WhatBabyWants wrote:
My rather useless 2 cents in this deep and tangled discussion of sensor size, pixel density, physics and DOF:
There is more than one way to define quality. Yes, it can very well be the above things. I have no doubt all the statements about "the glass" are true.
Consider:
I have an Oly Em-10 mk3. I love to hold it. It is the silver version and it is beautiful. I have the kit pancake lens and the 30 mm macro. Lightweight but not too lightweight. Shooting in Auto mode is designed to embarrass you. The strident, poke in the eye reds that must be adjusted every time you switch back into auto mode (using a slider sidebar on the screen, not a color profile choice --designed by idiots) is more than annoying.
I have the Canon M50 with the two kit lenses. It's completely black, fairly comfortable to hold, feels cheap down to the bone. Even to the flip screen feels chinzy. I find it annoying to use and sometimes impossible to make it focus where I adamantly tell it to focus. (user error and lack of patience for sure)
I am a sucky photographer. I really am. But it is fun. It's fun to hold the Oly and goof around with it. It is not overly fun to shoot with the Cannon M50, but enjoyable when I get going.
However
When I look a what comes out of each camera, I generally find I like the Canon photos better. There is an intangible quality to them that I really, really hate to admit I prefer. They are more... something. Appealing? Deeper? Can't find the word, but the pictures have a different quality to them that makes my hilariously poor photography look 'different," in a positive way. Something that has little to do with the math of pixels and the physics of it all.
In my highly unscientific tests, I am shooting equally crap pictures with equally crap kit lenses, but the resulting crap is not completely equal. I don't know why, but I don't think it's sensor size.
So when considering the 'quality' question, also consider your answer might be qualitative rather than quantitative.
Would love to hear what you decide.
I used M sometime ago, and totally agree with what you said, the Canon Cameras have some appealing colour palette that modern MFT cameras cannot compare with.
However, if you have the occasion, try use the older MFT bodies, like the E-PL1 or even the DSLR era models, you might think otherwise.