Columbusrat wrote:
I'm thinking of buying a micro 4/3 & lens for, mainly, macro photography (bugs ranging from a couple of mm to dragonflies). I need something as compact as possible to take on long walks, but less limited than my Olympus TG-6 (rubbish at anything other than macro, idiosyncratic with light levels, aberrations in certain light conditions, no full macro, choice of only 3 apertures...).
A local(ish) camera shop has suggested, for the body, either the Panasonic G7 or Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mkiii, and for the lens, Olympus 60mm macro or the Panasonic Leica 45mm macro.
More working distance with the 60mm, likely better light in some situations.
Thoughts please? I shoot hand-held, so image stabilisation is important. The Olympus body has 5-axis in-body image stabilisation, but I have no idea how this compares to other IS technology. I understand the bodies and lenses are interchangeable, but is there an advantage to having the same brand body and lens as they may have been designed to work best with each other?
Stabilization is excellent with modern - post EM-5 and EM-1 I bodies. I can shoot to 4 seconds handheld with the EM-1X (my most modern body). That said handholding and focus stacking is very difficult because you are likely moving to and fro as you shoot. I can do this if I am well braced like resting on my elbows. So, in some ways a single shot (talking handheld here) at a sufficient DOF is easier. But the new OM-1 is supposed to have smart algorithms that assist a photographer in handheld focus stacking.
The Focus Stacking function generally works only when the brand of camera and lens is the same. Focus bracketing would work cross-brands.
I shoot many Focus Stacked images of mosses with a tripod, and many single shot images of bees and butterflies handheld.
444 kb
Below is a photo from my TG-6 on a good day, using in-camera focus stacking, focal distance of 1-2cm. The bug was 2-3mm long. It would be good to be able to at least match that level of detail.
