Canon or Olympus?

Bail

Bail

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Baillie
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I have narrowed my camera choices down to the:

Canon Eos 1000d

or the...

Olympus E-520

They will both set me back around £300 but which one would you buy?
 
1000d, you can move up to better kit as you grow (or not) with oly you have **** or amazing kit with nothing in between

also-420 at least has the most horrible sensor and menu system
 
Is there a major difference between having IS and not having it because I can't seem to find anywhere selling an IS lens kit with the 1000d.
 
on a kit lens not really more of a big deal on long lenses.

It keeps the lens still while you wobble about and breathe so can be handy but your picture will still blur if the subject blurs

The 18-55IS is a different lens to the 18-55 though its been optically redesigned.
 
I'd say Canon, purely for the fact that there is a huge amount of accessories and lenses for Canon's compared to Olympus.

However, if all you're interested in is the camera and the basic kit lens - the decision should be based entirely on which camera you find the most comfortable and intuitive to you.
 
david1701 said:
on a kit lens not really more of a big deal on long lenses.

It keeps the lens still while you wobble about and breathe so can be handy but your picture will still blur if the subject blurs

The 18-55IS is a different lens to the 18-55 though its been optically redesigned.
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I think I might buy the 1000d body on amazon and then a 18-55mm IS lens on ebay.
 
if you aren't in a rush then you could watch for second hand kit on here as its usually pretty good, I need to hunt on ebay for a cheap entry level body for someone

how much are you looking at a 1000d and are they really small (its a girl)
 
There is obviously some relevance in having IS on a kit lens otherwise Canon wouldn't bother putting it on their 18-55mm.
Many Canon primes don't have IS versions but whether that would bother you is entirely subjective.
The 1000D is an entry level camera whereas I believe the E-520 is a little higher up the spectrum. It is debatable whether IQ is better on one or the other although potentially the Canon 1.6x crop sensor is going to have to work less hard than the 2x crop of the Olympus. By the same argument the 1.5x crop of Nikon/Sony/Pentax will be better again.

The advantage of buying Canon is the huge array of stuff including lenses that you can get for it, so if you are considering Olympus, look carefully at what lenses you might be wanting when funds become available and see if they are available/affordable.

The advantage of Olympus is its smaller size and in-body image stabilisation which means 3rd party lenses (with the above proviso) will be stabilised.

Check out Nikon, Sony and Pentax as well.
 
david1701 said:
if you aren't in a rush then you could watch for second hand kit on here as its usually pretty good, I need to hunt on ebay for a cheap entry level body for someone

how much are you looking at a 1000d and are they really small (its a girl)
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I can get a 1000d body for £250 off Amazon, the camera is for me and I reletively small.

eccles said:
There is obviously some relevance in having IS on a kit lens otherwise Canon wouldn't bother putting it on their 18-55mm.
Many Canon primes don't have IS versions but whether that would bother you is entirely subjective.
The 1000D is an entry level camera whereas I believe the E-520 is a little higher up the spectrum. It is debatable whether IQ is better on one or the other although potentially the Canon 1.6x crop sensor is going to have to work less hard than the 2x crop of the Olympus. By the same argument the 1.5x crop of Nikon/Sony/Pentax will be better again.

The advantage of buying Canon is the huge array of stuff including lenses that you can get for it, so if you are considering Olympus, look carefully at what lenses you might be wanting when funds become available and see if they are available/affordable.

The advantage of Olympus is its smaller size and in-body image stabilisation which means 3rd party lenses (with the above proviso) will be stabilised.

Check out Nikon, Sony and Pentax as well.
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Thanks for your advice, I have looked into other brands and the Nikon D3000 doesn't have live view which is what I want, the Sony DSLR's don't have the best reviews and as for Pentax I can't really find many places that sell the lower models.
 
I'm going to buck the trend, out of the two I'd go for the E520 - it's a mid range dSLR and accordingly is equipped as so.

The Canon is a beginners camera and is also according equipped as so.

Sure, the Oly doesn't have as good high ISO performance but there is so much more to a camera than that.
 
I'd agree with the Canon - but only as someone who has previously owned a Olympus E-420.

The E-420 was bloody lovely, outstanding colours and quality, and I got many a good shot out of that camera...

But, you'll find that as you get more and more into your photography you'll be wanting more and more gear - more lenses, remote flash triggers etc. etc. and you'll find there just isn't that much available for the Olympus system (well, not compared to Canon anyway).

That's why I ended up jumping ship, but I don't regret my Olympus ownership for one second - it's the humble E-420 that got me into photography as much as I am now :)


Edit: and that was my 1,000th post on TP :D
 
I'm gonna be honest I took a 365 shot with a friends e-420 and my other friend asked if it was taken with my phone :p

both are into this photography thing :p
 
Whereas I took

3632575855_73fe21f67e.jpg


and

3516022068_42369f2776.jpg


with the E-420 and the beetle one was featured on the BBC and then chosen as one of the best readers pics of 2009.

;)
 
Nick T said:
I'd agree with the Canon - but only as someone who has previously owned a Olympus E-420.

The E-420 was bloody lovely, outstanding colours and quality, and I got many a good shot out of that camera...

But, you'll find that as you get more and more into your photography you'll be wanting more and more gear - more lenses, remote flash triggers etc. etc. and you'll find there just isn't that much available for the Olympus system (well, not compared to Canon anyway).

That's why I ended up jumping ship, but I don't regret my Olympus ownership for one second - it's the humble E-420 that got me into photography as much as I am now :)

Edit: and that was my 1,000th post on TP :D
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That's great advice and I think I'm pretty much decided on the Canon now:)
 
Bail said:
That's great advice and I think I'm pretty much decided on the Canon now:)
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One thing I would suggest though - before you push the 'buy now' button on a 1000D, look in the classifieds here and see if you can find a nice, secondhand 450D instead. The 1000D does cut out a few things like spot metering which you'd normally take for granted on a 450D and above.

As is mentioned above, the 1000D is very entry level - which is why it's cheap. But if you could stretch a little further and get a good 450D/500D then it would be worth it in the long run...
 
david1701 said:
also-420 at least has the most horrible sensor and
menu system
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It seems you only took a single shot with a friend's 420 so claiming the sensor is the most horrible is a bit rich. Also, the menu system is different to what you are used to, that's all. I struggle whenever I use friends' Nikons to find anything because I am used to the Oly menu.

The OP can search many online places for images taken with the Oly to ascertain image quality.

After all the above I would probably still advise the OP to go Canon from the choice of 2 if looking to buy into a system and expanding long term. If only to save having people continually telling them their camera is inferior/a toy ;)

4/3 has it's advantages and is capable of good quality pictures - I always outsell my 2 Nikon friends whenever we do an event. It does though have it's limitations with regard to low light focusing, high ISO noise and focus tracking moving objects. There is also the 2x crop factor which while great for wildlife (or just providing greater reach) it limits wide angle possibilities and makes you work harder to get a shallow DOF.

This was taken with the lowly E410 (same sensor as 420) and a kit lens. Shows that subject isolation is still possible.

lizzy.jpg


Still refuse to move to Nikon despite my friends bullying because to get the quality of lenses I have with IS would cost me a fortune.
 
well my friend's pics are flat and dull too I assumed it to be a kit thing tbh

the smaller sensor makes them great for macro stuff as you can get in closer and have less DoF issues
 
david1701 said:
well my friend's pics are flat and dull too I assumed it to be a kit thing tbh

the smaller sensor makes them great for macro stuff as you can get in closer and have less DoF issues
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My brother in law had the E410 the same time as I had mine and his pics were normally dull too. His pics of me on a jetski were so flat I thought they were underexposed. Worse than that they made me look much fatter than my self image :lol:
 
mastertrinity said:
are you sure there insulting the camera and not your photography skills:p:D
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mebe :p

Almost_Invisible said:
My brother in law had the E410 the same time as I had mine and his pics were normally dull too. His pics of me on a jetski were so flat I thought they were underexposed. Worse than that they made me look much fatter than my self image :lol:
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could be a camera to camera thing but thats a bit unlikely, more likely user

I mean the good shots in thread all had contrast/colour work done in post
 
Thanks for all the advice everyone, I have now ordered the 1000d and can't wait to get it:)
 
A bit late to this thread but I will just add my two penith ;)

Pretty much all D_SLR systems these days are capable of taking amazing shots in reasonably skilled hands.
I have used Canon many moons ago but my most recent relevant experience is with both Olympus (E-510) then a year or so with Pentax (K20D & K-7) and now I'm back with Olympus (E-30) primarily for the outstanding quality of their zoom range (and by the way that in my experience includes their kit glass).
My motto... don't knock anything until you have really tried it ;)

Here are a few recent shots with my Olympus kit.....

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_4221200.jpg


_4221239.jpg


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I shoot with Olympus stuff and absolutely love it. I've never had a problem finding stuff (maybe I haven't missed what I can't get). There are fewer lenses available but those that are are pretty much all great quality.

You could also have got the E600 for that money. It's the later generation and better at high ISO.

The reason I started with Olympus was that even the base models had a very rich featureset. You had all the customisable settings at a time when you couldn't even shoot RAW on the basic Canon.

I know you'll enjoy your new camera but just thought I'd throw in my tuppence worth.
 
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