Recommend me an entry level mirrorless camera

[ButteryScrollin]

hi all, my wife and i are expecting are first child towards the end of the year, and i looking to get a mirrorless camera to produce some nicer pictures than my iPhone. My budget is around ~$500.

i've looked at the Olympus OM-D E-M10 which is $399 on amazon, people say the Mk II is better but it's a lot pricey at $699.

Also looked at the Sony Alpha a5000.

Are any of these going to be replaced by newer models soon? Don't want to be one of those people that buys an iPhone in late August

 

[0970373]

First & foremost, congrats to you and your wife on your soon to come little one!

The EM-10 Mark II probably has an upgrade in a few features but you should ask yourself if you really need those features. DPreview.com is an excellent place to do research and your an do side by side comparisons. One of the great features of the OMD- EM series is the viewfinder. If that is a must, you should pick it up. $399 with a kit lens on Amazon is a really good deal on a good mirrorless camera. They have excellent build quality. For capturing the first moments with your growing family, it will be more than enough. The Mark I is only 1 year older than the Mark II.

You can add better lenses when finances allow and upgrade the body later as well and those lenses will work great on any of the Olympus OMD or EL-P series cameras. But getting one now is smart so you have time to play with it and learn how to use it before the little bundle comes along.

I should note that I am a very happy owner of an Olympus OMD EM5 (Mark I) so I'm pretty enthusiastic about them. I can't speak to the Sony line but reviews on them are great and similar rules apply as far as interchangeable lenses and upgrading pieces of it later.

 

[OzBok]

Olympus omd and Panasonic both allow you to use the others lenses, so you have two manufacturers to share lenses from, and more choice. But I think it's the image stabilization (somebody will correct me if I'm wrong) that's built into the body on Olympus, whereas its on the lens in Panasonic, so the Olympus Body has less hassle. My dad has an em5 mkii and very happy with it

 

[ButteryScrollin]

Thanks, both! very helpful. Will probably pick up the E-M10 then.

 

[0970373]

Yes, @OzBok is correct on the IS of the Olympus body. Thanks for mentioning about Panasonic lenses. I have a few myself but forgot to include in the info above.

@ButteryScrollin - if you can swing a little for another lens, I recommend the Panasonic 20mm pancake lens. It's super fast and takes beautiful photos. The bokeh you can get from it fantastic. Will make for some lovely baby photos.

 

[OzBok]

Not sure if it was a limited and/or local only deal here in Aus, but when dad was looking at his omd 5, there was a three lens combo with it, had a pancake, small zoom and long zoom. Not sure the specifics though, he ended up going with the f2.8 pro lenses, which are magnificent btw.

 

[pthread1101]

I have the E-M10, I bought it for the same price about a month ago. I haven't had the chance to use it as much as I would have liked but I'm impressed so far with the quality. I especially liked the fact that you can connect your iPhone to it wirelessly to transfer and take photos. So I guess I recommend it

 

[ButteryScrollin]

I have the E-M10, I bought it for the same price about a month ago. I haven't had the chance to use it as much as I would have liked but I'm impressed so far with the quality. I especially liked the fact that you can connect your iPhone to it wirelessly to transfer and take photos. So I guess I recommend it

thats a nice feature! was going to get the SD card reader, but that would work too!

 

[OzBok]

First child is exactly why I bought my dslr. My only regret is not having it before she was born so my photography skills were very low. Get it early and practice. I wish I could go back and take the early shots again with the new skill level, but that said skills are always going to improve and I did get some good shots early on at least.

Second the recommendation on the lens, some of my favorite shots are with my 50mm f1.4 which is close in spec...You won't regret that one bit

 

[kenoh]

thats a nice feature! was going to get the SD card reader, but that would work too!

Just make sure and get the settings right. By default the camera will transfer a lower resolution version of images for assumed social media purposes. If you are using that as your main way of transferring images you may need to change the settings to benefit form the full image quality - This is what Sonys do by default.
[doublepost=1473265439][/doublepost]

First child is exactly why I bought my dslr. My only regret is not having it before she was born so my photography skills were very low. Get it early and practice. I wish I could go back and take the early shots again with the new skill level, but that said skills are always going to improve and I did get some good shots early on at least.

Second the recommendation on the lens, some of my favorite shots are with my 50mm f1.4 which is close in spec...You won't regret that one bit

Good advice and yes spot on, same here. Got DSLR when my youngest was a 1 year old.... missed the first year and didnt have good enough skills to capture some of the more special moments.

 

[MCAsan]

iPhone 7+ with dual camera. With IOS 10 it can shoot in jpg or DNG raw files. You can use Photos for post processing or Lightroom if you want to have more powerful editing choices available.