Sony Nex 5 Vs Olympus Pen PM1

[mlfisher80]

I am a beginner in photography. I have some basic knowledge but not a ton and would like to begin taking more advanced and artistic pictures. My Canon point and shoot broke and I am wanting to purchase a basic DSLR that gives me some freedom with manual features depth of field ect... I also want a good video recorder.... My first thoughts were to go with a Canon Rebel but I felt it b/c of its bulkiness I might not want to lug it around with my two young children so then I found the Sony Nex 5 and the Olympus Pen pm1. Can anyone recommend or give me reviews on them? I don't want to buy them only to find out and I cannot take the nicer pics and have manuel features I would with a bigger Canon Rebel. Also I thought I read that they did not have built in flashes. Is this an issue? Like I said I am new so not sure what things are needed and not needed.

 

[Village Idiot]

The Sony has a better sensor than the Olympus, but the lens selection is somewhat lacking and the lenses are larger than on the Olympus, so while you'll have a smaller camera body, you'll still have larger more ackward lenses.

I can't say this for the Sony but the Oly kit lens isn't very good, IMHO. I had to purchase two $400 lenses before I started using mine. The smaller sensor will give you more noise and it'll be harder to get lenses that give you a wider field of view, but for portability it can't be beat.

They both have manual controls.