I have managed to have a play with a few of these, in real outdoor situations, most recently the Olympus EM1, and definitely it’s not for me. The viewfinder is horrible. And I can see where the battery life impact comes from – it draws power while you are sizing up the scene. OTOH, the low weight is still tempting… maybe 2 years from now there will be more lens choice in zooms, say 12-60.
That wasn’t the lens I was talking about. I was talking about the 18-55. If you want to see significant weight savings you have to compromise somewhere. My main point is that the D5500 body is quite a bit lighter than the K3. If you don’t mind going to 400g you could have an 18-105 lens. etc. etc. etc.
The 18-55 is much more modern than the 16-85. Lenses have changed less than digital bodies in the last few years, though newer ones have better VR.
The Nikon 16-85 (nearest to my 16-85) is 485g.
The 5500 is carbin fibre so should be tough enough.
What I find curious is that both that Nikon lens and the 12-60 m4/3 Olympus go back to 2007-2008.
Peter wrote:
I have noticed a number of “compact” DSLRs which are often made of “plastic” and are pretty light. Maybe that would be a better way to go. BTW the 5500 will weigh a lot more than 680g with a 15-85 (or similar) lens on it,
Well it has to be made of something and plastic is going to be lighter than metal.
You’re right, it’s 683g, not 680g! The body is 420g (incl battery, but probably not a memory card) and the 18/55 lens is 263g.
I’ve always found Nikon’s reliability to excellent. I’ve never used their customer service to be honest, but third party repair has been broadly the same as everyone else’s. With something in this price range and with the level of built-in obsolesce that a consumer digital camera has I doubt one would ever get it repaired outside of warranty anyway. Get it from John Lewis and you’ll get decent customer service.
I don’t know for sure that the D5X00 transfer RAW by WiFi but I’ve no reason to think they wouldn’t – certainly their other models with WiFi do.
Hmm, not looked at it in detail. I have noticed a number of “compact” DSLRs which are often made of “plastic” and are pretty light. Maybe that would be a better way to go. BTW the 5500 will weigh a lot more than 680g with a 15-85 (or similar) lens on it, and won’t be much smaller in front to back length.
What is Nikon reliability / customer service like these days? I had them for years and most packed up just outside warranty, or inside warranty but they refused to repair the camera saying I broke it. The power switch got moved on a 5700 when inside a backpack and it stripped the zoom motor gears (clearly it didn’t current-limit the motor) and Nikon UK went to war on that, with their head of UK cust service saying you don’t change gears on a car without using the clutch, so I paid the hefty repair charge, put it on Ebay, and never bought Nikon again.
The Canon has WIFI which is a great feature (can transfer to a PC or to a phone, which is great when travelling) but inexplicably it does jpegs only, not raw! That really put me off, because when I shoot with a DSLR and doing a trip writeup, I always use a RAW – Lightroom workflow. Jpegs are good enough most of the time but not so good with the perpetual haze…
Not sure if you saw my comment before, but have you looked at the Nikon D5500? It’s of comparable quality to your Pentax (probably better in some regards, less good in others, but broadly the same and certainly better than the Olympus). With an 18/55 it weighs in at 680g, versus your Pentax at 1025g or the Olympus with the 12-60 at 1075g. It’s also physically smaller than your K3 and about the same size as the Olympus.
So if you want Pentax quality in less weight, the Nikon does it. It’s twice the weight of a Sony RX100 of course, but the quality is better and it’s significantly more flexible.
The D5300 is the same size/weight as the D5500 and has a built-in GPS which might interest you. Because it’s not the latest model it’s almost certainly cheaper too. It has wifi too. And a flip out screen, which might be useful in the cockpit.
I don’t have a D5500 but I can lend you another modern Nikon body if you want to try it out to see if you like the Nikon style of controls, menus, etc. I’m not as familiar with the Canon lineup, but maybe they have a lightweight SLR too.
If the RX100 does the job for you then you have loads of options.
I have just had another serious look at the E-M1… The only lens which would do what I want (basically a zoom which can more or less stay on it, like my 15-85 one does now) is the not exactly new 12-60 which bought new is about €1000, and with a 72mm front is almost as big as my 16-85 Pentax one I have on the K3. It’s amazing this is a m4/3 lens! So I would end up with something which is almost as bulky as I have now, but the K3 outperforms every m4/3 camera, so why bother? The next option down, a lot smaller and lighter, is the 12-50 lens, but I don’t want to lose the zoom range, and the wider range zooms lose a lot of quality. The shops tell you to buy the 12-50 and the 50-whatever but that’s two lenses to carry around.
I was going to get some of this stuff to try on the Slovenia/Croatia/Greece trip but decided to not bother.
The Nikon D4 is however a huge camera and I can fully understand giving that up unless absolutely needed.
I just came back from Japan. I carried my Nikon D4 and my new SONY RX-100 II. Next trip the D4 stays home, because the little SONY is actually so good that I know i will not need more camera on trips like that. I’ll keep the D4 (although i don’t work as a photographer anymore) for some air-to-air shots … but maybe I’ll also sell all that heavy stuff soon.
I’ll post some examples soon.
I’ve just gone through a few of these in a camera shop
and it was interesting… no way would I go back from the K3 to one of these. Obviously their specs are good enough to produce great photos, and there are photographers who use this system all the time and get great results, but I found the whole “feel” a huge step backwards. Also nobody in the shop could find a way to configure them for M mode with auto-ISO (the equivalent of the ultra useful Pentax TAV mode) and while I did find it myself on the Olympus, the camera would not save the setting… maybe it was duff.
The weight saving remains substantial however – of the order of 50%.
Peter_Mundy wrote:
Weird – I think the camera on my iPhone 6 is rubbish except in the best of lighting conditions
There is an issue with some iPhone6+ cameras that Apple has acknowledged and is offering a replacement camera for: https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6plus-isightcamera/ – check if your device is possibly affected.
