Input needed.

In the market to buy a new small travel camera which I have narrowed down to three models. They are the Canon SL-2, Olympus OMD E10 ll or the Sony A6000. I currently own and use the Canon 70D, SL-1 and G15.

Size is playing a large roll in my needs which is the main reason I have been looking at the Sony and Olympus models. WIFI is a major need (Or want) which is why I am looking at replacing the SL-1 and the fact that the SL-2 offers both wifi and blueetooth with a bump in MPX.

Curious if anyone might have experienced input that would help in my decision.

This doesn't address the camera’s themselves, but I find the WiFi feature to be much less important than I expected.

When I bought my T6S, the WiFi was an important feature, in fact I would not even consider a camera without it. I now have a Sony HX90V, a Nikon P900, the T6S, and an 80D. All have their own version of WiFi. I have used all of their respective apps to transfer images to either a smartphone or tablet. All work, all are slow, and all are reasonably convenient to use once set up.

None will handle RAW images, so you have to shoot JPEG to use WiFi. If you have lots of images, the slow transfer speed can try your patience. While I still use WiFi occasionally, almost all my transfers are now done with either a card reader or directly through an SD slot on my computer. The transfer speed is much better, and using RAW is not an issue.

Remote shooting is another WiFi feature, but I find a simple remote to be a more practical solution.

So, I wouldn’t let WiFi by itself be a major consideration in choosing a new camera. Maybe the SL-1 might be worth holding on to?

Thank you. Some very good points to consider. I know I use the WIFI feature on my 70D very little. Comments I have read about the bluetooth feature though have been very positive which is one of the other features that drew my interest for the SL2

Cote said:

In the market to buy a new small travel camera which I have narrowed down to three models. They are the Canon SL-2, Olympus OMD E10 ll or the Sony A6000. I currently own and use the Canon 70D, SL-1 and G15.
Size is playing a large roll in my needs which is the main reason I have been looking at the Sony and Olympus models. WIFI is a major need (Or want) which is why I am looking at replacing the SL-1 and the fact that the SL-2 offers both wifi and blueetooth with a bump in MPX.
Curious if anyone might have experienced input that would help in my decision.

Click to expand...

Hi. I'm actually shopping for a used SL1 just so I can comfortably use 3 Canon lenses I've had for some time, now. (24, 40 and 55-250) The alternative for me would be to get a Metabones or similar adapter for my Sony NEX cameras, which can be messy.

So I am running the Sony NEX system and my NEX-7 is the predecessor to the Sony A6500.

I am also running the M43 system using the Olympus OMD E-M10.

In answer to your question, I would recommend getting the E-M10 mark II and there are some seriously good deals out there right now. The best I've seen is $250 for a refurbished unit. These are excellent little cameras with a huge range of small but high quality lenses. And if small size is important, I'd try to find the 2 tiny Panasonic pancakes primes, the 20/1.7 and the 14/2.5. The latter just going out of production.

Sony's Achilles heel, for APSC, has been their lenses.

Cote said:

In the market to buy a new small travel camera which I have narrowed down to three models. They are the Canon SL-2, Olympus OMD E10 ll or the Sony A6000. I currently own and use the Canon 70D, SL-1 and G15.
Size is playing a large roll in my needs which is the main reason I have been looking at the Sony and Olympus models. WIFI is a major need (Or want) which is why I am looking at replacing the SL-1 and the fact that the SL-2 offers both wifi and blueetooth with a bump in MPX.
Curious if anyone might have experienced input that would help in my decision.

Click to expand...

Over the summer I looked into finding a replacement for the M3 I own. I looked at Canon, Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic and Sony. Sony was the first one marked off my list due to lack of touchscreen or poor touchscreen execution followed by their lackluster lens catalog. Second was the M5/M6 due to poor low light AF, dedicated flash issues, battery drain problems but mainly due to Canon's lack of providing a native lens catalog worthy of paying nearly $1,000 for the M5. Olympus and Panasonic doesn't have enough megapixels for me and to step up to the new 20 mp sensor was too costly. That left Fuji. I really like the X-T20 and Fuji's lens catalog but I heard rumors that the X-T20 replacement would have IBIS which I find worth waiting for.

Then Canon announced the SL2 and I really liked the specs they posted on it. I held off buying anything until I could get my hands on one. I really liked the small size and the fact it would let me use the EF/EF-S lenses I have natively. I ended up buying one and have been very pleased with it. I also bought the EF-S 10-18mm along with the EF-S 18-55mm f/4.0-5.6 kit lens. This new kit lens is super sharp and delivers incredible IQ for a kit lens. It is 20% smaller than the previous 18-55mm STM f/3.5-5.6 kit lens and is a perfect compliment to the small size of the SL2. Also, the 10-18mm isn't much bigger or heavier than the kit lens. I already had the EF-S 55-250 STM lens which is a stellar performer. I recently went on a trip to main and was able to take all three lenses and the 50mm STM in a small camera bag. I carried the 10-18mm and 55-250mm around during the day and found this combination was very good to use.

I still plan to buy another MILC but the SL2 has allowed me to wait on the replacement for the X-T20 and/or the next models from Sony, Panasonic, Olympus and Canon. The SL2 is a minimalist type of camera but it has a robust set of options accessible through the menu and can deliver excellent results. It basically has 80-90% of the capability of the 80D for less than half the price and with much smaller size and weight. However, most cameras these days are very good and will deliver good results so you probably won't make a bad decision no matter what you buy.

As a reforming cameraholic I own a T71 and the Olympus MD 10ii. I have issues with both of them.

The T7i is just too large but raw image quality from the Canon 24mp sensor is fine. As such I would opt for the SL2 in order to leverage what I assume is a collection of Canon lenses. If you are familiar with Canon APS dSLRs you know the drill. I really think this is your best option for a smaller travel camera unless you are itching to go to EVF and invest in new lenses.

Canon and Oly wifi which, when it works, works best as an off-camera trigger with preview on your cell phone or tablet but you can play with it and see what you think--the camera self timer is more efficient for that purpose and certainly faster to set. Other functions which indeed work are not as practical as you might think and chew up battery life but you can form your own opinion.

I have never shot a jpeg with either camera so no opinion.

You already know about the Canon so my take on the Olympus:

The Olympus, all current m43, can yield what I think is excellent raw image quality even to reasonably high ISOs (less than 1200 in my thinking). The Oly is small but dense so heavier than you would think with a travel zoom attached. If the image quality/camera heftitude ratio were not so high my frustrations with the camera would be worse.

Unfortunately like all EVF cameras the Oly comes with an EVF. What are issues for me may not be for you. I use the Oly quite a bit but I have to adapt to it rather than using it the way I would prefer.

My experience of EVFs (not just the Oly) is that they are television screens that can not render anything approximating the apparently infinite light/dark range your brain supplies looking through an optical viewfinder. In sunlight highlights are often blown and there is little or no detail in shadows even though with experience I know the sensor can capture a reasonable image. Over/under exposure flashies can be more annoying than helpful and I still have not figured out what to do about the superimposed histogram when shooting in available light, like when traveling.

Menu complexity and handling are slower, a valid criticism of the MD 10ii, but you get used to what you have with EVFs so that is sort of a non-starter. M43 lenses are high quality for the price compared to other formats and their quality is "enhanced" because lens correction algorithms are baked even into raw files. You can get adapters that can leverage Canon lenses with automatic function but it is more practical to opt for native m43 lenses apart from niche uses--I have a 60 year old Leica M lens that weighs as much as the camera.

The devil you know or . . . ?

Buy an Eye-fi SD card for wifi transfers. I am using it with SL1, iPad, Android, PC.. satisfied.

Additionally, I bought a 20mm pancake lens & my GX1 Panny got retired An expensive retirement

Cote said:

In the market to buy a new small travel camera which I have narrowed down to three models. They are the Canon SL-2, Olympus OMD E10 ll or the Sony A6000. I currently own and use the Canon 70D, SL-1 and G15.
Size is playing a large roll in my needs which is the main reason I have been looking at the Sony and Olympus models. WIFI is a major need (Or want) which is why I am looking at replacing the SL-1 and the fact that the SL-2 offers both wifi and blueetooth with a bump in MPX.
Curious if anyone might have experienced input that would help in my decision.

Click to expand...

Stan in NH said:

This doesn't address the camera’s themselves, but I find the WiFi feature to be much less important than I expected.

When I bought my T6S, the WiFi was an important feature, in fact I would not even consider a camera without it. I now have a Sony HX90V, a Nikon P900, the T6S, and an 80D. All have their own version of WiFi. I have used all of their respective apps to transfer images to either a smartphone or tablet. All work, all are slow, and all are reasonably convenient to use once set up.

None will handle RAW images, so you have to shoot JPEG to use WiFi. If you have lots of images, the slow transfer speed can try your patience. While I still use WiFi occasionally, almost all my transfers are now done with either a card reader or directly through an SD slot on my computer. The transfer speed is much better, and using RAW is not an issue.

Remote shooting is another WiFi feature, but I find a simple remote to be a more practical solution.

So, I wouldn’t let WiFi by itself be a major consideration in choosing a new camera. Maybe the SL-1 might be worth holding on to?

Click to expand...

Stan, I am confused, my 80D and T6 both send Raw over wifi and NFC using the cannon connect app, my phone is the S8 maybe that's the difference?

Thanks you for the replies. Believe I am going to stay with the Canon SL-1 and wait for a super deal on the SL-2 body only.

I love shooting with primes and have both the 24 and 40 mm pancakes and just added the 35 2.8 macro. I do quite a lot of table top work shooting scale models so the 35 with the included led lights add a nice very small close up package that I can also use as a general purpose lens if needed.

I did get a chance to play with the SL-2 and find it to be a really nice small option for staying with a conventional DSLR. Not a great deal different than the SL-1 but does offer enough new features making upgrading worth while.

I think the Sl/2 would be great for what you want to photograph.