Should I change my camera?

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Geoff I

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Geoff
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For the last 2 years I have had an Olympus e-510, I have a 14-42, 40-150 and 70-300 olympus lenses, I am happy with the photo's I am taking but I am having mixed feelings over the iso i can shoot at, the camera is comfortable with iso 100 through to 400 but if I want to get fast action shots the camera struggles on higher iso settings ie 800 and 1600, the type of photography I like is wildlife from birding to photographing animals at Zoo's etc, I am just wondering if to stick with what I have or upgrade to far more expensive camera, ie Olympus e-30, or should I change format?

Thanks for any input.
 
I suppose the questions you have got to ask yourself are, have you got the most from the camera you have?
It could be a good option to maybe upgrade if you are saying that you find the higher ISO range a problem and it would be somethign you would benefit from. If a high ISO is something you would only occasionally use i would say stick where you are. If you think you would use the feature often and ti would help you progress i'd say go for it!
 
Given your intended use, your current investment and the cost of switching systems, I would stick with 4/3rds. Upgrade the camera and do some work on noise in post processing. You could probably see some major benefit there, and shoot Raw.

The fundamental problem is that 4/3rds is so small, it just doesn't collect as much light as bigger formats so is always going to be playing catch up at high ISO. But it's also the size that is giving you the advantage of reach for wildlife.

The other thing is that the lion's share of development research is going into small formats, not full frame etc - eg Micro 4/3rds. They're getting better all the time.

On the other hand, spending £4k on a Canon 7D, maybe a 100-400L lens and one or two others would certainly be a big jump in the right direction.
 
The E510 is well dated now and upgrading to the E30 is certainly not going to disappoint.
On the other hand you only have the 2 kit lenses and the 70-300 so you haven't invested heavily in the 4/3rds system yet so if you did want to switch brands then now is the time before you invest more into it.
I use an E3 and the E30 has at least as good as if not slightly better performance and I regularly shoot at ISO's up to 3200 when shooting birds etc and the quality is fine. Shooting in RAW is the best option as any post processing will be more effective, particularly with noise reduction.
The E system is good for wildlife as it gives you 2x multiplication over full frame.

Paul
 
Thanks for the input, after much debating I will get the E-30, like you say it is good for birding, just debating which lens to get with it the 14-54 or the 12-60, the 12-60 looks a tasty lens.
 
I've owned and used both lenses (14-54 and 12-60), to be honest despite the extra wide angle and zoom offered by the 12-60 I would get the 14-54 if I was to go back to either of these lenses, the image quality is to all purposes pretty much the same, the 12-60 is a marginally better lens but both are very good. The 14-54 is a good size, not too big and not too heavy and a lot cheaper to boot, the money you save on that lens could be put towards the excellent ZD50mm f2 macro lens if you fancy doing some macro work or just want a lovely little portrait and general purpose 50mm (100mm ff equiv) lens and being f2 it's good for shallow DOF and low light work.

Paul
 
Yes I noticed the price difference Paul and if you think the 14-54 is just as good then I will go with that, we are going away at easter so I will order the camera when I get back.
Thanks again Paul.
 
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