Advice needed please

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wanderingeye

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Hi I have a £650 budget but unsure what to buy.
My previous camera was an Olympus E-P1 Pen and I enjoyed the manual ish control.
I now need something I can also do video on as well as photos with better quality.
Any advice would be appreciated please.
I have been looking at the Fuji x 100 and the Canon Eos 650d.

Thanks.
 
X100 and 650D are clearly very different cameras (although both very good at what they do for the price)

As Andy says, the most outstanding difference is the fixed lens. Did you use a single prime on your Pen and is that what you want again?
 
Personally I don't think you can compare the two. If you're looking for a small camera with the flexibility of manual controls and a wide dept of field then go for the x100. If you're looking for something you want to explore photography in and be able to expand & grow with get the 650D. Both are good, I have an X100 & love it but in addition to my DSLR :)
 
If you built up a small collection of lenses for the Pen, it would make sense (to me) to stick with that system and upgrade the body to one with video capability. If you've only got one lens, sell it on with the body and put the takings towards your new purchase. I can't advise you as to which body to get since I'm totally unaware of the cheaper end of the market (I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford higher end kit so have never shown much interest in it). I can comment on bridges/superzooms though, since I've just bought one as a general walkabout and holiday camera - a Fujifilm HS30EXR. There's a review of it in the review section. Of all the options I looked at, it was the best specced, fitted my hamlike paws and felt the best made! It also has full HD video capability at 1920 (1920x1080) and has options for 1280 (1280x720), 640x480 (@80fps),320v240 (@160fps) and 320x112'320fps). No mention of screen grabs at any of these resolutions but I'm sure one can pause playback then use the print screen button on the computer's keyboard.

Enjoy whateve you end up with.

Nod.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I actually like working with a prime lens.
I find with a kit 18 55 for example I distort people when I don't realize I am shooting too wide when close up.
I did this with the kit lens on my E-p1 when shooting some sets of my girlfriend thinking I had done some good shots only to find I had made her look shorter and wider by shooting too wide.
With the 20mm pancake on my E-P1 naturally I couldn't make such mistakes but the lack of a viewfinder drove me nuts.
So a fixed 35mm equivalent would be ok but on a 650d that's going to be an expensive lens.
I looked today in Jessops and it was £1500 for the lens (gulp)
The x100 is nice but I am not sure the manual control is going to be any quicker than just pressing the av button and turning the thumb wheel on the Canon D650.
Obviously the x100 has small size in its favor too and the sensor and lens have been designed to work together.

I also need to shoot video too for bloggy kind of stuff.

I wonder how many people use a DSLR for street photography?
That guy Ki off digital rev on youtube seems to do ok using a DSLR on the streets of Hong Kong!

Thanks.
 
If you pair up a 650D and a 40mm f2.8 STM lens then you'd have a fairly small dslr with a very small fixed lens that has excellent video capability and also the versatility of interchangeable lenses at any time you need. The 40mm STM lens is a very sharp, good performing lens and can be had from around £150-200, which is a lot less than the 35mm lens at £1500 and gives you the benefit of silent autofocus in videos too.
 
The 35mm F2 is around £200 and Canon's 50mm lenses range from £90 to £1200 (1.8, 1.4, 2.5 macro & 1.2) so primes are not out of the question. Personally I don't get on with the 35mm f2 but the £220 50mm F2.5 is one of my favourite lenses.

I spent yesterday wandering round London giving street photography a first attempt with the 50mm on my 5D2
 
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Iris said:
The 35mm F2 is around £200 and Canon's 50mm lenses range from £90 to £1200 (1.8, 1.4, 2.5 macro & 1.2) so primes are not out of the question. Personally I don't get on with the 35mm f2 but the £220 50mm F2.5 is one of my favourite lenses.

I spent yesterday wandering round London giving street photography a first attempt with the 50mm on my 5D2
Click to expand...

How did that go?
Do you feel you attracted more attention from your subjects?

I hope I am right in thinking a 35mm lens on a Dslr still wont be as wide as the x100.

I think I am just going to buy the x100 and work with it if it don't work out I can always but a Dslr at a later time.
I had a play with one yesterday and thought it was a very interesting quaint camera that will cost less than a prime of similar quality for a Dslr.
A d650 plus a 35mm lens will cost a lot more too.

Many thanks.
 
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wanderingeye said:
How did that go?
Do you feel you attracted more attention from your subjects?
Click to expand...

At first I was self conscious so started taking pics of things in shops, my confidence only started building up towards the end of the day but it didn't raise any attention whatsoever.

35mm on the 650D will hold an equivalent focal length of 56mm (1.6x crop) so the fixed lens on the x100 will be wider - It sounds like you have made your decision anyway so I hope you enjoy your new toy when it comes :)
 
I used to use a DSLR on the street and was happy using it. Only when I got my X100 did I realise that for whatever reason it does feel more comfortable and more suited.
It is not that much smaller than my small DSLR with pancake lens was but the whole look of the thing just gives that impression that someone is just using an old camera with a small lens on it.

The real advantage for me is the quietness of the shutter on the X100, the DSLRs I have used had people turning around once they heard the shutter (my old 20D was dreadful in that respect)
 
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