M100 to M50? Worth upgrade?

Mike_57 wrote:

Hi there,

I am new to photography and know my basics and own the M100 with several lenses (kit 15-45, 11-22, prime 22mm and 18-150mm) and am wondering if if worth upgrading to M50?

The two major differences between your M100 and the M50 are the hotshoe and the EVF. They share the same sensor, so they should be equally sharp with the same lenses. The hotshoe allows you to use a powerful flashgun, bouncing the light off the ceiling or walls, but that kills the spontaneity of the session. (You didn't say how old your daughter is, or whether these were portrait sessions or attempts to picture her at play or what.) The EVF can help with precise framing, but it can give a helicopter or dad's eye perspective if you're not careful. Using the flip screen of either camera can bring it down to her eye level, giving a much more inclusive perspective.

I am mainly shooting my daughter with the 22mm indoor low light and not satisfied with the IQ. Somehow I don't manage to have a sharp image without any noise.

This is difficult if you want to include the environment. A fast aperture lens focussed on her eyes will put most of the picture out of focus. Stopping down to get more of the picture in focus means flash or the risk of movement and/or noise from a high ISO setting. Like most people who have tried it, I do like the Deep Prime noise reduction of DxO PhotoLab, which seems to give at least a couple of stops increase in the usable upper limit to the ISO setting.

The only few clear images would be with the flash and pretty close from her. Any of you experience that as well? If anyone has tips to edit and remove the noise I would be happy. I am removing a bit of noise in Lightroom and also use Topaz Sharpen but somehow the result is not satisfying. The image is sharper but also too "smooth" as well.

So my question is is the M50 worth upgrading for better low light quality? Or is it going to be exactly the same? I am aware of the limitation of the 4k crop video and will still be happy with the 1080p and the viewfinder could be useful.

I am also tempted to buy the prime 32mm 1.4 with M50 for portrait pictures. Please let me know what you think and if it worth upgrading it or if I coul just get the 32mm lens only with my M100? (by trading the kit lens 15-45 and 18-150 since I don't really use them much).

Thanks!
Mike