Coming from 5D Mark III --> Olympus OM-D: First Impressions & Comments on DOF

Member said:

Vasyl Tsvirkunov wrote:

I've made a similar move but from a lesser 7D and I would concur that the noise performance of OM-D in practice is better than 7D even if there are graphs that show the opposite. First of all, OM-D noise appears less objectionable -- it is not the ugly digital noise but rather luminosity grain, and secondly, 7D has a nasty directional component to the noise. It does not show on regular photos but if you try to do HDR or pull in shadow you might find vertical banding. It was probably partially due to the dual ADC hack in 7D but I've seen similar complains about 5DMkII which does not have that hack.

About the only thing I am missing from 7D is "wider than wide" 8 mm fisheye. Rokinon 7.5 is nice but I want wider.

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That is a typical characteristic of the Canon sensors, the behavior to pulling shadows, whether the 550D, 60D, 7D or the 5D, I always learned to expose to the right so that I would never have to pull the shadows, and it worked very well for me, but the Sony & Nikon sensors are more tolerant for this sort of behavior for some reason.

herebefore said:

herebefore wrote:

It is So nice to see someone writing about DOF without the "jaundiced" eye that usually seems to demonstrate the limits of 4/3 instead of the benefits of 4/3.

I hope that adding the OMD to your arsenal of tools will add as much enjoyment to your photography as it has added to mine.

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Thanks, I am having a lot of fun with the OMD right now, and I can pull it up in crowded places without being self conscious or worrying about what others think of me.

I have updated the OMD photo in the post, I took a shot of my daughter in slightly better lighting, and in the same position as the 5D2 shot, so that the background distance is almost the same.


Canon 5D Mark II + Canon 50mm f/1.4 wide-open, lit with flash (check the catch lights in the eye)


Olympus OM-D + Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 wide-open, mix of available window light & tungsten (the mirror on the right was not in the 5D2 shot, I couldn't get the exact same angle).







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Dphotog said:

Dphotog wrote:

hands down FF should take the cake for super shallow dof. But have u seen images of the .95 lenses voigtlander anto couple other companies offer? Manual focus but still amazing take a look.

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I think what people forget is that DoF isn't a product of film or sensor size in itself but instead is a product of the decisions you make because of the recording medium size.

The OP writes that MFT can't match the DoF of a 50mm f1.4 on FF but the reason is that to match the FoV with MFT you'd need to use a 25mm f0.7. Good luck buying one and even if you did there could/would be slight differences in the images produced.

Anyone wanting wafer thin DoF from MFT can achieve it in a couple of ways... For example by using the same focal length wide aperture lenses you'd use on FF and changing your field of view. Use a 50mm f1.4 on MFT and maintain your camera to subject distance or even decrease it and you'll get thin DoF but with the trade off of having a much tighter framing. Or you can maintain your FoV by using a wider lens and use the widest aperture available, like the Voigtlander 25mm f0.95.

I have that lens and I also have a 5D and numerous fast primes and yet the thinnest DoF I can get is with my MFT and f0.95 because it'll focus much closer than my fast FF lenses will. I can also get lovely shallow DoF with my MFT and legacy 55mm f1.7 by using wider apertures and keeping my camera to subject distance relatively tight.

Granted there are compromises to be made if you want to achieve shallow DoF from MFT but you can still do it if you are willing to change your camera to subject distance and / or FoV.

Being a lover of environmental portraiture, I actually prefer the background in the second image -- it adds some context to the portrait, without being distracting.

By the way, your daughter is precious!

God Bless,

Greg

www.imagismphotos.com

www.mccroskery.zenfolio.com

www.pbase.com/daddyo

daddyo said:

daddyo wrote:

Being a lover of environmental portraiture, I actually prefer the background in the second image -- it adds some context to the portrait, without being distracting.

By the way, your daughter is precious!

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Thank you, I also like the 2nd one better, I wish she would let me arrange her clothes or comb her hair, but she never stays still.

Great read on your blog and nice pics too. I have the EM5 and love it too. When I got into photography a few years ago I thought I would work my way up to full-frame one day. But as m43 gets better, and I see more people coming from FF to mirror-less I am less inclined to think I need to. The lenses are great and the bodies keep getting better. I'm perfectly happy with where Olympus and Panasonic are going. With a medium-sized bag (Crumpler 5M) I can carry my em5 (+ epl1 if I like) and up to 4 or 5 lenses and be ready for any scenario - for traveling or just walking around town - and it never wears me out.

Thanks for the nice post.

mshafik said:

mshafik wrote:

I hope someone can benefit from my experiment.

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I did not see how someone can benefit from someone else's personal choices?? I tried to read you 'why you did' and did not make sense to me. I do not see your OMD and its kit to be a thing that you could carry everywhere, which is what you intended to buy.

Hi! Thanks for posting.
I think you have slight motion blur on the third shot, where you provide 1:1 crop. Oly 45mm can be even more sharp.





I agree about DOF. In many cases m4/3 DOF is thin enough and for more thin DOF you would give up portability. There are small camcorder bags with belt straps. OM-D with lens like Pana 25mm will fit, as well as one more lens of similar size and miscellaneous stuff like polarizer, lens pen and small lens hood. Wearing camera on the belt makes a big difference vs neck or shoulder. When you play catch up game with you daughter the bag won't hit you in the chest and you'll have more freedom in movement.





And you know that OM-D has more dynamic range than any Canon camera including 5DMkII-III? Now you need to take closer look at Olympus 75mm F1.8 lens

Helpful comparison, thanks! (I much prefer the OM-D shot, all of the face and most of the hair in focus...)

I'd like to know if anyone can answer, please, in order to get the same DOF in the 5D and the 50/1.4 shot as we see from the OM-D and the 25/1.4 shot, what would the 5D aperture need to be, please? f2.8? That is, if the OM-D x2 crop factor turns a 25mm lens into a 50mm equivalent, does it also therefore turn the f1.4 aperture into f2.8 equivalent? Thanks!

zxaar said:

zxaar wrote:

zxaar said:

mshafik wrote:

I hope someone can benefit from my experiment.

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I did not see how someone can benefit from someone else's personal choices?? I tried to read you 'why you did' and did not make sense to me. I do not see your OMD and its kit to be a thing that you could carry everywhere, which is what you intended to buy.

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I am sorry if I was not clear, what I meant by experiment is The Truth Bheind The Migration post, I have linked it in the first post. Of course if you only read the first impressions post, you will find no experiment, sorry for the confusion.

lester11 said:

lester11 wrote:

Helpful comparison, thanks! (I much prefer the OM-D shot, all of the face and most of the hair in focus...)

I'd like to know if anyone can answer, please, in order to get the same DOF in the 5D and the 50/1.4 shot as we see from the OM-D and the 25/1.4 shot, what would the 5D aperture need to be, please? f2.8? That is, if the OM-D x2 crop factor turns a 25mm lens into a 50mm equivalent, does it also therefore turn the f1.4 aperture into f2.8 equivalent? Thanks!

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I am not an expert in these sort of calculations, maybe someone can help?

But I think you're close enough, I happen to have a picture of my daughter, in the same place, taken with the 5D2 and the 50mm @ f/2.8 (but the camera to subject distance is slightly different), I was testing several apertures so I have a few. It looks to me similar to the OMD shot wide-open, DOF-wise.


Canon 5D Mark II + Canon 50mm f/1.4 @ f/2.8

Here are the other two shots for comparison:


Olympus OM-D + Panleica 25mm f/1.4 @ f/1.4


Canon 5D Mark II + Canon 50mm f/1.4 @ f/1.4

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http://betterfamilyphotos.com

Enjoyed reading both of your blog entries, especially enjoying your journey from a P&S to APS-C to FF and now settling into mFT. Very nicely presented and just a fun read. I've bookmarked it to check in again in the future.


I also noted you're from Egypt and respondents were from Mexico, Germany, Australia, Canada, England, the US and possibly Russia (Vasyl doesn't note his country of origin in his member info), making for a pretty eclectic group in this conversation. Felt like sitting around the wood stove in the local general store with a diverse group of friends - good stuff!

Keep us posted as you really dig into your E-M5's capabilities and add some new lenses (yes, we all know you will , my guess the 75mm f1.8 being next up ).

Nice blog, an interesting read.

That's so funny. I just made a similar decision. I was about to go with the D800 but because of the left focus issue I had with the bodies I received, I decided to look into the OM-D. In the end I thought the OM-D had good enough characteristics to take good pictures of my soon to arrive twins. Portability was key in my decision.

sderdiarian said:

sderdiarian wrote:

Enjoyed reading both of your blog entries, especially enjoying your journey from a P&S to APS-C to FF and now settling into mFT. Very nicely presented and just a fun read. I've bookmarked it to check in again in the future.

I also noted you're from Egypt and respondents were from Mexico, Germany, Australia, Canada, England, the US and possibly Russia (Vasyl doesn't note his country of origin in his member info), making for a pretty eclectic group in this conversation. Felt like sitting around the wood stove in the local general store with a diverse group of friends - good stuff!

Keep us posted as you really dig into your E-M5's capabilities and add some new lenses (yes, we all know you will , my guess the 75mm f1.8 being next up ).

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Well, that's humbling to hear *insert red-faced smiley here*, thanks, and yes, I'm very interested in the diversity of the discussion members, not only their nationalities, but working backgrounds as well. The members here on this forum are quite friendly.

I will keep posting about MFT of course, and I hope I never buy the 75 f/1.8, I don't want to start equipment collection once more, I hope to use the gear I have until it dies.

mshafik said:

mshafik wrote:

mshafik said:

sderdiarian wrote:

Enjoyed reading both of your blog entries, especially enjoying your journey from a P&S to APS-C to FF and now settling into mFT. Very nicely presented and just a fun read. I've bookmarked it to check in again in the future.

I also noted you're from Egypt and respondents were from Mexico, Germany, Australia, Canada, England, the US and possibly Russia (Vasyl doesn't note his country of origin in his member info), making for a pretty eclectic group in this conversation. Felt like sitting around the wood stove in the local general store with a diverse group of friends - good stuff!

Keep us posted as you really dig into your E-M5's capabilities and add some new lenses (yes, we all know you will , my guess the 75mm f1.8 being next up ).

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Well, that's humbling to hear *insert red-faced smiley here*, thanks, and yes, I'm very interested in the diversity of the discussion members, not only their nationalities, but working backgrounds as well.

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First of all: very nice and interesting read. I've bookmarked your post and i'm looking forward to seeing more pictures and reading more about your m43 experience.

Regarding the nationality: you'll find users from all around the world on dpr although the majority is British and American.

mshafik said:

The members here on this forum are quite friendly.

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wait until you accidentally mention one of the forum's hot topics ;-)

mshafik said:

I will keep posting about MFT of course, and I hope I never buy the 75 f/1.8, I don't want to start equipment collection once more, I hope to use the gear I have until it dies.

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Lol. i will ask you about new mFT lenses in 3 months ;-) . Make sure you never ever try the 75/1.8. because it is adictive ...

Sabine

lester11 said:

lester11 wrote:

Helpful comparison, thanks! (I much prefer the OM-D shot, all of the face and most of the hair in focus...)

I'd like to know if anyone can answer, please, in order to get the same DOF in the 5D and the 50/1.4 shot as we see from the OM-D and the 25/1.4 shot, what would the 5D aperture need to be, please? f2.8? That is, if the OM-D x2 crop factor turns a 25mm lens into a 50mm equivalent, does it also therefore turn the f1.4 aperture into f2.8 equivalent? Thanks!

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Yes -- 50mm f/2.8 on FF is equivalent to 25mm f/1.4 on mFT. The crop factor applies to both the focal length and the f-ratio.

mshafik said:

mshafik wrote:

OM-D + Olympus 45 1.8 wide-open

Well, this is probably my first post in the MFT forum, I have been a regular on all of the Canon forums (Powershot, xxxD, xxD and xD), I have recently decided to sell all my DSLR gear and buy into the OM-D and MFT lenses, for the full details of the story, here's why I did it .

I have had my OM-D for 5 days now, and I believe I can give my first impressions as a regular DSLR user, without too much talk, here they are.

http://betterfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/2013/01/olympus-om-d-first-impressions-comments.html


I hope someone can benefit from my experiment.

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http://betterfamilyphotos.com

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Great write up. I'm a FF shooter who plans to move to m4/3 as soon as subject tracking is a little better. This is exactly what I've been preaching for a while now. The two B&W shots of the kids at the end is the perfect example. The one with the FF camera is way too thin and looks bad. Actually it looks kinda creepy like out of a horror movie.This razor thin DOF can be applied well but only in very certain shots and circumstances. Publishers and clients don't like this look. The 2nd one looks much better, with still not quite enough DOF. At the same time because of the larger aperture used on the m4/3 image you are able to have a much faster shutter speed to keep things crisp... This also helps in flash usage because the flashes don't have to work as hard, resulting in faster recycle times. Some will say that you could have stopped down the FF camera and upped the ISO, but the reality is that most publishers don't want an image over iso 400 anyway.

As we start to move into long tele and ultra tele land, this gets bigger. Those of us that shoot long glass fight to get enough DOF, resulting in often needing to stop down a fair bit, especially if we're in close to the subject. I'd rather have a wider aperture and much faster shutter speed offered by m4/3. This is why I am excited about a new OMD that can use the fabulous 4/3 glass. The Oly 300/2.8 is much smaller than a FF 600/4, and I can shoot it at F5.6 instead of F11.