The Primest of the Primes: Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 Mark II

Important Update: I tested this lens with the Panasonic GX7 and I must say that the autofocus improved significantly. It no longer hunts for focus, and it also snaps very quickly, just like the rest of my MFT lenses. So it's safe to conclude that the use of this lens with older body such as the E-PL6 or anything before that may cause slow autofocus speed.
 

Hello all! Sorry for the lack of posts but with so much travelling and a lot of work recently it's kinda difficult for me to make time to write here. I do appreciate all of you who regularly visit this blog.

My E-PL6 with the 20mm, surrounded by the other lenses that I usually attach to it.

Today I want to talk about the stuff of the legend: Panasonic Lumix 20mm f1.7 Mark II. It's the second generation of the lens that has achieved cult status in Micro Four Thirds world. Delivering a field of view equivalent to 40mm in full frame, it is one of the most versatile lens for street photography as well as general walk-around all purpose prime lens.

Mounted on the E-PL6.

I bought it as a substitute for three of my lenses: Olympus 17mm f2.8, Olympus 17mm f1.8, and Olympus 25mm f1.8. All three of these lenses are fantastic, but sometimes I just wish they are blended together as a single lens rather than three separate lenses. I prefer a lens with the compactness of 17mm f2.8, but with the field of view that could mimic both 17mm and 25mm, with a fast aperture of at least f1.8. Voila, this lens showed up on an online camera shop, and I took the plunge and bought it immediately.

The Good Stuff?

It's very compact and easy to carry around!

It's extremely sharp! Holy, parking, cow! I don't pixel peep too often on my images, but even looking at normal viewing zoom, this lens is noticeably sharper than most of the lenses in my collection. I didn't expect a lens of this size and price to outperform many of my lenses, but it did and it just blew my mind away!

Shoot it at f1.7 and it's very sharp, stop it down a bit to f1.8 and the sharpness will improve. To get even sharper result on the lens, stop it down to at least f2. F2.8 will give you the optimum center sharpness quality, and f4 or f5.6 will give you excellent sharpness all across the frame. Diffraction starts to kick in at f8 and above, so avoid those aperture except if you really must have sufficient depth of field. I rarely stop down this lens and f1.7 never really gives me any sharpness issue.

Speaking of image quality, this lens also has a very good contrast. It is able to deliver images with deeper tone and you can really notice it without even pixel peeping. It's also quite resistant to flare and works really well in most lighting scenarios to generate good images, provided that you are shooting with adequate proper techniques.

It's also small, compact, and as small as the 17mm f2.8. Combined with smaller Micro Four Thirds bodies like my E-PL6, it now fits perfectly into my short pants' large pocket. It will definitely fit into regular jacket pocket and most certainly small bags. This kind of tiny lens with high level of performance on a very small form factor like this is almost unheard of in other camera formats and mounts!

The Bad Stuff...

Obviously, as you may have heard in many other review, the autofocus of this lens is kind of slow in low light, especially when combined with previous generation of Micro Four Thirds bodies like my E-PL6. It's fast in good light though, and the trick with this lens is to really look for contrasty part of the frame and focus on that to get a lock-on in low light conditions.

There is some little audible noise when you are focusing the lens, but it's not as bad as the Olympus 17mm f2.8. So it's not as over-hyped as people had said. Maybe the first generation of this lens is louder, but I'm not sure because I've never tried the older version of this lens. There is also some rattle-snake sound coming out in the audio when you are doing video using this lens, and many had said that it's cross brand compatibility issue that happens when you use Oly body like my E-PL6 with Pana lens. However, it also happened with my Olympus 17mm f1.8, so I think it's the problem that should be associated with the body itself, not with the lens.

Some people also said that they see some banding appearing on their images when they shoot this lens on an Olympus body at high ISO(above 800). I shot mine a lot on E-PL6 at ISO 1600 and 3200, and I didn't find any problem with banding whatsoever, I just couldn't find it in my images. That could be the problem of the older version of this lens that got fixed with this version of the lens. Or maybe my eyes aren't simply not sensitive enough to notice it.

To Sum It Up

The sweet story of this lens doesn't come up perfectly fine all the time. The autofocus mainly got me a bit bummed a few times as I have to wait for the lens to hunt the focus back and forth a few times or even sometimes I have to re-focus the lens multiple times to get the correct lock-on focus. But besides that, this is the lens is focusing as fast as the others in good light.

Many people complained about 20mm being not wide enough as they are used to 17mm(35mm equivalent) field of view. It's true, there is a noticeable difference of field of view between 17mm and 20mm and it's a significant difference that could make or break a shot. I personally always found the 17mm to be too wide most of the time so the 20mm really solves that problem, but you may feel different about it. So make sure you try to get the feel of 20mm before you make your decision.

So, is this lens able to substitute those three lenses as I mentioned before? Partially, yes. My 17mm f2.8 is now packed in its original box and ready to be sold soon. My 17mm f1.8 and 25mm f1.8 hasn't been used for a month since I use this lens. But I'm not ready to sell those primes yet as both the 17mm and 25mm f1.8 are very fast when it comes to focus speed, and my 20mm will never be able to rival those lens. The speed difference will matter the most when it comes to street photography under less than ideal light and in that kind of environment, I will want to rely on either my 17mm or 25mm instead of 20mm; but for anything else that doesn't require fast focusing, the 20mm will always be my choice.

See some of my sample images taken with this lens:

This is the field of view of 20mm. It could mimic either 17mm or 25mm.

See those details in the meat, my goodness it's just so sharp!

It's not wide enough, but so is the regular 17mm.

An attempt to get a street photo using this lens. Luckily the light is good so it doesn't hunt focus.

It's very good for general purpose walk-around lens.

Works well enough in contrasty scene.

This is the 20mm working to mimic the 17mm's wideness.

This is the kind of image that I am after with this lens.

I use it in studio environment too, and I love how flexible it is!

Environmental portrait with this lens is fantastic!

I don't know why, but I tend to use this lens for food photo

Let me know if you see some banding in this image. This was shot at very high ISO.

This was also shot at a very high ISO, I didn't notice any banding here.

I hope this post will help you to determine whether the 20mm f1.7 Mark II is the right lens for you or not. Also consider the older version of this lens if you decide that 20mm is the right lens for you as it is cheaper than the Mark II version. Until next post, cheers and God bless you :)

Important Update: I successfully managed to get the banding issue to appear on my shots! Horay! It's actually happening only and only when you take a picture in within just a few seconds, just after you coupled this lens with the camera and turning it on right away right after the coupling. The first few seconds of the shots after I coupled this lens with the camera finally showed some bands. But when you keep this lens on the body for so long without changing lens, the banding issue disappears again, even if you quickly turn on the camera and shoot right away.

Dat Sharpness Doe: Olympus 75mm f1.8

I just got a sweet deal on a used Olympus 75mm f1.8 which I've been considering as a serious headshot/portrait lens. The focal length of this lens is quite useful to compress the picture and smash the whole thing to look more interesting and flattering especially when shooting a person's face and thus will help me achieve better portrait result.

When it comes to portrait, the ideal focal length is a mild telephoto focal length between 85mm and 200mm in full frame terms; this prime lens is the equivalent of 150mm full frame which sits right in the ideal focal length range. Coupled with a nerve-wrecking f1.8 aperture, this is ideal to get either low light performance or a super shallow depth of field.

The lens itself isn't lightweight; it is at least as heavy as my old Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 non VC but it is not as large. It is as big as my 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 lens though. For Micro Four Thirds standard, this is big. But for APS-C standard, this is just as big as a standard kit lens.

A warning when using a lens of this focal length: shutter speed matters! You have to get at least 1/200s without stabilization to make your picture sharp. With my E-PL6 in body stabilizer, I can shoot sharp at 1/60s but lower than that is pretty much hit and miss.

What's so special about this lens?

The sharpness is OFF THE CHARTS!!! Shoot wide open, and the picture is already sharp. Stop down to f2.8 and it will reveal the smallest detail possible from a picture. Stop down to f4 for it's maximum possible sharpness but even at f1.8 the sharpness is already crazy enough!

Talking about the bokeh, this lens will give the most bokeh for your money. It has a crazy shallow depth of field due to it's focal length(even in Micro Four Thirds environment) and you should treat this shallow depth of field carefully to your advantage. I find that shooting short range portrait using this lens will require me to stop down to f2.8 to get a person's facial feature sharp from the front of the head at least to the ears. F1.8 is a bit too unwieldy to use when shooting portrait, unless your subject is far away from you.

You can read full detail of the lens on so many different websites who did some lab tests for this lens, but for real world usage this is definitely an ultra sharp lens that you can use at large aperture with ease.

The build quality of this lens is also top notch! It's all metal and the focusing ring is very smooth and just nicely dampened a little bit. It doesn't come with a lens hood and if you care about lens flare or protecting your lens, you should find either the Olympus one or the cheap third party one.

People seemed to love talking about the "color rendering" of this lens so much. I don't get it, I don't find that it produces different looking colors when compared to the other lens shooting more or less the same scene. I don't seem to notice anything about the color anyway but let me assure you that the contrast level is at least top notch! I can notice the contrast level because I used to have a lens that doesn't have a good contrast when I was still shooting Canon.

What do I need to know before I buy this lens?

Be mindful, 150mm is not a general use focal length, you might not going to use this lens frequently for your photography. 150mm is neither long or short; it's definitely not a wildlife lens and it's not short enough to get environmental photo without stepping back very far from the subject. Think carefully before purchasing this baby because the price isn't cheap and you only get one focal length. If you are specifically looking for a portrait or a headshot lens, definitely this is the right one for you. If you are looking to shoot general photography stuff or even street photography, I don't really think this is the right lens. You will be better served with something more flexible such as the Panasonic 35-100mm f2.8, or the Olympus 45mm f1.8, or similar lens.

Also, one thing that bothers me is the amount of chromatic aberration produced by this lens. I don't know if mine is a defective one or if it's simply just the case with every 75mm f1.8. The chromatic aberration doesn't go away even at f4. I have to stop it down to f5.6 for the fringing to completely disappear which is kinda sucks. The good news is that the chromatic aberration is easily removable using Lightroom or similar software.

In summary

Buy this lens if you are doing portrait or low light mild telephoto stuff. Don't buy this lens if you are doing wildlife, it is not long enough. Also for street photography, the 45mm will be easier to wield than this lens unless you are doing specific thing with your photo that requires a longer focal length. If you want a more flexible lens, get the 35-100mm f2.8 or similar lens.

Here are some example of pictures that you can expect to get using this lens:

This was shot at f1.8. Very sharp! See that bokeh?

The compression makes everything look flat and pressed. Good for portrait stuff

See those individual hair? That's the sharpness level that you can expect from this lens.

Very useful at low light to get reasonable mild telephoto street photo.

Get closer to your subject than the 45mm f1.8.

Headshot using this lens gives a very flattering result!

I hope this post helps you to decide whether this lens is the right one for you or not. Thank you and God bless you :)

The Perfect Camera??

GX7 and E-PL6

I am really happy with my current camera gear with all the lenses and accessories; to me all of them combined enables me to shoot almost anything anytime anywhere. If I want to shoot low light and be invisible, I will pick my E-PL6 with an Oly 17mm f1.8 or 25mm f1.8. Or maybe I want to shoot high quality portrait of some people in an important event, I will use my GX7 with an Oly 45mm f1.8 and pickup the Oly FL600R flash as well.

Or maybe I'm on a holiday and I want to take tons of different style of pictures? I will bring my GX7 with the Pan 14-140mm. Wildlife and ultra long range photo? GX7 and 100-300mm. Interior and wide field architectural? E-PL6 and 7-14mm. Be as small as possible but still take great picture? E-PL6 and the 17mm f2.8.

In fact, I can carry them all in just one small messenger bag and still weight less than 3kg and be ready for anything with the E-PL6 wielding one of the utility lenses such as the 100-300mm or 7-14mm to cover the blind spot of the 14-140 on the GX7 on the daytime or the 45mm or 25mm at night to complement the 17mm on GX7 in low light.

Imaginary Camera

However, there is always some time when I get a little bit more imaginative with my thinking and I've been wondering if there's such a super camera that can do more than what both my GX7 and E-PL6 combined can do.

So I started the process of writing down what I like from my current cameras and what is still missing on them that could be added. If any company makes this, I will surely be a happy geek.

E-PL6 with Olympus 45mm f1.8, perfect for quick portrait and long range street photo.

So here it goes...

First, it has to be in the advanced compact rangefinder style, like a GX7: 

- built in EVF that doesn't add bulk like on the GX7,
- lots of manual controls with preferably dual assignable control dials and a separate dedicated ISO dial wheel with 1 stop increments,
- standard hotshoe,
- built in bounce-able pop-up flash like in the GX7,
- assignable custom program modes,
- swiveling screen like the GH4(not just tilt and flip, it's difficult to do video with it),
- generous grip with front-positioned shutter button access preferably similar to E-M1
- it must not be bigger than the GX7.
- and it must be able to accept external vertical grip option if I want to have extra battery or extra ergonomics.

My GX7 with 100-300mm lens, perfect for wildlife and ultra telephoto needs.

Then, the technology must also be good: 

- 16MP Micro Four Thirds sensor will be enough but with removed optical low pass and AA filter so I can get more sharpness and detail,
- wifi features as good as the GX7
- super control panel like in the E-PL6
- improved ISO performance,
- improved dynamic range,
- video quality as good as the GX7 (I don't mind the absence of mic and headphone input, I always do external audio anyway),
- I don't need 4K, 1920x1080 is good enough for me but the video resolution down-sampling process must be at least as good as my GX7,
- 5 axis in body stabilizer like E-M1,
- some degree of weather sealing,
- good tracking auto focus,
- 10fps mechanical shutter burst with at least 20 shot buffer RAW,
- metering and white balance as good as my E-PL6,
- color processing as good as my E-PL6,
- bold focus peaking colors and indicators,
- in camera RAW editing with lots of parameters to edit the image and save it to JPEG,
- and also built in white balance compensation.

Anyway

This camera doesn't exist yet, with the closest one being the GX7. If the GX7 have a better grip with front-located shutter button, a swiveling screen, an Olympus-like color, an Olympus-like white balance accuracy, in camera RAW editing/processing, 5 axis in body stabilizer even during video, a dedicated ISO wheel, and weather sealing, then it will become my perfect camera. I actually won't mind if it's not a Panasonic or Olympus; any brand will do as long as it is still compatible with all my lenses.

This is just a sort of imaginary perfect camera, it doesn't exist.....yet. Nevertheless, I am happy with my current setup of GX7 and E-PL6 and I am sensing that they will be used for quite a long time. That's all for this post, I hope you enjoy this post. Don't forget to follow me at plus.google.com/+GaryWiryawan. Cheers and God bless :)

Update: The newly announced Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II is getting closer to my idea of the perfect camera. We'll see how it turns out.

More Update: The newly announced Panasonic GX8 answers almost all of my requirements, better than the E-M5 Mark II for sure!

My Love of Prime Lenses

Before I start

In case some of you don't know what a prime lens is: Prime lens is a lens with fixed focal length, meaning that you can't zoom with that lens. Usually, a prime lens does have a somewhat large aperture such as f/2.8, f/2, f/1.8 or even f/0.95; prime lens also usually delivers much better image quality result when compared to standard zoom lens due to simpler optical design. Prime lens does perform better in low light because of the large aperture which lets in  more light; it is also capable of blurring the background much more compared to zoom lens.

This was shot with a 50mm f1.8 on Canon APS-C which is 80mm eq full frame.

Back...

...in the Canon days, I used my EF 35mm f2.0 so many times to photograph almost everything, anywhere, no matter how good or bad the light is. It's a lovely lens and it still is until today one of my most respected lens. Coupled with my crop APS-C Canon body, it becomes a 56mm f3.2 equivalent of full frame sensor. It is very close to a regular 50mm but with a slightly wider and slightly more forgiving depth of field while maintaining equivalent exposure of f2.0 on the crop body.

And this was shot with a 35mm f2.0 on Canon APS-C which is close to 50mm eq full frame

I shot only on that lens for 4 months at least before I switched back to zoom but I really learned so many things in just that 4 months thanks to that lens. It teaches me to compose properly without trying to zoom in and out to achieve my composition. If I happen to need wide angle or telephoto lens, I would abandon the shot and just get a different angle or object on that particular scene and focus on it; it is really unforgiving and I missed many of what I thought would be my keeper pictures.

Nevertheless, I am still very thankful that I spent a lot of time with the 35mm f2.0 although I missed some shots. When I move back to zoom lens, I suddenly understand that the relationship between foreground and background changes drastically when you zoom, thus you have to pick how you want your foreground and background relates to each other.

Talking further about zoom lens, a lot of beginners would just zoom out to 18mm and try to get everything in the frame for typical landscape shot but then I learned that a slight zoom in to 40mm would sometimes work better to get that far background to come closer toward our eyes with the already close foreground and thus making a more interesting shot. With the zoom lens however, I can pull back the focal length in tight spaces and zoom in the focal length to get maximum magnification on some scenarios and thus get more keeper shots. However, as time goes, I miss shooting with that 35mm f/2.0 again and I occasionally put that lens back to my 650D and have some fun.

I then also acquired a 22mm f/2.0 which is the kit lens on my EOS M which is a 35mm equivalent on full frame that I also love very much for the versatility as well as the wide angle-ish look that doesn't exaggerate the foreground too much.

My Olympus E-PL6 with fun little prime lenses.

Now... 

...that I am on Micro Four Thirds system, I naturally want to gravitate back toward that 22mm f/2.0 and 35mm f/2.0 feel and vibe on my crop body. Luckily, there are plenty of prime lens choices in the MFT system for so many different focal length and aperture.

This was shot with a 17mm f1.8 on GX7 Micro Four Thirds, which is 35mm eq full frame.

I now have 17mm f/1.8, 17mm f/2.8, 25mm f/1.8, and 45mm f/1.8; they all cover all the necessary focal lengths that I usually need. Those prime lenses, if coupled with my Olympus E-PL6, are very inconspicuous, so they are ideal for keeping the size of the camera down as well as some street photography work. The 17mm lenses are very good for general street photography stuffs, imitating the focal length behaviour of my Canon EF-M 22mm f/2.0 perfectly; the 17mm f/2.8 in particular is perfect to make my camera very close to pocketable. The 25mm lens is perfect for tighter street photography stuffs or as a short range portrait lens. The 45mm lens is superb for portrait and slight compression effect.

My E-PL6 with 25mm f/1.8, a superb camera/lens combination!

Practice your photography with a prime lens!

Now I am suggesting you to have at least one prime lens, in particular the one that can give you a 35mm or 50mm focal length equivalent on full frame; stick to that lens for at least two months and don't change your lens at all, and start to really work hard to get your pictures (the 35mm will be more forgiving than the 50mm in my opinion). You will be surprised by the results and you will start to understand more and more about photography techniques which in time will make you a better photographer. I can now imagine how a scene looked on my 25mm f1.8 or 17mm f1.8 easily so I know whether I can get the shot or not before I turn on the camera. I am still practicing that same skill with my 45mm now, it's quite difficult actually but hopefully I'll get there.

If you don't want to purchase a prime lens and you only have a zoom lens, or if you only have a compact camera with no way to change lens, I suggest you to try the same thing by setting the zoom on your camera to 35mm equivalent or 50mm equivalent and keep it on that zoom for a few months.

Now, let's go outside and shoot some nice pictures! Until next time, cheers and God bless :)

The One Lens to Rule Them All!

If I can only carry one camera and one lens with me (obviously with MFT you can carry 5 lenses and 2 bodies and you will still weight less than 2kg), it will be the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 on my GX7. It is the ultrazoom lens that can cover everything from moderate wide angle to moderate telephoto.

My beloved GX7 with the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6. That lens is always on my GX7 70% of the time.

As we all know with ultrazooms, they always lack the sharpness and contrast and often come with very slow aperture. Well this one eliminates the first two problems although it still has some quite slow aperture. I like it and I took so many incredible pictures with it!

Some things that I find very good in this lens are:

1. The image stabilization. Coming from Tamron 18-270mm and 70-300mm VC, the image stabilization in Tamron lenses are top notch! This lens, although doesn't stabilize as good as the Tamrons, is not bad at all; in fact I can zoom all the way to 140mm(280mm full frame) and have a blur free picture at 1/30 of a second!

2. The sharpenss. It is quite sharp at all focal length. At 14mm, stop down to f5.6 and behold a sharp wide angle picture; at 140mm, stop down to f8 and it will be very sharp.

3. Color and contrast. They are quite good in this lens, it doesn't degrade your image too much and is quite good for my needs.

4. The size and build quality. My goodness, coming from Tamron 18-270mm, that lens is gigantic! This lens is barely bigger than my Canon 18-55mm II! It is also has a nice build quality with smooth zoom and focusing ring(albeit MFT focus-by-wire style focus mechanism).

Some things that I don't like about this lens:

1. There's a strong shadow on the foreground when I use the built in GX7 flash together with this lens. It is because the lens is blocking the light path of the flash I suppose.

2. It's expensive! Fortunately, it is justified by the kind of image quality that you are getting from this superzoom lens. A Canon 18-200mm or Nikon 18-200mm won't give you the same sharpness of this lens.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: There have been a lot of people talking about "Shutter Shock" issue of this lens especially when combined with the GX7. Unfortunately, it is true and I also suffer from that thing :( . However, that problem only occurs when you are in the range of approximately 1/20 to 1/200 sec shutter speed in my case which unfortunately also is the range of shutter speed that I use most often during daytime with ISO 200. Try to avoid those shutter speeds or just switch on your Electronic Shutter. With the electronic shutter, it is as sharp as it should be. This shouldn't bother you too much if you don't pixel peep though :)

Here are some pictures that I took with this lens:

This photo of Shanghai's old and new is taken at 14mm. Not bad, eh?

The cliche tree picture with some sun flare! The flare is controlled very well and the chromatic aberration is very minimum.

Trying to capture the Shanghai Tower(2nd tallest building in the world) with 14mm from a close proximity is quite challenging but fun.

Trying to capture three tall skyscrapers together in one shot is even more challenging!

Long range daytime street photography is a breeze with this lens. 

The flexibility of the variable focal length without too much compromise is very handy especially during travel.

I admit I do a little Lightroom post processing, but I swear I didn't crank the contrast slider on this picture!

A very compressed street photo. The 140mm(280mm eq) focal length of this lens is quite far and thus compresses image very well.

Back to wide angle 14mm(28mm eq).

The lens isn't big on the GX7, it stays inconspicuous and thus enabling you to get this kind of shots.

Distortion is negligible, so it is safe to use for architectural shot like this.

It focuses as close as 1ft or 30cm even at 140mm, so you can have a semi macro performance on this lens. Sweet!!

I hope you enjoy this post. Cheers and God bless :)

Follow my Google+: plus.google.com/+GaryWiryawan for more photos!

Why Micro Four Thirds?!?!?

Why are you switching to Micro Four Thirds?? 

"Are you out of your mind?? That camera is so small, people won't take you seriously!! Don't you know that the sensor is smaller than APS-C?? I want you to take a picture of me with the big Canon instead, put that small camera down and start being serious!! Don't you know your small sensor has more noise compared to my Nikon even in low ISO?? You're gonna be left behind after the new 7D Mark II and D810 get released!!"

Those are what photography people said to us mirrorless shooters, especially Micro Four Thirds (MFT) shooters like me.

March 2013, everyone praise and worship Canon and Nikon as the legends of DSLR photography with cameras like 5D Mark II, D800, 7D or D7100. I was in a need to buy a camera that time and I didn't even understand a thing about photography; all I need that time is just a "nice, sturdy, semi-pro camera". Naturally, I want a camera with large megapixels and excellent image quality but without breaking the bank. I asked experienced photographers and they always suggest either a Canon or a Nikon DSLR. I have no clue at all why but those people are kind of respected in the world of photography so I naturally bought a Canon DSLR.

650D, EOS M, Tamron 18-270, Tokina 12-24, 22mm pancake and 35mm f2.0

When I held my 650D, I felt like I am a "real" photographer with a gigantic camera that makes loud shutter sound! Everyone then respected me as a photographer when I carry that camera and I gained the confidence of being a semi-pro. Good so far! I then started buying lenses, learned to shoot RAW, learned this and that, doing this and that, to the point where I think I am comfortable with my photography skill. From that day, I kept saying to myself: "One day I'm gonna upgrade to 5D Mark III and people will respect me even more!"

Fast forward few months ago, I got very frustrated carrying my cameras and lenses with me on trips. Bringing a single 650D with two lenses added so much weight to my carry on luggage. Not only that, I started noticing the pictures from the Canons, while they are sharp and contrasty, I noticed that the dynamic range is very low; I kept getting blown sky on landscape pictures! I tried underexposing the camera, I even tried turning on the Highlight Priority on both Canons, they worked sometimes but still the rate of blown highlight didn't get reduced significantly. Furthermore, I also felt that the controls on both cameras are somewhat being deliberately "handicapped"; I discovered a third party firmware called MagicLantern that can make my cameras turn into a high bitrate videography machines with added photography functions such as electronic shutter, time lapse shooting, zebra, focus peaking, etc; all the features that are only available in a 5D Mark III.

If it is possible, why didn't Canon include it in the camera on the first place!?!? Are they trying to push me to buy their higher end stuff by making the functionally capable low end camera into a less capable camera than what it really is?!? I simply said "F*ck you, Canon!", gave up my dream of owning a 5D Mark III and then proceed by selling all of my Canon and Tamron for Canon gear except the 650D(and I still have it until today as a memento) and buy a full MFT kit.

Onto the World of Micro Four Thirds

Well, MFT isn't a perfect camera system, just like Canon; but at least it's the one that suits me best right now. I jumped to MFT because:

1. The controls on the system is so much better than Canon or Nikon low end APS-C for the same price range; an Olympus E-PL7 priced around $499.00 has a dedicated control dial that you can use to adjust aperture or shutter; an EOS M of the same price during its launch doesn't have a dedicated control wheel, it simply uses a rotating dial pad that's being shared to navigate the menu.

2. The dynamic range is at least better than the Canon APS-C system (Nikon still enjoy better if not the same dynamic range due to the Sony sensors in Nikon bodies). This is a very important thing for me since I don't want my shots to have dull blown skies.

3. The weight of carrying an entire system is so much less on MFT when compared to carrying my Canon system with the same amount of lenses. This is also very important since I travel a lot.

4. The MFT bodies are very inconspicuous; they are the most ideal street photography tool. I can just put a prime on my Olympus and start shooting without people looking at me like I'm a scary pervert or something. When I did that with my Canon, everyone notices me and they don't act naturally while I'm trying to frame someone on my street photo.

5. Super advanced performance on MFT bodies as well as lenses. My GX7 focuses in less than a tenth of a second in good light condition with its kit lens; my E-PL6 with its kit lens focuses at least two tenth of a second in good light. My 650D with its 18-55 focuses slower than the Olympus even in good light although not by much; don't even mention the EOS M, it focuses almost a full second in good light even after firmware update with native lens. But my $499 E-PL6 which is $200 cheaper than my 650D can shoot 8fps, while my 650D can only do 4 to 5fps at the most. All of my MFT cameras has focus peaking as well, which I don't have on my 650D and EOS M without MagicLantern hack but is available only on 5D Mark III.

My GX7 with Olympus FL600R flash

6. Better connectivity to my devices. On my GX7, I can wirelessly transfer files to my Android phone easily as well as controling the camera settings from my Android phone. Even on high end Canon or Nikon bodies with Wi-fi, all you can do is just transfer pictures. It opened up so many possibilities of picture taking and sharing process.

I can go on and go on about why MFT is better than Canon or Nikon APS-C. But if there are some things where Canon APS-C does better than my MFT system is in the tracking auto focus and slightly lower noise in high ISO. Nevertheless, MFT isn't performing better when compared to Sony Alpha series and Fuji X series but thankfully MFT has more collection of lenses when compared to those system. I love prime lenses and MFT prime lens selection is the best for mirrorless camera!! The only lens lacking for MFT is only long telephoto with wider aperture such as 35mm equivalent of 400mm f2.8 or 600mm f/4.

On the other hand, the smaller sensor on MFT naturally gives more noise even in low ISO ratings but it is still acceptable to me and it's easy to remove during post processing up to ISO 3200. It also creates more depth of field which makes it difficult for me to get blurred background ("Bokeh"), but with the abundant choice of different prime lenses, I can just switch lens and blur the background nicely. Even on my Canon with 17-50 f2.8 I always shoot above f5.6 because 2.8 on that lens doesn't blur the background much and I ended up using 50mm f1.8 for some crazy background blur picture which I do only sometimes.

So yes MFT is a system with a compromise, but those compromises are on the right places and thus it suits me better than Canon APS-C. The system is also not being handicapped, the bodies are as capable as they can be, rather than having some of the potential features removed to push you to buy the high end stuffs which I think is a very bad way of doing business.

So there you have it, my full reason on why I dumped my APS-C Canon and jump into the MFT. I hope you enjoy this post. Please take my words with consideration, I simply wrote this post based on my subjective experience hence your experience might differ and APS-C Canon or Nikon might still going to be an option for you. Cheers and God bless.

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