I'm a real one man conversation over here...
But, something that people might find useful. I did calculations on a Gh3, EP5, EM-5, X-E1 and D7100 kit for price, weight, and volume (estimated).
There was a bit of unfairness in the GH3 vs EP5 vs EM5 as they use different zoom lenses (12-35mm Panny, 14-42mm Oly, and 12-50mm Oly). This alters price weight and volume by quite a bit. So just keep that in mind.
Kits are as follow:
GH3 w/ 12-35mm Panny, 12mm Oly, 17mm Oly, 45mm Oly, and 75mm Oly + battery and Grip
OM-D E-M5 w/ 12-50mm Oly, 12mm Oly, 17mm Oly, 45mm Oly, and 75mm Oly + battery and Grip
EP5 w/ 14-42mm Oly, 12mm Oly, 17mm Oly, 45mm Oly, and 75mm Oly + battery and VF4
X-E1 w/ 18-55mm, 35mm, 14mm, 60mm + battery and grip
D71000 w/ Sigma 17-70mm, Sigma 20mm f1.8, Nikkor 35mm f1.8 DX, Sigma 50mm f1.4, Nikkor 85mm f1.8
System | Price (USD) | Weight (in grams) | Volume (in cubic inches) |
GH3 | 5472 | 1526 | 109.01 |
OM-D E-M5 | 4243 | 1531 | 70.49 |
EP5 | 3894 | 1160 | 57.93 |
X-E1 | 3478 | 1267 | 73.325 |
D7100 | 3843 | 2715 | 181.94 |
So, price is a wash, basically. If you added another reasonable priced lens to the X-E1, you would be right up there with all the rest. You could, switch to cheaper 20mm and 50mm in the Nikon and save a decent amount. You could also buy less expensive primes for the M43 gear. I tried to base it on what I would most likely buy in the long run. This did not account for buying used or on sale, once again, it's basically a wash.
Weight, well, this is rather interesting. The EP5 is the obvious winner, but the X-E1 is a close second. If you added another prime, it would still be tied with the GH3 and OM-D. The OM-D is the only one with the grip's weight, so to be fair you should subtract 220g from it's weight. The Nikon, well, it's over 3 times the size of that E-P5 kit. Even if you gave it a different zoom, the Nikon doesn't fair much better.
Volume seems to be very close. None of the grips were calculated in the volume as I wasn't sure how to figure them into there. The X-E1 did lose some advantage here do to the size of the lenses. But, that is to be expected given it's APS-C instead of M43.
With any luck, I'll be visiting a camera store tomorrow. The OM-D, X-E1 and E-PL5/E-P3 will all hopefully get looked at. The E-PL5 and E-P3 just to get an idea of the rangfinderesque bodies from Oly.