Thoughts from those using both m43 and Full Frame DSLRs - that certain something?

Possibly.

I don't know what you mean by 'edge' condition

The important word here is 'should'.  As stated, I often couldn't decide what made the difference.  Compared with the GH1 I find something intangeably special about many D700 images.

I think you're sugesting that at least some of the difference I was seeing was down to a different DOF.  But I often stop down the D700 for landscape DOF.  Especially as it can cope with higher ISOs.

Noise was never the issue, especially at base ISOs.  And I knew high ISOs would be relatively noisy on the GH1, as on my previous Oly E3, which I liked a lot.  I thought that with basically the same sensor I'd be happy with the GH1.

I've since wondered if the difference I found between the GH1 and the E3 was partly to do with the lenses.

I always shoot RAW plus jpeg, but soon stopped bothering with GH1 jpegs.  However, even processing RAW GH1 files in ADC I struggled to get the sort of colours I got from both D700 and E3.  Which could just have been my poor technique, of course.

When recently looking at the OMD I compared it with the very neat Panny G5, and found the Panny colours not to my liking.  But I'm seriously considering the OMD or EPL5.  I'm also wondering about the Sony Nex 6, though I'm wary of Sony products.  In my (limited) experience, confirmed by my techno-freak son, Sony tends to produce an excellent product but find ways to spoil it.

Sorry for rambling on.

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Rens
There are optimists and there are realists