Panasonic gf5 vs Sony nex5n

[thestrangebrew1]

Being a complete noob and looking for a new camera, which is the better of two. Right now newegg has the Panny for $300 vs $650 for the Sony. It's going to be a Valentine's gift for my wife. We were considering a DSLR, but she doesn't care for the bulk, and she's going on a trip to DC and I'd like to get her a camera that takes great pics. She likes the compact Sony, a friend of ours was taking pics with it at dinner over the weekend, so she's kin to it. But I'm digging the price of the Panny more obviously. Are these 2 cameras in the same ballpark as far as pic. quality?

[xSauronx]

this may not be too much help, but my friend has the nex5n and likes it quite a bit, though he says it isnt amazing for low light pics. hes pretty happy with it and bought it for travelling so he wouldnt have to take his dslr and stuff with him.

technically the nex5 has a better sensor but google for comparisons and see what matters. it doesnt have a flash built in, like the panasonic. id go with the gf5 since its a deal, will still take great pictures and have manual control options to change this, that and the other. its got a better sensor than the lumix lx7 i have, and im relly happy with the pictures i get out of that little guy.


comparisons:

http://snapsort.com/compare/Panasoni...vs-Sony-NEX-5N
http://www.digitalversus.com/digital...sus-table.html
http://digital-cameras.techcrunch.co...-Lumix-DMC-GF5

[thestrangebrew1]

Originally Posted by xSauronx

this may not be too much help, but my friend has the nex5n and likes it quite a bit, though he says it isnt amazing for low light pics. hes pretty happy with it and bought it for travelling so he wouldnt have to take his dslr and stuff with him.

technically the nex5 has a better sensor but google for comparisons and see what matters. it doesnt have a flash built in, like the panasonic. id go with the gf5 since its a deal, will still take great pictures and have manual control options to change this, that and the other. its got a better sensor than the lumix lx7 i have, and im relly happy with the pictures i get out of that little guy.


comparisons:

http://snapsort.com/compare/Panasoni...vs-Sony-NEX-5N
http://www.digitalversus.com/digital...sus-table.html
http://digital-cameras.techcrunch.co...-Lumix-DMC-GF5

Thanks for the links. I think I might just go with the Panasonic for now and maybe get a DSLR in the future. The Sony's nice, but I'm not sure I want to spend that much on one of these when I can get an entry level DSLR for about the same price when I'm ready.

[gevorg]

There is much more to it than just a difference in sensor performance, these are quite different cameras. For example, the crop factor on the Panny is 2 while on the Sony NEX its 1.5, which means that the bokeh effect can be more shallower on the Sony.

$650 is too much for NEX-5N, it was recently on sale for ~$430 with kit lens. For $650 or so you can get the NEX-5R instead (latest model).

[thestrangebrew1]

Well I missed out on the sale and now the panny is $399. Comes out to $429 with tax. Still a pretty good deal?

[Throckmorton]

I would get an Olympus for the built in image stabilization.

[PixelSquish]

keep in mind the panny will give you the greater choice of lenses being part of the MFT ecosystem.

a big let down of the NEX is limited lenses. also i do remember hearing some bad reviews on the NEX auto focus speed - not sure which models, but would be worth checking into.

IBIS is pretty huge for some people, i know it was for me. after enjoying IS on a lens by lens basis when i saw oly had IBIS it became a huge plus for me.

[thestrangebrew1]

I just rec'd the Panasonic and debating giving it to my wife for an early Valentine's gift. We're taking our daughter to Disney on Ice tomorrow night and it should be a perfect event to test drive it. I just got the stock lens so we'll see how it works out. We're both total noobs at photos though lol

[blastingcap]

I think OP made the right call if the choices were GF5 vs NEX-5N, because NEX is good but the lenses aren't much smaller than DSLR lenses, so you wind up with a small body and big lens unless you stick to the pancakes, but most women like having at least some zoom so that means sticking with the NEX 18-55mm pancake lens alone... it's the ONLY NEX lens that is both small and a zoom lens.

But if you're going to stick with one slow lens, what is the point of buying a system camera? You might as well get a RX100 or LX7 at that point and save money and bulk/weight AND get a larger zoom range AND not give up much in terms of low-light performance, because the lenses on the RX100 and LX7 are fast (starting at f/1.8 and f/1.4, respectively), whereas the pancake lenses for MFT and NEX are slow (f/3.5-5.6).

However, OP didn't list RX100/LX7 as options so in that case the GF5 is the next-best alternative as it is smaller, lighter, and cheaper than the NEX while hardly giving up anything in terms of low-light performance. You also get access to over 30 MFT lenses if you ever want to swap the lens out.

[CuriousMike]

Originally Posted by thestrangebrew1

I just rec'd the Panasonic and debating giving it to my wife for an early Valentine's gift. We're taking our daughter to Disney on Ice tomorrow night and it should be a perfect event to test drive it. I just got the stock lens so we'll see how it works out. We're both total noobs at photos though lol

I'll urge you to spend a few hours of your life reading up on the concept of exposure.

I see too many people buy DSLRs and keep them in auto-mode, and wonder why they're still getting poor low-light shots / out of focus shots.

[AkumaX]

Originally Posted by blastingcap

I think OP made the right call if the choices were GF5 vs NEX-5N, because NEX is good but the lenses aren't much smaller than DSLR lenses, so you wind up with a small body and big lens unless you stick to the pancakes, but most women like having at least some zoom so that means sticking with the NEX 18-55mm pancake lens alone... it's the ONLY NEX lens that is both small and a zoom lens.

But if you're going to stick with one slow lens, what is the point of buying a system camera? You might as well get a RX100 or LX7 at that point and save money and bulk/weight AND get a larger zoom range AND not give up much in terms of low-light performance, because the lenses on the RX100 and LX7 are fast (starting at f/1.8 and f/1.4, respectively), whereas the pancake lenses for MFT and NEX are slow (f/3.5-5.6).

However, OP didn't list RX100/LX7 as options so in that case the GF5 is the next-best alternative as it is smaller, lighter, and cheaper than the NEX while hardly giving up anything in terms of low-light performance. You also get access to over 30 MFT lenses if you ever want to swap the lens out.

RX1

Also, personallly I'd be content with a 5N/5R/6 + PZ 16-50mm pancake + (30mm f/2.8 or 35mm f/1.8). Having an ILC w/ 2 lenses would be 'justified' for me. If I got an ILC and only had 1 lens (the PZ 16-50mm), I'd save up for the RX100 instead...

[blastingcap]

Originally Posted by AkumaX

RX1

Also, personallly I'd be content with a 5N/5R/6 + PZ 16-50mm pancake + (30mm f/2.8 or 35mm f/1.8). Having an ILC w/ 2 lenses would be 'justified' for me. If I got an ILC and only had 1 lens (the PZ 16-50mm), I'd save up for the RX100 instead...

Sure, you're paying, though, right? Plus RX1's aren't as small as RX100s which is a factor.

Some people like super-wideangles and telephotos that you would not get with the PZ lens or the prime. 50mm (75mm equivalent) isn't that long. But the size of the NEX telephoto is basically DX DSLR-size... and the killer is how there are no fast telephotos available for NEX natively. Not to mention longer than 210mm telephotos. (Using the Sony adapter does not count; that just adds even more weight and cost.) At least NEX has hybrid AF sort of working, even if not terribly fast.

[thestrangebrew1]

I've got a ton of homework to do lol. I realized that the camera didn't have internal memory so I had to wait till today to grab it off my desk at work. One question though. Will a micro sd w/adapter work in these cameras or will I need to get a normal sized sd card?

[AkumaX]

Originally Posted by thestrangebrew1

I've got a ton of homework to do lol. I realized that the camera didn't have internal memory so I had to wait till today to grab it off my desk at work. One question though. Will a micro sd w/adapter work in these cameras or will I need to get a normal sized sd card?

micro sd w/adapter work no problem

[thestrangebrew1]

Originally Posted by AkumaX

micro sd w/adapter work no problem

Good deal, thanks.

[AkumaX]

Originally Posted by thestrangebrew1

Good deal, thanks.

I should clarify that I assume you're shooting in jpeg, so the buffer would be able to handle whatever shots you take and flush it out to any card at a decent rate

If you're taking 7 bracketed RAW photos in burst, you might want to find a fast card (whether regular or micro sized)

[thestrangebrew1]

Originally Posted by AkumaX

I should clarify that I assume you're shooting in jpeg, so the buffer would be able to handle whatever shots you take and flush it out to any card at a decent rate

If you're taking 7 bracketed RAW photos in burst, you might want to find a fast card (whether regular or micro sized)

Well the instructions recommended class 4 and that's what I have. I haven't had a chance to play with the camera yet, but I'll see how this card works out first.

[blastingcap]

class 4 is slow imho, and "class" doesn't mean much anyway, when what you really want to know is the actual speed. Sandisk Extreme III 30 MB/s cards are what I use, but even 15 MB/s should be okay unless you take a LOT of bursts.

[AkumaX]

Originally Posted by thestrangebrew1

Well the instructions recommended class 4 and that's what I have. I haven't had a chance to play with the camera yet, but I'll see how this card works out first.

Again, if you're only shooting jpeg, a class 4 would suffice no problem. jpegs on this camera turn out to be around 3-4MB per file, the buffer will handle it easily.
Also, I believe they wanted a minimum of class 4 (minimum 4MB/s) so that you can shoot 28mbit/s video (3.5MB/s).


However, if you decide to shoot burst RAW (say, 9 RAW shots in 1 second), at 15MB per RAW file * 9 = 135MB total flushing to a class 4 card @ 4MB/s, that Red Light on your GF5 would stay on for roughly 33 seconds, before you can remove the card. I believe someone shot with a fast class 10 (which can do 15MB/s), you'd only have to wait 9 seconds.

Again, that's only if you decide to shoot 9 RAW photos in burst. Do you?

[thestrangebrew1]

I doubt I/we will be shooting RAW. In all honesty, it'll be my wife's new toy so she'll most likely just set it to auto and let it ride. I'll be messing around with all the different settings and seeing what it can do, but like I said, I'm a complete noob to cameras and shooting in general, so I've got a lot to learn.

[xSauronx]

get a fast card now, theyre still cheap and you wont get annoyed when you want to use RAWs and really get into using the camera

[thestrangebrew1]

Originally Posted by xSauronx

get a fast card now, theyre still cheap and you wont get annoyed when you want to use RAWs and really get into using the camera

Anything in particular you guys would recommend? I used the camera last night while we were at Disney on Ice and I was super impressed. Much better than my p&s Sony Cybershot.

[blastingcap]

I would recommend Sandisk/Toshiba, Panasonic, or Lexar only. The other brands you hear about basically buy Sandisk/Toshiba, Panasonic, or Lexar flash and slap their logos on them, but you can bet that the actual MAKERS of flash memory save the best stuff for themselves. Samsung is probably okay as well but good luck buying that as a consumer. The only other brands I might consider would be Sony, but I'm not 100% sure if they make their own flash cards or not.

However, most people aren't as uptight as I am about NAND, so if you think it's worth the cost savings, feel free to get Kingston or Transcend as they are two of the more reputable NAND resellers (typically sourcing their chips from Sandisk/Toshiba).

Do not go by "Class" which is useless. Go by actual read/write throughput, emphasis on the write part because some cards are good for read but horribly slow for write, which is almost useless for cameras.

[AkumaX]

Originally Posted by thestrangebrew1

Anything in particular you guys would recommend? I used the camera last night while we were at Disney on Ice and I was super impressed. Much better than my p&s Sony Cybershot.

Originally Posted by blastingcap

I would recommend Sandisk/Toshiba, Panasonic, or Lexar only. The other brands you hear about basically buy Sandisk/Toshiba, Panasonic, or Lexar flash and slap their logos on them, but you can bet that the actual MAKERS of flash memory save the best stuff for themselves. Samsung is probably okay as well but good luck buying that as a consumer. The only other brands I might consider would be Sony, but I'm not 100% sure if they make their own flash cards or not.

However, most people aren't as uptight as I am about NAND, so if you think it's worth the cost savings, feel free to get Kingston or Transcend as they are two of the more reputable NAND resellers (typically sourcing their chips from Sandisk/Toshiba).

Do not go by "Class" which is useless. Go by actual read/write throughput, emphasis on the write part because some cards are good for read but horribly slow for write, which is almost useless for cameras.

Yup! Just gotta do you research. All Class 10 means is that the card will do a minimum of 10MB/s sequential write. Anything more is "extra".

Ex: Sony SDHC 32GB C10 gets exactly 10MB/s. Should you be mad? Not really.. it does do Class 10..
Ex2: Sony SDHC 32GB UHS-I C10 gets 45MB/s sequential write. It's still rated Class 10, but it has a much higher write speed.

Your camera maxes out at around 15-20MB/s write, so you wouldn't be using the card to its full potential, but you don't have to worry about it NOT performing at its full potential.

I kinda wish they made a Class 20...

[thestrangebrew1]

Ok thanks. I'll shop around for something in the 15-20 MBps and see whta I can find. I doubt my existing ones write that fast.