cost pertaining to m4/3s

What kind of cost am I looking at should I decide to invest in one of these cameras?

More so referring to additional lenses.

I see these come w/ a lens, but have no clue about the specs on them. I know all are different depending on which camera, but is there a pretty standard lens that come on them or are all different specs?

What types of lenses will I need and what are each for? ie, zoom, low light, video, macro, ect

Any good places to research this stuff, but in normal peoples terms?

cschleppy said:

What kind of cost am I looking at should I decide to invest in one of these cameras?

More so referring to additional lenses.

I see these come w/ a lens, but have no clue about the specs on them. I know all are different depending on which camera, but is there a pretty standard lens that come on them or are all different specs?

What types of lenses will I need and what are each for? ie, zoom, low light, video, macro, ect

Any good places to research this stuff, but in normal peoples terms?

Click to expand...

You don't need additional lenses, but unfortunately you will spend $300-$1000 per lens until you collect them all.

Good luck.

$5K and counting (yikes!)

But I'm pretty sure it's just me, and the cost would have been the same or higher with any other system. I've heard there are people who are happy with the kit zoom and maybe the pancake. Those are mostly found off these forums.

verbiage said:

$5K and counting (yikes!)

But I'm pretty sure it's just me, and the cost would have been the same or higher with any other system. I've heard there are people who are happy with the kit zoom and maybe the pancake. Those are mostly found off these forums.

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Those people , not those lenses

It's no different than any other hobby. You can get a good deal on the starter kit, but heaven help you if you then get obsessed and have to collect all the accessories, and run the bill through the roof till you lose interest, run out of money, or anger your spouse. GAS is what they call it in the acoustic guitar hobbiest circles--"guitar (or gear) acquisition syndrome". Then you try to unload it on eBay or stick it in the closet.

Probably it's best to get a starter kit you can live with and then hide the credit cards for a few months till the novelty wears off and you can decide whether you really need that new lens, flash, $200 padded backpack, etc.

The lenses you want will depend on what type of photography you take and how high your standards are. Sometimes, you won't know what you're after until you're well on your way in the hobby.

MFT lenses, as a rule, are not cheap. If you choose to go the MFT route, I recommend you buy the minimum amount necessary. Stick to the basics and play to the strengths of the format. MFT excels in having a high IQ solution in a light package, so you should try to stay wth lenses that keep your kit compact.

Another reason not to invest too heavily in MFT is that the future of the format is not assured, IMO. This is partly due to Panasonic's unwillingness to have open dialogue with its customers, so they only clue in to what their users want very late in the game. Cases in point include better video controls and faster lenses. This has allowed competitors who were on the back foot when the GH1 launched to meet and overtake it in many (though not all) respects.

With the announcement of the A33 and A55 cameras, we're now seeing HD-video in APS-C cameras the size of the G/GH bodies, and the same thing has already happened with the NEX vs the GF/PENs. 4/3 was smaller than APS-C DSLRs when it launched, but they were quickly (out)matched by the big names on size and are dying out now. And you know, the same thing happened with the original PEN F and the Zeiss Ikon/Rollei 35 cameras. You'd think they'd have learnt a thing or two by now .

In the meantime, nothing's stopping you from enjoying a new MFT camera. It's still the best enthusiast option at the moment, but I wouldn't spend thousands of dollars on lenses expecting the system to last me another 10 years. Actually, I already have ($1000 7-14, $800 ME45), but I still don't see it as as good an investment as my Canon L lens purchases over the last 15 years have been.

cschleppy said:

What kind of cost am I looking at should I decide to invest in one of these cameras?

More so referring to additional lenses.

I see these come w/ a lens, but have no clue about the specs on them. I know all are different depending on which camera, but is there a pretty standard lens that come on them or are all different specs?

Click to expand...

The basic kit lens is 14-42mm or 14-45mm. They are mostly the same spec, but there are some differences. The Olympus 14-42mm is a very compact lens, while the Panasonic 14-45 (kit lens for G1, GF1) and 14-42 (kit lens for G2, G10) are faster to achieve AutoFocus. There may some differences in sharpness etc. Of these three kit lenses, the Panasonic 14-45 is generally seen as the best in optical terms. Although the others are decent by all accounts and offer good performance for general use. Generally, which lens you'll end up with depends more on the camera you will buy.

There are also 'pancake' kit lenses: very compact fixed focal length lenses. There's a Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 (sold in kit with GF1, seperate price €349) and an Olympus 17mm f/2.8 (sold in kit with E-P2, seperate price €225) currently available. Of these, the Panasonic seems to be the favourite amongst users of both Olympus and Panasonic cameras.

Finally, there are superzooms that are sometimes found in kits. The Panasonic 14-140mm (sold with GH1, around €800 seperate), and the Olympus 14-150mm (sometimes found with E-PL1, seperate for around €550). The Panasonic lens is optimised for video use, which partly explains the cost. The E-PL1 + 14-150mm kit can be found for very attractive prices when you compare with the cost of body and lens separately.

There's also a double zoom kit for the E-PL1: 14-42 and the DSLR 40-150mm lens (plus adapter). The second lens is a great lens and works well on the E-PL1. Because the adapter is included, you also get more options for further lenses in the FourThirds system (the adapter costs €149 sold seperately).

cschleppy said:

What types of lenses will I need and what are each for? ie, zoom, low light, video, macro, ect

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It can be as mad as you want it to be. m4/3 offers many lens options for many different uses. Generally speaking there are three groups of lenses you can use on a m4/3 camera:

1. Native micro4/3 lenses. There are not that many yet (although way more than Samsung and Sony have on offer), but the number is expanding rapidly. The range covers fish-eye, ultra wide angle, standard range, macro, moderate tele with several options for most of these. What people are still missing is more fast (big aperture) prime lenses for portraits or wide angle. Also, a higher quality and faster (f/2.8) standard zoom is not yet available. Some of the available lenses may be a bit expensive as well, but there are options in the older DSLR 4/3 lens line up.

2. Compatible 4/3 lenses. There's a pretty large selection of lenses, ranging from very affordable to extremely expensive, covering all kinds of uses. These lenses require a special adapter from Olympus or Panasonic, but not all lenses will support AF on all cameras. Also, some lenses are very big when coupled to the compact cameras, such as the PEN's and GF1. Others however are very convenient to use since they are not too big and are quite fast to focus. These include the 25mm f/2.8 pancake, 40-150mm f/4-5.6, 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6, 9-18mm and also a 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5.

3. Manual focus lenses. You can use almost any photographic lens ever made on your m4/3 camera. There are many old lenses (from the film DSLR days) still in circulation, and with a simple adapter (around €25) you can put them on a m4/3 cam. If cost is your primary concern, then look here. You can find good lenses for as little as €20. They are manual focus only, but it's a lot of fun to use them. There are also people out there using expensive Leica lenses (€ 3000 or more) on E-P2's and GF1's. But these are usually people who owned those lenses already. Try looking on Ebay for old Nikkor, Olympus OM-system, Konica, Pentax or whatever lenses.

Well, I hope this helps to get a picture of what's available. In general, when you start with a kit, you might want to add the following lenses, depending on your style of photography:

• pancake: Panasonic 20mm (€349) or Olympus 17mm (€225)
• telelens: Panasonic 45-200 (€259), or Olympus 70-300mm (€300, plus adapter)
• ultrawide: Olympus 9-18mm (€459) or Panasonic 7-14mm (€999)
• macro: Panasonic 45mm f/2.8 (€725), Olympus 35mm f/3.5 (€200, plus adapter) or Olympus 50mm f/2 (€419, plus adapter). The 70-300mm also provides macro.

If you're leaning towards the E-PL1 I would definitely advise you to get the double lens kit. It's €639 compared to €465 for the one lens kit. The 40-150mm lens is a great performer for its price and the adapter gives you a lot of flexibility for future lenses. In the US, you can buy this lens with adapter for €199 combined.

Good luck in your choice!

Damien
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bilgy_no1

One of the main advantages of the MFT format is the ability to adapt almost all the lenses ever made by any manufacturer, whether they're still in business or not. You could certainly go with gathering up all the native Panasonic/Olympus MFT lenses out there, but that would cost you thousands.

Or you can buy manual focus lenses made for other systems for as little as $25 each plus the cost of the appropriate adapter (another $25-$50). You'd lose auto focus and stabilization, and some of those older lenses don't have the multi-coated surfaces we have today, but they still take great photos. I've acquired a TON of lenses for the cost I would've paid for just the Panasonic 7-14 and 45/2.8 lenses. Sure I'd love to have both of those lenses eventually, but I made the choice to experiment with different types of lenses instead.

cschleppy said:

What kind of cost am I looking at should I decide to invest in one of these cameras?

More so referring to additional lenses.

I see these come w/ a lens, but have no clue about the specs on them. I know all are different depending on which camera, but is there a pretty standard lens that come on them or are all different specs?

What types of lenses will I need and what are each for? ie, zoom, low light, video, macro, ect

Any good places to research this stuff, but in normal peoples terms?

Click to expand...

. . . The easiest and less expensive thing to do is start out with just the kit zoom and see if it it's going to satisfy your needs. Typically many people realize that it does except for some low light situations and if that's true for you, you may want to get a fast prime as a second lens later on. Most don't ever get too involved in wide angle or long telephoto stituations but everyone has different needs and you may not know what yours are until you get more involved in actually using your camera.

. . . As for specs, I wouldn't think that you need to worry too about that in the beginning. All of the kit zooms do a nice job in general with only minor differences among them in image quality or focus accuracy. I like the compactness of Olympus' 14-42 kit zoom but I actually use Panasonic's 14-45 because it's a little better performing. If I had the Olympus lens instead, I'm sure that I'd be happy enough with it though.

cschleppy said:

What types of lenses will I need and what are each for? ie, zoom, low light, video, macro, ect

Click to expand...

No one can tell you what type of lens you need until you first tell us what type of stuff you want to shoot.

Do you want or need to shoot in low light or do you just use your camera on sunny days ?

Do you enjoy shooting video ?

Do you enjoy taking photos of really small things like bugs, detail shots of flowers etc ? No point buying or talking about a macro lens if you don't

What type of camera are you coming from ? Why are you looking into m4/3rd ? What limitations does your current setup have on your photography ?

You've got to figure out what issues you want to address and what your goals are, budget, photographic interest etc before anyone can really point you in any given direction

cschleppy said:

What kind of cost am I looking at should I decide to invest in one of these cameras?
More so referring to additional lenses.
I see these come w/ a lens, but have no clue about the specs on them.

Click to expand...

A m4/3 camera equipped with a 14-45mm lens is the basic kit that will satisfy 95% of the needs of an average guy.

Between 14 to 20mm, that lens will act like a wide-angle lens, meaning that the camera will shoot a view wider than normal or, in other words, as if you moved back futher from your subject.

At 20 mm, that's the normal view: what you'll shoot is not closer nor further away than where you were, except that your picture will display a narrower view than what your eyes could see.

Above 20mm, objects will be shot closer that they were. So a 14-45mm lens is a 2x zoom (twice 20mm).

Macro lenses are fun (I have many) but they're are not absolutely necessary. m4/3 cameras take 12 Mega-pixel-photos: you can always crop your image so that people will believe that it's close-up photography. For example, this shot was taken with a normal lens but was simply cropped:

Bilgy_no1 said:

. ... Of these three kit lenses, the Panasonic 14-45 is generally seen as the best in optical terms. Although the others are decent by all accounts

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We have a wierd situation at the moment where the cheapest m4/3rds camera, the Lumix G1 comes with the 'best' kit lens.
I got mine as a secondhand bargain and I'm glad I did!
You can't go wrong with a G1.

I'm just waiting for any manufacturer to put an EVF in a nice retro body for me ...