Cameras and Introductions

Madpom, my camera is typical canon compact quality, mostly plastic but well made. I keep it in a soft case which was bundled with it, and its in my pack unless I am using it. I mainly try to keep it dry and out of the worst of the weather. If I want to photograph in the rain I often keep it beneath my jacket to keep the rain off ect..

Here are the 'crop factors' of the main class of cameras. Mobile Phones, inc Iphone : 7.6 GoPro: 6.02 Nearly all Point and Shot and Pentax Q: 5.6 Nokia N8: 4.84 Canon G12,S100, Ricoh GXR, 4.5 Olympus XZ-1, Panasonic LX5: 4.3 Fujifilm X10: 3.9 Nokia 808: 3.2 Nikon CX: 2.7 Four Thirds, Canon G1X: 2.00 Canon APS-C: 1.6 APS-C: 1.5 Leica M8: 1.3 35mm Full-frame: 1.0 Pentax 645D: 0.71 Leaf AFi 10: 0.65 Typically the larger the sensor (Smaller the crop factor) the better the image quality, although thats not always true. Different designs/technology can sometimes allow smaller sensors to perform on par or better larger sensors. The technology is also constantly improving so a large sensor camera from 4-5 years back might not be as good as a smaller sensor camera today. But also, the smaller the sensor, the smaller the camera needs to contain it, plus it can be used with smaller and lighter lenses. So the smallest sensor EVIL camera is the Pentax Q then its quite a leap to the next smallest which is Nikon CX, while the largest sensor compact camera is the Canon G1X, second place is the Nokia 808.

Got a pleasant surprise when I visited DPreview and saw their review for the Olympus EM-5 was out. Their main complaint is with the continuous autofocus a problem shared with other mirror-less cameras. With regards to photo quality this quote sums it up quite well "If you're absolutely unwilling to compromise on image quality then spending twice the money and moving up to the bulk of a full-frame is the only way of gaining a significant step up from the E-M5." Its overall score was only 1% less then the NEX-7. A impressive showing for the Olympus and I would most likely be buying one. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusem5/