Olympus E450 + lens - £200 - yay or nay?

[MarkRSi]

My inevitable fall to the DSLR side grows nearer.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIte...

Drawbacks I can see

• 4/3 image sensor smaller than other DSLRs, if I wasn't bothered about sensor size (= more noise at higher ISOs IMO) I'd keep my FZ28 bridge
• No optical image stabilisation in lens or body, but then is this a big deal?
• OMG it's not a Cankon therefore it's st

At the same price I ought to be able to get a second hand Canon 350D + lens for £200 quite easily. But then again I'll probably just go for something newer & more expensive regardless but seems a good deal.

Edited by MarkRSi on Thursday 24th November 17:28

[Crafty_]

A guy at work has just bought the same on some sort of deal. He figured that at £200 he could afford to try it, if the thing ends up stuffed in a cupboard and only comes out twice a year its no big problem.

On the other hand if he does take to photography it'll give him a decent start and he could upgrade to another system later on. The investment at this stage is minimal so he won't lose out too much.

I say go for it, whats the worst that could happen ?

[MarkRSi]

Crafty_ said:

I say go for it, whats the worst that could happen ?

One the one hand, the tight goblin inside me likes the cheaper Olympus, however it also knows I might make a loss when/if I sell it to upgrade to something else

Been looking at more expensive stuff today at Currys;

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/pentax-k-r-digital-s...
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/sony-slt-a35-interch...

The two lenses with the Pentax would keep me amused for a while.
Some reviews show the A35 is pretty darn good. I was a bit worried their transparent mirror system would mean less light on CCD/CMOS = worse image quality but doesn't seem to be the case (love the dpreview site ). Both has in built IS too. I assume Minolta Alpha lenes would work with the Sony too?

But then again, for around the same price, I could get one of these...

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/canon-eos-1100d-digi...
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/nikon-d3100-digital-...

Argh decisions decisions...

Edited by MarkRSi on Friday 25th November 17:19

[toppstuff]

MarkRSi said:

One the one hand, the tight goblin inside me likes the cheaper Olympus, however it also knows I might make a loss when/if I sell it to upgrade to something else

Been looking at more expensive stuff today at Currys;

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/pentax-k-r-digital-s...
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/sony-slt-a35-interch...

The two lenses with the Pentax would keep me amused for a while.
Some reviews show the A35 is pretty darn good. I was a bit worried their transparent mirror system would mean less light on CCD/CMOS = worse image quality but doesn't seem to be the case (love the dpreview site )

But then again, for around the same price, I could get one of these...

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/canon-eos-1100d-digi...
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/nikon-d3100-digital-...

Of that group, the Sony A35 is the obvious choice. It has a much better sensor than any of them - the same sensor you will find in the much pricier Nikon D7000. A great camera.

The Pentax is also very nice. It has less megapixels, but you would never notice unless you are making huge prints. The advantage is that is has low noise at high ISO's, which means it is great at shooting in low light, or shooting sports, because you can push the ISO and use higher shutter speeds without getting too much grainy noise in the picture.

Edited by toppstuff on Friday 25th November 17:33

[Crafty_]

MarkRSi said:

One the one hand, the tight goblin inside me likes the cheaper Olympus, however it also knows I might make a loss when/if I sell it to upgrade to something else

Been looking at more expensive stuff today at Currys;

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/pentax-k-r-digital-s...
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/sony-slt-a35-interch...

The two lenses with the Pentax would keep me amused for a while.
Some reviews show the A35 is pretty darn good. I was a bit worried their transparent mirror system would mean less light on CCD/CMOS = worse image quality but doesn't seem to be the case (love the dpreview site ). Both has in built IS too. I assume Minolta Alpha lenes would work with the Sony too?

But then again, for around the same price, I could get one of these...

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/canon-eos-1100d-digi...
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/nikon-d3100-digital-...

Argh decisions decisions...

Edited by MarkRSi on Friday 25th November 17:19

But we could go on and on - if you got one of the last two and decided to upgrade you'll lose more than you would on the olympus I think.

If you have more budget what about second hand ? had a quick browse on TP and saw:
450D + kit lens £275 (still there)
550D + kit lens + 55-250 £550
40D body £365
450D + 50mm + whole bunch of bits and bobs £370

From what I read the Pentax and Sony are good cameras, but for resale value and lens choice I'd stick to Canon/Nikon if dropping this sort of money.

ETA: If buying new always check CPB, updated every day: www.camerapricebuster.co.uk

[-Pete-]

Technically I'm sure they're all great, but why risk £500 to find out if you need a DSLR? ~£250 is enough.

I say this as an amateur photographer for more than 30 years. I'm going to recommend a Canon, because I think they're the best value for money if you decide to continue with your DSLR hobby. I'm sure Nikon are as good or maybe better, but they work out a bit more expensive.

If you're not sure whether you'll continue with it, the Olympus looks good. But if you get into it, you'll almost certainly sell it and start again with Canon or Nikon IMO.

[MarkRSi]

toppstuff said:

The Pentax is also very nice. It has less megapixels, but you would never notice unless you are making huge prints. The advantage is that is has low noise at high ISO's, which means it is great at shooting in low light, or shooting sports, because you can push the ISO and use higher shutter speeds without getting too much grainy noise in the picture.

Edited by toppstuff on Friday 25th November 17:33

That's what I like about the Pentax, and the thing that annoys me with the my current Panasonic FZ28 bridge camera. I've noticed that A35 seems to suffer at higher ISO too... and I can't imagine the smaller four thirds sensor in the Olympus being good either in similar conditions.

TBH I think I'd want something I can grow with rather than a something to try out (hence wondering if Nikon/Canon would be better).

I'm no professional otherwise I'd just go and buy whatever Canon can supply me for £1+k Current FZ28 gets used for car/bike shows, motorsport events, hoons, night/low-light photography and something to do while out with the family. Zoom range is 27-485mm (35mm eqv. I assume?) which is more than sufficient for what I use it for. That said how much can I expect a 400mm zoom lens to cost...?

Edited by MarkRSi on Friday 25th November 19:25

[-Pete-]

I haven't used a bridge camera but can see the benefits for slow-moving subjects in decent lighting conditions. What I don't like about non-SLR's is the slow focussing time. And a zoom lens with that focal range won't be too good at any of them, professional lenses are rarely more than 3x zoom for a reason.

A 400mm SLR lens is going to cost you a few hundred pounds plus, more if you want a decent aperture. But you will have a much bigger choice of them (new or used) with Canon/Nikon. Start with a kit lens, spend half a year taking pictures, then decide where you want to go next.

Also, I don't rate IS, I prefer f2.8 lenses. But many others praise IS.

[MarkRSi]

Crafty_ said:

ETA: If buying new always check CPB, updated every day: www.camerapricebuster.co.uk

Great site, cheers

Crafty_ said:

If you have more budget what about second hand ? had a quick browse on TP and saw:
450D + kit lens £275 (still there)
550D + kit lens + 55-250 £550
40D body £365
450D + 50mm + whole bunch of bits and bobs £370

From what I read the Pentax and Sony are good cameras, but for resale value and lens choice I'd stick to Canon/Nikon if dropping this sort of money.

Second hand is very tempting, what is TP btw? This? http://teamworkphoto.com

[Crafty_]

Sorry, TP is www.talkphotography.co.uk. Think of it as pistonheads for cameras. More information on there than you will ever be able to read & remember.

Classifieds will not be immediately available, sign up, have a good read, make a few posts and they will then be viewable (its a post limit thing). I've bought 3 lenses through it and my mate bought a body & lens, never had a problem.

[MarkRSi]

Crafty_ said:

Sorry, TP is www.talkphotography.co.uk. Think of it as pistonheads for cameras. More information on there than you will ever be able to read & remember.

Classifieds will not be immediately available, sign up, have a good read, make a few posts and they will then be viewable (its a post limit thing). I've bought 3 lenses through it and my mate bought a body & lens, never had a problem.

Ta Just been using Fleabay for used stuff up to this point.

Now I just need to find 300bhp/ton's photography mad cousin, '300mm/f2.8' who will no doubt advise me to buy some 80's 35mm film Minolta SLR

[Deluded]

I have one.

Good little camera. Can't really fault it although prefer the older E500/510s I used to own. No big differences really, infact, the 450 is superior to both in many ways.

The whole 4:3 thing is a non issue in my opinion. I can't for the life of me figure out why everyone makes such a big deal out of what really makes no difference to the end result.

The only downsides I can see to the camera is that there is no AF bulb. It uses a flash stobe to focus in low light which, tbh, can be annoying for both the user and models. The alternative is to just turn off the AF assist. It still manages to focus in pretty low lights without it but does hunt sometimes if it is very dark.

It's not really just a downside to this camera though, pretty much all of the cameras in it's class suffer from the same issue and to most, it wont be an issue at all. Just annoyed me.

Excellent all round performer and as said, for £200 you can't go far wrong!

I'll sell you mine for £190 with a lens (kit), 8gb compact flash and a case. Immaculate condition. Rarely used. Cost me £300 new.

[MarkRSi]

Deluded said:

The whole 4:3 thing is a non issue in my opinion. I can't for the life of me figure out why everyone makes such a big deal out of what really makes no difference to the end result.

As I understand one the reasons why compacts & bridges are so crap in low light/high ISO is their tiny image sensors? Sure four thirds is bigger, but it seems like it sits in between the compact and APS-C sizes?

I've seen a few sample shots for the E450 which look 'alright' but I'd really like some back to back/benchmark shots like they do on dpreview. If you can show me or point me towards any low-light/high ISO photos I'd like to see them

Could you recommend a 200+mm lens too?

[Crafty_]

Mark if you want to see sample shots you can use the flickr camera finder: http://www.flickr.com/cameras/

[MarkRSi]

Crafty_ said:

Mark if you want to see sample shots you can use the flickr camera finder: http://www.flickr.com/cameras/

Woo hoo another online resource

Doesn't seem possible to view the EXIF data however...?

[Crafty_]

When viewing a photo, if you look in the right hand column it will say something like "This photo was taken today at 10:34am using a Canon EOS 7D". The camera name will be a link, click that and you will see the EXIF.
Some people hide theirs and obviously HDR images typically don't have it either, in which case the camera name usually doesn't appear.

[MarkRSi]

Crafty_ said:

When viewing a photo, if you look in the right hand column it will say something like "This photo was taken today at 10:34am using a Canon EOS 7D". The camera name will be a link, click that and you will see the EXIF.
Some people hide theirs and obviously HDR images typically don't have it either, in which case the camera name usually doesn't appear.

FFS I spent nearly an hour trying to find that on Google/Flickr help Thanks again

[CatJ]

Mark have you made a decision as yet? I've been looking at the same deal this afternoon.

[JABB]

I would say a 40D, as I have one with a 18-135 IS lens. Cracking camera which you can grow into. The *00 range are lighter and smaller but less well made. The 40D is magnesium. PM me if you want, I am having to sell mine at the moment as we urgently need funds, for various reasons, but I will have another one soon.

[MarkRSi]

CatJ said:

Mark have you made a decision as yet? I've been looking at the same deal this afternoon.

I think I'll give the Olympus a miss - a good camera and good deal for sure but I'd want something with much better low light performance than my current FZ28 (which I'll probably keep as a second camera). If this deal came a year ago I reckon I would have gone for that over my FZ28 which cost about the same.

For new stuff I'm still deciding between the Pentax K-R and Sony A35. Had another look in Currys hoping they could power them up, but put a nearly dead battery in the K-R and completely dead one in the Sony While it lasted the Pentax was nice to use though

Still open to second hand stuff, signed up to the TP forum but have to wait 60 days to get access to the sales section

Edited by MarkRSi on Sunday 27th November 23:25