Olympus e-420

mastertrinity

mastertrinity

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Just an idea I've been toying with.

My work is more of a style than a specific subject but I mostly shoot portraiture including street mainly and also shoot some urban landscape/urbex work.

I was wondering how well the Olympus e-420 would cope in the street photo situation, I would love to go for a GF1 but similar price would give me an e-420 with a 25mm pancake which has the optical viewfinder which makes a difference to most but how much smaller is it to my Sony a300? would I be better off getting an a230 and use my 50mm and possibly get a 35mm in the future or what?
 
It may have a viewfinder, but it's a pentamirror rather than prism, not hugely bright and is tiny. It's perfectly useable for AF, but not for any kind of manual focus work.
 
If a smaller lighter camera is the only consideration for the purchase then you'll have to think harder about the flip side. The e-4xx olys are small and light. Tho it has a flat grip which can be uncomfortable for some. The viewfinder will be smaller or the same as the Sony at best. As a system I'm not sure how 4/3 will go, esp since the arrival of m4/3. Personally I will save the pennies and acquire the affordable 35mm 1.8 or treat yourself to the zeiss 24mm. The a300, can still take a decent pic below ISO800
 
Yeah but I compare the e-420 to the GF1 which actually shows quite a few advantages as the GF1 has no viewfinder or grip, and really the e-420 is only for street work which is all I do like I say and coupled with the 25mm which with an adapter I can use on future m4/3 cameras.

yeah I could buy the 35mm, but it's more of a size issue I'm having. I prefer something smaller to slip into my everyday shoulder bag but with great IQ so it would need a minimum size of a 4/3 sensor at least. So do you think the a230 is similar size to the e-420 but cheaper and without having to buy new lenses?
 
Even if the A230 is similar in size to the E420 (which I don't think it is), it's still not really pocketable as Sony lacks pancake lenses. I guess ultimately its what things mean the most to you, size and portability considerations will have knock on effects to IQ and handling.

The G1/G2s have EVF, go smaller and you can have a GF1 / EPL2 - no viewfinder. Bigger sensors then you have the sony nex- which is one of the smallest APCs cam in the market. Add viewfinder to that and you're looking into range finder territory- Leicas M9s / Fuji X100 - both with a pretty price tag to go with it. Good luck.
 
evo456 said:
Even if the A230 is similar in size to the E420 (which I don't think it is), it's still not really pocketable as Sony lacks pancake lenses. I guess ultimately its what things mean the most to you, size and portability considerations will have knock on effects to IQ and handling.

The G1/G2s have EVF, go smaller and you can have a GF1 / EPL2 - no viewfinder. Bigger sensors then you have the sony nex- which is one of the smallest APCs cam in the market. Add viewfinder to that and you're looking into range finder territory- Leicas M9s / Fuji X100 - both with a pretty price tag to go with it. Good luck.
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It's not pocketability that I'm after really it's just that alot of the time I like to be able to take one camera and lens to go around street shooting but I'd want it to be smaller or slimmer than what I currently have. I'm tempted just to leave it and eventually when I can afford it I'll buy a EP-1, 17mm f2.8 and the 17mm OVF which comes to £400 so I'll stick with what I have for now.
 
I had an E-620 for a while and while the small size was great I didn't like it compared to my A300 and A700 that had preceeded it.
The handling was awful due to the tiny grip but I do have quite big hands, and I reckon a battery grip would have sorted it.
The viewfinder is very small compared to the A300 and especially the A700.
I've been thinking similarly about my Pentax kit, the K20 is roughly the same size as the A700 and I've been finding me not taking it out all the time, I was pondering a Sony NEX s the 16mm pancake lens on it is tiny!
However I've picked up a Pentax 40mm f2.8 pancake lens and its immense so I think that the tiny lens has made up for the larger body! Shame Sony don't make pancakes!
 
If you have a Sony camera already why not look at the NEX-5 and the 16mm?

You can also get the adaptor that will AF & meter with your current Sony lenses...

Just sayin' :wave:
 
Chris I can't believe how stupid I am, I completely forgot about Pentax!

Yeah I could go with some Pentax kit and get the LTD lenses which would make for a more portable set up with the excellent IQ.

James I have looked the at the NEX-3 but they ergonomics put me off, I may consider the new NEX-7 if it is meant to be rangefinder style as the estimates are made :)
 
mastertrinity said:
Chris I can't believe how stupid I am, I completely forgot about Pentax!

Yeah I could go with some Pentax kit and get the LTD lenses which would make for a more portable set up with the excellent IQ.

James I have looked the at the NEX-3 but they ergonomics put me off, I may consider the new NEX-7 if it is meant to be rangefinder style as the estimates are made :)
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I'm very impressed with my 40mm to the point that I'm considering adding a 15mm and 21mm to a pretty much all prime setup!!!

The 25mm pancake for the Olympus was pretty poor if I remember rightly I never used it much when I had one.

Also for the Pentax there is a cracking 35mm f2.4 available now, its basically the cheap prime like the Nikon or Sony 50mm but its very sharp!
 
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