While there’s a decent number of camera manufacturers who’ve sign onto the now almost a decade-old Micro Four Thirds system, most of the prominent camera bodies we see today continue to largely come from the two standard bearers of the system: namely, Panasonic and Olympus, incidentally also the two companies who released the standard in 2008. Oh, there are a couple of other manufacturers who have made bodies, with Xiaomi recently releasing their first m4/3 body – the YI M1 – with their usual bargain bin pricing. There were few takers though for Xiaomi’s camera, with sites like DPReview scoring the camera a relatively low 69% (the Olympus/Panasonic cameras routinely score 80%s or higher).
That aside, there was a slew of new camera bodies from Oly-Sonic (LOL) last year. At the top range and fresh out of the factory, the E-M1 Mark II and GH5 – both of which are priced at USD2K and well out of the usual norm for m4/3 bodies. At the entry-level, there’s the E-PL8 and GF9. I tried the E-PL8 at the Olympus showroom @ River Valley Road, and while it features obvious design improvements from the earlier E-PLX cameras, I reckon I’m ready to explore bodies other than from Olympus now, having owned the E-PL1, E-PL2 and E-PL6. The GF9 with its flip-up screen is a boon for selfies/wefies, but the majority of my lenses are Olympus-es, and the GF9 does not offer sensor stabilisation. So, a non-starter there.
The mid-tier (pricing and performance wise at least) is where I’ve been taking a hard look at, and it’s the Olympus Pen-F vs the Panasonic GX85 – or GX80 / GX7 Mark II depending on where you are in the world. Ok, there’s also the G85, but I’m not looking for another DSLR-type m4/3 body. While the two cameras are at different price points, with the delta being as much as SGD600 between them, they share several similarities. For instance:
Rangefinder-styled
Somewhat similar mass and dimensions
Built-in sensor stabilisation (hooray!) with options to couple them also with lens-based stabilisation using different technologies
On the other hand:
The GX85 is that SGD600 cheaper, shoots 4K video (been wanting to finally move away from 2K video), very useful 4K photo capture, slightly better AF, silent shooting, video output is less prone to distortion, cleaner menu design, slightly better battery life, and it’s not Olympus. I’m a little bored of Olympus, yep!
The Pen-F has arguably/maybe very slightly better stabilisation, is aesthetically far better looking, has a better EVF, lots of dials for the geek in me, possibly stronger internal frame with its use of metals, slightly higher resolution, fully articulating screen. And for all these, you pay SGD600 more.
Do I really need a new m4/3 body? Nope – but it sure is fun to do a comparison and think of reasons why I could use one! :)
Recent comments