Looking for new camera.

[nosbusch2005]

I'm looking at getting my wife a new camera for Christmas. She has expressed an interest in upgrading from her almost 10 year old point and shoot and I don't blame her. Unfortunately I know very little about cameras.

This camera, Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1, caught my eye. Mainly because of its price. I also looked at some SLR cameras but they are more expensive and I don't know if the extra cost worth it? Like I said I really don't know much about cameras so any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mr. Switch]

Micro 4/3rds would be a great step into getting a more advanced camera w/o the size and bulk of SLR's. However, i wouldn't go with the Panasonics, and not that particular one either. The G1 was designed about three years ago and it is the FIRST m4/3rds camera that existed. It doesn't even shoot video.

I used to own the GF1, and shot some great pictures with it, but the color in the JPEGS sucks. It's a swell camera, but the output was just garbage if you didn't' shoot RAW. Which is she going to shoot RAW? i doubt it. My girlfriend hated the **** thing, and our mutual dislike towards it made me sell it.

Now I've got an E-P1 instead that i won through work. Still m4/3rds, same exact sensor TBH, but the output is far and wide better in the jpegs. It's a great camera, and it just bleeds class with the chrome body. My girlfriend took it to Japan (with only the 17mm mind you), and shot thousands of awesome pictures! She loves it so much, i almost never use it because she's too busy with it! Despite the E-P1 not being quite as fast, it's a better camera for me (and my girlfriend) because we don't have to shoot RAW with it. The Jpegs are about perfect, and the color blows my D700 out of the water. My girl loves the art filters.

I'd go with an Olympus Pen if you can stretch the budget because they're smaller than the Panasonic and have great Jpeg output.

 

[nosbusch2005]

Thanks for the reply. I checked out a bunch of reviews on the Olympus camera you suggested. Couple of things I noticed were that people said it was kind of slow. One review said that if you are mainly going to be taking pictures of pets and kids it might not be the camera for you. This makes me nervous since that is mostly what she would be taking pictures of. Have you noticed this issue?
Also it doesn't have a built in flash. Like I said I am not any sort of photography guru so maybe this isn't that big of a deal but it seems like it would just be added cost to have to buy a separate flash if it was needed.
Also how does the PEN E-P1 compare to similarly priced SLRs? Like the Canon Rebel XS, the Pentax k-x, or I saw a Nikon one but can't remember the model number right now.
Sorry for all the newbie questions, and thanks for the info. I never thought picking out a camera would be so much work!

 

[Mr. Switch]

The Oly's are a little slow. I won't argue with that, my GF1 was MUCH faster than my E-P1. The E-PL1 does have a built in flash, otherwise, put a fast lens on it (20mm f/1.7 or 17mm f/2.8) and you don't need flash.

The m4/3rds offerings don't really compare to SLR's because they're not SLR's. AF will not be as quick, continuous shooting might not be as quick, it's a smaller format than typical DSLR's. When you have a camera that's less than half the size, something's gotta give.

The primary markets for m4/3rds are:

"I want DSLR quality, but I don't want the size or bulk." Great! m4/3rds is perfect for you then because you get a HUGE bump up in IQ from a P&S, and much faster speed and operation, without really sacrificing size a whole lot.

"I have the SLR, but it's an event in itself taking it places where i don't need to be (like) Joe-Pro." Great! m4/3rds is perfect for you, because you get your SLR quality in a camera that can fit in your pocket, and doesn't even look like an SLR.

If you're primarily going to shoot at ultra high sensitivities all the time, need 50 years of lens compatibility, will mostly be shooting sports, or really want an optical viewfinder, than SLR's are still the way to go.

Rangefinder cameras have been a niche since the 50's when they were replaced by SLR's for the journalists. m4/3rds is no different in the present.

 

[nosbusch2005]

I do like the idea of the smaller camera. I can't really see her taking out a big camera every time she Wants to take a picture. I'll just keep looking, kind of leaning towards the E-PL1 at the moment. If I have anymore questions i will post them up. Thanks for all of hhe help.

 

[J-Bot]

Sony Bloggie is a great camera for on the go video blogging or just plain video. Aiptek has some good cheap non HD cameras. Vivitar has a good underwater/ night vision camera.