Friday, December 10, 2010

Getting a smaller camera - D90? GF1?

So my D200 has been dead for several months now, and I've just started the hunt for a smaller camera.

Why?

Basically, whilst my D300 is super awesome kickass, for general day to day use, and just basic travel purposes - it's just to damned big and heavy. In addition, it's not inexpensive, and I just don't like swinging around something that expensive everywhere I go. The D200 IS expensive... back in the day.Thankfully I got mine used for a bargain.

So I've made a trip down to Jessops today, twice actually, to check out the cameras on display.

For the Nikon lineup, I tried the D5000, D3100 and D90.
Other cameras I've tried included the Sony NEX series, Olympus PEN, one of the Samsungs and the Panasonic Micro 4/3s.

Nikon side, the D3100 and D5000 were immediately off my shortlist. When I first grabbed the camera, I went... erm... where is my top lcd? Can't change my settings quickly without that! The back LCD is where its all at, but it's just too damned cluttered. Nope.

D90 wise, apart from me nitpicking certain aspects, seemed like a good choice:
- Push button + control dial for ISO, WB, Qual, Drive etc. Very much like the D200.
- Rear screen is awesome
- Good size and weight
- Shares batteries with my D300
- AF system is similar to the D200, so no issues there
- Viewfinder, though I don't have my D300 with me, seems bright enough. Don't need no 100% viewfinder.
- Motor for AF lenses! 
- Relatively quiet shutter. My D200/D300 sounds damned loud in comparison. Could this be due to the slower shutter release time?

Nitpicks:
- The main one: The 4 way rocker which is used to select the AF points during shooting is just not lining up with my right thumb. This has to do with the physically smaller camera. The D200/D300 has the AF selector perfectly where my thumb rests on the back of the camera, not on the D90. It is much lower.
- No dedicated AF-On button. I think the AE lock button can be configured for that, but then how am I supposed to lock exposure? :P

Really minor nitpicks
- Flash sync of 1/200. Bleh.
- Bracketing features weak compared to D200. But I don't bracket much so...
- Uses SD cards (yuck), but can't be helped.
- RGB histogram doesn't show flashing highlights
- The name D90 is just not as inspirational as D200 or even D5000

Olympus:
E-PL1 has so-so autofocus speeds. Really, really did not like the menu layout.
E-P2 - again so-so AF speeds. Controls much better, but menus still weak.

Sony's NEX
Af speeds seem good, and the handling of the camera is surprisingly good. However, the menus seem to expect the user to be a total n00b. Nah. Also, the 16mm lens is an odd choice for their fixed prime. 24mm equiv fov is quite wide and not easy to use as a single lens.

Samsung:
Only tried the Samsung NX100, not a fan of the interface. Controls of camera body were quite sparse too. Eh...nah.

Panasonic:
Well last to be mentioned. Because I really enjoyed the camera. I tried the G2 and GF1, and thoroughly enjoyed the GF1. The on screen display has symbols indicating e.g when in manual mode, to push in the rear dial to switch between controlling aperture and shutter speeds. ISO has a dedicated button, as with AF and some other settings that I forget.

AF speeds are fast and responsive, and I enjoyed the AF tracking mode. I mean, look. I didn't even read the manual, it just worked thanks to the blinking icons!

Body is also very well built, feels like a nice expensive piece of kit, whereas the D90 really feels plasticky.

20mm/1.7 is an amazing lens. Just for that lens alone - giving a 40mm QL17 equivalent FOV - is a tempting idea.

At the moment I'm not sure if I should get either, get a used D200, or just don't do anything. The D90 will allow use of all my lenses and flashes, and apart from the SD cards, a straight fit into my system. And it can be the lightweight counterpart I could use on a day to day basis.

The Panasonic OTOH is just so damned tiny. Even with the zoom lens on it's minuscule, even compared to say, D300 + 24/2.8D.

Ah well. I'll see what happens.

2 comments:

Dragos Stefan said...

I think GF2 is coming soon?
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/panasonicdmcgf2/

Gallen Wolf said...

Indeed! But after some consideration, especially the really really high distortion of the normal zoom, I think I've decided to pass on the micro 4/3s for now.