Agreed Moose, but can we sum it up in two lines for those of us who
actually work ;-)
Amities
Ph
Le 18 mars 15 à 20:43, Moose a écrit :
I got an email flyer for the Oly SH-2, a relatively attractive
looking travel zoom. I can see how some listee(s) or other might be
tempted by it for a casual , carry everywhere camera.
A quick check showed however that the Panny ZS40 (TZ60) I already
have is a better camera. <http://www.dpreview.com/products/compare/side-by-side?products=panasonic_dmczs40&products=oly_sh2
>
Right up front, they are both "good light" cameras, giving up lens
speed and low noise for size and amazing zoom range. Each has a puny
little flash for social pix.
BIG difference is that the Panny has an EVF. Yes, it's tiny, yes;
it's low rez, BUT, it is there and works.
It has the usual advantage of being easily seen in bright light,
compared to the LCD. Its 200K dots isn't up to 'real' EVFs, but is
better than just allowing accurate framing, which is all that's
would be needed as adjunct to the LCD.
What wouldn't be obvious without using it is how hard it is to find
and frame subjects accurately at extreme tele FLs using the LCD. I
was surprised how difficult I found that in some circumstances. With
the EVF, though, it's a little like 'point your finger' and usually
easy to find the tiny portion of the visual field I want. Tracking
faster moving things at the long end is not easy either way.
Smaller differences, more or less in order of importance as I found
them:
1. The Oly doesn't have Aperture and Shutter preferred exposure
control, only the extremes of Auto Modes and full Manual. DPR also
says "Two bummers include the lack of any dials for adjusting
exposure (you must use the four-way controller for everything) and
the fact that aperture selection is limited, with the camera opting
to use a ND filter rather than a proper lens iris." I'm not sure ND
filtration is such a bad idea, to avoid diffraction effects, but
should be easily controllable.
2. The Panny is actually a two control dial camera, highly unusual,
perhaps unique (?) in this class! In addition to the usual rotating
dial on the back that doubles as four way controller switches, it
has a control dial around the base of the lens, that may be used for
a few things. You might expect I'd use it for aperture or EV. But I
work fine with those little combo four way controllers on the back
of small cameras. By default in A Mode it controls aperture and one
click has it controlling EV.
I found the front lens ring most useful for FL control. The
traditional two way switch to set FL on compact cameras becomes
rather problematic with a 30x zoom range, as it blasts longer or
wider, and I have to jockey back and forth for the framing I want.
Being able to quickly dial in a fixed (35 mm eq.) Fl, with clear
indicator in the EVF, was really helpful. The Oly doesn't have this
second control ring.
3. The Panny allows setting a cap on Auto ISO. Oly has dumber
options, either set it yourself or let the camera set it,
emphasizing either IQ or speed. I have mine capped at ISO 400, with
this tiny sensor. The Auto leans heavily toward lower ISOs.
4. 25-600 mm eq. zoom sure isn't bad, but 24-720 mm is better. :-)
As anyone who has looked at my Cabo gallery can see, that long end
is wonderful for candid people shots, birds and far away stuff. But
a lot of that, like birds, would have been essentially impossible
without the EVF. <http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=Travel/Mexico/Cabo_2015
>
5. Oly makes a big thing about 5-way IS. The new 5 way IS in the E-
M5II is wonderful. OTOH, I have no experience with the SH-2 IS and
the Panny has given me great IS results at ridiculous focal lengths.
I can't call this one.
6. The Panny LCD is 920K dots, Oly 260K
7. The Oly is a tad heavier, and more importantly for this type of
camera, almost 25% thicker.
8. The Panny has GPS, which can be useful, but isn't as useful I one
might hope. I don't know why smart phones seem to have such superior
GPS performance. They know where they are almost immediately,
probably because they are keeping track all the time. But GPS
doesn't kill their batteries all that fast. GPS on the three cameras
I've had with it is slow to find location and munches the battery.
The TZ40 has a feature to keep the GPS tracking where it is for a
while when off, so it knows where it is instantly when turned on for
a shot. This would be nice, but guess what? It kills the battery WAY
quicker than active shooting without it.
Using my iPhone to make a GPS track works better for me. But having
it on the camera when needed is nice.
9. Both have Wi-Fi remote control. I have hardly used the Oly
version on the E-M5II, but it looks capable at a glance. The Panny
version is quite nice. The Oly can geotag images using the smart
device GPS when WiFi connected. I'll bet that munches batteries, too.
10. No way yet to compare IQ, but I'm betting they have essentially
identical sensors and both have a RAW option, so I'm guessing no
practical difference.
Moose d'Opinion
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