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Nikon / Canon / Panasonic's mirrorless are coming soon

Furio

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I love mirrorless cameras.
As soon as I put my hands on an Olympus EM1, I decided to sell my Nikon D300.
I did it and bought an Olympus EM1-mkII one year ago.
I remember my first "job" with my new camera: a reportage about the first gay marriage in a little town in italian countryside.
It was pure fun: I used mirrorless best weapon (IMHO): the chance to use electronic viewfinder as real "LiveView" device.
You play with exposure (over or under) and see in real time what the sensor would produce.
For me this is extremely nice: modern finders are fast and faithful enough to show immediately the real pic, before you shoot.
You keep M (manual mode) and with two wheels you control aperture and speed.
You compose the light while looking in viewfinder.
With a reflex you can forget that.

Now I see that everyone is moving to mirrorless full frame.
Sony was already there, now Nikon and Canon showed their systems, and Panasonic will do it soon (rumors).
Nice: we will see wonderful new cameras.

One doubt: I have a Zuiko 12-40 f2.8 zoom which is superb.
With my system (micro 4-3) sensor is exactly half of full frame.
So with a full frame sensor, equivalent lens would be 28-80 f2.8: producing better files (full frame is a clear advantage).
But incredibly bigger and heavier.

New Nikon Z-Mount is in diameter 55 mm, bigger than old F-Mount (44 mm.)
So new lenses will be bigger and heavier than old Nikon things.
Can you imagine how big a 28-80 f2.8 will be?

I prefer some quality less, but good lens and good camera with me in my bag when I travel.
I will check new full frame models, but I think I will keep my Olympus micro 43 working.
Let's see...
 
OP
mi-fu

mi-fu

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I always like the olympus' offerings. They are good looking, handy, and produce good image quality.

The main problem I have with micro-four-third is the limit of resolution. I understand that many people think resolution is not that important. But to me (my main photographic interests are landscape and portraits), I always love to have files with more resolution, more details, and lots of leeway to crop and retouch. I really wish that there will be a 30mp plus sensor in the m43 format soon.

With that said, the Panasonic mirrorless is quite unexpected and potentially very interesting too. Maybe it will be using Leica SL mount? (Wishful thinking! :p
 

Furio

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Do you know about chance to get a 50 megapixel file with a static pic on Olympus EM1 mkII?
Sensor moves activated by same motors used for stabilization.
Only drawback: subject must be static while sensor moves.
I never tried, but for landscapes it is perfect!
 
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mi-fu

mi-fu

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Do you know about chance to get a 50 megapixel file with a static pic on Olympus EM1 mkII?
Sensor moves activated by same motors used for stabilization.
Only drawback: subject must be static while sensor moves.
I never tried, but for landscapes it is perfect!

Yes! I have heard about the multi-shot function of OM EM1. I haven't tried it myself. But I did do multi-shot in the past with my Imacon digital back. The color and details were stunning. It it solves the moire problem. It is very smart for OM to take that similar technology. The only problem is the subject has to be absolutely static. I couldn't get it to work perfectly outdoor with my imacon, because of wind!
 

amirm

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amirm

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The most exciting and unexpected aspect is the involvement of Sigma. Very likely, there will be a L-mount mirrorless with Foveon sensor :p
Is Foveon still a going concern? I had assumed they went out of business years ago.
 

Ron Texas

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I'm sticking with OVF for now.
 
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mi-fu

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Thanks. Seems actual release is pretty far off in 2019.

Yes. I think they are really not "ready" yet. But they fear that potential customers will jump into the Nikon / Canon camps.

To me, the biggest excitement is still the collaboration with Sigma. I'm a big fan of Foveon sensor. It is one of a kind. The richness of color is very unique.

Since CMOS won the sensor war, the development of sensor technology has been quite uni-directional (mainly led by Sony). The design approach heavily focuses on effective resolution and high-ISO performance. A decade ago, we had many competitions like, CMOS vs CCD, Kodak vs Dalsa. But over the past few years, mainly, we only had Sony vs. Sony, which is a very bad thing. I think this year Photokina is going to show some real changes!

Sigma's Foveon has always been a niche product. Very good color, but very bad high ISO. Heat dissipation is the biggest problem. And Sigma is a very small private company (in fact, a family company) with relatively little R&D resource. Now Sigma camera joins the alliance to become a "mainstream" product. There will be a good chance to maintain the sustainability of its sensor development. After all, I think Foveon probably is the last non-Bayer type sensor today. I love sensor diversity! :D
 

derp1n

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X-Trans is just a (pointlessly) different color filter arrangement, the underlying light sensor is the same (and is usually a Sony part). None of Fuji's current cameras contain Fuji sensors AFAIK.

Foveon pretty much gave up all their interesting differences with the quad sensors.
 

Wombat

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X-Trans is just a (pointlessly) different color filter arrangement, the underlying light sensor is the same (and is usually a Sony part). None of Fuji's current cameras contain Fuji sensors AFAIK.

Foveon pretty much gave up all their interesting differences with the quad sensors.

One attribute of the X-Trans sensor is moire mitigation(not elimination).
 
OP
mi-fu

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I also think the advantage of X-trans is limited (though I love Fuji cameras). As pixel resolution goes higher and higher, the problem of moire in real life will only be less likely to happen. Therefore, I won't be too concerned about moire. In fact, in the worst case, it can still be quite effectively eliminated by post processing.

The problem of X-trans though is post-processing support. Not many RAW converters do a good job with it.

I think the real advantage of Fuji is its color and user experience. They really nail it.
 
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