For biking purposes, would you rather have:

Small SLR with a pancake lens
E-PL1 with a kit zoom lens
E-PL1 with a pancake lens
Tough compact

Oh ffs Molly…. 🙄

Yes. One of them.

Or maybe the other one.

HTH.

X

My mates use SLR’s for biking pics, but thats at the bmx trails where they dont have to carry about with them. If your going on a bike ride and want to take pics, would a decent compact not be best? No faffing, less to carry and less cost if you fall off and break it

Oh ffs Molly

I’m bored, depressed, currently interested in cameras and have an obsessive personality.

I did warn you in the thread title 🙂

I bought my lad a fujifilm xp30. It’s one of the new generation of tough compacts. As a camera it’s crap. But… he destroys everything he gets his hands on, so it’s the best camera for him. I can’t stress how crap it is though compared to a pen.

I’d get an e-pl1 and zoom lens (the olympus zoom is really small). Then get a c-mount adapter and get a couple of cheap fast primes (under £20 cheap). Manual focus is really easy with the pen. Focus until it looks OK, hit the zoom button and get it spot on. They’re tough enough. I’ve had 3 heavy crashes carrying my pen in a pouch on my hip. I broke my frame in one of them. The camera is fine.

You wouldn’t want to make any snap decisions…

I’d rather get on with riding the actual bicycle, to be honest.

Yeah I think a proper tough camera is overkill to be fair. I’d like to carry something on my front so that I don’t have to remove a camelbak to snap

I’d rather get on with riding the actual bicycle, to be honest

Then this thread is not for you. Or are you insinuating that I am somehow wrong for wanting to take pictures on a ride? 🙂

Tough compact
A pancake lens would only be useful for some shots
The E-PL stuff is as much faff as a SLR.

iPhone camera FTW

❓

Yeah I think a proper tough camera is overkill to be fair. I’d like to carry something on my front so that I don’t have to remove a camelbak to snap.

Yeah, I use a pouch on a belt but you could just as easily attach a pouch to a shoulder strap.

The E-PL stuff is as much faff as a SLR.

It’s more like a compact. Just a bit bulkier. Not enough for me to notice the difference.

A dslr is a big old lump that you’re very much aware of.

Loving my GF2 at the moment.

Then this thread is not for you. Or are you insinuating that I am somehow wrong for wanting to take pictures on a ride?

Unless you have become Constable molgrips of the STW Forum Police, I suspect that your assumptions regarding my rights to post in this thread are somewhat misplaced.

I was attempting to make the point that the taking of photographs should, in my opinion, be considered a seperate activity to cycling. I appreciate that the bicycle can be utilised as a form of transport while out photographing, but then the choice of photographic equipment should be based on the photographic experience desired rather than the mode of transport.

Your opinion may differ, but is no less valid.

So a large format camera and a compact should be compared on photographic merit, not whether you could physically carry one while cycling? 😯

An interesting perspective.

I’ve got one of these pancake jobbies. It’s a great lens but would be pretty limited for bike pics.

Ok I’ll bite….total camera geek,

It all depends on what you want to achieve and I’m not sure what that is.

Do you want to document the ride with your mates with minimum fuss? Or something more? Are you after a particular effect or style of images?

Do you want really high quality images that you intend to sell?

I’m a photographer and an avid mountain biker and I have found the two hard to mix. I risked taking a DSLR out in the Alps and came back with some great stuff but if I had taken a fall I’m not sure it would have survived. Plus I didn’t like the constant worry in the back of my head.

I regard the act of cycling as one which is adequately entertaining without recourse to any extraneous activity. I am sure, although I have limited experience, that photography is equally rewarding.

I am therefore suggesting that the choice of camera should not be influenced by the mode of transport, within reason.

In more accesible terms; choose a camera for the photos you would like to take, not because you are on a bike.

get the tough compact.. unless IQ on these rides really bothers you massively ?

btw Panasonic just released the G3… I imagine Olympus might release another m43 body with this sensor at some point or something to compete

tough compact here – Fuji xp20 – pics are fine, camera can be in damp pocket, camelbak, wherever, give it a rinse and wipe when you get home, good to go.

btw Panasonic just released the G3… I imagine Olympus might release another m43 body with this sensor at some point or something to compete

But… the e-pl1 is around the £290 mark.

I use a Panasonic TZ5 for riding, and general rough stuff. It’s far quicker and easier to get out of my pack and use when I’m out on the bike. It also has a ten times zoom which is great,

ye.. all seem over kill for bike riding unless the IQ is of concern

just pointing out new stuff is coming out.. so prices may even fall further on old stuff.. and other new stuff will be avaiable

can get a e-p1 or e-pl1 body for 199 quid if you look around

I just bought a used Nikon D70s with a 28-80 lens. I reckon it will fit nicely in the backpack and I might get some nice pics when Im out and about. At £200 Im not too worried if it gets a knock or two – or at least no more tnan I would be with my phone or compact camera.

I’m going to throw the Samsung EX1 into the mix. I really like mine.

I just bought a used Nikon D70s with a 28-80 lens. I reckon it will fit nicely in the backpack and I might get some nice pics when Im out and about. At £200 Im not too worried if it gets a knock or two – or at least no more tnan I would be with my phone or compact camera.

Mr Grips already has a 4/3 SLR and is looking for something smaller.

I was attempting to make the point that the taking of photographs should, in my opinion, be considered a seperate activity to cycling.

A fair point, but usually when I am out biking I keep seeing things I really want to take pictures of 🙂 I see some of the most beautiful scenes out in the countryside, so I would hate for all my best scenery/countryside shots to be taken on a crappy camera.

E-PL1s do seem lovely though.

As for toughness – I am careful with stuff, I’m unlikely to drag it through the mud as the urge to care for my electronic gear runs very deep. I’d probably protect a tough compact anyway.

What’s really important though is ease of access. I have to be able to grab it from somewhere about my person without having to remove a camelbak. This rules out DSLR unless it’s my small one with a pancake.

Keep your camera & get a ThinkTank Digital Holster & chest harness.
Use them with your camera & there you have it!

A fair point, but usually when I am out biking I keep seeing things I really want to take pictures of

…and I know exactly what you mean; I’ve been out on my cross bike today and saw Canada geese with little fluffy chicks, a heron that I could have touched, the raindrops on my glasses that sat as perfect spheres, and so on.

But I don’t miss the photos because I wasn’t out photo-ing, I was out riding…

My take on it, and it is only my take, is that to try to do both results in an interrupted ride and snatched photos, rather than quality in both areas.

That’s why I’m saying choose your camera to take pics with rather than for ease of use on the bike; after all you wouldn’t choose a bike based on the camera you were taking…

I take a Pentax W90, clipped to a camelbak shoulder strap with the included carabiner, with the lens facing inwards it slides snugly under the elasticated band minimising mud / splashes on the lens.

Its waterproof, drop proof and pretty much crash proof. I don’t spend any thought process worrying about it and instead enjoy the riding. Its there if something interesting pops up (ie someone else crashing).

Anything bigger / prettier and it requires stopping, unpacking, setting up, shooting, packing back up and resuming. Kind of spoils the point of being out on the bike in the first place.

What’s really important though is ease of access. I have to be able to grab it from somewhere about my person without having to remove a camelbak. This rules out DSLR unless it’s my small one with a pancake.

Sony Nex3 with 16mm pancake….£295
job done.

Thinking of pulling the trigger on the E-PL1… Thought about the Oly XZ-1 but comparing the images on dpreview there’s absolutely no contest.

Sounds like you’ve made the decision, you just haven’t realised yet. Get it bought.

Always got to ask, do you plan on taking flat out action shots of your mates when you ride or are you after something to capture the landscape around you maybe with a cyclist in it?

I use a Canon G11 but get the G12 with 720 HD videos

or are you after something to capture the landscape around you maybe with a cyclist in it?

That.

I already have a DSLR that I can bring if I want to go to town with the pics, this is for popping in the bag to snap scenery and such.

Doesn’t help that I have no mates and am usually on my own, either 🙂

Looked at the Nex-3. Pros are that it is available as a kit with the pancake lens, and it’s a smidge smaller than the Pen.

Pros of the Pen are better IQ I reckon, and if needed (although I can’t imagine when I’d need this) I can get a cheap adapter and use my full sized 4/3 lenses with it. Plus I’m an Oly fanboi 😉 User interface is supposed to be better for more advanced photographers on the Pen too, less pointy shooty.

Oh.. e-pl2 has a better lens.. argh..

User interface on the e-pl1 is very similar to the nex-3 (all menu driven). The e-pl2 is better (it actually has a control wheel, if a rather naff one). For decent manual controls you need an e-p1 or e-p2.

The e-p3 is supposed to be announced in late June so I guess the e-p2 will be very cheap in Q4 this year.

Now worrying about lens wobble on the E-PL1…

I wouldn’t worry too much. The mk1 sell for £70-ish on ebay, the mk2s £120ish. So not a big deal to upgrade if you don’t get on with the mk1. I think the mk2 is better but to be honest I doubt I could prove it.
mk1 (except the last one)
mk2

Nice pics.. Are those OOC JPEGs? It says saturation 2 on the EXIF, does that mean you upped it on the camera? The colours look lovely and rich.

Also, nice dog 🙂

I shoot raw and change saturation, sharpness etc during processing on a shot by shot basis using Olympus Master. I usually bump up the saturation. You could dial in the same settings and get the same results out of the camera, but not so easily on a shot-by-shot.