Nifty Fifty DOF Comparison (Nikkor 50mm 1.4G and PL 25mm f1.4)

monodrift wrote:

For those curious of the differences of fast normal lenses on full-frame and m4/3, I took a few test shots today. I am far from a pixel peeper, and I felt dirty after taking these test shots :-). Keep in mind this is by no means a controlled or scientific comparison. I'll leave that stuff to the people who really care.

From my experience, the PL 25mm is much sharper than the 50mm 1.4G @ f1.4. The 50mm has more of a glow to pictures shot wide open. The Nikkor also suffers from more vignetting (which I actually don't mind). Lastly, I also find the bokeh quality of the 25 so be more pleasing in many situations. I really must commend Panasonic for their excellent work on the 25mm!

For many people (at least those represented on the internet), different formats seem to be regarded as an 'us vs. them' rivalry. So many people would like to have you believe that their preferred format is the end-all of photography and that you must be crazy to shoot with anything else. These claims, to any level headed person, are ridiculous.

I enjoy both m4/3 and full frame immensely, and after using both side-by-side for a month, its easy to see the pros and cons of each. I love m4/3 because of its size, ease of use, weight, and style (the OMD is damn sexy)... and I love my new D600 for its ergonomics, speed, image quality, and DOF control. I will hopefully be keeping and using both for many years to come.

So hear me out: this thread is not intended to start any kind of format flame war (which is why I didn't mention formats in the title). It is intended for people like me who were (and are) curious about DOF differences between formats.