Author Topic: Chalk and Cheese - Olympus E-M1 vs Canon 7DmII vs ? (Read 4198 times)

Silken Photography · « **on:** September 19, 2014, 19:17 »

I primarily shoot landscapes and wildlife. I currently have a Canon 7D which I'm increasingly getting fed up with, and a Fujifilm x100s which I love and carry with me every day. I want to replace the 7D with another interchangeable lens system, but I'm torn. I always thought my next camera would be a full-frame but I want more fps than the 6D and I can't afford the 5DmIII and upwards.

My x100s has given me a taste for what some of these newcomers are capable of. Focus peaking! I friggin love that. Small and light - why carry around a beast? A typical photography day for me starts with me standing still for hours following by a lot of walking around trying to capture the local wildlife - we get a lot of birds around here especially - so I like the 7D's versatility there.

The 7DmII is even heavier and has nothing that exciting apart from the auto-focus system. Do I ditch Canon entirely and go with a newcomer? My research a couple of months ago led me to the Olympus E-M1 but I really should have another look at what's out there. Has anyone else done similar already?

Ed · « **Reply #1 on:** September 19, 2014, 20:08 »

So get a Fuji XT-1 and a 14mm lens to replace your x100s. Then get an 18-55 to supplement it.

....and Fuji is not a newcomer - they've been around for a very long time.

Silken Photography · « **Reply #2 on:** September 19, 2014, 22:09 »

Maybe "newcomer" is the wrong word. I know all these companies have been around for ages, but it seems that it's only been relatively recently that they've been taken seriously by pro photographers. I need a better word to mean "not Canon or Nikon old-school DLSRs".

I've played with the Fuji XT-1, it's quite nice. I don't like the aperture being around the lens however, even though I've had the same on the x100s for over a year somehow I'm still not used to it. I haven't totally written it off as an option though. Do you reckon the Fuji XT-1 stacks up well enough?

Ed · « **Reply #3 on:** September 19, 2014, 22:51 »

Fuji has been taken seriously by many pros for a very long time - in the film days they were very well regarded for various things Canon and Nikon didn't do including medium format film range finder cameras. Canon and Nikon are not the only companies "in the game."

The aperture around the lens is very similar to just about every film camera ever made.

The Fuji stacks up well enough for me no issue. Here's an image taken at 25,600 iso on the XT-1 shot with the 35mm prime....

Tror · « **Reply #4 on:** September 20, 2014, 05:54 »

There are many exciting news on the camera market these days!

If I can recommend you two things:

- Abandon Canon! There are too behind. The 7D mkII is a joke for a development time of 5 years. To me, it looks like Canon would like to freeze time and evolution of technology on the level they are comfortable with. Even if you benefit _now_ from the clearly great AF and Tracking of the 7d mkii, do you really wanna stick another 5 years with that Cam?

- Compare all available and relevant Cameras carefully. Many factors come into play and the market is very divers at the moment. Focus and speed is obviously important to you, but as well is Battery life, speed, weight, handling, a weather sealed body etc.

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #5 on:** September 20, 2014, 07:34 »

I think you should be looking at Sony.

I'm a landscape/cityscape shooter. I have a 5DMII with a bunch of lenses. I got tired of carrying around a 50lb backpack full of stuff just so I had the right lens for every situation. I saw that Nikon has a compact 28-300mm so I picked up a D800. That combo covers 90% of my shooting and an 18-35mm covers the rest. Great setup but it's still heavy. I do a lot of biking to get shots and it feels like a bowling ball hanging from my neck. Plus you need a pretty heavy duty tripod to hold either of those cameras and that adds to the weight you carry.

I picked up a Sony NEX-7 and 18-200mm. Excellent combo. Compact, light, and image quality at lower ISOs is as good or better than the 5DMII. And theres something about this camera that seems to capture colors, like sunsets, better than the 5D or D800. Most of my best work has come from the NEX-7. I also can now use a small sling bag and ultra compact travel tripod. It makes shooting so much more enjoyable.

So for somebody like you who does both action and landscape take a look at the new Sony A6000. 24MP, 11FPS, $600US body, and is supposed to have a excellent new auto-focus system. Super compact, light, and an 18-200 (SEL18200, not the other two) would cover a lot of your range. I'm considering picking one up to replace my NEX-7 because it's similar but can also handle action.

If you want full frame there's the 36MP A7R but not exactly an action camera. Plus Metabones makes adapters where you can use some of your Canon lenses with it.

PeterChigmaroff · « **Reply #6 on:** September 20, 2014, 17:31 »

The Sonys and guess others take Canon glass fairly easily. Plus you can get these from Metabones; You get f/2.8 from a f/4 lens. How sweet is that?

The Canon EF Lens to Micro Four Thirds Speed Booster from Metabones allows a full frame Canon EF lens to be mounted to a Micro Four Thirds mount camera and in doing so, increases the angle of view by 0.71x and increases the maximum aperture one f/stop.

When a lens intended for full frame sensors or 35mm film is mounted to a camera with a Micro Four Thirds sensor, it transmits a larger area of light than the smaller sensor was built to accept and therefore the effective angle of view of the lens increases. The Speed Booster condenses light from the lens and projects it onto the MFT sensor allowing it to utilize all of the lens' light and effectively reduces the crop factor of an MFT camera from 2x to 1.07x, producing a full-frame angle of view with an MFT sensor. A corresponding increase in the maximum aperture of one f/stop makes the lens more effective in low-light situations and able to create a shallow depth of field.

Silken Photography · « **Reply #7 on:** September 20, 2014, 18:29 »

Ooh I didn't know about Metabones, thanks Zeus and Paulie. That definitely makes a change interesting.

Tror: it's exactly the "What about in five years" that makes me wary of the 7DmII. Things like a touchscreen are called gimmicks by some by are actually really useful. I've enjoyed using the 7D autofocus so that side of things does tempt me, but the 7DmII is going to look and feel dated in about ... hmmm... now.

PaulieWalnuts: Thanks for the recs, I'll check the Sony out. (P.S. always loved your name and icon!)