Correct.

Things have improved since the Nex 7, but that doesn’t mean you’re wrong. Once you are able under expose by a stop, with no penalty in post when you push the shadows in post (based on equivalent ISOs), then what you have is more than sufficient for most scenarios. The Nex 7 was there.

The issue with Micro Four Thirds, for me, is actually the base ISO of 200. I took a lot of photos over Christmas, comparing my Olympus kit with my Ricoh GR. In the difficult winter light, having a (actual) base ISO of 100 proved to be a big bonus for the GR.

CaPi, In perfect light, the differences are marginal. However, a larger format will always deliver an expanded shooting envelope if we assume equivelent sensor technology is in play.

I dropped aps-c and went m43 and FF for that reason. In some scenario a FF is really useful but for me it's only a very small portion of the time.

I won't complain about improvement on small sensor since it mean smaller lighter lenses for me. I waited for m43 to be usable in iso 1600 and 3200 to move most of my investment in this system and the last generation of panasonic and olympus 16 and 20mpix sensors are doing it for me.

It's not as simple. If you are limited by required DoF (for example you need to have three people in focus) so you are at f/2.8 on m43, you would need ~f/4 on aps-c and f/5.6 on FF. In that case you would benefit from potentially better DR on larger sensor unless you also have to raise ISO because of aperture change. In that case they would be mostly equal.
If you have more than enough DoF as it is - larger sensor will be better. Also, it's much easier to make a f/5.6 lens than f/2.8 one plus there are no f/1.4 zooms for m43. But that's why I said majority and hardly.

"If you cannot get compelling results with one format, just switching to another will rarely help."

I see. That is why all sports photographers shoot with m43.

Man, wish the ignore list worked in comments section too... Well, have to in full manual.

"I see. That is why all sports photographers shoot with m43."

Actually, the IQ of m43 is perfectly fine for most sports photography and photojournalism, where critical IQ is rarely the primary concern. It's mostly about getting the shot, and delivering it to your employer before anyone else does.

So, if there was a m43 camera with the same features, performance and build quality as a D5 or a 1DX II, if the right lenses were available, and if the manufacturers offered the same kind of support as Canon and Nikon do, then I think many sports photographers would be happy to shoot with one.

Checat, I was talking about RAW image quality. JPEGs improved considerably but if you expose similarly, RAW qualities are very similar. Sensor development from NEX7 to A6300 is not a leap forward, but is natural development in technology.
It has been different in m43: From EM5 II to EM1 II, I see real development (sometimes up to 1.5 stops), and 16-20MP is not a bad increase.
I think Sony is putting too much effort to speed the readout and developing FF sensors. 2018 should be the year that we see some real improvement in APSC sensors.
Or have we come to the limit for APSC?

Wow, NX500 still top APS-C sensor? (and highest resolution to boot) Shame they pulled out...
Regarding progress - there was visible progress in every line of Samsung NX, from slow NX100 with 14MP to NX210 to NX300 to fast NX1/NX500 with 28MP, PDAF, 4k, etc. I imagine you could trace the advances for other manufacturers too (Fuji also went from slow lower res and useless video to faster higher res very decent video, for example).
Regarding breakthroughs - we are all waiting for usable global shutter (or fast enough electronic readout) so we can say goodbye to curtains, slow flash sync, rolling shutter in video (and stills), etc.

Dante, my point is not "APSC cannot catch up", my point is "m43 has improved but APSC stayed nearly the same". Of course APSC will improve further (I guess).
By the way I am not talking based on charts and number, I'm talking from my real experience and real pictures that I have actually taken.

@dante are you using the overall score to compare ? this include resolution in the comparison and some weighting on the numbers to be able to rank but instead compare the 3 main rating like the dr, noise etc and the em1 mkii is close to the recent aps-c while offering some advantages like better ibis, lighter shutter, smaller lenses etc. It may not be for everyone but the difference in real life is not what lots of people think it is.

A friend of mine shoot with a 7d mkii and he was very surprised how much more dr and lower noise at higher iso I got shooting side by side em1.2. My previous panasonic G85 was also better then the 7d mkii. When it's time to work on highlight and shadow the 7d mkii is not even close.

When I got the fuji xt-2 I had hope it would be a big difference between it and my G85 and ended up returning the fuji. Not that the fuji was bad but I wasn't getting much more while losing on other aspects.

@Revenant: Are you trying to say that you cannot get compelling results with m43 and sports photography for whatever reason? Because this is what I implied as well.

SylvainP, I used 7D Mark II as well. At ISO6400 and above 7D II was better than EM1 II but below EM1 II was better. AF-C on 7D II was slightly better (especially when there is low light) but I don't take birds or sports much in dusk or evening. At good light, EM1 II's AF is really very good. I sold 7D II and kept EM1 II.
Now I'm testing 6D II. EM1 II's AF-C with 12-100mm f4 Pro is looks slightly better than 6D II and 24-70mm f2.8 L II, on the other hand Canon combination can focus in near darkness (AF-S).

Close but no sigar. Als long as there is a cheap ass D3400 that almost tops the rankings and easily beats any m43 chock-full of noise reduction measures it shows physics cannot be beat. You can throw a lot of money at it, but you can also get a larger sensor for better IQ. I prefer the latter because it is more effective. When you are on a budget Nikon, Fujifilm and Pentax have some great offerings. For a little more you can now get a Full frame Sony A7.

We weren't talking about that. You can get horrible bodies and lame AF in mirrorless m43 and aps-c DSLR/mirrorless alike.

OK OK I give up :)