I am looking at Sony NEX 5N or Olympus E-PL3?

Which one should I go with?

Other system that I should consider?

Thanks.

u should get this especially the sliver one , its retro look. The af is fast and the output is nice. check my thread posted last week with pictures.

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine - Elvis Presley

nt

"But sometimes when you bring the thunder, you get lost in the storm."

Performance is great and the body is lightweight. IMHO, best bang for your buck in the range of microfour thirds (even though the Sony NEX5 is technically not a microfour thirds....its better)

One thing to note, be sure to buy the international version (basically not the Japan domestic model) as you can not change the language to English. Not a problem for me though.

Here's a shot taken with the 18-55mm lens


___________

Jason

...not to mention that you can easily mount your old manual lenses with an adapter for some amazing low-light output. I have some Zeiss 1.4 lenses that just produce gorgeous (non-Panerai) images.

I agree with other posters, if you're looking at Olympus, definitely get an OM-D over the PEN 3, it is a massive improvement! But the Sony NEX-5N is incredible too.

I have the NEX-5N, it is fantastic. It has some excellent features I haven't seen on other cameras, such as the stacking for anti-blur and twilight, it also has some good effects built in such as HDR paint and vivid mode. The optional viewfinder is a must, it is awesome. I only use the Sony with manual focus lenses, like Voigtlander or Zeiss, and it works great with those. If you want to use the standard autofocus lenses, it is a bit lacking since the lens selection isn't very good yet (The Olympus has a huge selection of great lenses). The Sony is also amazing with high ISO shots, especially with handheld twilight mode.

Here's a picture I just took with it (not a watch, sorry!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/whacker/7208155252/in/photostream/

I also just picked up the OM-D (yesterday!) I had previously borrowed a PEN E-P2, and I did not warm up to it - it feels cheap, it is a bit awkward, and the high ISO shots have way too much noise. The OM-D solves all of that, it is built great (although still very light), feels very good in hand, has a great viewfinder (not as good as the Sony but theOly viewfinder is built in, and it has in body IS that is active with a half shutter press while you compose).

The in body IS on the Oly is amazing, probably the best in the business (Sony has no in body IS). From what I can see, the noise performance at high ISO is very good (much much better than the PEN, possibly rivaling the Sony although the Sony will still beat it when using handheld twilight with stacking to average out noise). The picture quality is superb and it is much easier to get sharp shots (especially with a manual lens) than the Sony, as the IS is just the best.

I haven't uploaded any pics with the OM-D (too busy at work!), but from what I can tell, it is a great camera, and I can't wait to use it more. I have a Voigtlander manual focus lens on it now so my use case will probably be different than most, but I'll use the other Olympus autofocus lenses for variety, the kit zoom should hopefully versatile for car shots and the track, where a manual focus lens is a bit of a pain to deal with! I did play around with the kit lens and although it doesn't have much of an aperture, in daylight it is very nice. Very light too (the Voigtlander is a boat anchor in weight compared to it).

Here's some more pics from the Sony, many are at high ISO where the camera excels.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/whacker/sets/72157626898357449/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whacker/sets/72157627771587313/

Whatever you get, both are great cameras.

-- Gordie

cause i will be using it to take baby pic, and i won't have time to do anything manually :D

the lack of Sony in body IS is one thing that i didn't like about the 5N, cause that translate to if I want IS, then I would have to buy all the lenses that has IS built-in

For kids, and anything requiring fast autofocus, the OM-D might be the better choice, it is supposed to have lightening fast autofocus. It also has very good facial detection and will focus automatically on the eyes of the subjects.

The Nikon V1 is also supposed to punch way above its weight - it is a smaller sensor than M 4/3, but there are some very favorable reviews, going much against expectations. And it has blazing autofocus.

I'd probably go with the OM-D, though, seems the best balance and most versatile!

-- Gordie

The NEX has the larger APS-X sensor (which is a 1.5 crop from full frame, vs. 2x crop for the M4/3 on the Olympus).

-- Gordie

The Foveon sensor is amazing!

Ciao,

davide

I was close to getting the NEX-5N as well, but ended up with the Fuji X100 (APS-C and not micro 3/4). So far I am really happy with the X100, but it doesn't have interchangeable lens so if that's a feature you want then I would lean towards the 5N or the Olympus OM-D as others mentioned, which have been getting great reviews.

The Fuji X-Pro1 has interchangeable lens but I would say it's in a different price bracket.

Cheers,
James

and then it leads me to X100, but it seems like for the price of X100, I am boarder line more into the price segment of four third. So I want to see whats out there.

X100 is still a prime candidate for me, if I don't end up with a system with interchangeable lens, then I would likely to get the X100

Tough to find at a reasonable price but worth the search.

OM-D is very sexy but the larger APS size NEX7 or 5N is hard to beat for this class / size bodies.