i am luking to buy a new mmirrorless camera
had sort of seleted on either ep3 or epl3 of olympus . BUT i have yet to find a shope that has a model for me to take a look at and handle .

i met a friend who has the nikon J1 and that was soo cool to use .

now im wondering if i shud luk at all the avaivaleble models again .
i didnt luk into any other brands other than panasonic or olympus

can anyone give me advise if i shud comsider the nikon rather than the olympus

alot of ppl have the sony NEX .. it seems to b the popular mirrorless camera , buti have had too many bad experiences with the sony . so plesae dont tell me to luk at that brand

plz advise

The ep3 is a very nice little camera, and when you factor out sony. That will leave you with samsung, who has very good lenses, but I am not a fan of samsung product. I have had the experience you had with sony.

There is the pentax k01, but the lenses are either big and bulky, or very expensive with the DA limited lenses.

The nikon J1 is new, and the sensor is not bad, but being 2.5 crop it does not preform as well as the olympus or the other 2 aps-c camera. And they lenses line up is limited as it is new.

You can also look at some of the panasonic m4/3 bodies, the Gx and G3 are pretty nice as well. I just like the IBIS of the olympus body better then the panny OIS system and the olympus jpeg engine.

The fuji has one as well but like the nikon a smaller sensor at 2/3 and limited lenses.

You can always order with amazon if you can not find a store to try out the olympus. They have an excellent return policy.

Where are you located that you can not find a shop that carries the olympus.

But at the end, with interchangeable lenses systems. You are buying a system. And lens lineup right now is with olympus and panny lead, follow by samsung.

+1 what shoturtle said. You are buying a system, not a camera so you need to factor in lens choices and prices cause you will be buying some at some point

What about the Olympus OM-D EM-5?

Unless you've found a great deal on the e-p3 the OM-D EM-5 is just a few hundred more and you get a hell of a lot more camera with the inclusion of the electronic view finder* and higher res sensor.

If it were my money I would skip the e-p3 in favor of the OM-D EM-5. If you are trying to keep a budget then I would consider the Panasonic G3 or the Olympus e-pl3, e-p2 or e-pl2. The Olympus' up to the OM-D EM-5 all share the same basic sensor specifications with some tweaking in between to allow higher iso and 1080 video. If high iso and full hd (instead of 720) are big concerns again the OM-D EM-5 is a big jump forward or then again the Panasonic G3 is rumored to have the same sensor as the OM-D EM-5 but at half the price and video has always been a strong point of Panasonic, although their out of camera JPEGs don't come close to the Olympus imho.

*the VF-2 electronic view finder is the one accessory I thought I didn't need but now having it I can't live without it. The LCDs are good but nothing beats the EV-F on a sunny day or for using legacy manual focus lenses.

so i guess u both suggest to stick with the OLYMPUS

im in armonk NY right now , i was told to try at best buy .. none of them do
and i dont know where the exclisve digicam shops here are ...
i suppose that if u all feel that olympus mirrorless cams are the best at the moment , i shud just go ahead and buy it , and not worry abt not having had a chance to handle the camera, before paying .

just that i have had a chance to handle the nikon j1 and the sony nex ... im just hoping that the PENs are better than these brands ...... they are better right ?

If you are in armonk, NY I would suggest a ride down to NYC to bhphoto

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/Hel...perStore08.jsp

probably one of the better stores anywhere.

J&R is another option in NYC
http://www.jr.com/information/directions.jsp

just wanted to add that better is subjective. both shoturtle and I mentioned the panasonics they do some things better than olympus. I would never say the nex is bad as I have seen excellent results with them and they do some things better than olympus or panasonic. It really depends on your shooting style and need.

remember though you are buying into a system - that is the power of micro four thirds as they all share common mount I know the lenses I buy today for my e-pl2 will work on my OM-D EM-5 or e-pl5 (when it comes out) or a Panasonic G3 if I decide to go that route. If I buy a Nex or a Nikon or a Samsung I have less options for lenses and for upgrades. Although with the Nikon able to adapt to us older Nikon lenses your options are pretty limitless - it is too bad they used an older 10mp sensor in the nikon 1 series - probably worried a bigger 12-16MP sensor would have eaten away at their entry level dslrs.

I like to go to dpreview and compare IQ - with the drop downs you can pick almost any cameras to compare and it will give you a idea of what you like. Also look around here and on flickr and you can easily search out shots taken with models you are considering.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusem5/19

The other things with buying into a system, bodies get changed out down the line, lenses go from body to body. With M4/3 you can choose an olympus body, but if down the line. You like the panasonic. You can just get the panasonic body and still all the lenses you have.

The panny are good camera's but they lack in the off camera flash department, and none of their prime lenses are stabilized. So it can be harder to get a stead shot in low light with them. It just seems the panny does not do as well with the olympus lenses then the olympus with panny lenses. The 75-300 from olympus is a very good lens, nicer then the panny 100-300, but I would not use a 75-300 on the panny body, as it will be hard as hell to get a steady shot at 600mm of reach without stabilization.

But they do HD very well, like sony and canon. That is their strong suit.

oh no , i went to nyc ... but ended up waiting 3 hrs in line to get to the top of the empire state buliding , BH was just a block or 2 away ....

im just a hobbist....so that is the reason i cannot decide on which brand to go for .... could one of u please spell it out in plain terms for me ?

i cannot deal with the size and weight of the SLR .
but was as good pics as possible ... hence i want the mirrorless range.

i realise more will fair better than my 5 yr old camera as far as image stabilizatin

1. want clear sharp SLR like pics
2. to do better in low light
3. to do better in action( fast moving kids )
4 . good imagestabilization
5 good video , can carry both camera and video camera all times .
6 i do take quite a bit of artistci shots , i have found that canon and nikon helped me alot in those areas , and the olympus art filters seemd quite fun.i believe i will really enjoy it .
i do knt know abt those sort of options in the panasonic model or sony if it worth it .
all the stores in NY i have been to seem to have only the NEX ... doesnt mean its the best . but thats what everyone is buying out there .. having used the modes in canon and nikon .... these cameras allowd me shud beutiful colors , sometimes converter an ordinary scene into shuch a beauty .....olympus seems to offer me the same .

i also realise icant get it all ... but which of these brands or which model(S) whould be best stuited to my needs?i dont want to buy the latest model of my present camera , i have never done that .. i want to get something diff . but awesome ... i mean its got to have alot more perks than my G7

i hope i was a bit more direct in my question this time .
thanks in advance .

sorry you missed BH, I think you would have found many of your answers there.

most likely any of the cameras you are looking at are going to be better than your 5 yr old camera.
due to the big sensor size any of the cameras will produce clear/sharp slr like images
this has a lot to due with the lens. lenses with a larger max aperture will do well in low light. the smaller the f number the larger the aperture. Micro four thirds cameras (Olympus and Panasonic) have an advantage in this area with a large number of fast primes such as the Olympus 12mm f2 and 45mm f1.8 or the Panasonic 14mm f2.5, 20mm f1.7 or 25mm f1.4.
mirror-less cameras do not do very well in action shooting because of the method employed for focus, (contrast detection auto focus). The higher end NEX 5 and 7 do very well in this area. The Olympus cameras do have an autofocus tracking feature that locks onto a subject and tries to keep them in focus by following them, I cannot speak to how well it works.
Olympus has a distinct advantage in my opinion here since they stabilize the sensor, meaning any lens will have stabilization. Both Panasonic and Sony use optical image stabilization (OIS) in the lens.
Again any of these will do fairly well with video with both the Nex and the Panasonic getting high review points for this. That's not to say the Olympus doesn't do a good job, even the 720p out of my E-PL2 is sharp and clear.
I personally recommend adding the art effects in post processing as it gives you more options. If panoramic shots are important the I believe the Sony will do this in the camera which is a nice feature (as opposed to doing it in post processing).
I would personally recommend the Olympus cameras because even though it has some weaknesses compared to the Nex cameras the lens selection available in micro four thirds makes up for it.


The Nex cameras are hot that is why you see them everywhere. However I will point out the NYC is pretty infamous for selling counterfeit items, Sony Nex being hot right now I would imagine there are quite a few fakes out there as Sony products are always being faked. I would only purchase from a reputable seller like J&R electronics, BH, a large chain like Best Buy or any of the online retailers listed in the "Hot Deals" section of this site (Adorama, Sammys, etc).

thanks for ur reply . u have ansered alot of my questions .
but u didnt really comment on nikon .. the J1

what wud u say abt it ?

i too am leaning to wards thhe olympus mirrorless range ... but i got to handle the J1 ... ( have yet to see the PENS ) and i really thought it was awesome , im really irked that i havent yet been able to see a PEN so i can decenrlt compare ... on paper though ... will the olympus be better than the nikon ....

ireally liked the nikon ! i only hpe the olumpus will be better !