Best landscape/low light performer for under £1000

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TGphoto

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Hi,

I posted a couple of days ago about mirrorless systems. I just wanted to test the water here to see what options people suggest.

Moving from a Canon 7D.

Looking for any suggestions as to great cameras with excellent IQ with decent low light performance for under or around a grand. Primarily for landscape photography.

Mirrorless and DSLR options considered at this stage, that said, smaller is better for me.

MUST be an upgrade from the 7D - which I will be selling.

Thank you.
 
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Look for a used D800/E!
 
Olympus E-M1 MkI or E-M10 MkII.

The E-M1 MkI is the best value for money m4/3 body at the moment IMO and the E-M10 MkII is small, light and excellent - a great travel camera.

Please note for super high ISO (3200 upwards) m4/3 can't match the IQ you will get from full-frame bodies but the benefit is significantly reduced weight and bulk which means that you are more likely to bring your equipment along instead of leaving it at home! m4/3 lenses vary from good to excellent and there are several serious Panasonic and Olympus bargains in the overall line-up.
 
maarten.dhaese said:
Olympus E-M1 MkI or E-M10 MkII.

The E-M1 MkI is the best value for money m4/3 body at the moment IMO and the E-M10 MkII is small, light and excellent - a great travel camera.

Please note for super high ISO (3200 upwards) m4/3 can't match the IQ you will get from full-frame bodies but the benefit is significantly reduced weight and bulk which means that you are more likely to bring your equipment along instead of leaving it at home! m4/3 lenses vary from good to excellent and there are several serious Panasonic and Olympus bargains in the overall line-up.
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Cheers, question about Panasonic. Would you go GX8 or GX80?
 
If it's of any help, I own a Canon 80D and chose a Panasonic G80 as my "second" camera. At the moment, I've paired this with a panny 25mm F1.7 prime.
I chose the G80 because, for me, I couldn't get comfortable holding the GX80 and the GX8 seemed to be give me no real size reduction when compared to the Canon. I'm not sure if this was real or just perceived, though!
Anyway, I'm delighted with my choice and am currently exploring the labyrinthine world of adapted lenses!!
 
Tom Green said:
Got to admit the more I look into it the more I am tempted. Lenses are steep though!
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I bought mine with the 28-70mm kit lens but I've never used it. I also have the native 35mm f2.8 which I've used a lot and the 55mm f1.8 which I've used quite a lot. These lenses are simply outstanding world class lenses and I think they're reasonably priced for what they are, excellent.

I also have and use Minolta Rokkor, Olympus Zuiko and Canon FD lenses. I've posted lots of pictures taken with these lenses in the Sony A7 thread. My photography may not be cutting edge but maybe you can still get a sense of the image quality you can get from these old lenses. I love using old lenses and I doubt I'll ever buy native lenses at the focal lengths I like to use occasionally but not enough to spend £hundreds on a native lens like, 24, 28, 85 and 135mm. I have old lenses at all those lengths.

Maybe you could go for a camera and just a couple of native lenses and fill the lesser used gaps with cheap adapted lenses?
 
maarten.dhaese said:
Olympus E-M1 MkI or E-M10 MkII.

The E-M1 MkI is the best value for money m4/3 body at the moment IMO and the E-M10 MkII is small, light and excellent - a great travel camera.

Please note for super high ISO (3200 upwards) m4/3 can't match the IQ you will get from full-frame bodies but the benefit is significantly reduced weight and bulk which means that you are more likely to bring your equipment along instead of leaving it at home! m4/3 lenses vary from good to excellent and there are several serious Panasonic and Olympus bargains in the overall line-up.
Click to expand...

I love m4/3 stuff but it is worth mentioning that clean low light stuff isn't necessarily their forte, especially the EM1 which suffers a lot from noise generated by heat during long exposures. For some reason it seems worse than other m4/3 cameras in that regard. What does massively swing back in favour of the Olympus cameras in certain situations is the incredilbe IBIS system. I found many occasions where I could shoot at night hand held and get lovely clean images at low iso.

It depends what the OP means by landscape/low light as to what might work best. If it's long exposure stuff on a tripod, most modern cameras deal with that pretty well on a sturdy tripod.

Sony A7 would do everything well though as long tracking AF is not needed for anything.
 
gad-westy said:
I love m4/3 stuff but it is worth mentioning that clean low light stuff isn't necessarily their forte, especially the EM1 which suffers a lot from noise generated by heat during long exposures. For some reason it seems worse than other m4/3 cameras in that regard. What does massively swing back in favour of the Olympus cameras in certain situations is the incredilbe IBIS system. I found many occasions where I could shoot at night hand held and get lovely clean images at low iso.

It depends what the OP means by landscape/low light as to what might work best. If it's long exposure stuff on a tripod, most modern cameras deal with that pretty well on a sturdy tripod.

Sony A7 would do everything well though as long tracking AF is not needed for anything.
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Cheers mate, don't really have much use for long tracking AF.

Am tempted currently by the GX8 at £650 with the 12-60mm lens - seems a good price. Alternative considering the Sony A7 with 28-70mm lens for £899 or the Sony A7r body only for £899.
 
Tom Green said:
Cheers mate, don't really have much use for long tracking AF.

Am tempted currently by the GX8 at £650 with the 12-60mm lens - seems a good price. Alternative considering the Sony A7 with 28-70mm lens for £899 or the Sony A7r body only for £899.
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The 12-60 lens is probably the slower f/3.5-5.6 variant and doesn't come out that great in lens tests:

http://www.photozone.de/m43/983_pana1260f3556?start=2

For almost the same budget you could pick up an E-M1 MkI (approx £350 S/H) and an Olympus 12-40 f/2.8 PRO (approx £400 - £450 S/H - I have this combo). The PRO lens is 1 to 2 stops faster than the Panasonic 12-60 f/3.5-5.6 and is very very good:

http://www.photozone.de/m43/862_oly1240?start=2

I've found the photozone reviews pretty consistent with my own experience.

The faster 12-60 f/2.8-4.0 lens gets a pretty good review but will be more expensive:

http://www.photozone.de/m43/1007_leica1260f284?start=2

A cheaper lens option if you prefer Panasonic is the old G1 14-45 kit lens, which you can pick up for approx £100 S/H:

http://www.photozone.de/olympus--four-thirds-lens-tests/414-pana_1445_3556?start=2
 
Tom Green said:
Cheers mate, don't really have much use for long tracking AF.

Am tempted currently by the GX8 at £650 with the 12-60mm lens - seems a good price. Alternative considering the Sony A7 with 28-70mm lens for £899 or the Sony A7r body only for £899.
Click to expand...

A lot depends what and how you shoot. I shoot almost exclusively handheld and in fact I can't remember the last time I used a tripod also as most of what I photograph tends to move I like to keep the shutter speed up. Also I like the FF look and I like to get a similar look from MFT so I like to shoot f1.8 to f4/f5 much of the time as this can keep the shutter speed up and the ISO down and give the same sort of look I'd get from FF at f4 to f8/10. I tend to prefer primes and f2.8 zooms and for me the 12-35mm f2.8 is much more attractive than the 12-60mm but the latter does have a longer reach.

There's some MFT 12-35mm shots of mine in the Panny thread with some at ISO 2,500-4,000 on these pages.

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/panasonic-g-series-owners-thread.262800/page-238

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/panasonic-g-series-owners-thread.262800/page-239

You seem to be having trouble deciding which way to go so I hope you can begin to come to a decision soon. The strength of MFT for me is that you can have a compact body and lens combination which is very responsive, the Sony A7 can also be compact but it's a bit of a slouch compared to the fast acting MFT bodies and lenses but with the A7 you do get better image quality.

Good luck choosing.
 
If you like canon and the lenses the. 6d is nice and a step up from your 7d.

If your not stuck to canon then you need a d750 or a7ii, which are also nice and a step up from the 6d.
 
maarten.dhaese said:
The 12-60 lens is probably the slower f/3.5-5.6 variant and doesn't come out that great in lens tests:

http://www.photozone.de/m43/983_pana1260f3556?start=2

For almost the same budget you could pick up an E-M1 MkI (approx £350 S/H) and an Olympus 12-40 f/2.8 PRO (approx £400 - £450 S/H - I have this combo). The PRO lens is 1 to 2 stops faster than the Panasonic 12-60 f/3.5-5.6 and is very very good:

http://www.photozone.de/m43/862_oly1240?start=2

I've found the photozone reviews pretty consistent with my own experience.

The faster 12-60 f/2.8-4.0 lens gets a pretty good review but will be more expensive:

http://www.photozone.de/m43/1007_leica1260f284?start=2

A cheaper lens option if you prefer Panasonic is the old G1 14-45 kit lens, which you can pick up for approx £100 S/H:

http://www.photozone.de/olympus--four-thirds-lens-tests/414-pana_1445_3556?start=2
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Thank you - I would consider selling that lens and getting a 12-35mm to be honest!
 
woof woof said:
A lot depends what and how you shoot. I shoot almost exclusively handheld and in fact I can't remember the last time I used a tripod also as most of what I photograph tends to move I like to keep the shutter speed up. Also I like the FF look and I like to get a similar look from MFT so I like to shoot f1.8 to f4/f5 much of the time as this can keep the shutter speed up and the ISO down and give the same sort of look I'd get from FF at f4 to f8/10. I tend to prefer primes and f2.8 zooms and for me the 12-35mm f2.8 is much more attractive than the 12-60mm but the latter does have a longer reach.

There's some MFT 12-35mm shots of mine in the Panny thread with some at ISO 2,500-4,000 on these pages.

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/panasonic-g-series-owners-thread.262800/page-238

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/panasonic-g-series-owners-thread.262800/page-239

You seem to be having trouble deciding which way to go so I hope you can begin to come to a decision soon. The strength of MFT for me is that you can have a compact body and lens combination which is very responsive, the Sony A7 can also be compact but it's a bit of a slouch compared to the fast acting MFT bodies and lenses but with the A7 you do get better image quality.

Good luck choosing.
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Yeah I am having trouble but you have had some excellent input and caused me to think twice at a couple of stages! Its a tough call but I'm trying to currently decide on the trade of between the gx8 (faster, 4K, better screen, cheaper, cheaper lenses etc) and the A7(full frame, better IQ, better low light/high iso performance - at a higher cost).

Hopefully the decision will become easier! The A7 with 28-70mm has been £799 before at Amazon so tempted to wait out for that price again!

Thank you for helping by the way.
 
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