OM-D E-M5 and X-Pro1: handling

Australia is very remarkable country. You can walk into major shop and handle Olympus OM-D E-M5 or Fuji X-Pro1 while in most places around the globe these cameras are available only for pre-orders. Anyway, I went to Ted's today and played with both cameras for some time. The Olympus E-M5 is amazingly small and light-weight. My hands are not small, and it was not really comfortable to use the camera as a standard DSLR (using EVF). I have impression that shooting with rear screen might be more comfortable. By the way, the rear screen is gorgeous and tilting is really useful feature. The E-M5 viewfinder is very bright. The eyecup is indeed relatively short(?) and probably may not be very protective in bright sun (this is pure speculation, I used the camera inside the shop). The focus is very fast. There might be some measurable difference in focusing between the E-M5 and some mid-range DSLRs but for me it probably would be unnoticeable.

Fuji X-Pro1 is bigger and heavier than the E-M5. It is amazingly comfortable to handle it despite its weight. It is even more comfortable than Fuji X100. Then, the viewfinder. There might be some difference between X100 and X-Pro1 but for person who comes from entry- and mid-range 4/3 camera it is just different world. I would say both the X100 and X-Pro1 are designed for shooting "through viewfinder".

The shop also had Pentax K-01 with 18-55mm lens on display. It is huge and very strange-looking thing. It is similar to DSLR in size.

Obviously, it is very hard to draw any meaningful conclusions from such brief experience.

Then there are rumors about new Olympus camera. Can it be OM-D E-M5 without the viewfinder? Just keep all buttons and tilting screen. Probably it will cannibalize the E-P3 sales, and the price gap between the E-P3 and E-M5 is not big but it probably will be extremely popular. More buttons, better IBIS, no hump... It does look very attractive. The cost of design and production probably will be relatively small because of the shared components with the another camera. This is just my speculations, I have no information regarding specs of the rumored Olympus camera.

There were some rumors in the last several month about Samsung planning a version of the NX20 camera without the viewfinder. The NX300 name is periodically leaking from the Samsung...

I must to say these cameras are very tempting. In these days before going to sleep I repeat "I don't need new camera" mantra at least five times :)

One more post on Pentax K-01

I am still scratching my head after the K-01 announcement by Pentax. It is good that Pentax decided to keep K mount in their mirrorless cameras. Many people will love the camera just because of Pentax lenses. The sensor in the camera is one of the best available assuming that Pentax have used the same sensor as in K-5. It seems that Pentax has very powerful battery in K-01 sufficient for over 500 shots per charge. But I was very disappointed by lack of a viewfinder in the camera, especially considering its weight and size. It seems that the K-01 is the biggest camera in it's class (see the table below).

I do not understand what is the target group for the camera. The presence of K mount makes the K-01 very attractive for Pentax DSLR users, but I bet the DSLR users prefer to have a viewfinder on DSLR-like body. People with tripod / landscape shooter probably would not mind to have a camera with K-5 image quality, but the K-5 is weather-sealed camera while K-01 is not. On other hand, the K-5 is ~200 g heavier. For some Pentax DSLR users the K-01 might be a very handy back-up camera, but people who use compact camera probably prefer something more portable for upgrade. There are quite a few cameras to choose from, as can be seen in the table below. Obviously, the lenses are quite different, but I decided to use the available pancake in this table, in order to illustrate the minimal weight for mirrorless cameras. I have not included Nikon J1 (body only ~300 g, with build-in flash  and 10mm pancake at 77 g).

Body	Weight, g	Tilt	Flash	Pancake	Weight, total, g
Pentax K-01	561	No	Yes	40 mm/52 g	~610
Samsung NX200	223	No	No	30 mm/85 g	~310
Olympus E-P3	369	No	Yes	17 mm/71 g	~440
Olympus E-PL3	313	Yes	No	17 mm/71 g	~380
Panasonic DMC-GX1	318	No	Yes	20 mm/100 g	~420
Sony NEX-5N	290	Yes	No	17 mm/74 g	~360

There are other factors, such as a price. Pentax has many pancakes, while other manufacturers offer only one or two. I suspect that without viewfinder many long Pentax lenses will not be very useful.  Moreover, K-01 body weight is very similar to K-r (598 g), and the cameras are similar in size, so I suspect that for some people the K-r might be more attractive because it is cheaper, with fast autofocus (I suspect faster than K-01 at least with some lenses) and a viewfinder.

I hope that the company will continue development of this type of cameras. I mean K-01 type, not Pentax Q.

Pentax K-01

OK, the new Pentax mirrorless camera with K-mount will be announced within hour or even less. I am quite excited about this camera right now, for several reasons. Actually, I was really amused when the rumors about the K-01 appeared. You gonna be kidding: SLR mount on mirrorless camera! It will make the whole thing big. So, what is the point? Now I think it actually do have a certain pluses.

In SLR cameras the flange focal distance is essentially limited by mirror movement, so the rear end of the lens would not go deep into camera body. However, mirrorless camera have no mirror (by definition : ) ) so technically the rear end of the lens can protrude from the lens mount into camera. At least, I don't see any reason why it cannot be accomplished. In this case the lens mount might be in the middle of the lens, as on my  home-made cartoon in which brick-like rectangles represent camera bodies : )) It is a view from the top : )  In this case the whole camera (body + lens) can be very similar in size to other mirrorless cameras.

I can see several benefits of such design. First, from the start, the system will have many lenses available. In meantime Pentax can produce new lenses by shifting position of the lens mount. Considering that the SLR mount (K mount) is quite wide, design of such "in body" lenses will be quite flexible. If part of a lens will be inside a camera, it might be easy to make weather-resistant lens, especially if the moving part will be in a camera. The bigger body can use standard tripod plates, and probably can be more balanced on tripod, especially with medium-sized lens without tripod collar. 

Of cause, it is just my speculations, but I hope that Pentax will show serious commitment to this system.

I am also very curious about new Olympus, E-M5, OM-D, or whatever it will be called. What a great year for mirrorless camera! :-)

UPDATE. So, the camera was announced on time : ) I think it is the first DSLR-looking camera without any viewfinder. The camera weight is > 500 g. Add 50-200 mm lens, at about 300 g, and the total weight is over 800 g. Or add 55-300 mm, and you end up with about 1 kg. Try to shot handheld with the camera in straight hands (no viewfinder). On top of it, the rear screen is fixed. I afraid the company had shot itself in the foot (second time). Of cause, it is possible that I missed the announcement of the viewfinder... I bet the camera with long lens will be quite usable on a tripod. I wish the K-01 had a Minolta A2-like body with tiltable viewfinder and screen.