Canon G15 vs. Olympus Pen E-PL3. What should i get?

[Honken]

Hi all, this is my first forum post here at Scubaboard. I have posted the same question in another forum as well, just so you know if you happen to run into the same post at two places.

Now to the subject at hand. I recently had a leek in my housing for my Canon G10, and I feel like its time to upgrade the camera equipment a bit.

However I don’t know exactly what I would like to get at this point. After reading several reviews I am leaning towards either the Olympus E-PL3 or the Canon G15. The price does differ a fair amount.

So the big question is. What would you do?
The way I shoot is mostly Macro at night. I have an Intova iss 4000 strobe on a tray for my old WP-DC28 casing. I use a canon 7d on land and I don’t feel like I can afford a housing and strobes for this camera at this point.


Olympus
£645 housing, Olympus PT-EP05L
£306 Camera, Olympus pen E-PL3
£199 macro lens, PTMC-01
£60 Lens adapter, PMLA-EP01
Total price - £1210
+ shipping

canon G15
£195 Canon WP-DC48
£499 Canon G15
$199 Macro lens Dyron +7 67mm macro lens (DY.UCL67II)
$ 100 Lens adapter The Dyron 67mm Adapter for Canon G10/G11/G12 Housing (DY.ADC28/34) lens adapter wont fit this camera however Dyron is working on a new model for that housing and will be out soon. My guess is that it will be priced around $100
Total Price – about £860 (depending on currency conversion)
+ shipping

Kindly looking forward to an answer from you.

Henrik

 

[Hashsaz]

Both are great camera, but i vote for g15

here's the reasons i vote for g15:
1) familiar with g-series settings since you were g10 users, easier for navigation
2) built-in lens which support both macro or wide angle shot (imagine when you dive at a place where famous for big fishes)
3) lower cost, can save more for further upgrade i.e. have around $400 extra (compare to epl) and you can get yourself another strobe.
4) it's new and the quality of image maybe better than epl3 which released some times though it's higher rank camera. Not sure as never compare both but at least i'm sure that if you never buy any close up lens, but you are still able to shoot a very good macro picture by using g15.
5) while underwater, you can just take off the macro lens from the adapter if you wanna shot for wide angle (flexible)

Additional reasons that i'm not supporting epl3
1) epl3 works similar like dslr, if you familiar with dslr, should know the commom in the box lens (18-55mm) is not good for underwater photography, you may probably need to change another lens and epl3 doesn come out lot lenses and usually higher price compare to other dslr, therefore it would anytime more expensive than your budget.
2) since you got a 7d which higher rank than epl3, that's no point to get another camera that cost you more on lenses. Can actually save the money to get a good lens for the 7d in future upgrade.

That's all in my opinion, of course the decision is yours, hope it helps.


cheers

 

[Honken]

Thanks for a very good reply.

Good breakdown and great advice and i think you hit home with a lot of my own thoughts on the subject and opened my mind to a few more.

I will have one or two more nights sleep on the subject but then its time to order myself a new camera.

Thank you.

 

[derway]

I've been attempting to use the G series since the g2! Forget them! The implementation of contrast detect autofocus sucks, compared to any other p&s camera from panasonic or sony, or lately even from olympus.

The G series is even slower to auto focus than the rest of the cheaper canon p&s cams, which really makes me think they are deliberately sabotaging the AF speed, to avoid cannibalizing DSLR sales. The G1x even got SLOWER than the G12! Forget the G series for underwater. Just point and wait, and watch while your subject swims out of the frame, and then the picture goes off. Frustration time.

---------- Post Merged at 07:46 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 07:43 PM ----------

As I said in wet pixel, the epl3 would spank this g15 for underwater use, and be much more expandable as you progress.

Even better would be the epl5, which has a state of the art sensor, and even faster AF than the epl3. Definitely worth the couple hundred more it will cost you, in my estimation.

 

[BluewaterPhoto]

The E-PM1 or E-PL5 with the Olympus 60mm macro lens would be a better option, especially for small skittish fish, but then you have a larger price difference. Good luck with your choice! - Scott