[Leica] OT - need some direction about micro 4/3 cameras

[simon.ogilvie at gmail.com (Simon Ogilvie)]

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 1:08 PM, Henning Wulff <henningw at archiphoto.com> 
wrote:
> I've a Olympus e-p1 and have the Lumix GF-1, G1 and GH2. It might be just
> familiarity, but I like the control layout of the Lumix series a lot better
> than the Olympus, but I might still upgrade the e-p1 to an e-p2 for the
> in-body IS, which makes all the other odd lenses I have stabilised, as well
> as the Panasonic 20/1.7.
>
> The GH2 is a big step up in image quality. For long lens stuff I now tend 
> to
> use the GH2 and 100-300 rather than a crop sensor Canon and 100-400, as the
> achieved quality is overall just as good if not better. The current 18mp
> Canon sensor is slightly better than that of the GH2, but the 100-300 is a
> lot better than the Canon 100-400, and I've tried 5 of the latter by now.
> The Oly e-p2 has similar noise levels as the GH2, but not quite when you
> push it and it doesn't have the resolution as the noise reduction removes
> some. The e-p2 has a very nice viewfinder, but as others have noted it's a
> bit awkward. The GH2 focusses faster as well. So... the GH2 is definitely 
> my
> favourite m4/3 body.
>
> The Panasonic lenses are all very good to outstanding, the GH2 sensor is
> very good and the whole thing weighs a fraction of what the Canon stuff
> weighs.

Very interesting observations.  I used a Canon 100-400 for a long
time, but was never very happy with the results from it.  I looked at
the Panasonic 100-300 but it's so big it seems to unbalance their tiny
cameras!

For what it's worth I have a G1 and a GF1, and had an E-P2 which I've
recently replaced with a Sony NEX-5.  My favourite in use is the G1,
although I carry the GF1 or NEX-5 more often due to smaller size and
weight.  The add-on viewfinder for the E-P2 is much better than the
GF1's although the built-in one of the G1 is the best.  I couldn't get
used to the strange menu layout on the Olympus, and that combined with
the low-res main screen was the reason I moved it on.  The Sony has a
fantastic screen, a larger and higher-res sensor, and can also take a
Leica-M adapter, but the menus on that are very odd, and I prefer the
results from the Panasonics so they are still my favourites.  I may
investigate the GH2, although I'm also thinking of ditching them all
and finally going for an M8 now the used prices have become a bit more
reasonable!

Simon.