Olympus 4/3rds or Nikon 1!

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Rick M

Senior Member
First off, thank you to the Boss for allowing us a spot to discuss other brands!

I've been enjoying the Nikon 1 system and am considering the V3, but the ISO issue is a huge drawback. I've been investigating the new Olympus E-M10 and it looks like a spectacular little camera. The drawback to the OLY is poor lens choices on the long end. None of their long zooms rate very highly. I'm interested in the reach for birding. The oly is larger, but smaller than Dx, so it is the next logical choice for me above the Nikon 1.

Anyone else have any experience with Olympus?
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
I've been pushing the J3 up to ISO 1600 to see if I could live with that on the V3, these two are at 1600 and are about 75% crops using the 30-110 @ 110 (about 80-300).


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The new 70-300 (810) is coming out soon and it would be excellent for birding if it produces.
 
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randyspann

Senior Member
Hey Rick - join the "olympus OM-D" group on flicker. There are some awesome bird photographs there. The shots there are tack sharp (75-300mm zoom). I'm kind of thinking like you. Out growing the v1, maybe??
 
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Bill16

Senior Member
Lol hey keep me in mind if you decide to get rid of your V1! Lol They sound like they would be fun to play with, when I'm not carrying a bigger DSLR! ;)

randyspann said:
Hey Rick - join the "olympus OM-D" group on flicker. There are some awesome bird photographs there. The shots there are tack sharp (75-300mm zoom). I'm kind of thinking like you. Out growing the v1, maybe??
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Rick M

Senior Member
The v3 is tempting because of the free adapter and lack of AA filter. I could mount my 70-200 and have 540mm @f4. I still like the smaller size of the Nikon 1 also. I was however surprised to see that the Oly lenses are small too, they use a more square aspect ratio which allows the lenses to be small.
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
randyspann said:
Hey Rick - join the "olympus OM-D" group on flicker. There are some awesome bird photographs there. The shots there are tack sharp (75-300mm zoom). I'm kind of thinking like you. Out growing the v1, maybe??
Click to expand...

I think if I went with the oly I would wait for the 40-150 pro 2.8, 300mm at 2.8 would be nice!
 
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Phillydog1958

Senior Member
The Olympus has great reviews and it's highly respected amongst 4/3's crowd. I'm anxiously awaiting reviews on the V3. I really hope Nikon got it right.
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
Phillydog1958 said:
The Olympus has great reviews and it's highly respected amongst 4/3's crowd. I'm anxiously awaiting reviews on the V3. I really hope Nikon got it right.
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I'm eager also, I'm at about a 50% split between the two systems. They both have great pro's and con's! It isn't helping that oly has $200 off their pro 12-40 lens with a body! On the Nikon side, the V3 with free adapter!

Have you tried the adapter and 70-200 f4 yet?
 
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Phillydog1958

Senior Member
Rick M said:
I'm eager also, I'm at about a 50% split between the two systems. They both have great pro's and con's! It isn't helping that oly has $200 off their pro 12-40 lens with a body! On the Nikon side, the V3 with free adapter!

Have you tried the adapter and 70-200 f4 yet?
Click to expand...
I bought the FT1 during the winter, so I haven't done much with it. I did take it out and put my 70-200 on it. It was sooo cold, the birds were on strike and were not flying. So, I took some shots of street lights and signs. I'm really looking forward to taking it out to our local wildlife refuge and wetlands. You would be happy with the results. I've also placed my teleconverter on my V2, with the 70-200.
 
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DraganDL

Senior Member
Go for Olympus E-M10! One thing that we must keep in mind when pondering on telephoto lenses: if you're a "real photographer" plus the bird watcher, and you need to be 100% SURE that the focus is where you want it to be, you will certainly use MANUAL focusing. That being said, nothing stops you from EFFICIENTLY using your existing Nikon/Nikkor (F-mount) lenses via adapter (that goes for about 50$ on eBay).

These bird shots, taken at 1600 ISO are just fine. But, with E-M10 you could raise the ISO value up to 3200, getting about the same amount of noise (in addition to higher IQ compared to Nikon 1's results).

And such combo (a 4/3 camera plus adapter plus Nikkor) even looks very nice:

http://goo.gl/qW9LcS
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
DraganDL said:
Go for Olympus E-M10! One thing that we must keep in mind when pondering on telephoto lenses: if you're a "real photographer" plus the bird watcher, and you need to be 100% SURE that the focus is where you want it to be, you will certainly use MANUAL focusing. That being said, nothing stops you from EFFICIENTLY using your existing Nikon/Nikkor (F-mount) lenses via adapter (that goes for about 50$ on eBay).

These bird shots, taken at 1600 ISO are just fine. But, with E-M10 you could raise the ISO value up to 3200, getting about the same amount of noise (in addition to higher IQ compared to Nikon 1's results).

And such combo (a 4/3 camera plus adapter plus Nikkor) even looks very nice:

Amazon.com: Fotodiox Lens Mount Adapter, Nikon G-type to Micro 4/3 Olympus PEN and Panasonic Lumix Cameras: Camera & Photo
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! More fuel to the fire!
 
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Phillydog1958

Senior Member
Phillydog1958 said:
I bought the FT1 during the winter, so I haven't done much with it. I did take it out and put my 70-200 on it. It was sooo cold, the birds were on strike and were not flying. So, I took some shots of street lights and signs. I'm really looking forward to taking it out to our local wildlife refuge and wetlands. You would be happy with the results. I've also placed my teleconverter on my V2, with the 70-200.
Click to expand...

And, how close is it? It's so close, that I almost got dizzy . . . Just kidding, but it's close. I just haven't shot any birds with it. I can't wait to try it out on real critters. :D
 
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