[Closed] Bridge camera or mirrorless camera?

I got an X Pro 1 with two lenses a while back, for 450. I love it, perfect for portraits, landscape and street photography. Sure it's a bit old now, but the build quality is great and it still shoots nicer pictures than most if not all other mirorless cameras in that price range. It is a little bulkier than say, a Lumix or an Oly though as it uses a it uses an aps-c sensor instead of an m 4/3.

However, the new one is 1300 quid.

2ns hand a6000 with the sigma dx lenses (19mm, 30mm, 60mm) will give you great pics for not a lot. Sony RX is worth a look if you want a bridge with a fantastic lens, but you do pay for it.

Not sure why people pay so much for m4/3 cameras other than a slight size advantage and pretty looks.

nice portraits with a blurred background

What's good without spending hundreds?

How about an older apsc Sony: a Nex7 or Nex6 or even a Nex5 with a fast 50 on it. 100-200 quid for the body and 150ish for a Sony 50mm f1.8 OSS. Or an old manual 50 mm for 20 quid instead.

Another upside of the camera is that it's fun to shoot, the hybdrid optical eye piece is a little pointless....but its fun! 😀 (altough in limited circumstances, the fact that you get more in view around what is going to be in the picture, can be quite useful for setting up a shot). The lack of automatic controls vs a polished camera like a Lumix is also fun, as it just sets you in a different frame of mind for shooting.

As for blurred backgrounds, Fuji do some nice fast primes which are arguably better than most of the m 4/3 alternatives (well, last time I did my research). They're a bit pricey though.

What's good without spending hundreds?

As for blurred backgrounds, Fuji do some nice fast primes which are arguably better than most of the m 4/3 alternatives (well, last time I did my research). They're a bit pricey though.

Yeah, you can safely rule out m43 and Fuji.

You're right 5th Elefant, although you can find some second hand deals.

I'm biased though, I love my X-Pro 1, it's the only camera that I have ever owned that I like to shoot with for the sake of it. Although it's also a potential gateway drug to getting into film cameras.

Budgets invariably escalate with post count so Fuji might be in with a shot yet 😉

The reasons to go M4/3 over others?
More compact setup, particularly the lenses
Better lense choice than either Sony or Fuji
Better lenses generally (than Sony at least)

If you are looking to downsize towards a bridge style setup whilst maintaining flexibility I'd recommend looking at secondhand M4/3s.

If other things are actually more of a priority such as low light performance then look at Sony or Fuji.

Better lenses generally (than Sony at least)

And... as the priority was

portraits with a blurred background

Look back through the forum, there's been a few similar threads recently.

Olympus 45mm F1.8 is about £150, should be good enough for most portraits with blurred backgrounds.

Or plenty of cheap old lenses, with an adapter.

It's really not nonsense.
As for budget, the 20mm f1.7 or 45mm f1.8 are both available s/h for ~£150 and both take excellent portraits paired with any body from the last 5 years.

If budget is strictly not hundreds I.e. less than £200 then I'd agree but then I'd think you'd struggle to find a sufficiently fast lensed bridge for that sort of money.

I like my X-Pro 1, however I'm inclined to trade it in for an X-T10. Smaller, lighter, faster autofocus. I mainly use the diddy pancake primes (27mm and 18mm) as they're pretty cheap and tiny. Background defocus used to be an electronic add-on in the NEXs, so an older one might be an option. I always thought it read a bit gimmicky (essentially a filter instead of a true optical property) but YMMV.