my daughter needs some advice

[inyourface]

My daughters birthday is coming up soon and she has asked her grandparents for a voucher for the local camera shop.
they told me they would get one for £150

so my daughter has seen 2 cameras she likes

Olympus E-PL1 + 14-42 + 40-150 TWIN KIT and the Nikon J1 + 10-30mm

only trouble is im not experienced enough to know which is the better camera.
She will be mainly using it for pictures of her baby brother and some landscape when she comes out with me.
she needs a small camera that she can take to school trips ect so these seem the ideal size.

I know the olympus has the long lens with it but if the nikon was much better i would get her a lens for that anyway.

so any tips on which would be the better camera?


mat + courtney

 

[kendo1]

Here are two links to reviews:
http://www.dpreview.com/products/olympus/slrs/oly_epl1

http://www.dpreview.com/products/nikon/slrs/nikon_j1

They tend to be quite harsh in their reviews.

 

[inyourface]

so looks like the olympus is slightly better, i think she prefers that one anyway.

cheers Kendo1

 

[woof woof]

Don't forget the wonderful world of adapted lenses... with a cheap adapter off the auction site she could be using cheap old film era manual lenses such as Canon FD, Olympus Zuiko and Minolta Rokkor... A cheap 50mm f1.8 could make a nice portrait lens and a macro could come in handy too.

 

[inyourface]

is that for the olympus woof woof

 

[Thunderbird010]

is that for the olympus woof woof

It will be you can pick the adapters cheap I paid £7 last time. The other good thing with the epl1 is that it has in body stabilisation so will stabilise micro 4/3 lenses.

Andy

 

[woof woof]

is that for the olympus woof woof

Indeed but maybe you can get adapters for the Nikon too but I don't know what the crop factor is for it, for the Oly it's x2 so a cheap (£15 or so) 50mm f1.8 becomes a rather nice 100mm as does a cheap 50mm macro.

 

[inyourface]

sorry to be a pain, but dont suppose you would know exactly what the adaptor is called so i can look it up, or i will buy the wrong thing

 

[jakeblu]

which adaptor you buy depends on the lens you are using. One end of the adapter will fit the camera so it will be an M4/3 fitting and the other end dependent on the lens eg nikon, canon etc

 

[inyourface]

thanks jake

 

[Ulfric M Douglas]

...Olympus E-PL1 + 14-42 + 40-150 TWIN KIT ...

That is a truly awesome kit, only let down by no viewfinder and dodgy high-ISO.
No way she can get that for £150 !!??

OK since this is a real purchase possibility.
The Jpeg colours of the e-pL1 are only just equalled by the Fuji X series.
It has a pop-up flash that can be tilted and bounced.
It takes all the m4/3rds lenses, some of which are amazing.
(The current more expensive bodies do less than the e-pL1... )

Stop faffing about and tell her to buy it.

 

[inyourface]

That is a truly awesome kit, only let down by no viewfinder and dodgy high-ISO.
No way she can get that for £150 !!??

yep, second hand mind