Looking for suggestions

[daredevil123]

TS, it is more important to understand what you need the camera to do before deciding on the actual lens you are going to buy. And if you intend to capture northern lights, make sure you devote part of the budget to a good tripod (they are not that expensive). Even though some senior members here are right that better camera bodies matter more when capturing astro-photos. Modern camera bodies are all pretty much capable enough to capture most of what you are planning to do. This is captured with an older Fujifilm XT2 and a small manual focus lens.

 

[unhomie]

Thanks a lot to everyone who's contributed thus far. I've learnt so much already. I am in the process of firming up my purchases right now. I'll update again once it's all done.

I just have one last question regarding landscape photography and timelapses (specifically night shots, since day shots shouldn't be too much of a problem).

From what I understand, I'll obviously need a tripod and also a fast f1.X lens, right? I found that 7artisan has a 25mm f1.8 lens for under 100 bucks. Granted, that's a manual focus lens, but given that I'll be setting focus distance to infinity, and won't be touching the camera once everything has been set up, is that a cheap alternative to consider? I'm considering this lens as a second purchase, solely for landscape/timelapse with tripod photography. My first lens, a kit lens, will be adequate for everyday use, during my travels.

This is because other relatively wide angle fast prime lenses are considerably more expensive (starting at the 150+ to 200+).

 

[Octarine]

25mm in Olympus is not wide, it's rather 'normal view'. 25mm on APS-C is a bit wider than normal. Best you get your cam and kit lens first, then try out how wide you need the lens to be. Due to the different crop factors of your shortlisted Olympus and Sony cameras there is no clear answer in focal length

 

[unhomie]

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention. I'm getting an Olympus camera, so it's a micro four thirds. So the focal length charts I see online, do they relate to full-frame focal lengths? So any focal length on a M43, I'll have to multiply by 2 since M43 has a 2x crop factor, right?

Based on my searches thus far, it appears to be quite hard to find a cheap MFT f1.x lens with a focal length of <20mm. This might be a ridiculous question, but how big of a difference is f1.4 vs f2.8 for night-time landscapes/timelapses?

But yeah, I guess I'll go see how wide the current kit lens I'm getting is, and see if it's sufficiently wide or not. The only downside is that the kit lens only goes to f3.5, which, based on what I've read thus far, isn't wide enough to get good night photos without too high of an ISO setting.

 

[felixcat8888]

Ah, got it. It's good to know that I don't have to get so hung up over shutter count.

The camera budget was just arbitrarily set by me, to avoid spending too much on my first camera. The travel itinerary is more or less set right now. Haha.

The A6000 comes with a kit lens of 16-50mm f/3.5 - 5.6, while the Olympus comes with a 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3. I'll keep a look out for one with a longer end.

A6000 is a crop of 1.5x while the EM5II is 2x.

So the 16-50 becomes 24-75 and the 12-50 becomes 24-100.

 

[unhomie]

Just wanted to update anyone who's interested.

My final purchase totalled to a sweet $510.

E-M1 Body, condition 9/10, SC 18.5k, with like 8-9 batteries, and other misc goodies - $400
Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ii - $110

Very excited to play around with it, but first gonna spend a fair bit of time pouring through the E-M1 manual. Haha.

Thanks so much to everyone who's been entertaining my - admittedly - stupid questions!

 

[Octarine]

Congratulations. Now use the time before your travel to get familiar with the camera and all functions. Do try all shooting situations and see how it all works.