A friend recently asked me to recommend a new camera for her for under
$1000 with a kit lens. It's to replace her Nikon D40X with 18-55 kit
lens which she sold off to her brother. She wants to upgrade... to
something. The only stated requirements were better than the D40X
(which she loved) and under $1000.
My first thought is to stay with Nikon since she's already familiar with
the brand and likes it. But trying to figure out what to buy hasn't
been so easy. There are any number of low cost bodies and kit
configurations from all manufacturers but I noticed a decided price
break at the $800-900 mark for body alone. That's where pentamirror
viewfinders get replaced by pentaprisms. Unsurprisingly (in most cases
at least), viewfinder magnification suddenly increases from the 0.8X
range to 0.95X or better range. Everyone here who has a DSLR of any
type has probably bemoaned the loss of viewfinder brightness and
magnification relative to the champion OM-1. Since good viewfinder
performance is critical to overall camera performance I decided to see
if I could meet her total price requirements while also getting a body
with a prism.
But first there is an anomaly to be addressed. I said the pentamirrors
tend to be down around 0.8X magnification with prisms being much higher.
The anomaly was seen in comparing the E-620 (pentamirror) with the
E-30 (pentaprism). The E-30 sports a 98% field of view at 1.02X
magnification. But the E-620 isn't too far behind at 95% field of view
and 0.96X magnification. In fact, even the E-510 isn't bad at 95% and
0.92X. But the recently announced Nikon D5000 (pentamirror) has 95%
field of view but only 0.78X magnification. Her D40X was similar at 95%
and 0.8X.
Since I now live in the hinterlands with no camera store within less
than a 75-100 mile drive I don't get a chance to see or handle any of
these things. My question is have any of you ever directly compared the
viewfinder of the E-620 and E-30. Do these specifications have any
practical meaning? Is the E-620 viewfinder anywhere near as good as the
E-30 as the numbers seem to indicate? Can a pentamirror really compete
with a pentaprism?
ps: I'm leaning toward the Nikon D90 with included 18-105 VR lens for
$1080 from Cameta. A little over her budget but excellent specs for
longer term ownership and I think a quantum leap over the D40X for not
too much more money... pentaprism, dual control wheels, big, hi-res LCD
and compatible with almost all Nikon lenses back to the F.
Thanks,
Chuck Norcutt
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