Delie said:
Niko, reading the forums you've talked a bit about these evil/M4-3 cameras. Specifically, the Panasonic GF1 and the Olympus E-PL1.
Question is, how do you think the Nex-5 will compare to these? It would seem, on paper at least, to have a lot going for it. Now that the Nex 3/5 announcements are out, have you been put off completely from buying an E-PL1 for your wife? :)
The one thing that the GF1 and E-PL1 still have going for them is their ergonomics. Specifically that they offer more buttons on the camera instead of going into the menu every time you want to change a setting. The NEX cameras have virtually no external controls. Just about everything is menu driven. For some that will be a big turn-off.
Then there's that "clumsy" proprietary flash but I'll hold off judgement on that until I actually use it. At least it kind of folds down to lay flat against the lens and isn't in the way all the time. So in that respect the Panasonic and Olympus are still better than the NEX cameras.
However the image quality on the NEX cameras seems to be pretty outstanding! You are getting a camera that has a sensor the same size as the D90 and D300 with more megapixels and (as far as we can initially tell) very similar if not better ISO noise performance. All in a camera that is incredible small.
Speaking of the size some might actually think the NEX is TOO small. Not enough of a grip with lenses that are waaay too big. Well I used (still use actually) a Sony 717 for many years. That camera had a huge lens slapped on a small rotating body. Very similar to the NEX design but on a larger scale. Though the hand grip was small the large lens made for a good grip too so it was a very well balanced camera for such an awkward looking design.
I'm going to try to hold off buying my first EVIL camera until I know what Nikon intends to do. Our anniversary is in the summer so it'll be a hard decision. Though I have to look at it from my wife's perspective and what her needs are and not on my Nikon "fanboy" bias.
She doesn't know much about Olympus other than the "super cute" E-PL1 she handled. But she does know the name Sony so she's willing to wait to handle one of their NEX cameras to see if she likes it. I'm going to guess that she will. Although I'm married so I've been trained not to assume anything :^(
