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 ?

Hi Andrew

Thanks for the thoughtful and well stated post.

I have noted the same limitations, and so now that I am starting birding I have made a few work arounds to move those limits a little bit.

I agree with you about the noise ISO tradeoff, and there's not much one can do about that except change cameras, and you and I already have the one of the two best M43 cameras for BIF, the other being the GH4.

Instead of that lovely 40-150F2.8, I purchased the FT 50-200 F2.83.5 and the 1.4x TC (and adapter). I got a decent price since they were used.

With the TC that gives me up to 280mm at F4.9, which means I need no longer carry the Panasonic 100-300 which is F6.3 at the long end, and also puts me close to that 300mm F4 which will appear some day soon.

I also purchased a Canon FD 200mm F2.8 and FDn 400mm F4.5 with 1.4x TC. I also have the Metabones speedbooster FD to M43, 0.71x.

So I now have at my disposal 140mm F2.0, 200mmF2.8, 280mm F3.2, 400mm F4.5 and 560mm F6.3 primes.  Even with the next round of lenses from Panasonic and Olympus, there won't be anything this fast. On the negative side, these are all manual focus, and benefit from stopping down half a stop or a full stop.

I expect that there are some better choices with the Canon EF series lenses and the the electronic EF to M43 speedboosters.