Question on M43

emzee wrote:

My needs are family (kids - outdoor and indoor portraits), occasional landscapes, street photos. I want to enjoy the photography rather than worrying too much about the large equipment. Image quality is important, but I would not be printing anything more than 20x30 (that itself is very extreme as most of the time I would not be printing anything). M43 caught my attention as it looks to have the right balance of image quality with the equipment size. After all I would like to enjoy the photography as it is not a source of income for me.

I'm not sure what income has to do with it; M43 and other mirrorless systems are used professionally by some of the best photographers in the world.

1) How good is the Panasonic GX-8 compared to some of the full frame options from Canon? (6D, 5D Mark III). Since I have used Canon 5D Mark II, I am quite familiar with Canon setup. Is image quality very much acceptable?

Your unacceptable might be someone else's acceptable, or vice-versa. I believe DPR has a tool for dropping in cameras and comparing test shots side by side.

2) What about the lenses like Panasonic 15mm, 42.5mm and 25mm (from Olympus and Panasonic)? I might opt for a superzoom also for video and I am thinking of getting Panasonic 14-140 for that.

What about them? Plenty of reviews out there for them already. They're fine. I've leave the "3D" and "clinical" comments to other people who can actually see those things.

3) What about the flash systems in Panasonic world?

TTL is as consistent (or inconsistent) as any I've tried. Optical wireless only so it's a bit behind the Canon system which has built-in radio. Third party TTL support from the likes of Pocketwizard and Phottix is limited as they go for the Big Two first due to market share.

What I meant by income is that - I am not going to use Camera to make any income for me. So, my needs can be less critical as I may not need the same level of support that the professional photographers require.

Regards,
emzee