June 2020: walking with Sony and Olympus
I recently got to go for a nice walk with some friends, and had two close friends along with me — an Olympus E M-1 with 12–40/2.8 PRO Lens, and a Sony A7ii with Leica M 50/1.4, via Fotodiox lens adapter. I was really curious to see how this microfourthirds camera/lens compared to a full-frame sensor with Leica glass!
These are two very different camera rigs by sensor-size, and by focus action — microfourthirds and full-frame, autofocus and manual focus. They are both professional grade cameras, though, and make great digital files. They came out relatively close to each other: late-2013 for the E M-1, and and mid-2015 for the A7ii.
Continuing through the woods, I saw an old fence post, and wanted to compare what the out-of-focus areas would look like with the apertures wide-open — 1.4 and 2.8 on the Leica, and 2.8 on the Olympus.
As expected, the combination of the larger sensor, and the faster aperture, each produced a more shallow depth-of-field than the microfourthirds sensor of the Olympus camera. How much that matters — or not — is pretty subjective, and up to the individual photographer.
Working with the manual focus lens on the Sony was pretty convenient. I know everyone is used to working with autofocus glass, but with focus peaking and screen maginification, manually focusing is really quick and easy!
These six images are all from the Leica/Sony combo…
As for the Olympus, I still do adore it. The only significant difference I see between the full-frame sensor and the MFT one, is the way depth-of-field behaves. The really shallow d.o.f. of the full-frame sensor IS nice, but Olympus does make faster glass, too, to give that look. The more compact size and weight of the Olympus is what has sold me on that system.
These six images are from the Olympus rig…
Ultimately, the cameras produce good files, and beyond that, it’s all subjective and personal. I like the Leica/Sony files, I like the Olympus files. :) Right now, I own an Olympus…but it would be fun to add the Sony to my kit, too. I mean, heck, what photographer doesn’t want “just one more camera/lens and then I’ll be happy”? :)
