Panasonic Lumix G3 w/ 14-42mm lens for $300

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GusSmed

Senior member
Feb 11, 2003
403
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That Amazon page is a pricing mistake. The seller is Adorama, and if you go directly to Adorama's page, the price for the DMC-G3 + 14-42mm kit lens is $400, same as B&H before the $100 discount. Still a good deal, but it's a $100 deal, not a $350 deal.

If you're considering this vs. a APS-C DSLR (i.e. Canon T4i), you're trading a few things for size and convenience: no optical viewfinder, a smaller sensor (makes ~1 stop difference in low-light noise levels), and a smaller range of lenses than the two big manufacturers (Canon & Nikon). Whether these are important to you will depend on your photography habits. For example, it's nearly impossible to focus manually quickly and accurately without an optical viewfinder, but auto-focus is good enough for many people.

Still a big leg up in image quality from the typical point-and-shoot, and not much larger.
 

Syringer

Lifer
Aug 2, 2001
19,333
2
71
A few things:

a) A quick search shows that the T4i is well over 2x the price as the G3
b) you get an Electric viewfinder AND you can view through a swivel LCD so you get the best of both worlds--your manual focus point is the main sacrifice
c) Reviews of the camera (like the one from DPreview) state that the G3s IQ is virtually indistinguishable from APS-C cameras, the APS-C really becomes distinguished when the ISO is turned way up
d) The # of lenses available may be more limited, but the ones available are just as good depending on your needs, my default is a 20mm 1.7, which is absolutely amazing in low level lightings
 

GusSmed

Senior member
Feb 11, 2003
403
2
81
your manual focus point is the main sacrifice
That's what I said: manual focus is problematic with electronic viewfinders, or even with larger LCD panels. Whether that matters depends on what you photograph.

c) Reviews of the camera (like the one from DPreview) state that the G3s IQ is virtually indistinguishable from APS-C cameras, the APS-C really becomes distinguished when the ISO is turned way up
That's also what I said. The larger sensor collects more photons, which means your signal / noise ratio is always going to be better, but that only matters when the s/n is pretty low, which in turn implies high ISO. Hence "about 1 stop difference in low-light noise." It's not a comment on the quality of the camera, it's just the physics of a larger sensor.

ISO in digital cameras is a funny thing - it's not like film cameras, where it was a measure of sensitivity. In a digital camera, you can't change the sensor's ability to capture photons, so all the ISO does is adjust amplification. In effect, it's another exposure control, like shutter speed and aperture.

So when you're "turning up the ISO" on these cameras, you're just saying "capture less photons." There are some technical considerations about reduced read noise at high gain / ISO, but they're unimportant compared to the reduction in signal because you're telling the camera to make do with less (usually because you need sufficient shutter speed to deal with motion and/or camera shake).

d) The # of lenses available may be more limited, but the ones available are just as good depending on your needs, my default is a 20mm 1.7, which is absolutely amazing in low level lightings
As I said, whether the lens selection matters to you depends on your photography.

The thing about buying a DSLR body is that you're really buying into the lens system. If you're more-or-less a point-and-shoot photographer who will never buy outside $200-ish kit lenses, it's a complete non issue. The larger the long-term budget for lenses gets, the more important the selection becomes.

I don't doubt the 20mm f/1.7 lens you mention is great. Mid-range primes usually are - the 50mm f/1.8 lenses meant for full-frame SLRs have always been both dirt cheap and excellent. I have no idea what the optical quality of the $1000+ lenses is, though, and I couldn't find the sort of detailed reviews that are common for Nikon or Canon lenses. Some of those high-budget lenses are tough to design - the EF 70-200 f/2.8 IS version 1 was a $2k+ lens, but fairly soft at f/2.8, something they didn't fix until version 2.

It's very, very much a your-mileage-may-vary issue.
 

FleshLight

Diamond Member
Mar 18, 2004
6,883
0
71
That Amazon page is a pricing mistake. The seller is Adorama, and if you go directly to Adorama's page, the price for the DMC-G3 + 14-42mm kit lens is $400, same as B&H before the $100 discount. Still a good deal, but it's a $100 deal, not a $350 deal.

If you're considering this vs. a APS-C DSLR (i.e. Canon T4i), you're trading a few things for size and convenience: no optical viewfinder, a smaller sensor (makes ~1 stop difference in low-light noise levels), and a smaller range of lenses than the two big manufacturers (Canon & Nikon). Whether these are important to you will depend on your photography habits. For example, it's nearly impossible to focus manually quickly and accurately without an optical viewfinder, but auto-focus is good enough for many people.

Still a big leg up in image quality from the typical point-and-shoot, and not much larger.

Manual focusing is actually pretty easy with Focus Peaking that this camera supports.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,740
452
126
I bought the Olympus e-pl1 last year which came with a similar lens as well as a zoom lens. Is it correct that the micro 4/3 camera lenses are compatible with other bodies? I really haven't used it much so I'm not sure I need another thing I won't use, but one of the reasons I never used it was because of the poor UI (non touchscreen) and not being able to angle the screen at all to get tricky shots.
 

Syringer

Lifer
Aug 2, 2001
19,333
2
71
I bought the Olympus e-pl1 last year which came with a similar lens as well as a zoom lens. Is it correct that the micro 4/3 camera lenses are compatible with other bodies? I really haven't used it much so I'm not sure I need another thing I won't use, but one of the reasons I never used it was because of the poor UI (non touchscreen) and not being able to angle the screen at all to get tricky shots.

Sometimes but not always, you may need a special mount for it.
 

einstein4pres

Member
Jan 30, 2008
173
0
0
Sometimes but not always, you may need a special mount for it.

All the micro four thirds lenses mount on all the micro four thirds cameras. Your E-PL1 is a micro four thirds camera.


Please note that there is also a mount called _four thirds_ (no micro) that is different, though if you buy an adapter, you can those lenses.
 
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