M43 Musings

Andrew Ellis wrote:

Before I start, let me say that I love M4/3, (should do, I've invested enough in it), but I also love my full frame DSLR's.

I was out shooting birds the other day and had my OMD-EM1 along with the 40-150 F2.8 Pro, matching 1.4x Converter, my Panasonic 100-300 OIS F3.5-5.6 and my Nikon 300mm F4 AFS, with a dumb M43 adapter (so manual focus).

What I found, is what I expected. M4/3 is delightfully portable, very quiet (compared to most DLR's), and with the upcoming Olympus 300mm F4 and Panasonic 100-400 F4-6.3, will no doubt be getting some excellent long lenses that are "relatively" fast (well at least in the case of the Olympus). However, he's the rub, I'm in the UK, so that's dim dark winter days (even at midday), and even when the sun does make a brief appearance, you are typically in the ISO3200-6400 bracket to get shutter speeds up to anything like what's needed to freeze small bird movement (typically around 1/180-1/250 as a minimum - faster is better).

So, whilst M4/3 has some excellent bodies capable of brilliant general photography, and some stunning lenses (with more to come), for me at least, here in the UK, for wildlife, the high ISO performance simply just doesn't cut it yet. Up to ISO1600 and a bit of NR in post, the images look pretty good, but fall off really quickly at ISO3200-6400, with fine feather detail smudged, even with in camera noise reduction set to off. So, I would personally trade more MP (and stay at 16mp) for a stop to a stop and a half better ISO performance.

As a comparison (and I know it's not a fair comparison), my Nikon D750 with a Tamron 150-600 F4-6.3, regularly shoots up to ISO 6400 and even 12,800, and with a bit of NR looks absolutely brilliant and even more so if down sampled to the EM1 size.

It doesn't of course doesn't mean I'm going to abandon M4/3, its too good in too many other theatres for that, but I do wish they could improve the ISO performance a tad (easier said than done with the size of the sensor - I know).

Anyone else feel the same, or just me ?

I have no experience on the Tamron 15-600, but according to DPR here, it would not be an ideal lenses from 150mm onward and have to stop down to f/8 for best result. Would it really deliver the quality satisfying your need? I would buy your points if faster and sharper lens (but would be huge for handheld in FF land) be used? If DPR is correct, I would keep 150 at f/2.8 @3200 on M43 than 150 at f/8 @ 25600 on FF. As an old school boy I always have reservation on whether these superzooms could really deliver the quality or just the reach + cost saving?

Might the forthcoming 300 and 100-400 be a M43 answer to your need but prepare for the size and cost.