The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

m4/3rds today! Wanna share?

pophoto

New member
Hey Guys,

I'm asking if you all could help chime in.

Firstly there's a sharp rise in the mirrorless market, with power houses like Sony and Fuji taking a lot of center-stage, what say you of m4/3?

What are the recommended lenses in different groups and why?
Wide Angle, Normal, Telephoto primes and zooms.
(For both use on Olympus and Panasonic bodies.)

Where are 4/3 lenses today, they seem to exude in quality being unmatched for fast lenses, do they still make sense for use on m4/3?

I started a few threads lately because I got fed up with the mirrorless market, with its marketing and current product-line. It's not helpful to add why here, but it helped me conjure up confidence to try something I didn't even consider in the past and purchased my first m4/3 camera and lenses.

I got the Panasonic Lumix GX1 with the following lenses:
Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 DG
Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 12mm f/2.0
Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f/1.8


I come from a DSLR background and love shooting primes, so while IQ can never be compared directly, because pricing isn't even close. However, what m4/3 offers to me is a light weight compact system. Also good performance with a complete line-up of quality AF lenses for a good price. I doubt this can be done on other systems if any!

I’m sorry, but I am one of those guilty of thinking that m4/3rds used to be toy system, not to be taken seriously and feverishly trying too hard, like a small pup trying to take on bigger dog in a fight it’s not interested in. Yes, I seriously felt that way, but today I wanted to say is that m4/3 still has a lot of potential. It was a new system those few years back now, and it’s matured ahead of Sony NEX system which is still relatively new and Fuji.

I feel its files, while still lacking the depth of large sensors, there’s still leeway to the files, that for certain maximum size and display, you can most definitely be happy that it came from what is a serious system. Shooting RAW is a must and processing a given!
It is however, lacking a pro system, that has sufficient memory buffer size, and AF-C processing to make it a PRO system, hence there is still no PRO system available today. There is slowly a build-up of Flash systems coming from the Olympus side, but Panasonic should seriously be ashamed of themselves. :)
No superfast telephoto that were available from 4/3rds systems of yesterday, but anything that hints at the PRO side of things unfortunately come at a PRICE, no really, I’m talking about a price tag.

So all things being good, it’s not a cheap system, but rather an inexpensive system.
A system you can be confident you can bring about almost anywhere. A system you don’t have to be afraid of using. A system you can tell your wife you just bought and yes she’ll “bat an eyelid” but you won’t lose sleep over.

While there’s certainly competition, and I think the closest thing to match it personally is the Sony NEX7 system. Sorry I own the 5n and the 5 before that, and surely the APS-C sensor is great and all, but that’s where it ends. The Nex7 and maybe its successor may leave m4/3 in the dust. Certainly the NEX lenses suck and too few in the offering. Legacy lenses are an option. I wanted a complete compact AF system, and I think I got it in m4/3 today. Because I live in today and I wanted to shoot something today not in the hopes for tomorrow. So this brings me to now, it’s affordable, good enough that I am satisfied and why on earth I ended up writing an essay on this.

Sure I am still in the honeymoon period of this system, but leave me be for now, but go ahead share your joy or frustration today with the system, I’m all ears.

Thanks for reading.
Po

PS. Olympus OM-D E-M5 on order! :p
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Firstly there's a sharp rise in the mirrorless market, with power houses like Sony and Fuji taking a lot of center-stage, what say you of m4/3?
Fuji taking the center stage of hype, perhaps?:D

The m4/3rds is the undisputed leader of the mirrorless area.

Sony do give a healthy competition.

If you use m4/3rds and NEX, a big thing is coming soon with respect to adapted lens usage. This is as big or even bigger than all the adapters for various lenses on the m4/3rds. I can not divulge more now.

There isn't a single system in the world that offers the use of super fast lenses as the m4/3rds system does.

Voigtlander Noktons 17/0.95, 25/0.95, a few adaptable 25/0.95 and a few adaptable 50/0.95 and the ability to nail the focus accurately with all is unmatched by anything. :toocool:
 

jonoslack

Active member
While there’s certainly competition, and I think the closest thing to match it personally is the Sony NEX7 system. Sorry I own the 5n and the 5 before that, and surely the APS-C sensor is great and all, but that’s where it ends. The Nex7 and maybe its successor may leave m4/3 in the dust. Certainly the NEX lenses suck and too few in the offering. Legacy lenses are an option. I wanted a complete compact AF system, and I think I got it in m4/3 today.
I thought the NEX7 was it, because of the sensor . . . but although I don't agree that the NEX lenses suck (I think they're quite good for what they are), they're rather large, and they don't focus particularly quickly (or configurable either). I remember the Ep3 as focusing much more quickly (I hope I won't be disappointed).

I'm not really interested in legacy lenses except as a side issue.

Because I live in today and I wanted to shoot something today not in the hopes for tomorrow. So this brings me to now, it’s affordable, good enough that I am satisfied and why on earth I ended up writing an essay on this.

Sure I am still in the honeymoon period of this system, but leave me be for now, but go ahead share your joy or frustration today with the system, I’m all ears.


PS. Olympus OM-D E-M5 on order! :p
Yes - I think it's becoming mature enough - and yes, I have an OMD on order as well - I think it's a shame they haven't put focus peaking on as an option though.
 

Tesselator

New member
Most of Sony's lenses for sure suck - no question there. But so do a lot of Lumix lenses - about half. Panasonic even had to build in-camera cheats to cover up just how much they do suck. :D Kind of a nifty cheat when ya think about it - but still a cheat. At least Oly, sony, and others didn't cheat. The price performance ratio of these new mirrorless system's lenses is pretty much totally in the mud when one compares them to the entry and mid-level DSLR line-ups. And it's just downright ridiculous when one brings adapted legacy lenses into the arena. So I've been all about legacy lenses so far with my µ4/3 system and I've been really happy as well as greatly rewarded, by doing that!

Marketing is always best ignored IMO. The very term "Marketing" is synonymous with BS in all the dictionaries I've ever looked in. :) So with me, on a personal level; I don't get agitated. What is slightly troublesome is when I come to a user forum only to find that there's a few people who actually believe it and like to stand right up and make an issue with anyone showing or attempting to show otherwise. That can be a little frustrating - but the marketing BS itself, nah... we should all already know by now that's little more than a dishonest attempt to generate sales. That it actually works is still surprising - even after so many years of watching it.

For me there's only a few things I'm interested in.

Sensor Size,
Pixel Density,
Bus speeds,
Form Factor (ergonomics + body features),
Function Specifications.

The first three tell me exactly what to expect in terms of noise suppression, DR, file handling and so forth. The last two tell me exactly what I'm going to have to do or put up with in order to actually meet those expectations. I can usually throw pretty much every other claim out the window and not be affected either way.
 
Top