I really appreciate all the feedback I have received over the past week or so since I first started thinking out loud on this subject. After digging a bit, I’ve narrowed my specifications. I could not find anything that covered all of my wants, and that forced me to concentrate on what I need. The first thing to go was AA batteries – it seems that virtually no DSLR works from AA’s. The next thing to go was video. Very few SLRs do video, and it appears none of them do it well.
I came back to the features that I need, which are small size and light weight. I took the suggestions of people I trust and fed them through that filter and came up with the cameras you see arrayed above. You can see the whole comparison table here. I think now, that unless something about the other two really strikes me, my final choice is between the two in the middle: The Olympus E-420 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1. These two are the smallest, lightest DSLRs available, at 15.5 and 12.7 oz. respectively.
The more I look at the specs, the more I’m favoring the Panasonic, with it’s Leica lenses and apparently amazing tilt/swivel/swing viewfinder.
The Sony’s appeal is the price/performance, the viewfinder, and some impressive technical stats. It is HUGE compared to the Olympus & Panasonic. The Canon’s appeal to me lay primarily in its ability to be driven by a laptop for time-lapse. After thinking very hard about that I realized that the sort of time-lapse work I do, I’m better suited finding a compact consumer-grade digicam that is supported by my time-lapse software.
So my next step is to go and get my hands on these and see how they feel. Stay tuned!
I love the tilt and rotate LCD on the back of my Sony S5 – makes the camera far more versatile… as does the image stabilisation…
so the Panasonic has both of these but no optical viewfinder… I do miss this a bit on my Canon
My brother works for Panasonic so I’d know what he would say! ha
I’ve decided today you need one decent all singing camera and then a good small one – the small on you will always have on you and get most of the photos as the bigger ones are just a pain to always carry around… for now for me this is the S5 and a phone… one day both will improve…
have fun choosing
Jerome
These all four look like good choices, Chuck. I don’t think you can really go wrong with any one of them. My suggestion would be to find some place to get your hands on each of these and see (1) how they feel in your hands and (2) how easy you find the menus / features.
You can have the best camera in the world but, if it does feel right in your hands, it isn’t going to do you a whole lot of good. And, if you can’t find the settings you need when you need them (translation: quickly), then you’re a little less likely to use the camera.
Couple of interesting notes:
The Sony Alpha does their image stabilization in the camera. Most other manufacturers do the image stabilization in the lens. The big selling point of the Sony Alpha is that you pay more for the camera body but save on the additional lenses because you’re not buying the image stabilization over and over, again. This could be a huge advantage if you’re the kind of photographer buys a bunch of lenses.
While Sony’s strategy makes a certain amount of sense, it doesn’t quite fit my personal strategy of buying the best glass you can and plan on replacing the camera body several times during the life of the lens.
I’ve always had a thing for Leica cameras. If I could afford it, I would collect them. Panasonic and Leica have done some really interesting work together.
Olympus has traditionally taken slightly different (non-standard) approaches to camera design. Some of their camera are stellar while others aren’t quite as appealing.
I’ve never really been a huge Canon fan. And the Rebel name just rubs me the wrong way as it reminds me of the Honda Rebel (often mistakenly considered a motorcycle) and people I knew who had them. Canon makes some seriously good cameras and glass. If I were looking, I’d want to aim for something above their entry level camera. Something in the range of the 20D, 40D or 50D. I don’t know the specifics of these model numbers — only that these are the amateur++ models.
Being the fan of glass that I am, I have to ask if you’ve looked at the lens options available for these cameras. You’re spending good, quality time researching camera bodies. Just don’t overlook the lenses. They’re just as important (it not more). 🙂
Bet of luck with your research and decision.
I tend to shoot with only one or two lenses Sandro. Lots of wide angle work mostly. I like to have a longer lens around for the rare occasion I want to get closer to something far away, but 95% of my stuff is shot between (thinking in old 35mm SLR terms) 14-50mm. Most of the shots you see of cars here were taken with my Olympus C-5050z (built-in 7.1mm-21.3mm) with a 0.7x Wide Conversion lens attachment.
There are only 2 native lenses available for the Panasonic at the moment, and they are a 14-45mm and a 45-200mm. In 2009 they’ll be offering a 7-14mm, which will get me back to the near the width I’m shooting at today.
–chuck
I would count the fact that you only shoot with one or two lenses as a minus point for the Sony Alpha because of their image stabilization in the camera being a better strategy if you’re going to buy multiple lenses. I bet it uses those silly Sony Memory Sticks that only Sony devices use.
14-50mm (in 35mm terms) is fairly wide.
If you’re a serious wide angle fan, then you might put a little more emphasis on a larger sensor as, among other things, it’ll get you wider angle results. My APS-C sensor has the ~1.5 multiplier which effectively makes my 18-200mm into a ~37-300mm. If I had a full-sized sensor (and the lens wasn’t specifically designed for my current sensor), I’d get better wide angles.
Have you checked into third-party lens support for the Panasonic? It’s possible you might have more options. Then again, you’d be giving up one of the big selling points for the camera.