Mirrorless Camera Reviews

It was a pleasure shooting with the original Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera when I reviewed this affordable model just about two years ago, so it was a pleasant surprise when the new upgraded Nikon Z 6II arrived at my door. The original Z6 scored high marks for it’s compact size, rugged build, pleasing image quality, and versatility—especially for the uncommon price of $1,995 for a full-frame camera.

Nikon, long favored by pros and advanced amateurs for cameras with state-of-the-art capabilities, has recently targeted budget-conscious photographers with mirrorless models offering an uncommon combination of value and price. A year ago, I reviewed the Nikon Z6, a nimble, full-frame mirrorless camera at a price of $1,995 for the body. While that camera was considerably less expensive than more advanced Nikon models, it’s more than twice the cost of the new Nikon Z50 that we’ll look at today.

The Nikon Z7 is, perhaps, the most well-designed full frame mirrorless camera on the market right now. It took me a little while to realize this.

The Olympus E-P3 is the follower of the E-P2 and E-P1, the first Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras that were offered as “retro style cameras”. The E-P3 offers the same image sensor as the E-P2, with a nominal resolution of 12MP, but the E-P3 uses a newly developed image processor unit called “TruePic VI” plus offers some enhancements in the AF-speed. The automatic focusing system is really fast and showed a very good performance during our tests. In addition it has some special modes like “AF tracking mode”, which will help both photographers and videographers.

The compact Olympus E-PL3 has a retro body design and is available in different colors. The camera has a large swivel LCD on the back which allows the user to flip the monitor up and down. This is handy but is not as flexible as a swivel monitor that allows side-to-side movement. The LCD screen is a standard TFT screen instead of the OLED system used by the Olympus E-P3.

I recently had the chance to take the new Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II along with my regular full-frame Nikon system to Alaska and the Yukon on an outdoor shoot. Rather than test charts and pixel peeping, I focused on the real-world usability of Olympus’ new flagship mirrorless camera and its ability to get the job done as compared with a large and heavy DSLR system. 

The OM-D E-M10 Mark II (E-M10 II in the following text) is the second generation of the Olympus entry level E-M system line. The first E-M10, introduced in January 2014, was a very small and compact camera with SLR design elements. The E-M10 II has a very similar look with even more “retro style” elements. The on/off switch, for example, looks like the same switch on the analog Olympus OM-1 from the 1970s.