Fight without mirrors - 2

The second part of the blockbuster "Fight without mirrors." Nikon V1 vs. Olympus E-PL3 vs. Samsung NX200 vs. Sony NEX-7. The battle!

The main feature of system cameras is the presence of interchangeable lenses with small dimensions of the device itself. By the way, it is the quality of the lens, and not the number of megapixels, that primarily determines the clarity and depth of the picture.
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For comparison, we took four mirrorless: Samsung NX200, Sony NEX-7, Nikon V1 and up to the Olympus PEN E-PL3 pile, which is much cheaper than the first three, but we have not yet reviewed it.

Who is who

Nikon 1 V1 (Kit 10-30mm F / 3.5-5.6 VR = 26,000 rubles)



Olympus Pen E-PL3 (Kit 14-42mm = 21,000 rubles)



Samsung NX200 (Kit 20-50mm = 28,000 rubles)



Sony Alpha NEX-7 (Kit 18-55mm = $ 1,400 in the USA)

Design, ergonomics

The first thing we pay attention to is the appearance. And in my opinion, Nikon V1 is an incomparable handsome man. Just look at this solid metal body, gently reflecting the light. By the way, most girls agree with me. Checked: at a quick glance at all four cameras, they exclaim "Oh, little white!" And focus their attention on him alone. They are not even embarrassed that behind it is black.



Okay, little white. And besides, also very smooth. Therefore, taking him in hand, you immediately feel how he slips out of them. A small protrusion in front doesn’t improve much.

Whether business rubberized ledge practical Sony NEX-7. This camera fits so comfortably in your hand that you don't want to let go:



Despite the similar design, the Samsung NX200 cannot boast the same convenience, and the shutter button is foolishly located. The index finger has to reach for it. That would be to change it in places with the mode dial, it would be a completely different thing:



You take in the hands of Olympus? Do not forget to put a strap around your neck. The absolutely smooth camera body quite comfortably fits in your hand, but to drop it is a couple of trivia:

Control

The Samsung NX200 has the nicest menu and cute soundtrack. The buttons are conveniently located, and they are all signed (unlike the NEX-7 buttons), their functions are clear. The display shows the main shooting parameters and nothing superfluous, while the NEX-7 screen is amazingly informative. Fortunately, here you can choose a much more friendly mode, and nothing will distract from the construction of the composition. Built-in metering will delight landscape photographers. Now, no one will throw you a mischievous "Horizon littered."



The Olympus E-PL3 menu is much less intuitive and less colorful. For example, I am terribly annoyed at the top of the delete frame button. Usually it is located on the bottom right. Of course, with time you can get used to everything.

Nikon V1 is concise and very simple. Fans of shooting in the “manual” mode will be greatly surprised by the rocker changes the shutter speed. This is not a wheel, you will not be able to quickly set up the parameters.

Design

All four cameras have a hot shoe, and the NEX-7 is also equipped with a built-in flash.

Constructive remote flashes Olympus and Samsung are almost the same, they are very easy to activate (you just need to lift up), but they are completely useless. Most often, the backlight is required for the night portrait, which on both devices is obtained ... not at all.



The most serious light unit from Nikon. He, like a real adult flash, can be turned in different directions, and he is the only one of all four who can ignite studio lamps with his impulse. However, the night portrait still does not work, what is to blame for the noisy and small matrix with a resolution of just 10.1 megapixels. Although the flash of Sony is small, it can, like Nikon, look at the ceiling. A night portrait works in such a way that the resulting frame can be easily hung with an avatar on Facebook:

(From left to right: Olympus, Sony, Samsung, Nikon)



Speaking of pixels. The resolution of the Olympus E-PL3 is greater than V1, but not by much - 13.1 million points. But Samsung and Son especially admire their big numbers: 20.3 and 24.7 megapixels, respectively.

Son and Nikon allow you to sight a picture of the viewfinder, which is very important in the bright sun. But the Olympus is not a simple display - turning. But the Sony NEX-7 is the same.

Modes

As it should be for serious cameras, all of our mirrorless cameras are capable of operating in P, A, S and, of course, M - manual modes. Samsung, Son and Olympus have different variations of the preset modes: “Portrait”, “Landscape”, “Night Scene”, etc.

Samsung is undoubtedly the coolest. He made a revolution and invented what the users of the whole world dreamed of - the button, or rather, the “Masterpiece” mode. True, it is called “Beautiful shot”, but the meaning does not change.

Frames

Convenience is great, but all of them can be sacrificed for the sake of a beautiful frame. You need to catch this frame, which means you need a good autofocus. Samsung and Olympus do it perfectly well. Worse, "Sonya", and Nikon was left behind everyone. However, it should be clarified that we are testing Nikon with a telephoto, and they, in principle, focus longer than the widths.

Fans of glamor portraits will delight Olympus E-PL3. The e-portrait mode “blurs” the skin so that not a single wrinkle will remain even in a seventy-year-old grandmother. By the way, in this mode, he leaves two versions of the picture: the classic and the "zablyurenny", in case the model does not agree to be like a wax doll.

Sony has the harshest and most beautiful portrait, and Samsung’s outsiders will be Samsung for dark and greenish colors.

(From left to right: Olympus, Sony, Samsung, Nikon)



We remove the contrast picture, and Samsung NX-200 and Olympus E-PL3 do the best for the shadows. Nikon has a total black out, plus chromatic aberrations on top of that. Poorly working out the contrast border and PL-3, and NEX-7 again receives a prize for sharpness:



In general, Samsung is ... a girl. Because non-permanent. If, while photographing the architecture, no black holes were observed, then the landscape against the sun is gloomy in the literal sense of the word - trees and bushes turned into a solid, impenetrable darkness. Approximately the same is observed in V1. In addition, he also shines the sky shamelessly. PL3 draws a picture on the head above and Nikon, and Samsung, - bright, juicy, but, nevertheless, not so worked out in details and light, like Sony:



Check the four for color rendering and try to shoot the sky at sunset. Here the former outsider Nikon laid all his competitors on both shoulder blades. True, it is worth turning the cameras towards the sun, as Son immediately takes revenge on a wide dynamic range and excellent color reproduction, and Olympus is pleased with the richness:





At night, it is better not to shoot portraits, but a beautifully illuminated city. You can trust the automation, and you can put the manual settings. So, with the manual settings, Nikon and Samsung showed real miracles of sharpness, and the most soap was the undisputed leader of most tests - Sony. At ISO 100, clamped at 13 aperture and shutter speed of eight seconds, all cameras give a very low noise level. We put the machine, and the NEX-7 is shocking with a soapy and noisy picture. The second place from the end deserved not very sharp and very noisy Nikon, the third was divided between the clear Samsung and Olympus.

Manual settings:


Automatic settings:

Video

Photographing flowers in the machine will work only with the owners of Sony NEX-7. With the whale 18-55, it focuses clearly, shoots beautifully and sharply. Owners of the remaining three devices will only have to focus manually, the automation works slowly and constantly smears.

All three cameras shoot video in Full HD. Samsung in poor lighting traditionally fails the shadows and shows a terrible noise, Sony gives quite acceptable quality, and Olympus constantly smears with focus and mercilessly "blur" the skin. Nikon would be good if not for the terrible interlacing and pronounced noises:

Summary

The undisputed leader is Sony NEX-7. And he leads both in ease of use and quality of the picture. He is far away from the closest pursuers of the Samsung NX200 and Olympus PL3, not to mention the girls' favorite Nikon V1. Nikon, may the followers of this religion forgive me, is made as if to discourage the desire to use system cameras and to incline to buying D3. By the way, something he is still much better than the competition - a clear and bright display, in which the pictures seem infinitely beautiful. Unfortunately, it only seems.

The obvious choice is only for those who like to shoot a night city. This is the only type of shooting in which the NEX-7 is very disappointing. If appearance is more expensive for you than convenience and quality, choose PL3. It will help to make an impression. And the NX200 can forgive everything in the world with just one “Perfect Shot” mode!

The first part of "Fights without mirrors" - here .