Interchangable lens travel camera OMD? EOS M? Something else?

[nightfly]

As it won't be my primary camera, it might well come down to price. A D3300 or E-M5 kit is about half the price of an XT1 body currently.

 

[f16sunshine]

As it won't be my primary camera, it might well come down to price. A D3300 or E-M5 kit is about half the price of an XT1 body currently.

Since it won't be your primary I would recomend a Fuji XE2.
The Fuji 18-55 and 55-200 are fantastic Stabalized lenses. The XF f1.4/35mm is a unique gem that will remind you of a summilux 50mm.
The fuji's make great primary digital cameras and are excellent low cost back ups for primary film/RF shooters.
The XT1 is not required to enjoy fuji. I use first generation XE1 bodies and still absolutely enjoy and value them next to my film kit. IQ is perfect.

 

[FranZ]

For hiking I use the Fuji XT1 with the 18-135, giving me a weather resistant system with 28-200mm reach with a weight of just under a kilo.
Very nice .JPG's, a bit better than the allready good .JPG's of Oly.
I carry it in a Lowepro Toploader across my chest, nicely counter balancing my backpack.
This way I have my hands free, the camera is protected but ready to shoot in just a second or two.
The lens is rather big though and sometimes I bring the 28/f2 or the 35mm f1.4 along for size / weight and/or low light situations like photos in a restaurant.

The photo below shows this setup;
My wife and me whilst hiking the West-Highland way from Glasgow to Fort William, earlier this year:

 

[fireblade]

I wonder what the real world differences are in size and ease of use between a small DSLR like the Nikon and an M 4/3 like the Olympus

http://camerasize.com/compare/#509,289

As it won't be my primary camera, it might well come down to price. A D3300 or E-M5 kit is about half the price of an XT1 body currently.

Exactly.

 

[Mudman]

For hiking I use the Fuji XT1 with the 18-135, giving me a weather resistant system with 28-200mm reach with a weight of just under a kilo.
Very nice .JPG's, a bit better than the allready good .JPG's of Oly.
I carry it in a Lowepro Toploader across my chest, nicely counter balancing my backpack.
This way I have my hands free, the camera is protected but ready to shoot in just a second or two.
The lens is rather big though and sometimes I bring the 28/f2 or the 35mm f1.4 along for size / weight and/or low light situations like photos in a restaurant.

The photo below shows this setup;
My wife and me whilst hiking the West-Highland way from Glasgow to Fort William, earlier this year:

Off topic but Frans isn't the West Highland Way fun? I did it in 2013 with my Hasselblad, 2 film backs and my 80mm. Here's a shot from Inversnaid.

Regarding small cameras for hikes with big zooms, I've seen some great things from Olympus' new OM-D line. Definitely worth a look if you don't own any DSLR glass at the moment.

 

[majid]

The Fuji X series is probably the closest it gets in terms of user experience. The X-Pro1 is being heavily discounted in anticipation of the X-Pro2 release.

If you want utterly compact, have a look at the Sony RX100 series or the new Canon G9X. There is also the Panasonic LX100 as a half-way solution (available in Leica red-dot version, the D-LUX).

 

[doolittle]

Decide on your lens needs are and work backwards from there:

E.g. Safari and want 300mm plus - consider Nikon Afs300f4 VR (as smallest dslr lens with those specs). Need good AF? D7xxx series, not so worried about AF D3xxx series
Nikon too big? Panasonic 100-300mm on m43. AF important (e.g. Moving animals) Omd EM1. AF not so much? Omd EM10mk2

Not sure where to start? Head to http://www.cameralabs.com/ and also www.camerasize.com as mentioned and try the camera plus lens option.

 

[Orbiter]

Looks like lots of good options being suggested. I've been very happy with my em-1 with 12-40mm lens; I also usually carry it with old 50 mm macro and 40-150 kit lens from my old E-500, swap out the long zoom for a 50-200 mm zoom if weight isn't an issue. Either set up fits nicely into a Lowepro event messenger 150 along with charger and cord, batteries, etc. Very light, compact and capable set up. The camera is very fast handling, and there's no need to deal much with menus (kind of like Photoshop, most of us use ony few of the cameras capabilities on a regular basis). I like to shoot aperture priority with focus-peaking activated and can vary things like aperture (and therefore shutter speed) and exposure compensation without taking my eye from the finder. One of these days I might invest in one of the smaller micro-four-thirds zooms to shrink my travel set up a little more.

Anyway, lots of good options, great time to be a photographer.