Full frame vs M4/3, can you tell the difference?

Coulson

And that was the problem I noticed. The comparison wasn't fair because one picture simply had a better contrast ratio to the other so you would naturally gravitate towards it even if it wasn't FF.

snerkler

FF generally has better contrast from my experience, but I thought I’d processed them to look pretty much the same, they do on my computer anyway running the P3 gamut. But as I’ve stated before these shots weren’t shot with the intention to compare, I just found it interesting how close they are. The fact that the pics are getting scrutinised says a lot (y)

Coulson

I'm not so much into photography these days but I am still into (audio visual) image quality so the disparity was obvious. Even if someone didn't technically understand that this was a contrast ratio issue, I assume that they would still prefer the brighter and slightly more detailed picture

snerkler

You obviously have very good eyes, or mine are very poor as I don’t see an “obvious” difference in contrast

Coulson

Only with my glasses on

12harry

Interesting Test - really practical, although ideally there would be a card in the frame #1, #2  =to be sure they can't be swapped by mistook.
If you attempt this again, can you use more of the glass? ( you said f/22 ) - I'm thinking f/5.6 - or f/8 if it's an f/4 lens.
As a bonus this pushes the shutter-speed;  although I suspect this Test was tripod-mounted, perhaps with a 10-sec release timer ?
Are M43 lenses cheaper? I'd expect they'd be lower price - maybe with larger apertures too, for a given angle.
Cheers
Thanks.

snerkler

As I said before these weren't a scientific test or even originally meant for comparison, and the reason for the small apertures was to get the water movement. I appreciate that diffraction will start to creep in at these apertures. Yes they were both tripod mounted with timer release (I was too lazy to get out my wireless shutter release )

M4/3 lenses are generally cheaper yes, although some of the pro lenses still aren't cheap. As an example, high street price for the Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 is £1699 whereas the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 (24-80mm eq) £759.

Bl4ckGryph0n

Nice comparison....

I'd be equally happy with both, and when walking around all day I'd take the m43

muljao

On this photo I guessed wrong.

I will say though that probably the biggest factor is when light gets difficult and iso needs to be pushed, also getting as narrow dof can be difficult, though this can be beneficial for some types of photos.

I had m43 setups, both Panasonic and olympus alongside my Nikon setup. I only got rid of the m43 as being the greedy want it all type that I am, I wanted good expensive lenses from both pools of gear, it could get silly over time. I kept the setup that done more for me, which basically was the dslr kit because I shoot lots of moving stuff like birds etc