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Damo1

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Hello all , I'm considering a change from the Olympus mft system to the cheer end of the scale Sony ff or Fuji x system .
The only rel reason I can give for making the change would be that I've been in the Olympus for 2 years and fancy a change .
The Olympus kit I have does what I want and I know how to use it to a standard that I am happy with . So my question I suppose is should I do it or find inspiration to push myself with the good kit I have ?
 
Hello all , I'm considering a change from the Olympus mft system to the cheer end of the scale Sony ff or Fuji x system .
The only rel reason I can give for making the change would be that I've been in the Olympus for 2 years and fancy a change .
The Olympus kit I have does what I want and I know how to use it to a standard that I am happy with . So my question I suppose is should I do it or find inspiration to push myself with the good kit I have ?
If your kit is delivering what you want I don't see why you need to change? If it's purely lack of inspiration then new kit won't fix that. You may get a temporary urge to use your new gear but it soon wears off.
 
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If your kit is delivering what you want I don't see why you need to change? If it's purely lack of inspiration then new kit won't fix that. You may get a temporary urge to use your new gear but it soon wears off.

Agree with Snerkler on this one, yes it will be great having a new camera but it will wear off. If you are happy with how your kit works then stick with that :)
 
Yea I can't fault what I have just fancied a change and the advice of people not invested in any way is much appreciated , my other option is to try film which I could do alongside what Iv already go
 
shooting film can also get expensive quickly if not careful. I'd suggest getting better with your current equipment and if you must spend your cash perhaps invest in things like good tripod or filters etc. These you can use irrespective of the system and will serve you well for a long time.
 
my other option is to try film which I could do alongside what Iv already go

I'd agree with this idea. Digital gear is digital gear and they will all deliver excellent repeatable results in all but the very worst conditions. Generally, I always feel that if we can't the results we're after with pretty much any digital kit now then the problem isn't the kit! However, whilst there is some truth in that shooting film can get expensive, buying the actual film kit will be considerably cheaper than buying something digital so the savings can be put towards more film. Shooting film will make you think more about each shot because you can put a definite cost on each slide/negative.

There's a whole range of film kit available to try out for not a lot of cash. I always recommend FilmDev.co.uk too. For around £5 a roll of 35mm/120 they will deliver excellent quality scans within a few days.
 
I've moved through more systems than I'd care to mention (but not Sony so cannot comment on them), but if you can find a way to spice things up without a change do it, system swaps are expensive!

Ordinarily this sort of a question comes from someone not already in mirrorless so you'll not see the size benefits, in fact coming from M43 you're going to see the opposite.

I was invested in Olympus a fair while back and it's an excellent system, my reason for changing was that I like a shallow depth of field so moved back to DSLR, then as that was too big and heavy went to Fuji (not Sony as full frame even on a smaller body requires big lenses) as it was to me an acceptable middle ground.
 
Well Iv been pondering your replies and Iv identified the are of photography that I have zero experience of , that is the use of off camera flash so do any of you have experience of using flash with the Olympus system , and more specifically the omd-em1 mk1 , as always your advice is greatly received and thank you for your time up to yet .
 
I'd say go for it but keep in mind that a basic 1st generation Sony A7 isn't as snappy a performer as a MFT camera though but the image quality is excellent and the files are gorgeous.

To really give you a change you could go for old manual lenses. You could pick up a mass market set (Canon FD, Minolta Rokkor, Olympus Zuiko) like 28mm f2.8, 50mm f1.8 and 135mm f3.5 for around £50-75, add a £10 adapter and you'll have a lot of fun and get gorgeous files.
 
Good call on the manual lenses, I played for a while and it was challenging, certainly fun
 
I dunno about challenging. For scenery and posed people shots manual focus is just a matter of having time tp call up the magnified view and focus and there's always hyperfocal/zone for some shots too which makes it faster than a DSLR, just set the lens and shoot.

I use manual lenses quite a bit and the results stand up to 100% pixel peeping,

I'd agree with the fun part, I was trying to explain to my GF (then, now wife :D) recently about the lovely 35mm f1.8 I bought for peanuts that would now cost me twice as much if I could find one :D
 
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I dunno about challenging. For scenery and posed people shots manual focus is just a matter of having time tp call up the magnified view and focus and there's always hyperfocal/zone for some shots too which makes it faster than a DSLR, just set the lens and shoot.

I use manual lenses quite a bit and the results stand up to 100% pixel peeping,

I'd agree with the fun part, I was trying to explain to my GF (then, now wife :D) recently about the lovely 35mm f1.8 I bought for peanuts that would now cost me twice as much if I could find one :D
lol, now of course I was trying moving stuff, talk about trying to run before you can walk!

You're right about manual lens prices - they have gone up quite a bit from what I've seen since they became more accessible.

Gratz on but the lens and wife, not necessarily in that order :D
 
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Changing kit?
The other man's grass is never greener.


Says the man who went from Canon to Fuji not so long ago!!! :P

Have to agree with Snerkler that a change isn't going to do much for your photography, although new kit will probably increase your output for a while while you play with the new toys.
 
Says the man who went from Canon to Fuji not so long ago!!! :p
But I'd been running the fooj for over 12 months before the Canon gear went.
You run fooj and nye con together don't you?
 
Most definitely keep what you have! And invest, rather, time and attention in your photography. Photography isn't essentially about shopping, it's about photographs, and to think otherwise is a failure to engage.

Now then, to have film gear to run in parallel could be interesting, but if you're completely new to it there will be another learning curve. So maybe concentrate on using what you have. Which might require an element of study anyway. The best road is looking at photos and trying to analyse what's good about them (or not), and how they were made. It might seem bewildering, because there's both a technical side and a cultural side to it, and many people engage with one aspect only meaning that their work can remain a bit one-dimensional. But there's not much excuse for not trying. Gear - well there are many with high-end equipment who take incompetent pictures. Shopping isn't a panacea, you see, it can be just an indulgence. It doesn't necessarily lead anywhere.

A virtue of film can be that the results have a different texture ... think for example of the difference beween a vinyl record compared with a cd or an mp3.

.......
 
Says the man who went from Canon to Fuji not so long ago!!! :p

Have to agree with Snerkler that a change isn't going to do much for your photography, although new kit will probably increase your output for a while while you play with the new toys.

Just on "isn't going to do much for your photography" An A7 will give better image quality and allow better larger prints, better crops and happier pixel peeping but as the gear isn't as quick there may be problems when shooting some subjects.

I'd deffo go for it :D It'll be worth it the first time a lovely A7 raw is opened and worked on :D
 
Just on "isn't going to do much for your photography" An A7 will give better image quality and allow better larger prints, better crops and happier pixel peeping but as the gear isn't as quick there may be problems when shooting some subjects.

I'd deffo go for it :D It'll be worth it the first time a lovely A7 raw is opened and worked on :D
Says the author of a near 20,000 post thread on the Sony:D:D:D
 
May I refer the honourable gentleman to a post of his in 2015

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/have-i-made-a-mistake.581454/

Hi all
Almost a year ago I decided to trade my used olympus em5 and a couple of lenses in for a brand new sony A7
And bought 2 contax g lenses at the same time .
Now whilst I adore the sony and the images it produces
I don't feel it fits me very well ,and having looked back through my photo libruary I do miss the handling and the fantastic breadth of uses the mft system had !
Admitadly sdf was tricky and is now easy ( it is a love of mine ) it was possible .
Hhhhmmmm a mistake or gas ??
Any thoughts great fully recieved .

Are you sure you're not going to run back into exactly this quandary by switching back to Sony or on to Fuji?

For myself, I've always had a particular goal in mind when buying into other systems:

- digital imaging (manual focus Canon FD film -> 300D)
- full frame digital (300D -> 5D)
- smaller second body (m4/3 Panasonic G2) + manual focus FD lenses
- smaller main camera / manual focus FD lenses on full frame (Sony A7)

In some ways, I've gone a long way round to arrive at something close to my 'dream' setup from 20+ years ago, which is a digital version of a Canon A-1 film body: the A7 is pretty close in size and weight to one. Thankfully, I know it fulfils the roles I want it to perform in my photography.

For you, I think you need to consider carefully what it is you want to do with your photography and whether you can do that with well your Olympus. If you don't know what that purpose is, then I would suggest not jumping on to another system. You say you're happy with the Oly, so I do wonder what benefit it would bring you.

Then again, if you have the cash available and just want to buy some new gear, then go ahead, but do it with your eyes wide open.
 
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But I'd been running the fooj for over 12 months before the Canon gear went.
You run fooj and nye con together don't you?

Yup and both do greens very well! :P Both systems have their advantages and while the X-T2 does come a lot closer than the X-T1 to matching the D750, the Nikon still has a slight edge in a few fairly niche situations.
 
Says the author of a near 20,000 post thread on the Sony:D:D:D

Be fair though, I didn't post all 20k.

And... I've owned MFT since pretty much day 1 and I have two MFT cameras and a box full of lenses so I do know how the two systems compare :D
 
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If MFT does all you need of it; stick with it. B-U-T.. there is a lot to say that ignorance is bliss, and a change is as good as a rest. On which basis the 'Lets try Film' suggestion probably has a lot going for it.

You can pick up a 35mm Film-SLR for next to nothing, if not actually 'nothing'; As a bench-mark, an Olympus OM10, is a pretty good starter SLR, and you can pick one up for under £50, with Zioko f1.8 50mm. (Which is probably worth better than half that, on its own!)
There are a lot of cheaper 35mm SLR's, and things like M42 screw fit Zenits, or Pentax K-Fit Practika's; you might pck up for as little as a tenner with lens.Conversely, you can pay a heck of a lot for what were high-end SLR's like the single-digit OM's or Nikon F's. For what they were, they are, these days enormous 'bargains', but they aren't that 'cheap' or that much more useful than stuff lower in the price range.
Late era Auto-Focus are the real steal in the market; they lack the 'classic' manual film camera style and feel; and for a digital-user, not all that 'different' enough; They are probably best avoided for that reason; plus many of those in he sub-£100 range were entry level models, often taking dedicated disposable batteries that are now expensive or unobtainable; and with a lot of mechanics to drive off them, short lived.
Hence bench-marking on the OM10, which as an auto-exposure camera is easy enough to use, but 'filmy' enough to make you feel your getting the real deal... and you possibly already have a couple of lenses intended or it of if not, that Zioko f1.8 would fit rather nicely on the MFT... n

COST of film... err... yeah.... about 5-years ago I bought into Digital SLR, for lack of decent value compacts; tallying up what I have spent the last five years to get an entry level DSLR and the same sort of lens coverage I had for film.... ALMOST as much as I spent on film and processing in twenty years!.. I would say cameras and film, but I actually spent remarkably little on the hardware! Somewhat debunks the myth that 'digital' is cheap, film expensive! Digital is only cheap after you have spent all the money on kit; where per frame, it tends to cheapness, because you can shoot a lot of frames!

Bottom line, like any 'hobby' it will consume as much time and money as you have, and then a bit more....

Practically; film starts at about £1 a roll. Develop & Scan, adds maybe £2 to that. If you shoot Out-Of-Date old stock film, or buy n bulk, you may get the film cost down a tad; If you home develop; you 'might' get the processing cost down a little; and you can save the scanning cost home scanning. Home Process and Scan does beg some set-up cost; but, not a great deal; Basic kit is a dev-tank; the rest cam pretty much be improvides by what you find lying rund the kitchen like old pop bottles and cloths pegs! Scanner? Well, you can buy a cheapo-web-cam-scan, for about £25. They ant great, but they are cheap and easy, and good-enough; So, you could get off to a pretty useful start; camera; lens, five films or so, dev tank, chemicals and scanner, comfortably for around £100.

For that you gt the full-frame experience, and ore critical DoF and focusing, and the 'involvement' of manual cameras, and the after interest of lifting images from the film...

Digital, makes a lot of stuff very easy; film can beg a lot more consideration; Without the set-up costs, it is a very economical way to experience that full-frame perspective and the involvement and diligence needed to get it, and the 'difference' in approach, having to work slower, and working within the limits of the film and the gear to get the most out of it, can be a great training tool. And to a large degree, for a beginner, 'what' camera makes little or no odds; differences between any 35mm SLR will be pretty small in comparison to your ability to exploit it. Better Photographers take better photo's not better cameras!

And Film camera's don't need be that bulky! Curious anomaly of my switch to DSLR's is the bag that used to house two OM bodies, with motor winders, four lenses, a big flash, spare batteries, spare film (a lot of it!), a pack of filters, and a changing bag! NOW is bulging at the seams holding just one, smaller than common, D3200, four lenses and a couple of spare battery packs and a spare SD card! The OM10, was actually one of the most compact 35mm SLR's; without winder or a zoom lens, it's not a 'big' camera, or particularly unwieldy to use.

Warning; shallow DoF effects are a cheap trick of zoom lenses and or fast apertures; but it is easy to get lost chasing razor thin DoF, without appreciating 'selective-focus'; once you appreciate that DoF is a 'zone' of acceptable focus and a % of the set focus distance, you can actually acheve much better 'selective focus' effecs, with manual focus lenses without resorting to wide apertures or telephoto-lenses, simply by NOT being a slave to the red-dots or split-screen, focusing bang on your subject of interest; you can focus in-front of the subject to 'wast' DoF ahead of the subject, and throw the back-ground oof much earlier, without so much zoom, or such a wide aperture. Conversely; you can achieve much greater DoF focusing behind your subject, increasing the focus distance hence the DoF ad getting even more 'effective' FoF putting that 'zone' exactly where you want it in the scene.

Conclusion; I would definitely say that the idea has a lot of merit; and be a very informative exercise, both to to experience an alternative to digital, as well as get a feel for working with a larger format, and the way that alters perspective and DoF. Whilst, it's departure, not a 'change'. An expansion on what you got, not a swap; you don't have to give up the MFT to do it; take it where you will from there. IF it inspires you towards full-frame digital, then could confirm that switch would be a good move. Could inspire you to get more involved with film.. which is possibly no bad thing; or just to stick to what you got. But, expands your experience & expertise for least cost, least risk. Worst case? You stick 35mm camera and lens back on the bay; and you are out of pocket to the tune of a few rolls of film, and better off to the tune of alternate experience gained.

Thunk for you on that one; I cost my hobbies in comparison to a night out... my motorbike for example, costs me approx £500 a year; which I reckon as £10 a week, or half the cost of the pizza after a night to see a band down the local... which itself is half what the bar bill was, and all in, £60 is a 'cheap night out'!!! So if I dd that just once a month, the 'bike' wold still be cheaper! It's certainly cheaper than the £50 a month step-un-son pays for his supposedly 'free-minutes' and 'free Giga-Bytes Data' on his ruddy smart-phone!! By comparison, Digital Camera kit has cost me far more than the motorbike each year over the last few! And Film? £3 a roll, film, process and scan.... 20 films, is STILL less than one night down pub listening to some-one murder metalika, kill the killers, or strangle the stranglers!!!! At least the pizzas assured to be pretty Oh-Kay! Lol.
 
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