Quote Originally Posted by Mary Anne View Post
Hello I am curious as to what Big Heavy Camera you are using now being your first post and having joined a few years back ?

So Welcome to AP..

I find my E-M1 camera very complicated coming from one of those Big Heavy Cameras, which I prefer.. It is taking a lot of hours of learning with all it's buttons.

Spent hours playing with it yesterday to find I pushed something I should not have, so had to Reset it again, then forgot to get into the Menu and set it up for RAW images again my fault. This camera speaks a different language from my Big Heavy Camera so I have to learn that also, though I am not one to give up so I will master it eventually, as I only bought it for walk around all day outings and have only had it for 4 weeks.

What I did not like was when shooting jpeg images the first time I used it on a days outing at Sea World I drained the fully recharge Battery at around 350 images taken over 4 hours during the 5-6 hour day I spent there, shooting with my BHC battery I get around 800 images now from my battery 4 years on so a big difference. I had no need to use flash though if you used that I wonder how many images you would take on the one fully recharged battery. I have two batteries though I feel two may not be enough for shooting for the entire day the way I do. And it takes hours to charge that small Battery where I can charge a BHC battery in around one hour so if you are going out shooting for the day and want a early start make sure you charge your Batteries the afternoon and evening before, as they dont advise you to leave the battery sitting in the charger once fully charged. I did not get a lot of keepers from this first outing most likely my fault, many of the images did not seem to be in focus and as I shot all day on Auto maybe that's to be expected.

Only one card slot does not worry me at all as it will take a lot of shots to fill up my 16GB card and I have another an 8GB card. Having written all that I do like the feel of it in my hands and will probably like it even more when I learn how to use it properly it does take great images if you get the focus spot on. It will never be my main camera while I can hand hold my Big Heavy Camera and heavy lenses

As David wrote above its a good as any of those other Brands of this camera type so go try one on for size and see how it fits..
Hi Mary, that's quite a learning curve you are going through!

I went from Big Heavy Canon DSLR to Panasonic DSLM, and maybe that is a better migration path because of their better user interface, but while running two brands concurrently it will always be harder.

Batteries, yes I went from one all-day battery to 2 or three per day, but I don't have the slightest complaint about it. Pop 2 spares in the bag and gee, it takes about one second to change when needed. Do we complain bitterly about changing lenses once or twice a day? As for charging,... never had a hitch, it's so easy.

The top dog DSLM for today's buyer is probably the Panasonic GH4. You should not overlook this unit in your thoughts. Or even the GX7 I use, fantastic form factor and enthusiast capability.