Category: Reviews

Today in the optics part we will talk about compact mirrorless camera Sony Alpha NEX-5N with Sony E mount for interchangeable lenses and 16.1 MP CMOS APS-C sensor. Camera shoots photos with 4912 x 3264 pixels maximal resolution and saves them in JPEG, RAW and Multi Picture Object formats; supported video recording modes are Full HD 1920 x 1080 60p and 1440 x 1080 30p with saving in AVCHD ( with AAC sound encoding ) and H.264 formats with stereo sound recording via built in or external microphone. ISO sensitivity levels are in 100 – 25600 range; image is processed by graphical processor BionZ; stabilization is optical with lenses, that support it. It has no built in viewfinder and flash, they can be attached to it, its 3″ LCD screen can be tilted and has 921 K dots resolution.

Camera saves photos and videos on Memory Stick PRO HG-Duo, SD, SDHC and SDXC ( UHS-I ) flash memory cards; it supports Eye-Fi cards for remote data transferring via Wi-Fi connections; optional infrared remote control unit is released for it and can be bought separately. Sony Alpha NEX-5N supports automatic and manual focus, exposure and diaphragm settings and can be used for astronomical photos making. Following connectors are placed on camera : USB 2.0 for data transferring and Li-ion battery charging, HDMI Mini Type-C, AV output and Smart Accessory Terminal 2; 1 charge of battery is enough for 430 photos.

Camera sizes are 111 ( width ) x 59 ( height ) x 38 ( depth ) mm and mass is 210 g ( only camera without lens, memory card and battery ). Package contains : Sony Alpha NEX-5N camera itself, USB cable, Li-ion battery, strap on hand, recharger, external flash, CD-ROM disk with software, 1-year warranty card and users guide; there are also kits with bundled lenses. This is a good camera with large sensor and compact sizes and small mass, which gives great videos and photos quality; its minuses are : too small body, which makes good grip harder, not always convenient menu and high cost ( Sony products are always priced very high, but in majority of cases they worth this ). Wherein APS-C and Micro Four Thirds sensored cameras of other manufacturers also produce great photos and videos, if used properly, so, when camera is being chosen, there is need to look on the price, technical characteristics and personal taste.

Lets review compact mirrorless photo camera Panasonic Lumix DMC GX1, which has semi-professional functions and Micro Four Thirds mount for interchangeable lenses. 16 MP Live MOS sensor with 4/3″ size is built into it, image is processed by graphical Venus Engine FHD, image stabilization is optical with lenses, that support it. Camera makes photos with ISO 160 – 12800 sensitivity levels and saves them in JPEG, RAW and MPO formats; supported video recording modes are Full HD 1920 х 1080 and HD 1280 х 720 with saving in MP4 ( AVCHD image encoding ) and MOV ( Motion JPEG ) with Dolby Digital Stereo Creator sound recording. Wherein microphones are located very close to each other and stereo channels separation, the most probably, is low. It has no built-in viewfinder, has built-in flash, its 3″ touch LCD screen has 460 K dots resolution.

Camera saves photos and videos on SD, SDHC and SDXC ( UHS-I ) flash memory cards; it has no Wi-Fi connections support for remote data transferring and control. It supports automatic and manual focus, exposure and diaphragm control and can be used for astronomical objects shooting. Following connectors are located on Panasonic Lumix DMC GX1 : USB 2.0 for data transferring and Li-ion battery charging; HDMI Mini Type C; AV output; Hot Shoe; and remote wired control port; one charge of battery is enough for 310 photos making. Camera sizes are 116.3 ( width ) x 67.8 ( height ) x 39.4 ( depth ) mm and mass is 318 g ( without lens and with battery and memory card ); its body is made from metal with rubberized insets for better and more convenient grip.

Package contains : Panasonic Lumix DMC GX1 camera itself, USB cable, Li-ion battery, strap on hand, mount cap, optical disks with software ( PHOTOfunSTUDIO 7.0 HD Edition, SILKYPIX Developer Studio 3.1 SE and LoiLoScope ), warranty card and user’s guide; there are also kits with bundled lenses. Overall, this is a great camera with interchangeable lenses, which gives very good RAW photos quality; JPEG photos of Panasonic cameras with Venus Engine FHD can give higher amount of compression artifacts, in comparison with competitors. Its other minus is weak stereo channels separation, this is a consequence of its primary design for still photos making.

Lets meet today in photo area with compact mirror-less photo-camera Olympus PEN E-PM1 with Micro Four Thirds mount for interchangeable lenses. 4/3″ MOS sensor with 12.3 MP effective resolution is built into it, image stabilization is performed via this sensor shifting, image is processed by TruePic VI graphical processor. Camera makes photos with 4032 x 3024 pixels maximal resolution and saves them in JPEG, RAW ( with 12 bits per channel precision and lossless compression ), RAW + JPEG and MPO; it records video in Full HD 1920 x 1080 60i, HD 1280 x 720 60i and VGA 640 x 480 30 modes, saving it in AVCHD and AVI Motion JPEG formats with Dolby Digital and stereo РСМ 16 bits and 48 kHz sound formats, accordingly. Microphone records stereo sound and there is ability to attach external one via special Olympus SEMA-1 adapter ( however in this case it is better to buy separate sound recording device with higher-quality microphones and lossless audio formats ). ISO sensitivity levels are in 200 – 12800 range, color space is only sRGB. There is ability to attach external flash to camera ( it is bundled in package ), it has no built-in internal one, has no built-in viewfinder and has 3″ LCD screen with 460 K dots resolution.

Olympus PEN E-PM1 supports automatic and manual focus, exposition and diaphragm settings, it can be used for astronomical photos making. It saves photos and videos on SD, SDHC and SDXC ( UHS-I ) flash memory cards; has no Wi-Fi connections support for remote data transfers and control, but has Eye-Fi and Bluetooth connections for this purpose. From connectors there are USB 2.0 for data transferring and Li-ion battery charging, HDMI Micro Type D, AV output, Hot Shoe and Accessory Port 2; 1 charge of its battery is enough for 330 photos making.

Camera sizes are 109.5 ( width ) x 63.7 ( height ) x 34 ( depth ) mm and mass is 265 g ( without lens and with memory card and battery ); its body is made from metal. It can work in 0 – 40 degrees on Celsius temperatures range and relative air humidity levels 30 – 90 %. Package contains : Olympus PEN E-PM1 camera itself, external flash, USB cable, audio-video cable, Li-ion battery, recharger, optical disk with software ( Olympus Viewer 2 ), shoulder strap, warranty card and user’s guide; there are also kits with bundled lenses. Camera gives great photos and videos, lenses are interchangeable and it records stereo sound ( basing on my experience of use of other Olympus camera, I can say, that sound is good with basses, which are not present in sound of many large mirrored cameras, and with good stereo channels separation; the most likely, this model has similar microphones ). Its minuses are : small amount of specialized controls, very small sizes, lack of protruding parts for hands grip and high slipperiness of surface, but this is mainly a consequence of its compact sizes.

Lets review today compact mirror-less photo-camera Olympus PEN E-P3 with interchangeable lenses for Micro Four Thirds mount and 4/3″ High speed Live MOS sensor with 12.3 MP effective resolution. Camera can shoot photos with 4032 x 3024 pixels maximal resolution ( with ISO 200 – 12800 sensitivity levels ) and save them in JPEG, RAW ( with 12 bits per channel precision and lossless compression ), RAW+JPEG and MPO formats in sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces. It records videos in Full HD 1920 x 1080 60i, HD 1280 x 720 60p and SD 640 x 480 30 modes and saves them in AVCHD or AVI Motion JPEG formats with Dolby Digital or Stereo PCM 16 bits and 48 kHz sound recording formats, accordingly. Image is processed by Dual-core TruePic VI processor. Camera has sensor-shifting image stabilization, built-in flash, 3″ OLED screen with 614 K dots resolution; and have no built-in viewfinder.

It supports automatic and manual focus, exposure and diaphragm settings, so, it can be used for astronomical photos making; its noise reduction system can be switched off or camera can control it in automatic mode. There is ability to control it via wired remote control; it has no Wi-Fi connections support for remote data transfers and control of camera; and saves photo and video on SD, SDHC, SDXC ( UHS-I compatible ) and Eye-Fi flash memory cards. It has following connectors : USB 2.0 for photos and videos transferring and Li-ion battery charging, AV output, Mini HDMI type-C, Hot Shoe and Accessory Port ( AP2 ); one charge of its battery is enough for 330 photos making. Its body is made from metal, frontal plastic panel can be removed, if needed; its sizes are 122 ( width ) x 69 ( height ) x 36 ( depth ) mm and mass is 321 g ( only camera body without lens, memory card and battery ). It can work in 0 – 40 degrees on Celsius temperatures range and 30 – 90 % relative air humidity range.

Package contains : Olympus PEN E-P3 camera itself, Li-ion battery, its charger, USB/Video multi cable, optical disk with OLYMPUS Viewer 2/ib software, warranty card and user’s guide; there are kits with 1 – 2 included lenses. This is a great compact mirror-less photo-camera with very good photos quality and good video quality and large amount of specialized controls. Its weak side is only sometimes wrong light temperature determination under artificial lighting; this can be solved by its manual setting in such situations.

Lets meet today with compact mirror-less camera Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2 with Live MOS sensor Micro Four Thirds ( with 12.1 MP effective resolution ) and the same mount for interchangeable lenses. It can save photos in JPEG ( in this format it has higher amount of compression artifacts, than competitors have ) and RAW formats; it can record videos in Full HD 1920 × 1080 60i/50i and HD 1280 x 720 60p/50p modes and save them in AVCHD format with MPEG-4/H.264 image encoding and stereo sound recording. Image is processed by Venus Engine FHD; camera supports optical image stabilization with lenses, which can perform it. Its ISO sensitivity levels range is 100 – 6400; during videos recording camera does not let to control optical parameters manually and controls them in automatic mode. It has built-in flash, has no viewfinder and its 3″ touch LCD screen has 460 K dots resolution.

During photos making camera lets to control focus, diaphragm and exposure automatically and manually and it can be used for astronomical photos making. It saves photo and video on SD, SDHC and SDXC flash memory cards; and does not support Wi-Fi connections for remote data transfers and control of camera. It has following connectors : USB 2.0 for data transfers and Li-ion battery charging, HDMI C Mini, AV output and Hot Shoe interface. One charge of its Li-ion battery is enough for 300 photos making; its sizes are 113 ( width ) x 68 ( height ) x 33 ( depth ) mm and mass is 265 g ( only camera body without lens, battery and memory card ).

Package contains : Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2 camera itself, USB cable, strap on hand, optical disks with software ( PHOTOfunSTUDIO 6.0 HD Edition, SILKYPIX Developer Studio 3.1 SE and Super LoiloScope trial version ) and user’s guide; there are also kits with bundled interchangeable lenses. All in all, this is a very good compact mirror-less camera with interchangeable lenses, its weak sides are relatively big amount of compression artifacts during JPEG photos saving and only automatic optical parameters control during videos recording; in all other aspects this camera is very good. So, when camera of such type is being chosen, there is need to look on its price and on the fact, whether its characteristics and weaknesses are acceptable.