Olympus OM-D E-M10 Review by Tony Northrup
Panasonic GX7 and GH3. Is there any ISO performance difference? (Soundimagesplus).
Panasonic GM1 review: Shooter’s Report Part III – going telephoto with a tiny camera, reader requests and final thoughts (Imaging Resource).
Olympus Stylus 1 tested at DigitalCameraReview.
Olympus 12-40mm lens tested at Focus Numerique.
Olympus 25mm f/1.8 lens review at ThePhoBlographer.
E-M10 hands-on at Engadget.
SP-100 hands-on at Engadget.
18 Responses
I enjoy Tony’s youtube channel, but I’ve been turned off a bit lately due to his negativity towards m4/3.
Good to see him giving it a try, but I wish he would be a bit more open minded. He seems to be intent on reproducing exactly what he gets with his Canon dslrs and when he finds it’s expensive or not possible, he’s dismissive.
Great video, a nice showcase for m43, very comprehensive and informed about mirrorless too, at least more educated than the majority of video reviews out there…well, except for a few things:
– I don’t intend to attract the resident FF trolls but… tiny sensor ? WHAT? so the G1X sensor is considered big on other websites because it’s a canon but m43 is super tiny all of a sudden ? nothing personal towards this reviewer, I’m just pointing out the double standard across some of these review sites.
– The nice thing about Oly cameras is that you’re not even limited to the 1 min shutter, since you have live time/bulb mode and can program the shutter behavior
– He compares the Oly 75 to the canon 85 ? how are they comparable ? the 75 is 150mm equiv…And either way, as he said earlier, you can adapt for cheap.
– DSLR’s having EVERY advantage over mirrorless(m43 particularly) ? Not on this earth, they don’t! The ONLY advantages of DSLRs are shallow DOF for portraits and AF tracking, that’s it. Shallow DOF is only a good thing for portraits, almost everything else requires deep DOF and even then, you can achieve shallow DOF with the right lenses (f0.95s, which have the benefit of higher SS). High ISO is irrelevant when you realize that normal human beings don’t look at images at 100% magnification and that every distribution medium for photography (screens & print) makes noise below ISO6400 totally irrelevant. AF-C/tracking is pretty much solved with on sensor PDAF and depth of Focus.
DSLRs have little to no advantage over m43, mainly because DSLRs are all uniform, unlike m43 which is modular : DSLRs are all one form factor, one design and one ergonomic approach. M43 can be any sort of system you like, you can turn a DSLR-esque camera like the EM1 into a wedding workhorse or add a pancake and turn it into a unobtrusive street machine, or even go P&S with a GM1, all with the same lenses.
– Lens variety ? There’s barely any focal length and lens type left for m43 to cover. There’s the extreme teles, EXTREME wides and tilt shift, that’s it. And he forgot his own advise, adapted lenses!
– With Oly flash system you can trigger and control many flash guns at the same time, no radio triggers needed, how’s that a limited flash system ? and if you’re gonna use radio triggers and get all strobist about it you might as well work on manual.
Otherwise a very good and explanatory review for newcomers. Glad to see m43 getting more exposure and screen time.
+1 to everything
Yeah I watched that clueless and poorly shot video by northup a few days ago… Now you see what Micro Four Thirds is up against in the USA 🙁
I´m at 10min of the Tony Northrup video and he does it really well, as far as I can see – he isn´t dismissive and goes into details of many camera functions.
What bugs me more are the samples of the “Phoblographer” – they are noisy and look digital and why is that? I looked at the exifs and this hipster cranked up the camera sharpness and saturation to an extend that it gives grainy images. My respect for these guys hits a new low…
But I like the Northrups – they are both lovely^^
Oh, I see why you are whiny. At the end of his video he points out pro and cons of mft in comparison to dslrs and concludes that mft is lighter and because of higher dof it´s easier to do landscapes and that he likes it. For portraits ff dslr cameras are a more economical choise because of smaller dof, more complete flash systems etc.
Well, isn´t he right or is he?
Last piece should have been:
Well, he is right, isn´t he or is he?^^
Tony is right, it’s just the fanboys in denial.
He’s also going to get his hands on the X-T1, so I’m looking forward to that.
I got one of his books. Very detailed.
It’s not fanboyism at all, he just doesn’t have the experience and complete knowledge about m43 system. m43 DOES have a reliable and quite good flash system, canon and nikon just have more extensive and wider 3rd party support. You can easily do studio work with m43, I’ve done it and it’s just as comfortable as a canikon setup, you can control many flash guns IN CAMERA from any Oly.Also the flash argument falls short again when you realize that if you had any idea about CONTROLLING illumination you would be using your flashes manually anyway, so all those canikon flash guns suddenly become available for m43.
As for portraits, again, he makes it sound as if portraiture is nearly impossible with m43, which is just crazy talk. People (trolls) who complain about m43’s DOF have never EVER tried to focus a f1.4, f1.2, f0.95 lens on m43 in their lives, it’s REALLY thin DOF and quite hard to nail focus without a good EVF, focus mag. or focus peaking. Thin DOF for portraits is EASILY and CHEAPLY achievable with m43, he even pointed it himself, you can adapt any lens to m43, see ? If the 75mm (which is not correspondent to a canon 85mm) is too expensive then just adapt a legacy lens and you’re done, you still don’t have shallow enough DOF ? put a speedbooster on it, bam ! you’re done.
m43 has the advantage of delivering both shallow and deep DOF whenever the user needs it, whereas bigger formats are STUCK with shallow DOF and are FORCED to choose slower SS or raising ISO if stepping down, eliminating any advantage of the bigger format.
I don’t understand how people can play the DOF argument with a straight face anymore.
Agree 100%. Tony is a DSLR guy and knows nothing about m43. It’s the type of guy that still believes only DSLR can take good pictures, which is a shame actually. And MrALLCRAP is that narrow minded guy that call everyone who disagree with him a fanboy. He hates m43 but still buy into the system and come here daily just for trolling. He loves Fuji but doesn’t have a single body and the 6D plus the pancake 40 is the best setup ever.
That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve even used M43 for multiple paid shoots, but there are limitations to The 43 sensor compared to larger ones. Nobody is saying it’s not possible to use M43 for anything (besides sports), you can, but you will get better results from a larger sensor every time.
Stop living in denial. It’s just facts.
The only thing M43 got going for itself is size, and they’re losing that advantage to Sony and Fuji. M43 “had” the advantage in street photography, but for ME, Fuji is slowly taking it away from them.
For ME and what I do, the X-T1 with the 27mm will be the only setup I need for my street photography. I actually just came in from shooting with my GX1, so I know what and why I use a certain camera. I’m not a fanboy like most of the posters here are. I use what I want and switch when I want. I know a cameras limitations and deal with them, not stay in denial and defend a brand name, aside from calling out some Olympus fanboy for harping on a Panasonic camera.
That being said, I like M43 because of size and portability, THATS IT.
I will switch to Fuji because of Size, Portablity and BETTER Image Quality.
If I’m doing paid work, I think the Fuji will handle it, if clients were satisfied with my M43 shots, I’m sure they’ll like my APS-C Pics, which means, I no longer have to shoot FF, unless I really have to, and in those cases, I can rent equipment.
Sorry to hurt feelings, I just don’t see M43 lasting more than 5 years from now. Not a the rate it’s going, paying a premium for such a small sensor. This isn’t 5 years ago, there’s competition now, and it shows.
M43 is losing.
Depends whether he distinguishes between APSC DSLRs and FF DSLRS
I saw the Stylus 1 today in stores, and I was taken a back that the EVF is actually even better than the EM-5’s one in terms of field of view, it seems to cover everything. It’s surprisingly good, I was knocked back, It’s almost like a lowest range OMD mini with no interchangeable lens support and a smaller sensor.
to video
he was bit unfair…he should just show the full m43 lens line up …many many options
Hi, Tony Northrup here, the guy from the review. I just want to say that I did respond to all of the comments directed towards me, but my comments disappeared.
I’ll just summarize by saying that this is our first of at least two reviews; we’re currently in Puerto Rico giving the E-M10 and several native M43 lenses a very thorough hammering, and so far, Chelsea and I absolutely love it. We did end up also bringing a Nikon D3300 to review, but honestly, neither of us are grabbing the DSLR because in comparison it seems clumsy and garish (the red color doesn’t help :).
I’m not sure why so many people thought my review was negative; to reiterate, we love the E-M10 system. We’re getting an E-M1 in for review soon, too.
Note, when comparing M43 lenses to full-frame DSLRs, be sure to apply the crop factor to both the focal length and the aperture to get a fair comparison of depth-of-field and light gathered (and thus a better sense of what your pictures will actually look like). Thus, the 45mm f/1.8 I’m currently using as a portrait lens is similar to a 90mm f/3.6, and only gives me about half the background blur I’m used to with my full-frame 85mm f/1.8. But I can fit the whole setup in the pocket of my cargo shorts, so it’s getting much more use. 🙂
http://www.four-thirds.org/en/microftmerit/merit2.html
Note to self – don’t worry about comparing these to full frame DSLRs, don’t bother applying the crop factor to the aperture, ignore this non-sense, don’t drink the Northrup Kool-Aid.
@Tony Northrup
http://www.microstockgroup.com/cameras-lenses/mirrorless-camera/ Mirrorless cameras being used for stock photography.
btw
advantages of Micro Four Thirds no need to chimp to check exposure/white balance/shadow highlight control better video, faster implementation of new technologies, more sharpness across the whole frame, better telecentricity of lenses, wider autofocus area, touch screens, tilt or removable EVFs with more information, better live view shooting experience, more accurate autofocus, more easier manual focusing, more black and white options,better in camera RAW editing (GH4), in camera panoramas, wider range of bodies to suit all needs…