Help choosing a budget MFT Camera

Impulses wrote:

I'm a big fan of the GX850, but if I had to pick only one body it probably wouldn't be it. IQ wise it's really not at any disadvantage and unless you're gonna shoot full manual it's pretty easy to press up on the rear dial to switch between exposure compensation and aperture or shutter speed.

The lack of IBIS and an EVF will be a limitation for certain use cases tho. Namely shooting static scenes in low light or video will benefit a ton from IBIS, and shooting longer teles and/or in broad daylight can be easier with an EVF. I use my GX850 as a second body and/or for nighttime and indoor social occasions so those aren't an issue for me, but it's not the only body I shoot.

The GX850's mechanical shutter only goes to 1/500 too, after that it's using e-shutter, which could be an issue when shooting action and/or fast primes (wide open w/o an ND) during the day, as you'd either need stay under 1/500 or deal with the potential rolling shutter distortion of e-shutter.

I think if you're looking for really great C-AF and/or shooting action at short range the GX850 might be somewhat better than the other two Oly bodies, but all three are likely to disappoint for different reasons. For all around use the E-M10 II would be the most well rounded tho, C-AF is just a big weakness for Oly's lower end and older bodies. S-AF OTOH is more than fine on just about any M4/3 body.

Pana menus are easier to learn, I'd agree with others, if the GX85 can be found in the same price range it's worth a look.

I don't agree that an EM10 ii would disappoint. It's a great all round camera and it is what it is. It's not a wildlife or sports camera. Also depends on your photography. I have rarely used Continuous shooting AF.  The autofocus and speed generally are way better than my old Contax G1 film rangefinder camera and way better than the Leica X1!

Incidentally the OP seems to have disappeared!

I'm guessing the OP is off shopping ebay...  

Just wanted to add.  The EM10 ii is the first digital camera I have been happy with both the handling of the camera and speed of use, and the image quality.  Prior to this I had a Leica DLux 4 (which I hated and sold on).  A Nikon 1 V1 (which didn't quite do it for me and sold it on).  And a Leica X1.  Which had excellent image quality but was too slow and restrictive.  The IQ and colours on the Olympus are what I love about these cameras, combined with the fact everything just works really well.

Anyway I'll stop banging on now.  You've probably bought the panasonic by now anyway!

Hazel123 wrote:

Impulses wrote:

I'm a big fan of the GX850, but if I had to pick only one body it probably wouldn't be it. IQ wise it's really not at any disadvantage and unless you're gonna shoot full manual it's pretty easy to press up on the rear dial to switch between exposure compensation and aperture or shutter speed.

The lack of IBIS and an EVF will be a limitation for certain use cases tho. Namely shooting static scenes in low light or video will benefit a ton from IBIS, and shooting longer teles and/or in broad daylight can be easier with an EVF. I use my GX850 as a second body and/or for nighttime and indoor social occasions so those aren't an issue for me, but it's not the only body I shoot.

The GX850's mechanical shutter only goes to 1/500 too, after that it's using e-shutter, which could be an issue when shooting action and/or fast primes (wide open w/o an ND) during the day, as you'd either need stay under 1/500 or deal with the potential rolling shutter distortion of e-shutter.

I think if you're looking for really great C-AF and/or shooting action at short range the GX850 might be somewhat better than the other two Oly bodies, but all three are likely to disappoint for different reasons. For all around use the E-M10 II would be the most well rounded tho, C-AF is just a big weakness for Oly's lower end and older bodies. S-AF OTOH is more than fine on just about any M4/3 body.

Pana menus are easier to learn, I'd agree with others, if the GX85 can be found in the same price range it's worth a look.

I don't agree that an EM10 ii would disappoint. It's a great all round camera and it is what it is.

That's pretty much what I said... (see bolded part)

It's not a wildlife or sports camera. Also depends on your photography. I have rarely used Continuous shooting AF. The autofocus and speed generally are way better than my old Contax G1 film rangefinder camera and way better than the Leica X1!

Incidentally the OP seems to have disappeared!

That's all well and good, for you, but the OP specifically said he wanted better C-AF, so all you're really disagreeing with is the basic premise of this thread.

And the thread is only a day old, people have lives... Comparing AF against rangefinders and really old bodies doesn't seem very useful given what the OP is cross shopping. I've shot/owned Oly bodies with (E-M5 III) and without OSPDAF (E-M5 II), and Pana bodies with DFD (GX850 & G85), so that's what I based my answer around of given what OP said he wanted. I mean, he even mentioned shooting wildlife...

I got my E-M10 II for 150 pound with strap + 2 batteries a few months ago.

Phenomenal camera for its price range! I used my remaining budget to get the 17/25/45/75mm primes + 60mm macro.

I love the body build quality, and the easy to navigate menu.

Impulses wrote:

Hazel123 wrote:

Impulses wrote:

I'm a big fan of the GX850, but if I had to pick only one body it probably wouldn't be it. IQ wise it's really not at any disadvantage and unless you're gonna shoot full manual it's pretty easy to press up on the rear dial to switch between exposure compensation and aperture or shutter speed.

The lack of IBIS and an EVF will be a limitation for certain use cases tho. Namely shooting static scenes in low light or video will benefit a ton from IBIS, and shooting longer teles and/or in broad daylight can be easier with an EVF. I use my GX850 as a second body and/or for nighttime and indoor social occasions so those aren't an issue for me, but it's not the only body I shoot.

The GX850's mechanical shutter only goes to 1/500 too, after that it's using e-shutter, which could be an issue when shooting action and/or fast primes (wide open w/o an ND) during the day, as you'd either need stay under 1/500 or deal with the potential rolling shutter distortion of e-shutter.

I think if you're looking for really great C-AF and/or shooting action at short range the GX850 might be somewhat better than the other two Oly bodies, but all three are likely to disappoint for different reasons. For all around use the E-M10 II would be the most well rounded tho, C-AF is just a big weakness for Oly's lower end and older bodies. S-AF OTOH is more than fine on just about any M4/3 body.

Pana menus are easier to learn, I'd agree with others, if the GX85 can be found in the same price range it's worth a look.

I don't agree that an EM10 ii would disappoint. It's a great all round camera and it is what it is.

That's pretty much what I said... (see bolded part)

It's not a wildlife or sports camera. Also depends on your photography. I have rarely used Continuous shooting AF. The autofocus and speed generally are way better than my old Contax G1 film rangefinder camera and way better than the Leica X1!

Incidentally the OP seems to have disappeared!

That's all well and good, for you, but the OP specifically said he wanted better C-AF, so all you're really disagreeing with is the basic premise of this thread.

And the thread is only a day old, people have lives... Comparing AF against rangefinders and really old bodies doesn't seem very useful given what the OP is cross shopping. I've shot/owned Oly bodies with (E-M5 III) and without OSPDAF (E-M5 II), and Pana bodies with DFD (GX850 & G85), so that's what I based my answer around of given what OP said he wanted. I mean, he even mentioned shooting wildlife...

The OP says

"- Decent Auto-Focus, I won't be using it for sports photography but I do enjoy some casual wildlife photography as well as street photography."

The EM10 ii is fine for "casual" wildlife photography. He mentioned terrible C-AF on previous cameras but then went on to say

"Based on the above, I have found these three cameras:"

I was commenting on two of his three choices of cameras and saying the EM10 ii is a good choice out of the three in my opinion.

Apologies for comparing speed of autofocus to "old" cameras!  The point being - the speed is very good.

Hexlord79 wrote:

I got my E-M10 II for 150 pound with strap + 2 batteries a few months ago.

Phenomenal camera for its price range! I used my remaining budget to get the 17/25/45/75mm primes + 60mm macro.

I love the body build quality, and the easy to navigate menu.

Sounds like a great buy!  I also love the camera.  Envious of the 75mm lens.  The panasonic leica 15mm is also a great lens on that body - one of my favourites.

Hazel123 wrote:

Impulses wrote:

Hazel123 wrote:

Impulses wrote:

I'm a big fan of the GX850, but if I had to pick only one body it probably wouldn't be it. IQ wise it's really not at any disadvantage and unless you're gonna shoot full manual it's pretty easy to press up on the rear dial to switch between exposure compensation and aperture or shutter speed.

The lack of IBIS and an EVF will be a limitation for certain use cases tho. Namely shooting static scenes in low light or video will benefit a ton from IBIS, and shooting longer teles and/or in broad daylight can be easier with an EVF. I use my GX850 as a second body and/or for nighttime and indoor social occasions so those aren't an issue for me, but it's not the only body I shoot.

The GX850's mechanical shutter only goes to 1/500 too, after that it's using e-shutter, which could be an issue when shooting action and/or fast primes (wide open w/o an ND) during the day, as you'd either need stay under 1/500 or deal with the potential rolling shutter distortion of e-shutter.

I think if you're looking for really great C-AF and/or shooting action at short range the GX850 might be somewhat better than the other two Oly bodies, but all three are likely to disappoint for different reasons. For all around use the E-M10 II would be the most well rounded tho, C-AF is just a big weakness for Oly's lower end and older bodies. S-AF OTOH is more than fine on just about any M4/3 body.

Pana menus are easier to learn, I'd agree with others, if the GX85 can be found in the same price range it's worth a look.

I don't agree that an EM10 ii would disappoint. It's a great all round camera and it is what it is.

That's pretty much what I said... (see bolded part)

It's not a wildlife or sports camera. Also depends on your photography. I have rarely used Continuous shooting AF. The autofocus and speed generally are way better than my old Contax G1 film rangefinder camera and way better than the Leica X1!

Incidentally the OP seems to have disappeared!

That's all well and good, for you, but the OP specifically said he wanted better C-AF, so all you're really disagreeing with is the basic premise of this thread.

And the thread is only a day old, people have lives... Comparing AF against rangefinders and really old bodies doesn't seem very useful given what the OP is cross shopping. I've shot/owned Oly bodies with (E-M5 III) and without OSPDAF (E-M5 II), and Pana bodies with DFD (GX850 & G85), so that's what I based my answer around of given what OP said he wanted. I mean, he even mentioned shooting wildlife...

The OP says

"- Decent Auto-Focus, I won't be using it for sports photography but I do enjoy some casual wildlife photography as well as street photography."

The EM10 ii is fine for "casual" wildlife photography. He mentioned terrible C-AF on previous cameras but then went on to say

"Based on the above, I have found these three cameras:"

I was commenting on two of his three choices of cameras and saying the EM10 ii is a good choice out of the three in my opinion.

Apologies for comparing speed of autofocus to "old" cameras! The point being - the speed is very good.

For S-AF, sure, C-AF is next to useless tho.