molgrips – Member

Wow, RS, almost everything in your post is wrong.. wait, no, EVERYTHING in your post is wrong, but this is the worst bit:

What an amazingly patronising reply – well up to your usual current standards.

I was a competent enough film SLR and compact camera user, but it took me several months of sitting in my living room going throught the 100-odd page manual trying things out and really understanding what it all meant to my photos before I was confident. I’m still learning. Recently for example I realised that the ‘vivid’ colour profile actually does a bit of sharpening, and to get the best out of a high ISO JPEG I can reduce NR and sharpening to good effect. I’ve had the camera for over three years.

So you didn’t read the manual properly at the beginning?
Who’s fault is that?

There are compelling reasons to consider Sony and Pentax too. No-one benefits if we end up with a dupoloy, by the way. Sony and Pentax offer unique features in SLRs, and even Olympus did too.

Go on then, list the ‘compelling’ reasons.

That tells me you don’t really understand digital photography properly. They don’t do degrees in shoelace tying, after all, and no-one makes a career out of professional shoelace tying.

Yeah, cheers for that.
You know nothing about my photographic history – still, it’s a good line, why waste it?

And complete bollocks too, btw.
The relationship between apeture, shutter speed and sensitivity is very simple indeed.

TBH, if I’d thought about it properly, I wouldn’t even have bothered contributing to a thread you’ve already posted on.
Pointless isn’t it?
You’re right, everyone else is wrong.
I used to enjoy your contributions, but the smugness is getting a bit wearing.

I’ll leave it there.

What an amazingly patronising reply – well up to your usual current standards.

It’s not meant to be patronising, I just disagree!

So you didn’t read the manual properly at the beginning?

No, it’s stuff that isn’t in the manual, but you learn over time spent with a camera. The manual tells you how to operate the controls, it doesn’t tell you how to take photos. Well actually, the Olympus one does, but only basic advice.

Go on then, list the ‘compelling’ reasons.

Pentax have the cheapest weather sealed offering – that’s pretty compelling imo.

Sony have a different mirror technology, which works pretty well, and when I was shopping offered more features for the same price. I was going to buy one until I found a special offer on my Oly.

The relationship between apeture, shutter speed and sensitivity is very simple indeed.

It is, yes, but there’s a lot more to photography than just that.

I apologise for being so confrontational, but your original post did get me a little irked, because you were calling me deluded and making some very sweeping pronouncements. What I meant to say was that I disagree with those sweeping pronouncements. I really didn’t think they are helpful for someone such as the OP.

It’s cameras chaps!
I really appreciate the replies and also that everyone is trying to be helpful.
I will be getting a compact system camera (apparently that’s what they are called) DSLRs are just too big, and as novices we wouldn’t use half of the functionality. Perhaps in the future.
Currys is shit. They won’t deliver and will only allow collection from a store which has it in stock. Truly a new standard in customer service. The olympus PEN epl3 is winning, the aesthetics leave me a little underwhelmed but you can’t argue with the image quality. Just need to find one at a compatible price from a decent retailer now. Unless anyone has stumbled upon some heavily discounted camera pron?

Bid this now!

http://www.ebay.de/itm/OLYMPUS-E-PL3-KIT-ll-14-42mm-OBJEKTIV-DIGITALKAMERA-KAMERA-CAMERA-/390587916533?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Digitalkameras&hash=item5af0daa0f5

Assuming you missed that, try this

Lumix GX1?

Meant to be the eventual successor to the extremely well regarded GF1.

Nice in the hand too, very good image quality. The Olympus and lumix cameras were always related and so image quality ought to be similar but usually the Olympus versions had a better Jpeg processor. This certainly applied to the earlier models. Not sure with the current ones but guess its similar.

Someone up there, said the image quality of the Nikon 1 its not much better than a compact. That is wrong.I don’t know how the image quality of it compares to similar system cameras but 2 of my mates have got them and the lab at work use one too. The picture quality is loads better than a compact, it focuses really well and seems pretty easy to use. At work, there are lots of reflective surface and the main area of interest for photos is quite poorly lit.I was sceptical about how well the Nikon 1 would cope, but it works really well.

It also has a 400fps video mode that we use quite a lot for capturing subtle effects.
Admittedly, not sure that would get used too much by a normal consumer.

Not saying it’s the best,I haven’t used enough off the competition to say, but don’t be put off by someone saying the image quality is not much better than a compact’ cos it simply isn’t true.

A small DSLR will do all you ask and more.

The four thirds system, no matter how loud people shout about it, is dead. It just doesn’t know it yet.

The ONLY camera systems worth investing in are Canon & Nikon DSLR – the Microsoft and Apple of the camera world.
Anything else is like buying a Dragon 32 or an Atari – a massive waste of money & time.

You need an optical viewfinder. Anyone who says otherwise is just deluded – you can’t take decent pictures if you can’t see the subject.

But the most important thing is the manual – a camera is just a box with a hole in it. You need to strip away all the crap and learn how it works.
This takes about five minutes.
If you can tie your shoelaces, you can work it out.

If you just want to take better, as opposed to different, photos, buy a good book, read the manual and learn simple relationship between apeture, shutter speed and sensor/film speed.

😆

And I thought Jeremy Clarkson only did cars.

Comedy genius.

It may have been me that said that about Nikon 1 quality, having read about it, but I went to the dp review comparison site and was quite surprise how comparable it was. Still not quite as good in Jpeg as thethe olympus but decent.

The Nikon 1 was awful when it came out. Then the price was slashed and now it’s actually very good.

My vote would go to the Canon G15.A really good piece of kit in my opinion.

The lukewarm reviews for the Nikons at launch were based on it being approx £800 when it came out. It was very expensive for what it was, the small sensor put people off as they didn’t believe it could be that good; though not a bad camera at all, just overpriced. The higher spec V1 has/had an electronic viewfinder, which I find really useful, feels lovely to handle, superb build quality, looks great, is super fast at focusing and reaction time and image quality is vastly better than our previous Lumix compact. My choice was between the Lumix GF1/GX1, the Sony NEX5/5N etc. Once the Nikons came down to nearly £200, it was a no brainer. If you can still find them, I would really really recommend one.

Was £830, now £260!

Ive been looking at entry level dslrs and the like.. the V1 looks like quite a good buy for what it is. Dunno whether to go for an entry level Nikon d3100 or something like the V1. LH.. how well does it work in low light??

I looked at EP-L3, but went for a Fuji X10 instead. If I wanted to faff with lenses, I’d get an SLR.
The X10 has all the manual control you want & an optical view finder.
It has now been superseded by the X20, which is identical but with new sensor & autofocus & a display in the viewfinder.

Ive been looking at entry level dslrs and the like.. the V1 looks like quite a good buy for what it is. Dunno whether to go for an entry level Nikon d3100 or something like the V1. LH.. how well does it work in low light??

The v1 has a much smaller sensor than an asp-c sensor which is standard in dslrs, so it captures less light and has worse low light capabilities. M4/3 has a slightly smaller sensor so slightly worse performance. Sony nex have an asp-c sensor so perform the same as the best asp-c dslrs.

Really it’s down to form factor. A dslr is as good or better than a mirrorless at everything but they are huge. If you can live with the size get a dslr.

Ideally i want something which i can pick up and take an opportunistic photo (usually of children) fairly quickly. Also something which will take good photos for my wifes website (and is quite easy for her to use). So really.. the best moon on a stick camera that can be up and running for about £300 (dont mind buying a few extra lenses in the future)… Confusingly most of the cameras i seem to looking at have quite good reviews so the more i look the harder it seems to pick

You’ve pretty much described the design brief for the Nikon v1.

Still have this if anybody is after a bargain:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/micro-43-camera-and-lens-dslr-quality-for-160

I’m extremely happy with my Fuji X100.

Rachel

Ideally i want something which i can pick up and take an opportunistic photo (usually of children) fairly quickly.

That’s the design brief for most camears. If you’re used to compacts, any of the cameras described on here will be brilliant.

Re taking good photos for the website – if it’s of products, then the camera is far less important than the lighting, that’s a whole nother ball game 🙂

cloudnine – Member
Ideally i want something which i can pick up and take an opportunistic photo (usually of children) fairly quickly. Also something which will take good photos for my wifes website (and is quite easy for her to use). So really.. the best moon on a stick camera that can be up and running for about £300 (dont mind buying a few extra lenses in the future)… Confusingly most of the cameras i seem to looking at have quite good reviews so the more i look the harder it seems to pick

5thElefant – Member
You’ve pretty much described the design brief for the Nikon v1.

As 5thElefant said, this is the V1’s speciality. The Nikon V1 does have a small sensor compared to other cameras of it’s type, so there are others that are better if you are particularly looking at something for taking pictures in low light – like the Sonys, which squeeze in a sensor as big as a DSLR ( I think?!). Having said that, its low light performance is way better than you’d expect. I have no complaints. It’s in a different league to a compact. Like you, I was looking for something mainly for taking photos of my kids, so a quick start up , quick reaction time and quick autofocus were most important. In this respect, the V1 is superb amongst the CSC and M4/3rds type cameras as it has phase detection as well as the contrast detection autofocus the others rely on. The processor is very fast, and in burst mode you can take 10 frames per second in autofocus mode or a staggering 60 fps if you lock the focus from the first frame. You shouldn’t miss the moment anymore!
I’ve been extremely pleased with my choice and it was an absolute bargain.

A DSLR is obviously the best at pretty much everything, but their hugeness means they are just not handy to have around and grab that opportunistic shot.

Thanks LH… very helpful..
Found the V1 for For £219.99 with a 10-30mm lens
http://www.thehut.com/electronics/digital-camera/nikon-1-v1-compact-system-camera-with-10-30mm-lens-kit-black-10.1mp-3-inch-lcd/10728188.html

Can anyone recommend any other lenses that would work well??

That’s the design brief for most camears. If you’re used to compacts, any of the cameras described on here will be brilliant.

m4/3 and Nex are both crap at fast moving children (or anything else). In reasonable light the Nikon v1 has dslr like focus ability plus ridiculous frame-rates.

Does focus tracking really work very well anyway? If your AF were fast enough in static mode you could just rely on DoF being enough to soak up any movement. Maybe. Every time I’ve tried taking pictures of kids their movement has been too erratic to track anyway regardless of camera 🙂

Hmmm. So the V1 is a good option then?

Could be. At that price I doubt you’ll be too disappointed.

Go to a shop and have a look at both. Personal preference would decide it.

First 2 photos with V1 just as little miss CN arrived home from school

Most pleased 8)