Mirrorless Cam Recommendation

[edz101]

I’ve been using a Canon T5i & 80D. I love the 80D better but find that it’s too heavy to be carrying around while traveling. I’m planning to go to Southeast Asia and Peru in the next few months. Thinking of switching to a mirrorless cam. One that will still give me control over my shots. Any recommendations??


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[jaomul]

Is it to supplement or completely take over from Canon? Budget?

Off the cuff I'd recommend an Olympus EM5 MK2 as they go quite cheap now, are weather sealed and help make nice photos

 

[sergezap]

1. MFT (Panasonic/Olympus) - great lenses selection, bad on high ISO, shallow DOF is not so shallow.
2. Sony (a6300/6500) - mediocre lenses or quite pricey Zeiss or G, battery life just sucks, best in class low light performance, Capture One Express for Sony, shallow DOF is shallower than on MFT.

 

[waday]

Is it to supplement or completely take over from Canon? Budget?

Off the cuff I'd recommend an Olympus EM5 MK2 as they go quite cheap now, are weather sealed and help make nice photos

The EM5.2 with the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm f/4-5.6 II would be a good travel combo.

What’s your budget?

Plus, I believe this combo is weather resistant... great for travel.

 

[jcdeboever]

Fujifilm XT20 body and a lens that fits the range your going for. Their 18-55 kit lens is fantastic and not your normal kit lens, excellent stabilization and image quality. if your looking for a little more reach, the 55-200 is a splendid lens as well. If your looking for a prime, the 23, 35, and 60 are all fantastic, small, and light weight. Wonderful out of camera jpeg image quality.

 

[pixmedic]

your choice will depend largely on your needs and budget.
remember, its not just the size of the camera you need to consider but also the size of the lenses.
the larger the sensor, the larger the lens needed to cover it.
in terms of DSLR's, a micro 4/3 camera like olympus or panasonic will give you the smallest overall setup because of the smaller sensor. what you gain in smaller size you lose in shallow DOF and low light performance compared to larger sensors.
some of the flagship olympus cameras are actually pretty big, especially with a battery grip, so be sure to check models if you decide to go that route.

the sony mirrorless cameras are pretty small as far as cameras go, but with a DX size sensor the lenses are larger than their m4/3 counterparts.
fuji could be an option as well, but some of their models are fairly large as well. the a1- a3 models are very compact and the older a1 and a2 can be had relatively cheap.
of course, the size issue will also be affected by what sort of lenses you need. fuji has some fairly compact lenses in the 23f2, 35f2, and 18-55f2.8-4 lenses, but their longer lenses start getting kinda big, especially if you want the 40-150f2.8 for the longer range.

if overall body/lens size is the biggest factor its hard to not recommend the olympus line. the smaller m4/3 sensor allows for a smaller body and smaller lenses.
i havent seen a budget range posted yet, so that could drastically affect suggestions.

 

[cgw]

The gorgeous Fuji X-T1 body is going for peanuts now. Stunning value. Fujinon lenses, while not giveaway-priced, are great. Is the X-T2 worth a grand more? Nope.

 

[Gary A.]

For purely a travel camera, I would take a Fuji X100F. Small, compact and light. Wonderful imagery, great in-camera JPEGS, awesome lens. But, the X100F is a fixed lens camera. You will have to foot zoom for wide-angle and close-up shots. If I had to travel with only one camera, it would be the X100F.

 

[beagle100]

I’ve been using a Canon T5i & 80D. I love the 80D better but find that it’s too heavy to be carrying around while traveling. I’m planning to go to Southeast Asia and Peru in the next few months. Thinking of switching to a mirrorless cam. One that will still give me control over my shots. Any recommendations??
app

go to a store like Best Buy and check them out
I travel with the Canon M5 mirrorless
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless

 

[edz101]

Is it to supplement or completely take over from Canon? Budget?

Off the cuff I'd recommend an Olympus EM5 MK2 as they go quite cheap now, are weather sealed and help make nice photos

It's more to supplement and for the purpose of traveling. I have scheduled lots of traveling for this year. Often, when exploring for an entire day, I realized how heavy the DSLRs can be. I think my price budget is under $2,000

 

[VidThreeNorth]

I was going to stay out of this discussion because the above advice was all good, but I was bouncing through B&H's website and saw some things.

First, I expect that you know this, but if you are travelling through other countries, it is best to have bought all your equipment in real stores and have bills of sales to confirm it all. I have rarely heard of problems, but what problems I have heard revolve around confiscation of equipment. The bills of sales will not necessarily stop this, but at least you might be ready to argue for compensation from your insurer. Oh, right, be sure your equipment is covered by your insurance.

Next, if everything were "normal price" I would probably recommend Micro 4:3 (either Olympus of Panasonic), or Fuji. Fuji has small lenses. Many of the other APS-C cameras do not have many "small" lenses. Canon and Sony both tend to rely on you using "Full size" lenses to fill out their product lists. Sony actually is not a bad situation. They do have a good array of true APS-C lenses, and there is even some good third party stuff. But yes, really they do expect you to buy some of their bigger stuff. Also, there are good Canon lens adapters that will allow full auto-focus on Sony (and Micro 4:3 bodies as well). But that really is a mark in favor of Fuji because the actually do have more small size lenses to cover you. And actually, I think there is a Metabones full automatic Canon lens adapter for Fuji as well, but I am not sure.

BUT, all things are NOT normal prices right now. As I said, I just went through BA&H and they have some significant sales on:

"Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX85 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera with 12-32mm Lens (Black) B&H # PADMCGX85BB MFR # DMC-GX85KK"
"Panasonic DMC-GX85 Lumix Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera"
- $597.99 US including 2 zooms (the 12-32mm kit zoom and the 45-140mm zoom. They are advertising this as a $200 saving, but really it is over $400 saving. The camera has an eye-level view finder without the lumpy top style.

"Sony Alpha a5100 Mirrorless Digital Camera Kit with Black 16-50mm and 55-210mm Lenses (Black) B&H # SOA5100BK210 (B&H Kit)"
"Sony Alpha a5100 Mirrorless Digital Camera Kit with Black B&H"
$648.00 US including 2 zooms (the 16-50mm kit zoom and the 55-210mm zoom). This is not such a wonderful deal because I do not consider the a5100 to be worth as much as a Lumix GX85, and for better or worse, you into the Sony lens system which I mentioned above.

"Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera with 14-42mm EZ Lens (Black) B&H # OLEM10M2KB MFR # V207052BU000"
"Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II Mirrorless Micro Four V207052BU000"
$549.99 US including the 14-42mm EZ Lens. They also have a 2 zoom lens kit for ~$650 US.

There may be other similar deals at other stores right now, and maybe one with a Fuji in particular. But if you like these deals, it does sound like you will be able to walk away with some cash still in your pocket for a nice lunch. . . .

 

[edz101]

I was going to stay out of this discussion because the above advice was all good, but I was bouncing through B&H's website and saw some things.

First, I expect that you know this, but if you are travelling through other countries, it is best to have bought all your equipment in real stores and have bills of sales to confirm it all. I have rarely heard of problems, but what problems I have heard revolve around confiscation of equipment. The bills of sales will not necessarily stop this, but at least you might be ready to argue for compensation from your insurer. Oh, right, be sure your equipment is covered by your insurance.

Next, if everything were "normal price" I would probably recommend Micro 4:3 (either Olympus of Panasonic), or Fuji. Fuji has small lenses. Many of the other APS-C cameras do not have many "small" lenses. Canon and Sony both tend to rely on you using "Full size" lenses to fill out their product lists. Sony actually is not a bad situation. They do have a good array of true APS-C lenses, and there is even some good third party stuff. But yes, really they do expect you to buy some of their bigger stuff. Also, there are good Canon lens adapters that will allow full auto-focus on Sony (and Micro 4:3 bodies as well). But that really is a mark in favor of Fuji because the actually do have more small size lenses to cover you. And actually, I think there is a Metabones full automatic Canon lens adapter for Fuji as well, but I am not sure.

BUT, all things are NOT normal prices right now. As I said, I just went through BA&H and they have some significant sales on:

"Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX85 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera with 12-32mm Lens (Black) B&H # PADMCGX85BB MFR # DMC-GX85KK"
"Panasonic DMC-GX85 Lumix Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera"
- $597.99 US including 2 zooms (the 12-32mm kit zoom and the 45-140mm zoom. They are advertising this as a $200 saving, but really it is over $400 saving. The camera has an eye-level view finder without the lumpy top style.

"Sony Alpha a5100 Mirrorless Digital Camera Kit with Black 16-50mm and 55-210mm Lenses (Black) B&H # SOA5100BK210 (B&H Kit)"
"Sony Alpha a5100 Mirrorless Digital Camera Kit with Black B&H"
$648.00 US including 2 zooms (the 16-50mm kit zoom and the 55-210mm zoom). This is not such a wonderful deal because I do not consider the a5100 to be worth as much as a Lumix GX85, and for better or worse, you into the Sony lens system which I mentioned above.

"Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera with 14-42mm EZ Lens (Black) B&H # OLEM10M2KB MFR # V207052BU000"
"Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II Mirrorless Micro Four V207052BU000"
$549.99 US including the 14-42mm EZ Lens. They also have a 2 zoom lens kit for ~$650 US.

There may be other similar deals at other stores right now, and maybe one with a Fuji in particular. But if you like these deals, it does sound like you will be able to walk away with some cash still in your pocket for a nice lunch. . . .

Wow. Thank you for the info. I have not been made aware of such tactic where they take away one's equipment. I was introduced to the concept when I went to Mexico last Janaury but it was pertaining to drones. I'm not aware that they do the same thing with cameras. Thank you for that. I am familiar with Canon products but not with other brands. I have looked into Olympus products but not sure if they're the fit for me. Next stop Fujifilm. I'm really torn because of how many products there are in the market now and they're all very competitive. Need to find one that really fits my needs.

 

[Gary A.]

Are your travels with others or alone? Are your travels for more of a vacation or tend towards a photo expedition? Family vacations and photography do not mix.

 

[jcdeboever]

Are your travels with others or alone? Are your travels for more of a vacation or tend towards a photo expedition? Family vacations and photography do not mix.

They do for me. The wife just wants to sit by the pool or on a beach. She went with me on a Friday night in a seedy part of town and wasn't feeling it...I go shoot solo. I like that she has no interests or hobbies.... I take that back, she likes going to baseball games.

 

[Gary A.]

You separated your solo photo excursion from your hubby & wifey vacation time. When she went with you and wasn't feeling it was mixing photography with vacation.