go for Olympus, spend a little more and get one of the omd models. The em5 has recently dropped in price, and is very good value.

Imo the the fujis have better image quality, but you will pay a lot more for the equivelent model to an omd em5.

fast14riot said:

Well, to better help, what and how do you shoot? Is this going to be pretty much just a family snapshot camera? Or do you put more thought and effort into your shooting, requiring more flexibility and ability in the camera? Fixed lens or interchangeable? Budget?

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I used to shoot a ton, portraits and lots of landscapes whenever I had time/was on vacation. I've done senior portraits and a couple weddings too...but I usually rented nicer gear. But I've recently slowed down a lot the past couple years though. Other hobbies have sort of eaten up my time. I mostly bust out my camera now for family gatherings. I used my phone on my last two vacations because I was too lazy to carry my camera bag around

I definitely want the flexibility and ability to tinker when I feel, but also be able to easily snap pics here and there.

xillion said:

If you already have Canon lenses then check out the EOS M. You can use your current EF lenses with this adapter.

They also offer lenses just for the M system. EOS M bodies can be had for a song.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/883304-REG/Canon_6609b033_EOS_M_Digital_Camera_with.html

Click to expand...

Haven't seen this system yet. Sounds attractive...though I don't have a huge collection of lenses, so I'm not necessarily stuck with the Canon world.

I would check out the Sony line, probably the nex models. Solid cameras, small size, excellent quality and many lenses are adaptable to them.

I've owned Fuji, Sony and Olympus. To me, Olympus' biggest advantage is lenses. Fuji has some fantastic lenses, but they are way up there pricewise. Together with the price of the bodies, I don't think it's worth it.

Sony has a lot of okay lenses, but not many that are great, and again you're looking at around 1K for most of the good ones.

Olympus has some great primes that are quite reasonable, like the 45mm f1.8 and 25mm f1.8. (The 75mm f1.8 is pricey but it's superb.) They also have the 12-40mm f2.8 zoom that is faster, better and cheaper ($700-800 depending on discount du jour) than the pro zooms from Sony.

If you're primarily going to manual focus and get legacy lenses, I think the Sony Nex line is great for that, although you won't get in-body stabilization like you get with Olympus. I'm using the relatively cheap E-M10 body (it's been as low as $499 recently) and have been very happy.

Put the excellent Olympus lenses on a Sony nex body, best of both worlds. A friend of mine does that, it is quite the combination.

fast14riot said:

Put the excellent Olympus lenses on a Sony nex body, best of both worlds. A friend of mine does that, it is quite the combination.

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Olympus lenses are designed for a micro 4/3 sensor, the sony NEX (now known as Alpha, like the A series cameras were, just to confuse things) have an APS-C sensor, so you will have coverage issues, with light falloff at the edges of the frame.

And no Autofocus, of course.

Oops, I meant the legacy glass.

Id go Olympus or Panasonic. They both use the same lens system(so you can mix and match if you want) and have the largest selection with some excellent bargain lenses.

I was on vacation and used my sisters Panasonic Lumix with the 20mm 1.7f. It was fantastic. Images were tack sharp with excellent color reproduction. I often kept borrowing her camera instead of my Canon 40D because the weight was so minimal.

While I'm heavily invested in Canon glass, but would like to get into the PEN system.