I’m after a new camera and was looking at the Nikon D5300 SLR, as it seems to get reasonable reviews (for the price) and met my limited needs.

However, the more I read about mirrorless cameras, the more I think that’s the way to go, rather than SLR.

So I’m back to square one in terms of research & wondering if anyone knows a bit about this and can recommend something around the £350 price point (+\- £50)

Must include a lens for this price, wifi also a must.

Cheers.

If you are on a limited budget, then you want to be able to buy and use second hand lenses – for normal canon or Nikon SLR there are LOADS out there at very reasonable prices

Not so for the mirrorless cameras.

ninfan – Member
If you are on a limited budget, then you want to be able to buy and use second hand lenses – for normal canon or Nikon SLR there are LOADS out there at very reasonable prices

Not so for the mirrorless cameras.
You sure about that?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/hands-reviews/use-m-mount-and-m42-lenses-mirrorless-cameras

Lens Adapters
Because they’re small in size and lightweight, all of these manual-focus M-Mount and M42-Mount lenses make great companions for today’s compact mirrorless digital cameras such as the Micro Four Thirds cameras made by Olympus and Panasonic, the Samsung NX200, Sony NEX cameras and the Ricoh GXR. After all, attaching a 5-pound lens to a 1-pound camera defeats the purpose of having such a lightweight camera in the first place.

All you need to attach an M-Mount or M42-Mount lens to a mirrorless camera is the right adapter. Because the lenses are fully manual, including focus, you will have to shoot in manual mode, regardless of any modern features the cameras might offer. The exception, of course, is that you can expect full functionality when you use a modern Leica lens on a Leica Digital M camera. And remember that you can use any M-Mount or M42-Mount lens with these adapters, regardless of whether they were made in the 1950s or this year.

B&H carries hundreds of lens adapters, but here we’re concerned only with adapters that will allow M-Mount and M42-mount lenses to work with mirrorless cameras. If you want to adapt an M-Mount lens to a Micro Four Thirds camera you have three choices of adapters: there’s the Novoflex Leica M Lens to Micro Four-Thirds Camera Body Adapter, the Voigtlander Micro Four Thirds to M Lens Mount Adapter and the Dot Line Micro 4/3 Mount for Leica M Bayonet Lens. If you want to mount an M42 lens on a Micro Four Thirds camera, the Novoflex M42 to Micro Four Thirds Lens Adapter will do the trick.

Lumix G6 is about £300, with the kit lens. It has wifi. I think its pretty good, if you want something in a mini-DSLR style. Has plenty of buttons, and a nice swivel screen etc.

As for lens, depends on just what you want to do. I think the kit lens is good for 90% of the photos I take. I have a longer telephoto for wildlife and sports. Would be nice to have a fast prime as well.

Yes, you can use cheap/old lens with a suitable adapter. But they won’t work with autofocus etc. Plus they are a lot bigger/heavier than a proper Micro 4/3 lens.

Sony a5000 fits the bill. Same size sensor (same manufacturer too) as the Nikon dslr. You’ll have change for a second lens too.

I think I’d be looking at the Sony mentioned above or the Panasonic GF6 – although that has been around for a while now & might be up for replacement soon, so might be worth looking at what’s in the pipeline.

Panasonic & Olympus use the same mounts, so you can use either lens (I think) on both models of camera.

I think that Olympus has in-body stabilisation so worth seeing if they have any cameras that suit your needs and budget because that will mean you can get non-stabilised (generally cheaper) lenses and the camera body will do the stabilising for you.

A second hand Olympus EM5 is a good shout at that sort of price. The new EM5 Mk2 has just been released which has pushed the price down.

Great cameras, used one for the past 18 months.

Pics at: http://www.mikehowarth.co.uk if you want to check out the quality.

I got a used EM5 body for about £250. Matching kit lens goes for about £100.
Great camera.
Doesn’t have wi-fi, though the very similar Em-10 does.
I swithered back and forth over the two but went for the Em5 as it is weather proofed and I’d like to take it mountain biking.

The Panasonic GX7 could be a good shout around that price range too.