05-01-2017, 04:51 PM
The Panny kist you suggested is great, and you may actually be pleasantly surprised by the IQ of the 35-100 F/4.0-5.6.
The 12-32 is considered quite a good lens too, above average for sure for a standard zoom, and the 20 F/1.7 has always been considered a great lens, which it absolutely is.
BTW, if you'd like even smaller cameras, you could consider the Olympus OM-D E-M10 II or the E-M5 II. As a kit lens I would suggest the 14-42 EZ pancake in that case. If your budget is large enough, I'd also consider the Pen F. The latter is the one I always have with me. Nice thing is that it looks like a rangefinder, but has both an EVF and a tiltable/swivable screen.
Both Panasonic and Olympus have great consumer lenses in their ranges, and I would like to add that they generally perform better than you'd expect from the resolution tests you may read everywhere.
I've had a look at Fuji as well, with Sony having lenses which are way too large IMO, but again, as you noted, the cameras I am interested in are significantly bigger than MFT cameras.
I really like Olympus a lot currently, amongst others because of their size. They are all smaller than the old Olympus analog cameras, even the E-M1 II (although that has a large handgrip). Considering that I used a shoot a bunch of Pentax M-series cameras, I really like their small size. And the quality is easily as good as anything from Canon or Nikon.
Another thing I like is the fact that there are some very, very good adapters out there, which allow you to use virtually any other lens on an MFT body, like the Metabones adapters. Since I have a bunch of Canon lenses, that is really great, as I can always fall back to those if I want to or need to.
I started with MFT about 7 or so years ago, in addition to my Canon gear, when I got a good deal on some used stuff and a Panasonic GF2. Since then I have shot with and owned an Olympus E-M10, E-M10 II, E-M5 II and currently a Pen F and an E-M1 II, while I did test a few Panasonic bodies and a few more Olympus bodies as well. Great cameras all, you just need to check what is important to you in a camera for a specific purpose within your budget and go for it. I doubt you will ever look back.
As to some other lens suggestions, you could also consider the Panny 42.5 F/1.7 or the Oly 45 F/1.8 - you'd be amazed how much you can still do with these lenses when it comes to shallow DoF. AAnd of course you'd normally only need to stop down MFT lenses by 1/2 a stop or 1 stop, or even less, to get to the optimum apertures resolution wise, whereas with FF or APS-C you often still have to stop down 2 stops or more. This is something that i soften overlooked in the equivalence discussions.
Anyway, I hope this helps a little.
I reckon either Fuji or MFT is great, but my personal favourite is MFT, and currently especially Olympus with their current top of the line cameras, great IBIS, and the best in-camera jpeg-engine in existence.
Kind regards, Wim
The 12-32 is considered quite a good lens too, above average for sure for a standard zoom, and the 20 F/1.7 has always been considered a great lens, which it absolutely is.
BTW, if you'd like even smaller cameras, you could consider the Olympus OM-D E-M10 II or the E-M5 II. As a kit lens I would suggest the 14-42 EZ pancake in that case. If your budget is large enough, I'd also consider the Pen F. The latter is the one I always have with me. Nice thing is that it looks like a rangefinder, but has both an EVF and a tiltable/swivable screen.
Both Panasonic and Olympus have great consumer lenses in their ranges, and I would like to add that they generally perform better than you'd expect from the resolution tests you may read everywhere.
I've had a look at Fuji as well, with Sony having lenses which are way too large IMO, but again, as you noted, the cameras I am interested in are significantly bigger than MFT cameras.
I really like Olympus a lot currently, amongst others because of their size. They are all smaller than the old Olympus analog cameras, even the E-M1 II (although that has a large handgrip). Considering that I used a shoot a bunch of Pentax M-series cameras, I really like their small size. And the quality is easily as good as anything from Canon or Nikon.
Another thing I like is the fact that there are some very, very good adapters out there, which allow you to use virtually any other lens on an MFT body, like the Metabones adapters. Since I have a bunch of Canon lenses, that is really great, as I can always fall back to those if I want to or need to.
I started with MFT about 7 or so years ago, in addition to my Canon gear, when I got a good deal on some used stuff and a Panasonic GF2. Since then I have shot with and owned an Olympus E-M10, E-M10 II, E-M5 II and currently a Pen F and an E-M1 II, while I did test a few Panasonic bodies and a few more Olympus bodies as well. Great cameras all, you just need to check what is important to you in a camera for a specific purpose within your budget and go for it. I doubt you will ever look back.
As to some other lens suggestions, you could also consider the Panny 42.5 F/1.7 or the Oly 45 F/1.8 - you'd be amazed how much you can still do with these lenses when it comes to shallow DoF. AAnd of course you'd normally only need to stop down MFT lenses by 1/2 a stop or 1 stop, or even less, to get to the optimum apertures resolution wise, whereas with FF or APS-C you often still have to stop down 2 stops or more. This is something that i soften overlooked in the equivalence discussions.
Anyway, I hope this helps a little.
I reckon either Fuji or MFT is great, but my personal favourite is MFT, and currently especially Olympus with their current top of the line cameras, great IBIS, and the best in-camera jpeg-engine in existence.
Kind regards, Wim
Gear: Canon EOS R with 3 primes and 2 zooms, 4 EF-R adapters, Canon EOS 5 (analog), 9 Canon EF primes, a lone Canon EF zoom, 2 extenders, 2 converters, tubes; Olympus OM-D 1 Mk II & Pen F with 12 primes, 6 zooms, and 3 Metabones EF-MFT adapters ....
