It's time to replace the carry around camera

But am I correct in thinking there is a quality hit in RAW if you use the electronic shutter?

Helen wrote:

Louis_Dobson wrote:

Really I'm looking to find out which viewfinders work on which PEN models, and which ones are best, but wider choices below...
For years I've used an E-PM1 and VF 2, but the VF 2 has been eaten by a dog and the aged E-PM1 sensor is annoying me.
So, what can I get to shove in my pocket? If I have a faint hope I might get a picture I also take my 45 f1.8 and 12mm f2. If I expect nothing I take either the 14 or 20 Panasonic pancake. I never use kits zooms, I find them unusably slow, I always pack a viewfinder, I loathe working off the back screen for anything except phone type snaps, and I don't like and don't use on camera flash.

Anything I buy will be cheap off ebay.
I was looking at GX7, but they don't look that pocketable. Any experience?
I'd like an E-PM2, but all the ones on ebay come with the pointless kit lens, which bumps up the price.
Plenty of E-PL5s, body only. Small and has the modern sensor. Good choice, right? I also have to get a new (used)VF2, which costs nearly as much (blasted dogs).
E-PL6s are very little more. Apparently that is "fully compatible with the VF4". Does that means the E-PL5 can't use the VF4, only the VF2? And does that means the E-PL6 can't use the VF2, only the VF4? How about the E-PL7, should I see one dirt cheap?

Backtracking to these questions, the E-PL6 is basically an E-PL5 with a few software tweaks and a different paint job. Both of them can use the VF2 or the VF4 (or indeed the VF3 if you're so inclined) but only the E-PL6 will take advantage of the eye sensors on the VF4 for automatic switching between EVF and LCD. Though it is a little bit slow to switch in my opinion. Yes, do keep an eye open for the E-PL7 - it is basically the innards of an E-M10 squeezed into an E-PL body (with a slightly odd downward folding screen when facing it forwards) so has a lot of excellent enhancements over the E-PL5/6 and is being sold, body only, brand new at £287, so ought to be available for less on eBay. It has the 0-sec anti-shock (electronic first curtain) feature, so is immune to shutter shock when that's enabled, rather effective 3-axis IBIS, a very positive metal control dial around the shutter release, and it too will use the eye sensors of the VF4 - this time quickly, too.

Any other bright idea from the Panasonic range? I need a pocketable camera with quick access to aperture and exposure comp, a viewfinder, and plenty of base ISO DR. Quick access to ISO would be good. I don't need a mode dial, I never shoot in anything but Aperture Priority, I only shoot RAW for later processing, so all the art filters and other JPG functions are utterly useless to me. Quick wireless transfer to a phone would be nice (at which point I have to switch RAW back on) but I suspect will bump the price up, and I can do without.

As you mentioned in a later post, whilst quite a nice camera, the GF6 has no facility for a viewfinder; it also has no electronic shutter facility. The GM5 does sound like it could be useful for you, as long as you don't mind a small, sequential-field EVF (I tend to find myself distracted by rainbow effects in those when I blink or move my eyes quickly). The shutter is very quiet (in mechanical mode) and silent in electronic mode, and gives you the choice of operating in one mode or the other, or an intelligent automatic switching between modes - but the special, super-compact design of the mechanical shutter of the GM models (and the GF7 - no viewfinder for that one again, incidentally) does mean that they top out at 1/500 - though the electronic shutter takes them all the way up to 1/16000 - and maximum flash sync is only 1/50.