Since so many visitors come from countries, where German is hardly on the fringes, I decided to give you guys an english version of some of my blog entries. Let me apologise for my English first – I know there will be a lot of mistakes, since it’s not my motherlanguage, but I figured, it might be better than those often funny google translations.

I’d like to start with this real world comparison of these three small competent cameras: The brand new Sony Nex-3, the Olympus E-PL1 and the Leica X1.

Why are they milestones among cameras? Because they are reasonably compact and still have a large Sensor in them, that promises image quality similar to DSLRs.
The choice between those Smaccs gets larger and larger. Photokina is coming in September and a lot of rumors tell us, there might be new models being introduced in the upcoming months.

I wanted to know, which one of the small competent cameras – let’s call them Smaccs from now on – suits my needs and my likings the best? I wanted to do a comparison in a real world setting and not in a Lab. I appreciate technical reviews but figured that only the realworld reviews available on the net from great guys like Steve Huff and others eventually influence my choice making process.
So this comparison isn’t meant to deliver scientific charts, but everyday experience to give you a feeling for the cameras. Technical data on paper and using these cameras are totally different stories.

The contestants

I made a choice of three different brands and three different concepts:

• The new Sony Nex-3 with the 18-55/3.5-5.6 OSS kit lens
• The Olympus E-PL1, which has been on the market for a couple of months and prooved to be a great camera.
• And the Leica X1, being the most expensive among Smaccs right now. I’d like to thank my friend René, who gave his camera to me for a weekend (www.digitalcameragraz.at)

What about other Smaccs? I chose the Sony over the Ricoh and the Samsung, because it’s the newest among the APS-C sensor Smaccs and showed impressive results IQ-wise. I chose the E-PL1 over the other Micro Four Thirds Smaccs, because it seemed to deliver the best IQ in recent technical tests. Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to try a brand new Panasonic G2, but I hope to be able to do so soon.
And I chose the Leica, because it costs so much more than anything else in this league and not even offers interchangable lenses. And to be honest, I tried the X1 once for 15 minutes in my local camera store and I instantly wanted to test it. But please don’t hesitate to try all the others! The one thing I learned after using lots of cameras in the past years is, that the more you like your camera, the better the pictures will get. So find the one you like!

About the handling

The Sony Nex-3 feels very solidly built. All the buttons and wheels (there aren’t a lot of them) are nice and exact to operate. Since the camera is drawn down by the light but large 18-55 kit lens, you tend to hold the camera with the left hend under the lens – a pretty good idea anyway, because you hold it much sturdier that way. From handling a Nex-5 for a couple of hours I know, that it feels better and securer in your hands than the Nex-3, but this fact and the full HD video capability for me isn’t worth the 100 Euros more. So I sticked to the cheaper Nex-3 for this test.
The Nex is delivered with a small flash in the box, which at first looked ridiculous. The people from Sony decided to not include a standard Iso-hot shoe in their first Nex models. So the only flash you can use with your Nex right now is this small flashlight. You really don’t wanna make the flimsy experience to get it on or even worse off the camera. So it sits there on my Nex all the time. To activate it you simply pop it up.
A very nice feature of the Nex is its tilting monitor. It encourages you to look out for unusual perspectives. You can use the camera near the ground or high up in the air. Its high resolution makes it a joy to use, unless your in bright sunlight of course – but that’s the same for every camera in this comparison. I might end up using Leica M-lenses on the Nex as soon as I find an adapter and this high res screen will help to focus manually.
The 18-55 kit lens looks quite expensive because of its silver finishing. On the other hand it’s so light that you know in a second: Don’t expect high image quality from it.

There has been quite a discussion on the web about Sony’s menu driven user interface. Deep menu structure, slow operation – that’s what I thought about the Nex when I ordered it. I was prepared for the worst. And yes, it’s annoying sometimes and I hope for a Nex with a more classic, quicker approach. But eventually it isn’t that annoying as I expected. I mostly shoot in A-mode, where I set the aperture, dial in maybe an exposure correction and that’s it. You don’t need to dive into the menus for that. But changing ISO or white balance means that you have to press a couple buttons and turn the wheel. Meanwhile my wife has lost this beautiful expression on her face 3.000 times and the picture is lost, because of some funky Sony developers. Formatting the SD-card is another annoying experience, because the function is somewhere in the settings menu. So you press the menu button, go to settings and scroll and scroll and scroll down the menu until you finally reach the desired function. Since you have to scroll this far I really encourage the Sony folks to incorporate the possibility to scroll up from the first item in the menu and get directly to the last.

In short: If you’re upgrading from a compact camera and are acustomed to use cameras in iAuto-mode, you’ll be fine. If you change settings frequently, you’ll be not. I tend to use the Nex with Auto-ISO on, so that I can avoid changing ISOs all the time. If there was a dedicated button, I’d use it. And: The small lens selection with so-so performance makes the Nex quite unattractive right now.

The build quality of the E-PL1 isn’t as worthwhile compared to the more expensive Olympus models or the Nex. It’s all about plastic. But it’s doesn’t feel cheap. The buttons are a little looser, there are now wheels. BUT there are dedicated buttons for most of the important functions. Even if there’s no button for changing ISOs, you’re still only one press away of the setting. Changing the aperture by buttons is slower than the Nex, changing ISOs is faster. In the end they are maybe about the same in terms of operating speed. (I#d like to mention here, that other M4/3 cameras are more competent interfacewise. The Olymopus E-P1 and E-P2 have two wheels on the back and operate faster than the E-PL1. The Panasonic GF1 has one wheel on the back and is still faster. The same goes for the other Panasonic G-cameras.
The built-in flash pops up quite high and can even trigger an external Olympus or Panasonic flash, which is a great feature if you’re into flash photography a lot. The low-res screen makes manual focussing a challenge. A good advise would be to get electronic viewfinder for about 200 Euros. It is said to make manual focussing easier and you can use it, when the sun makes the LCD-screen invisible.
I’ve never been a big fan of the 14-42 kit zoom. The optical results seem to be really good, but you have to unlock it before you can use it – I hate that mechanism. So I ended up using the E-PL1 with the really excellent Panasonic 20/1.7. It’s small, sharp and you can shoot wide open to produce a shallow DOF even with the small M4/3 sensor. I’m also a big fan of using Leica M-lenses via adapter on the E-PL1, but the images in this comparison are basically made with the 20mm and the Panasonic 14-45/3.5-5.6.

In short: Again no Speedy Gonzales operationwise, but great lenses to choose from.

What about the X1. Body: light, lighter than you would imagine looking at it. Mrs. Mumsu (my wife’s nickname) tends to press the whole camera down, when she’s only supposed to press the shutter. You can guess the result.
Buttons and wheels are fine to operate, the buttons being maybe a little less exact compared to the Nex. But the real highlight is the user interface: Congratulations Leica!

Withe the two wheels on top of the camera you choose time and aperture, half automatic or full automatic or full manual mode – it can be that easy! It’s a very fast way to change settings without any menu. On the back you’ll find dedicated buttons for the most important settings like ISO, WB or exposure compensation. That’s some kind of user interface!

The LCD-screen isn’t something to rave about. It’s got about the same resolution than the one on the E-PL1, but it renders pictures in a beautiful, very natural way – you’ll like what you shot, when you see it. Pretty much forget about focussing manually, unless the rather slow AF denies and denies to see what you see. If you turn the camera to MF, part of the screen will turn into an enlargement of the center of the image and you can use the wheel on the back to turn it until you think it’s sharp. You’ll never know for sure, only when you see the result on your computer screen.
If the X1 is your choice, I really recommend bying the external Viewfinder. It doesn’t do anything, is only a piece of glass and plastic, but it’s very bright and you can use it, when the sun blinds the LCD or when you want to hold the camera sturdier by pressing it to your eyebrow. Also framing seems to be a little easier, but that might be my imagination.
The lens is partly hidden in the body so you have to convince yourself to hold the camera with the left hand under the thin lens to hold it steadily.

In the field

Like I said, no scientific testing here. It’s a report of my experiences with the three cameras during a weekend. The test setting was simple and realworldish: I packed all three with enough SD-cards in a Crumpler bag and off I went to the Saturday family gathering. Which camera is the most spontaneous, the most comfortable one and which one would eventually provide me with the best results?
In short: All three have great IQ. They smash even expensive compact cameras like Panasonic LX3/Leica D-Lux 4, Canon S90 or G11 in terms of detail and ISO-performance. Add the ability to produce a shallow DOF and you’ll have my clear vote: forget compact cameras, if you can afford it to not putting your camera in your pocket.

Not one of the three cameras is a racing champion. They can all miss the right moment because of slower AF (compared to DSLRs) or small start-up or slow anything… Everybody knows by now, that the X1 has the slowest AF-speed. Sony and Olympus are about the same here. Their AF is not up to DSLR standards, but it’s ok. The Sony has for my ears the loudest shutter noise, which really annoys me from time to time. One quality all three cameras share, is their inconspicuousness. Then the Sony makes “kawumm” and everybody looks. The X1 is a bliss in this discipline. It’s a silent “click” and nodody hears it. The E-PL1 is somewhere in the middle, but more on the side of the Sony.

In terms of the body and the interface I think it’s clear by now that I prefer the X1 except for its slow, sometimes hunting AF.

IQ

Reminder: I can’t give you a final verdict about the IQ of the Sony. Lightroom – my preferred RAW-editor – doesn’t support its files yet and the bundeled Sony software or Bibble are all so slow that I deny to use them. So this is sort of unfair, since I show you out-of-camera JPGs with some postprocessing from the Sony and converted RAW-files from the others. Sorry for that.

You might have heard in other reviews, that the E-PL1 and its sisters (E-P1 & E-P2) share one of the best JPG-engines ever seen. And since the Olympus Pen cameras use a low anti aliasing filter, they are able to produce a lot of sharpness. All this is true. Pictures out of the E-PL1 – be it JPG or RAW – are punchy and tacksharp (also thanks to the Panasonic 20/1.7). The downside is noise. Since the sensor is sharp, you also see noise earlier than you would like. If you only shoot JPGs, it won’t bother you, since in-camera noise reduction works very good. It works even better than in the E-P1, E-P2 and the Panasonic GF1.

In short: The E-PL1 delivers sharp, brilliant pictures. You will love them. And whatever lesn you use, be it a new Olympus lens or a 60 year ols Leica lens – they are all stabilized by in-camera Image stabilization. Add a very accurate exposure meter and you’ll have a great little camera in your hand.

100% sample of a potrait of my wife: E-PL1 with Panasonic 20/1.7 – from RAW in Lightroom 3 (click on the image to enlarge):

The Sony delivers (I’m talking about JPGs) sharp images with good detail. Tune up sharpness to +2 and it still might need some sharpening in PP. I leave sharpness at +1 and do the final sharpening later in PP, because I get a more natural look. The 18-55 is ok but by far not great. Distortion is crucial (shoot the water-hotizon line at 18mm from the beach and you’ll know that Earth is a ball), macro is pretty good, 18-55 (which gives a 27-82,5mm in 35mm) is useful, but with f3.5-5.6 it’s slow. Good news about noise: ISO 800 is great, 1.600 is good, even 3.200 is useable, if necessary. Sharpness is good (with an other lens supposedly better), but not on the level of the E-PL1 & Panny 20/1.7 combo. You can see that comparing fine structures and small detail as in wrinkles or fine fabrics.
If you use the Nex with the creative mode portrait or vivid you’ll get nice out-of-camera JPGs, ready for PP.
Unfortunately the Sony has no in-camera image stabilization. Maybe the next Nex will have it.
The exposure meter is ready for “normal” challenges, but I found mayself constantly dialing in some exposure compensation.
As already mentioned, what’s real fun about the Sony is the tilting LCD-screen that let’s you shoot unusual perspectives.

Similar portrait of Mrs. Mumsu: Sony Nex-3 with Sony E 18-55/3.5-5.6 OSS – JPG with PP in Lightroom 3 (click on the image to enlarge to 100% sample).

The Leica X1 provides you with beautiful, carefully rendered images with lot’s of detail and a natural look. If you only do JPGs and no PP, you’ll end up with rather conservative pictures in terms of contrast and saturation. Also the detail becomes only visible in RAW-images. You should definitely use RAW. Since a Lightroom license is bundeled with the camera (I heard it will be LR3 from the end of July on), you’ll have one of the best Raw-converters to play with your photographs (and you save about 300 Euros, which makes the X1 a little less expensive). If there is one word describing the pictures you get from the X1, it’s “brilliant” (given you do a little PP).

There is a different approach to image stabilization with the Leica. It takes two shots and makes one, presumably, sharp out of them. I didn’t care about that during my testing, so I can’t really comment on this feature.
When it comes to noise, the Sony and the Leica are about the same: Up to ISO 800 no problem, up to ISO 1.600 pretty good, at ISO 3.200 usable if necessary.
The exposure meter works pretty reliably, though you need to dial in a little exposure compensation form time to time.

100% sample from the Leica X1, from RAW in Lightroom 3 (click on the image to enlarge to 100% view):

More 100% samples (click on the image to enlarge to 100%)

Sony Nex-3:

Olympus E-PL1:

Leica X1:

Sony Nex-3:

Olympus E-PL1:

Leica X1:

In short: The pros and the cons of each camera:

Sony Nex-3

Cool:

• A lot of camera for the money
• solidly built
• APS-C sensor
• very good IQ even at higher ISOs
• technological gimmicks (automatic panorama, dynamic range optimizer etc.)
• Tilting high-res screen
• Adapters allow you to use lenses from different brands on the Sony E-mount (MF only)

Not cool:

• loud shutter noise
• deep menu structure and sometimes slow operation
• no electronic viewfinder available
• small original lens selection (there’ll come more)

Olympus E-PL1

Cool:

• a lot of camera for the money
• great sharpness
• in-camera IS
• Cool “Art”-filters for all, who like to shoot JPGs
• Great out-of-camera JPGs with great noise-reduction
• Reliable exposure metering
• Adapters allow you to use lenses from different brands on the M4/3 bayonet (MF only)
• very good electronic viewfinder (accessory)

Not cool:

• smaller sensor
• stronger noise
• only buttons, no wheels (you can change that easily by buying an E-P1 or E-P2 or a Panasonic G-camera – they all come with at least one wheel on the back)
• low-res screen
• You’ve got to pay for the electronic viewfinder

Leica X1

Cool:

• Lots of sharpness, brilliance and details (at least in RAW)
• great user interface
• APS-C-sensor
• low noise
• extremly silent and calm shutter
• bright optical viewfinder (accessory)

Not cool:

• expensive
• slow AF
• optical viewfinder expensive
• no interchangable lenses
• low-res screen

The final word

Which is the perfect Smacc? Not one of them. But given my very personal photographic style I’d choose the Leica X1 for its IQ and its user interface, if I could afford it. Of course I’d like to see a much faster AF, interchangable, faster lenses. But I can live with 35mm only too and the fast user interface makes up a little bit for the slow AF.
The Sony is together with the E-PL1 the second choice for me - right now. As soon as there are faster high-quality lenses for the Sony I’d predict it to belong to the winners in the Smacc universe. As far as Micro Four Thirds goes, it’s amazing what a great IQ they get out of those sensors right now. As mentioned earlier I hope to get a chance to try out a Panasonic G2 soon. It comes with wheels, a great viewfinder, a swivel touchscreen and much more.

More samples: Click here and here!

Epilogue: For all of you who like panoramas, here is one from the Sony Nex-3, which was done automatically (click for larger view):