Taking the Micro 4/3's plunge

[ElFenix]

Interesting. Very intersting.
That's the technical/historical mumbo jumbo... is the rest of what I said.suggested then true in regards to size, etc?

an SLR is as complex as you want it to be. other than lens selection (and most people stick with the kit lens or maybe add a zoom telephoto), you can leave it in green box mode and snap away blissfully ignorant of the exposure process just like a P&S. they even have tons of scene modes (well, the consumer models do, $2000+ versions don't, i think).

size wise they can be a lot smaller (the sony nex-5 body is tiny). the lenses for the sony have to be a bit larger than the u4/3 lenses because they cover a bigger sensor. the larger panasonic models (G10, G2) and the samsung are nearly the size of small SLRs.

imho, if it can't fit in a jacket pocket the difference in size doesn't mean much between the smaller SLRs and the micro-systems. maybe the sony with the small lens will probably fit into a jacket pocket, as would the smaller panasonic and olympus models. but as i said earlier, the sony's lens is just too wide for usual work, imho.

 

[foghorn67]

Interesting. Very intersting.
That's the technical/historical mumbo jumbo... is the rest of what I said.suggested then true in regards to size, etc?

Here is the basic info behind the micro 4/3rd's.
SLR use a system where the viewfinder looks through a pentaprism, than through a mirror and out the lens. What you see is what you get in real time.
the micro 4/3rd's eliminates the traditional pentaprism and mirror. It uses the sensor itself and displays out the back of it much like a point and shoot. This makes it much smaller since a lot of stuff is out of the equation.
Also since there is no mirror to rotate out of the way when taking pictures, it eliminates the "thwap" sound of the mirror.
There are drawbacks.
The AF isn't as responsive since it uses contrast AF instead of phase detect.
And the electronic viewfinder can be slightly laggy when trying to view moving subjects.
SLR's have mostly the same characteristics during "live view" or video modes. The mirror is recessed exposing the sensor, and viewfinder is the LCD in the back.