When I published my post regarding my full frame, Sony A7 camera versus the Olympus OMD E-M1 (a cropped sensor, m43 camera), I knew it would gain some traction, but I didn't realize how much of a response it would elicit. Many have been asking me follow up questions like what I prefer and if I could only buy one which one would I get. While the quick answer is the Olympus OMD E-M1, I believe this requires a qualified response since I have been gearing my business towards more studio and portrait work with off camera lighting.
Let's get the technical stuff out of the way first. The Olympus OMD and other micro four thirds cameras have a crop factor of 2. Let's assume I am using a Canon 5D Mark II (a full frame camera I had used this past weekend) with a 50mm prime lens. If I decide to mount a Canon lens on my OMD, the field of view will change to ~100mm. The crop factor also applies to the depth of field (not light gathering potential). While you will hear a lot of people saying that the strength of full frame cameras is being able to capture an image with a shallow depth of field, I say the strength of m43 cameras is the fact that it has such a great depth of field. Imagine shooting at f/2 on a m43, that's equal to a depth of field similar to f/4 on a full frame camera.
When shooting groups this extra depth of field truly comes in handy. Not only will I be able to shoot at a lower aperture and still ensure that all people are sharp and in focus, I can as a result bump down my ISO for a cleaner image and/or raise the shutter speed to prevent shutter shock/motion blur. This becomes especially helpful in low light conditions like events and or weddings.
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| A studio headshot taken with the OMD E-M1 - Oly 75mm @ f/5.6 |
When shooting groups this extra depth of field truly comes in handy. Not only will I be able to shoot at a lower aperture and still ensure that all people are sharp and in focus, I can as a result bump down my ISO for a cleaner image and/or raise the shutter speed to prevent shutter shock/motion blur. This becomes especially helpful in low light conditions like events and or weddings.
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| While not really a group shot, the extra depth of field I got when shooting at f/1.4 with the Panasonic 25mm and OMD really helped bring context to this image. |
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| This is another shot taken from the Rise of the Jack O Lanterns at the Descanso Gardens. Both shots were taken at ISO 800 below 1/30th of a second (hand held). |
