Tough choices

I've been expanding my camera/lens collection and yesterday, I finally laid everything out on the table, looked at it and decided that the herd needs to be thinned out rather thoroughly.  Now, it is probably a small collection for many of you, but it is definitely more than I need.  I'll list what I have.  What would you keep and what would you sell if you were me?

Cameras:

Nikon D90

Samsung NX500

Panasonic GX-1

Olympus E-M1

Lenses:

Nikkor 300mm f/4.5 Ai-S

Samsung 16-50mm PZ

Samsung 30mm f/2

Zuiko 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5

Zuiko 50mm f/2

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 4/3 mount

mZuiko 12-40mm f/2.8

mZuiko 40-150mm f/2.8

mZuiko 45mm f/1.8

mZuiko 40-150mm f/4-5.6

Lumix 14mm f/2.5

Lumix 25mm f/1.7

Lumix 45-150mm f/4-5.6

Lumix 14-140mm f/4-5.8

Converters/adapters:

Kipon EF-m4/3 with AF

Fotodiox Nikon-m4/3

Fotodiox Nikon-4/3

Metabones ED-m4/3 Speedboster

Micro 4/3 1.4x teleconverter

4/3 2x teleconverter

Panasonic 4/3-m4/3 adaptor

Olympus 4/3-m4/3 adaptor

Let me know what you think.

Looking at the lens selection you are obviously more heavily invested in mFT gear and as such I would keep the following:

Olympus E-M1

mZuiko 12-40mm f/2.8

mZuiko 40-150mm f/2.8

mZuiko 45mm f/1.8

Lumix 14mm f/2.5

Lumix 25mm f/1.7

Lumix 14-140mm f/4-5.8

I would use any money from clearing out the other gear to upgrade the Panasonic body { GX8 ? } and perhaps look at the 300mm F/4 { as you do not seem too interetsted in the uwa end}  when it comes along.

Here's what I would do (as a non-professional enthusiast):

Keep the E-M1 and Samsung NX500.

Keep the Sigma 30mm 1.4, The mZuiko 12-40 2.8, 40-150 2.8 and 45 1.8, the Lumix 14mm and 25mm, the 2 Samsung lenses and whatever converters/adaptors are needed for what's left.

I don't think most people need more than 2 ILC bodies plus one advanced pocket or go anywhere camera. Of course, everyone's needs are personal.

If you are thinking of selling the Samsung stuff I would do it NOW, before the bottom drops out of that market.

Definitely sell the GX1 before it loses any value ...

kolobok32 wrote:

I've been expanding my camera/lens collection and yesterday, I finally laid everything out on the table, looked at it and decided that the herd needs to be thinned out rather thoroughly. Now, it is probably a small collection for many of you, but it is definitely more than I need. I'll list what I have. What would you keep and what would you sell if you were me?

Cameras:

Nikon D90

Samsung NX500

Panasonic GX-1

Olympus E-M1

Lenses:

 . . . .
Let me know what you think.

The Samsung is the hot potato.
Toss before getting burned.
You may already have blisters.

Does the Nikon get used ?
Does it do anything for you that µ4/3 can't ?

Keep the GX1 as backup to the E-M1 and glovebox/briefcase compact with the 14mm f/2.5.

cameron2 wrote:

Definitely sell the GX1 before it loses any value ...

That's what I'm doing. GX1 + LVF2.

kolobok32 wrote:

What would you keep if you were me?

Cameras: Olympus E-M1

Lenses:

Zooms :

mZuiko 12-40mm f/2.8

mZuiko 40-150mm f/2.8

mZuiko 40-150mm f/4-5.6

Even if the last two ones seems to be duplicates, they are not. The M.Zuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 will be useful in low-light situations while its plastic and smaller cousin (which is as sharp) will be handy for travelling because of its low weight.

Primes:

Lumix 14mm f/2.5

Lumix 25mm f/1.7

mZuiko 45mm f/1.8

In that lens collection, there is still room for a more potent teleprime (like the M.Zuiko 75mm F/1,8), and a wide-angle zoom (like a 7-14mm made by Olympus or Panasonic).

This is what I am leaning toward for the moment.

I will keep the D90.  I use it around the house where its size (compared to m4/3 does not matter too much).  My brother is a Nikon shooter, so if push comes to shove, I have access to his Nikon lenses.  For my purposes, I think I will buy Sigma 18-35 F/1.8 to use with this camera.

I will keep the 300mm F/4.5.  It is an old manual lens and I will use it as a target projector to build a small camera tester in my garage (I used to build these things for a living and I have a project in mind).

The Samsung gear is going to go.  I am not particularly concerned about Samsung abandoning the NX system, but I found that while NX500 takes very good images, for some reason it takes a lot more work in Lightroom to make them look good.  I am not sure why, but it is easier for me to work with Panasonic and Olympus files.  Another interesting thing I found is that in actual use, the performance of the GX-1 with the different prime lenses (I forgot to add the Olympus 17mm f/1.8 to the list above) is snappier that that of the NX500 with either of the two lenses I have.  Also, looking at the NX lens line-up, the higher quality lenses are quite large, so I am in no danger of switching over to NX completely.

All my old 4/3 DSLR lenses will go.  I probably can not get too much for them, but I think it is time to say good bye.  I played with different lenses quite a bit over the last few days and to my considerbaly surprise discovered that the 12-40mm F/2.8 is actually a respectable macro lens.  Not as good as a dedicated macro, but good enough for my purposes, so the 50mm F/2 is going onto the chopping block.  The 50-200mm along with EC-20 has a bit too much overlap with the much more compact 40-150mm.  I would have kept it, but since the 300mm F/4 is coming out, I need to start saving for it.  The 30mm Sigma is a nice lens and I have used it for a number of years as a portrait lens (it is a little short for it, but it worked).  I went into Lightroom and looked at what F-numbers I have been using it most of the time and it turns out I did not use it wide open nearly as much as I thought.  With that in mind, I think I will switch to the 45mm F/1.8 as a portrait lens.  It is a different perspective, but I played with it a bit and like it.

The 40-150mm F/4-5.6 will go too.  It is a surprisingly sharp little lens, but the 45-150mm Lumix seems to have similar sharpness.  Since the Lumix lens is stabilized I can easily use it with both of my m4/3 cameras.

25mm F/1.7 Lumix is new to me, so I am still trying to figure out whether I want to keep it.  Initial image quality looks decent if I stop it down a bit.  However, it is not nearly as compact as I thought (not sure why I thought that it would be that compact).

So far it looks like I've got enough lenses to have two m4/3 camera kits in two separate bags that would be suitable for different occasions.

Kit 1 will be GX-1 with 14mm F/2.5 (usually sitting on the camera since the combination is virtually pocketable for me), mZuiko 45mm f/1.8 and Lumix 45-150mm.  Maybe, I'll keep the 17mm F/1.8 there as well, although I prefer to have it at work in my office.

Kit 2 will be E-M1 with 12-40mm F/2.8, 40-150m F/2.8 and FL-36R flash.  The video quality with the E-M1 is surprisingly decent, so I think I will need to buy a microphone for it.

The Ef to m43 speedbooster will go, but I think I will buy a Nikon to M43 speedbooster.  Together with the Sigma 18-35, it will make for a 12-24 F/1.2 manual lens.  That will be pretty interesting to play with.

kolobok32 wrote:

I've been expanding my camera/lens collection and yesterday, I finally laid everything out on the table, looked at it and decided that the herd needs to be thinned out rather thoroughly. Now, it is probably a small collection for many of you, but it is definitely more than I need. I'll list what I have. What would you keep and what would you sell if you were me?

Cameras:

Nikon D90

Samsung NX500

Panasonic GX-1

Olympus E-M1

Lenses:

Nikkor 300mm f/4.5 Ai-S

Samsung 16-50mm PZ

Samsung 30mm f/2

Zuiko 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5

Zuiko 50mm f/2

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 4/3 mount

mZuiko 12-40mm f/2.8

mZuiko 40-150mm f/2.8

mZuiko 45mm f/1.8

mZuiko 40-150mm f/4-5.6

Lumix 14mm f/2.5

Lumix 25mm f/1.7

Lumix 45-150mm f/4-5.6

Lumix 14-140mm f/4-5.8

Converters/adapters:

Kipon EF-m4/3 with AF

Fotodiox Nikon-m4/3

Fotodiox Nikon-4/3

Metabones ED-m4/3 Speedboster

Micro 4/3 1.4x teleconverter

4/3 2x teleconverter

Panasonic 4/3-m4/3 adaptor

Olympus 4/3-m4/3 adaptor

Let me know what you think.

keep it simple

sell the D90, NX300, GX1

All Samsung lenses

All Lumix zooms

All Zuiko FT lenses

Invest in 2nd Olympus body like EM5 II and some bright Olympus primes

Or just save the money and invest in Apple stock

Cheers,

jim stirling wrote:

Looking at the lens selection you are obviously more heavily invested in mFT gear and as such I would keep the following:

Olympus E-M1

mZuiko 12-40mm f/2.8

mZuiko 40-150mm f/2.8

mZuiko 45mm f/1.8

Lumix 14mm f/2.5

Lumix 25mm f/1.7

Lumix 14-140mm f/4-5.8

I would use any money from clearing out the other gear to upgrade the Panasonic body { GX8 ? } and perhaps look at the 300mm F/4 { as you do not seem too interetsted in the uwa end} when it comes along.

I got my hands on a GX-8 and found that while it is a very nice camera, it is significantly bigger than my GX-1 or even the E-M1.

I think for my purposes, the E-M1 is the "large" camera and GX-1 is the "small"camera.  Any replacement for the GX-1 would have to be pretty small.  I was actually looking at the GM-5 as a potential more appropriate replacement.  However, I am in not great rush, so I can also wait and see what the next Olympus PEN will look like.

Then, some more decisions will have to be made since ultimately, as a small camera, I can always buy the Sony RX100 and gain a lot of portability for a small loss in performance.

You are right that I do not do too much wide angle.  If I were, I would be in the market for the apparently excellent 7-14mm F/2.8.  The 300mm F/4 is definitely of interest though.

I would get rid of the GX1 for sure, the newer sensors are better.

The other stuff, it depends on why you have it.

You have 4 lenses with about the same zoom range, depending on usage or intended use you could weed out 1 or 2:

• Zuiko 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5
• mZuiko 40-150mm f/2.8
• mZuiko 40-150mm f/4-5.6
• Lumix 45-150mm f/4-5.6

For example the 43 Zuiko 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 could be replaced by your M.Zuiko 50-150/2.8 unless you particularly want the extra reach.

I would probably get rid of one of the bottom two

nevada5 wrote:

if you can sell the NX500 and the 30mm f/2. Amazing detail, DR, color, etc. Not to mention the great touch screen, ease of use, that feel of quality in your hands. You've been forewarned.

I got the NX500 at the Ditch the DSLR event at the PIX2015 and have been using it since.  It is a nice camera, and the image sensor is quite good.  I am not too impressed with the color, although with Raw, I eventually get what I want out of it,  the handling and control layout while pretty decent, are not nearly as good (for me) as the E-M1.

I got the 30mm specifically to see if it will work better for me than the kit zoom and while the image quality is better, the focus speed and accuracy are really subpar.  In terms of ISO performance, the NX500 is about 1 stop better than the E-M1 and about 2 stops better than the GX-1.  That is a significant difference, but I can live with that.

The thing that will be hard to give up is 4K video.  As limited as it is in NX500, it is a nice feature to have..

However, since I work for an imaging company, I can always borrow a 4K camera with a Super35 sensor from work if I need one.

Also, I am kinda curious how good the video is going to be on Z-cam's E1.  I might pick one of those up.

Or wait for one of the smaller m43 bodies to get 4K video.

robes1 wrote:

Why have a ripon ef mft without ef lenses????

How slow visits AF? Found you post searching for it.

I have access to EF lenses at work.  For me it would be more convenient if there were autofocus capable adapters for Nikon lenses on micro-4/3, but those do not seem to exist best I can tell.

The only EF lens I used fairly extensively with the Kipon adapter was the 70-200 F/2.8 and that was an the E-M1.

There, it worked quite well.  The autofocus was generally accurate and modertely snappy.  EXIF data was accurate as well.

In terms of speed it was not too far off from the DSLR 4/3 lenses, but not nearly as fast as the 40-150 F/2.8.

kolobok32 wrote:

jim stirling wrote:

Looking at the lens selection you are obviously more heavily invested in mFT gear and as such I would keep the following:

Olympus E-M1

mZuiko 12-40mm f/2.8

mZuiko 40-150mm f/2.8

mZuiko 45mm f/1.8

Lumix 14mm f/2.5

Lumix 25mm f/1.7

Lumix 14-140mm f/4-5.8

I would use any money from clearing out the other gear to upgrade the Panasonic body { GX8 ? } and perhaps look at the 300mm F/4 { as you do not seem too interetsted in the uwa end} when it comes along.

I got my hands on a GX-8 and found that while it is a very nice camera, it is significantly bigger than my GX-1 or even the E-M1.

The GX8 weighs less than the E-M1 , it is the exact same depth, 3mm wider and 15.6mm shorter

I think for my purposes, the E-M1 is the "large" camera and GX-1 is the "small"camera. Any replacement for the GX-1 would have to be pretty small. I was actually looking at the GM-5 as a potential more appropriate replacement. However, I am in not great rush, so I can also wait and see what the next Olympus PEN will look like.

Then, some more decisions will have to be made since ultimately, as a small camera, I can always buy the Sony RX100 and gain a lot of portability for a small loss in performance.

I have the Panasonic FZ100 with RX100 sensor and the image quality is pretty good, comparable to mFT under 800 ISO. For a take everywhere camera they are hard to beat, though the latest model comes with a fairly hefty price.

You are right that I do not do too much wide angle. If I were, I would be in the market for the apparently excellent 7-14mm F/2.8. The 300mm F/4 is definitely of interest though.

Yes the 300mm F4 looks to be a real winner for the long telephoto shoters

That's interesting.  Maybe it is the shape of the grip, then.  GX-8 felt bigger than it, apparently, is.