Camera for a non expert wife :->

[Maurizio De-Cecco]

Hallo,

after my wife saw the photos done with my X-E1, she want to upgrade her old Sony point and a shot.
The problem is that she is somehow allergic to learning anything too technical; she would like a camera that make photos as nices as an X-E1, but that do not require technical skills.

I am looking around, and for the moment i am considering two different beasts: the Canon EOS M, for its large sensor, and the Olympus E-PM2, for its simplicity and fast autofocus. She will essentially do cooking photos for her blog and family photo.
I suppose the fast autofocus is important (a slow autofocus can be managed by prefocusing, manual focus and other work around, but that is part of the "technical stuff"), and the Olympus seems simple enough.
Sony NEX seems nice, but more oriented to technical or semi-technical people.

What do you think ? Any other suggestion ?

Maurizio

 

[Pete Askew]

I know there are several people here who use Fuji X10 and have great experience with it but I recently bought one as a retirement present for a colleague. He has no knowledge about photography so I set it up for full automatic with Veliva JPEG and he seems to be getting on fine. I thought it was a very nice little camera and is a real bargain at the moment as it has been superseded.

 

[Beth Carter]

the sooc jpgs from fuji are amazing. she may do alright with an x-e1 even if it never leaves auto. but the fuji x10 or the new x20 are pretty nice too and would keep her from having to change lenses..

i wasn't impressed with the canon eos m.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Maurizio - I tried the EOS M at the CES show and it was terrible - so I'd stay away from it as a family camera - very very slow to focus - no way it would capture any person or events which had movement

 

[Hamish Gill]

Yeah, eos m is awful!
logic says fuji x20 to me

 

[Dave Green]

Definitely the X10 or X20!

My family use the X10 in EXR mode and get along with it fine.

 

[Maurizio De-Cecco]

Plastic :-<

I took a close look to the small Olympus stuff and to the EOS M; for the first 60 seconds i believed was a plastic model of the real think, and then i realized how toy-ish was the general impression; i understood also why i paid what i paid for the X-E1.

I'll took the suggestion for the X10/20 seriously; i was looking also a bigger sensor cameras, and i would short list the Sony RX100 and Canon GX1 on the compact side, and the NEX5 or NEX6 on the mirror-less side. As you see, requirements are not yet very clear :->

Thanks for all the suggestions,
Maurizio

 

[Beth Carter]

so get her an x-e1 body and if something ever happens to yours you'll have a spare.. and you can answer all of her questions because you already know the camera, instead of having to learn a new camera.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Beth - that's brilliant!

 

[Maurizio De-Cecco]

Beth - that's brilliant!

Just a bit expensive (she really need a couple of primes, too .

Maurizio

 

[Pat Reehal]

Maurizio

Surely nothing can be too expensive for your poppet. Why in the last year, I have bought my darling wife an X10, an X100 LE and only last month I bought her a 30-110mm V1 lens to go with the Nikon V1 I bought her in January.

I do believe that I shall treat her to an XE-1 soon. Call me kind hearted but that is me and I personally don't want anything.

Seriously, I would get her an X10. They are superb and are coming down in price as the X20 becomes more available. In the UK the X10 is about £233 delivered from the Fuji refurbished site. They only post to the UK but possibly Fuji France have a similar deal.

 

[Maurizio De-Cecco]

Seriously, I would get her an X10. They are superb and are coming down in price as the X20 becomes more available. In the UK the X10 is about £233 delivered from the Fuji refurbished site. They only post to the UK but possibly Fuji France have a similar deal.

The question is how much an X10 would be better than my now old Canon G11, in terms of image quality and usability.
Surely better, but i do not if it would represent the jump in quality she expect after seeing what the X-E1 can do; this is why i am looking to bigger sensor cameras.

Maurizio

 

[Beth Carter]

yes, you, uh.. i mean..she will need some primes.

i haven't used the x10, but i (and my mom who is technologically incompetent and inherited the g11) found the g11 to be clunky to use.