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Just sold my last m43 camera

pdk42

pdk42

Moderator
I let my Pen-F go at the end of last week. It's the first time I've not had an m43 camera since 2013. Back then, I ditched my old Canon DSLRs (5Dii and 40D) for an Olympus E-PL5 and then an E-M5. For the next ten years I was obsessed with small cameras. Now I'm running an S1R, which is probably the biggest FF mirrorless camera out there, and I'm feeling very comfortable with it all. I've come to realise that the difference in weight is not as big as I was making it out to be in my head, yet the difference in IQ that it brings is definitely of value for the sort of photography I'm doing.

Maybe I'll go back to something smaller in time (I'm not getting any younger), but for the moment I'm finding that the S1R is my go-to camera for any time I'm shooting landscapes (which is 90% of the time). I like it a lot.
 
After a hand injury to my right hand end of 2012, ring and middle finger bones shattered in 7 pieces each, I was unable to use D7000 + 2.8 zoom due too weight, let alone the 70-300 FF lens . Lot of vacation pictures of 2013 were blurred. So sold everything for a m43 system Lumix G6, 14-140, 20/1.7, 25/1.4 45/1.8, 14/2.5 + wide angle conversion. Then upgraded to G80 got PL12-60, PL15/1.7, Lumix 100-300 and GX80 as well. I was always shooting 3:2 of 16:9), only used 4:3 instead of using portrait. Got finally annoyed with high noise, too much dof, and image streching at 12mm in the corners. I only miss the Lumix 100-300ii. Sharp and nice. End of my 8 year m43 era. Had also 1st gen black limited edition Fuji X100 for a while

Went with Fuji XS10 in early 2021 tried and sold lots of primes and zooms, weight was also a big part of the equation. Settled for 14/2.8, 18/1.4, 33/1.4,90/2, 16-80 and 50-230. After upgrading to a used x-t4 I concluded that weight was no objection anymore. And with a nice Lumix winter deal early nov 2023 traded everything in, for my current set. Finally full frame again after my Nikon slr 35mm camera’s in the late 90s.
 
I had convinced myself that the smaller size of m4/3 was the most important thing when in fact IQ was more important for me, and a larger sized m4/3 camera simply wasn't a logical choice.

I traded in my larger m4/3 camera but 've kept the GX85 and only use it casually on walks with a pancake prime attached. All of the larger m4/3 lenses are sitting unused in a camera bag and probably should be sold off.
 
A short version is i'm not selling my m43 gear. And I've been expanding it some.

I use both full frame and m43, for photography and for video, with a S5IIx and a G9II. For video I use the G9II for backup and for handheld and with longer reach lenses. I try to play to the strengths of the two cameras. For photography the S5IIx is my serious camera, but I hate to carry full frame long lenses and I use the G9II for anything telephoto. Recently I've been working to find the best picture quality I can get from the G9II. My go-to m43 lenses are the 12-35, the 35-100, and the 100-300. That is I have 24mm to 600mm equivalent completely covered. (And I have a flock of other m43 lenses). Noise is the big issue with m43; it's the main thing that keeps m43 from being an overall good system, and the reason we like full frame so much. I mentioned in another thread I have gravitated to using DxO PureRAW as a Lightroom plugin to process my m43 photos. This is close to a miracle, and these photos have no noise, along with good detail. I'm sure DxO Photolab users know all about this, but the performance with m43 photos is more than I expected. Because of this I'm growing my m43 family a little.
 
CharlesH said:
Noise is the big issue with m43; it's the main thing that keeps m43 from being an overall good system, and the reason we like full frame so much. I mentioned in another thread I have gravitated to using DxO PureRAW as a Lightroom plugin to process my m43 photos. This is close to a miracle, and these photos have no noise, along with good detail. I'm sure DxO Photolab users know all about this, but the performance with m43 photos is more than I expected.
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Yes, DxO is good. PhotoLab is my processing software so it's built in. I have gone back to "fix" some older m4/3 photos and it does a great job.
I also like their ViewPoint and Filmpack add-ins. Filmpack makes it easy in post to do what you can do in-camera with LUTs. I particularly like the Fujifilm digital simulations.
 
Hi Paul,

Maybe I am wrong, but I hear a small sadness between your lines. I understand your decision and I think that for your kind of photography this is a logical step.

You need as many MP as possible and each additional nuance in dynamic range and postprocessing flexibility for your landscape shots is really helpful. I love your landscape shots and I think that L-Mount is the right thing for you.

There will never be one camera systems that fullfills the needs for all photographers. No matter which sensor size. Medium Format, Fullframe, APS-C, MFT or Smartphones. It is always a compromise you have to deal with.

As you know I used many different systems over the years/decades and I am in the process of streamlining everything. But L-Mount along with MFT and my 2 GR3 will stay, because I need all three systems for different use cases and none can replace the other at the moment.

The biggest competition for fullframe (no matter which brand) was in my case my Fuji X System.

But since the introduction of the Sigma i-series lenses with their build, quality, aperture ring, small size and image quality it becomes tougher each day for Fuji X to survive in my camera bags. Additionally the trend that all new Fuji X lenses are getting bigger and heavier, sometimes bigger than L-Mount lenses, makes it even harder for Fuji X.

Therefore for me and my use cases, there is no either or. For me it means both, MFT and L-Mount.
 
In my distance youth, all my cameras were 'FF' or 35mm as they were then called in the film era. My last film camera was the Minolta Dynax 7 - a camera that I loved. I took mainly landscape. I had briefly tried wildlife (mainly birds) back in the late 1980s, but soon realised that the lenses I could afford were very poor quality. The lenses I wanted were too large and expensive so I gave up on wildlife. However, around 20 years ago the digital revolution started to happen. I acquired a bridge digital camera, the Kodak P880, mainly to experiment with the format. Whilst the picture quality couldn't match my Minolta, the whole digital experience was transformational. I ended up using my Minolta less and less (and eventually sold it) and just used the Kodak.

Around 7 years ago, my Kodak was starting to die so I started to look for a replacement. The Kodak sensor size was 1/1.8 inch (9x7mm) so all cameras at that time had much larger sensors. I decided on m43, because it enabled me to re-try wildlife with reasonable affordable and sized lenses. I acquired the Panasonic G85 with kit 12-60 lens and an Olympus 75-300 for wildlife. In comparison to the Kodak, the G85 was a major step upwards and I've never felt m43 as being a small cropped sensor as it was a much larger sensor that I had been used to. However, the kit lens had some limitations and I wanted to explore the world of wide-angled photography a bit more. So just over a year ago, I was researching pro m43 wide angled lenses and was very close to buying the Olympus 8-25 f4. In the UK this was selling for just under £1000. Around the same time, Panasonic released the S5ii. This meant there were some incredibly good deals on the original S5, and for virtually the same price as the 8-25 I could get an S5 with 20-60 lens. I hadn't set out with the intention of acquiring a FF body, but Panasonic's pricing strategy meant it was too good a deal to miss. the 20-60 is probably not quite as good as the 8-25, and certainly not as wide - but it was wider than my 12-60 m43 lens. The overall quality of the images I am getting from my S5 is much better than my G85 - especially dynamic range, increased colour depth from using 14 bit, and the ability to get shallow DoF. Noise control is also better, but with modern AI Noise Reduction software I rarely find noise an issue with M43.

My original plan was to use the S5 for landscape and keep m43 for wildlife. Whilst my G85 works fine, I was looking to upgrade once there was a m43 camera with 25MP and PDAF. So in theory the G9ii is exactly what I want. I am not normally an early adopter and prefer to wait a year from a new release to buy a product once the early bugs have been resolved and the price comes down. I may still do that, however, there has been a recent trend in FF for some increasingly lightweight telephoto lenses. The Sigma 500 f5.6 is a bit of an eye opener as its not much heavier than the Olympus 300mm f4 (the next lens I was planning to acquire for m43). I feel that the camera market is eventually getting to the point that I wanted it to be in the late 1980s. It is quite possible, in a year's time, I decide to take the plunge and move to FF for all my photography so I may be announcing then that I have also just sold my last m43 camera.
 
I have been close to finishing with my micro 4/3 equipment but I am having doubts...

When I bought the S5IIx on Black Friday in November 2023, I thought about selling the Olympus Em1iii, and three lenses, but since OM has already released two versions of the OM1, the prices of the EM1iii have dropped quite a bit and I'm not going to get much for it.

So I tried it for family stuff, that is, photos and video of my 10-month-old daughter, mainly, and I am quite satisfied with the image quality it produces. Now that the brighter months are coming in Central Europe (from March to October) and it is easier to take photos with more light and less noise, I am going to continue testing the features that this little gem has (HHHR, Pro Capture, Prores video, timelapses, etc.).

I also use it with small 1.8 lenses and, next to the S1R, the Oly is a small camera for me. I also use it to take photos when I see something interesting from the car with a zoom (75-300mm) and many times when I go for a walk with my dog. Sometimes it's a good idea to have a camera that helps you use your best cameras less and that they do not lose much value... for things that aren't so planned.

Naturally I am fully satisfied with my FF Lumix cameras: the S1R, which I use mainly in the studio for portraits and events (sometimes landscapes too), and the S5IIx which I use for professional video, conveniently rigged and I am too lazy to disassemble the entire rig to take it out to take photos hahahaha Z04 Breakdance.gif

I'm starting to think that the Lumix G9ii is an excellent hybrid camera (the best M4/3 at the moment) that tempts me a lot Z04 Kaputtlachen
 
pdk42 said:
...For the next ten years I was obsessed with small cameras. Now I'm running an S1R, which is probably the biggest FF mirrorless camera out there, and I'm feeling very comfortable with it all. I've come to realise that the difference in weight is not as big as I was making it out to be in my head, yet the difference in IQ that it brings is definitely of value for the sort of photography I'm doing.
...
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I think the difference in weight can be very big, if you have reason to keep the weight as low as possible. For me it was travelling with small luggage and therefore MFT was a perfect system.

But many times it doesn't. In the last couple of years many things changed for me and weight isn't an issue anymore. I switched to L-Mount about three years ago and sold all of my MFT gear since than. My GX80, the 15mm/1.7, the 25mm/f1.8 and 45mm/1.8 was the last I had, and I think I should have keeped the GX80 and the 15mm. It was a nice combo, you always can take with you.

I sometimes thinkink of buying a GX80 with 15/1.7 again. I also think about a Sigma FP, Leica CL or Fuji X100 instead. But mostly I hope for a compact FF camera from Panasonic.
 
xaviergut said:
I'm starting to think that the Lumix G9ii is an excellent hybrid camera (the best M4/3 at the moment) that tempts me a lot
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Hi Xavier,

with a 10 month old kid, I would higly recommend that you try out the MFT Lumix GX9 with the Leica 15/1.7 plus either the very cheap Lumix 25/1.7 or the Leica 25/1.4 mk2 (not the mk1 version).

With a very young kid, you often have to be very close to the kid and the excellent 15/1.7 helps a lot to keep these moments in your memory forever. A smaller body like the GX9 will make it even easier and the 20MP sensor is really good and worth the difference to the 16 MP of the GX85.

Until my kids reached 4 or 5 years, I made 90% of the family/kids pictures with MFT and a Ricoh GR1/2/3 (APS-C sensor).

The Ricoh GR3 makes it even more easy than MFT because you hold the kid while it is doing it first steps and in the other hand is the Ricoh GR which you can easily operate with only one hand. You will get shots you would never have gotten with a "normal" camera. The current GR3 (28mm) has a 24MP APS-C sensor. It is a wolf in sheep's clothing.
 
Quentinquirelino said:
I sometimes thinkink of buying a GX80 with 15/1.7 again
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See my posting above. I would recommend the GX9 over the GX85. In Germany it is hard to find a GX9 new. My guess is that the reason is that we will see a successor of the GX9 this year. But this is pure speculation. I have no insider information.
 
dirk said:
I would higly recommend that you try out the MFT Lumix GX9 with the Leica 15/1.7
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Thank you, Dirk, for your advice. I was using the GX9 with the 15mm Leica for one year mainly for street photography, but I sold it and got the GR3.

But, at that time I was not really interested in video as I am now because of my little daughter, and I think the the GX9 is a much better camera for video than the GR3, so I am now thinking about getting that combo again Daumenhoch
 
dirk said:
See my posting above. I would recommend the GX9 over the GX85. In Germany it is hard to find a GX9 new. My guess is that the reason is that we will see a successor of the GX9 this year. But this is pure speculation. I have no insider information.
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Yes, of course the GX9 would be the better option. But, as you said, it's way harder to get in Germany compared to the GX80. And also the prices for used ones are quite high. A used GX9 is not much cheaper than a Leica TL.

Recently I checked used prices for a LX100ii or Leica D-Lux 7. You have to pay more than for brand new ones a couple of years ago. It's crazy. Basically all manufacturers stoped producing such compact models and now there is a crazy shortage. That's probably also one reason for the high demand for X100 and GRiii cameras. It's the most affordable new offering in that segment.
 
M43 is still my main system an I can't imagine to get rid of it completely. However I'm selling some lenses to justify keeping my S5ii.
 
My travel kit is the Panasonic GX9 with Panasonic 14/2.5 and Olympus 45/1.8. This fits inside a small bag with my headphones, notebook, etc. since the total volume is about 450 cubic cm and weight 720g. The quality and convenience are compelling.

The near equivalent would be to pack my Panasonic S5 with Lumix S 85/1.8 and 24/1.8. While the weight doubles to 1380g, the bigger issue is that the volume triples, so I'd require a much larger bag. With limited luggage on commuter EU flights and, that's a no go. If I was travelling for professional photography, obviously my priorities would be different. The enhanced quality, especially in low light, would compel me to use the S5.

Furthermore, I am often in the position of advising young people starting off in photography. Even at used prices, the Lumix S kit just mentioned costs €2160. An Olympus OM-D E-M10 MKII with Panasonic 14/2.5 and Olympus 45/:1.8 costs €610. Guess which kit I recommend?
 
Do not forget the usually very small safes in the hotel room. This was the reason why I started with MFT at all. With a Lumix GM5 and some lenses. Even small HongKong hotel rooms and their tiny safes were no problem with it.
 
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