M4/3 AND DSLR owners

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fidsey79

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Sarah
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Just wondering how many of you have a Micro Four-Thirds and a DSLR? What do you think are the genuine advantages and disadvantages aside from cost and weight? I am doing my City and Guilds Level 2 and seriously love photography. I would love to go semi-pro with portrait photography in a few years time. My question would be, would a CSC enable me to do this or do you think a DSLR would be the way to go???? I currently have a G1. Any thoughts would really help! Thanks, Sarah
 
I have a DSLR and a Sony Nex camera and love both of them. The Sony does offer most of what a DSLR will do for a fraction of the price (depending on what machine you get) and very good images.

The BIG advantage with the DSLR machines is that they have the ability to link into studio flash systems better and they have a wider variety of lens available.

I know that Olympus have just released a 45mm f1.8 which looks very very nice but still they lack things like 85mm f1.4, 50mm f1.4 but the systems are gathering pace so who knows what will be available in a few years time.

As for going semi pro with them? the anwser is may be, there are a couple of links around where some have used the M4/3 (think the Pen 3) for a wedding gig and did rave about it.

But at this point of time I think DSLR will give you more scope.
 
I've owned several of the Lumix M43 cameras and Canon/Nikon DSLR's

Pros of M43

Size
Portability/Pocketability
2x crop (for some situations)
More likely to have camera with you

Cons of M43

2x crop
Slower AF system
Lower usable ISO range
Lenses - expensive and less choice
EVF/LCD

The DSLR (even the cheaper ones) still just about sits above the M43 cameras for their wide range of applications (portrait, wildlife, landscape etc).

It won't be long though and the M43 cameras will pose a serious threat to DSLRs.

But, I suspect for a while the 'pro's' will continue to favour large and bulky camera/lens combinations purely because if they turned up at a job with a camera the size of a matchbox (regardless of how capable it was) they'd get laughed out of the place.
 
You could do portraiture with a Lumix, but it'll never be as good as Full frame, Medium format or film. As far as I'm concerned portraiture is one of those things where DOF and smoothness of tonality is all important as far as technicalities go, and m4/3 doesn't do it well enough IMO. If high contrast and vibrant is your thing though, then yeh you could do it on a G1.
 
fidsey79 said:
What do you think are the genuine advantages and disadvantages aside from cost and weight? I am doing my City and Guilds Level 2 and seriously love photography. I would love to go semi-pro with portrait photography in a few years time. My question would be, would a CSC enable me to do this or do you think a DSLR would be the way to go???? I currently have a G1. Any thoughts would really help! Thanks, Sarah
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I have MFT (micro four thirds,) APS-C and full frame cameras and the great advantages of MFT for me are the compact size and weight and the less intrusive and attention grabbing nature of a MFT set up. Cost doesn't really come into it and if it did surely MFT would lose out as they're a bit more expensive than some entry and even mid range DSLR's.

I love my MFT but for someone just setting out and wanting to be a semi/pro surely a DSLR makes the most sense at least until you are sure what direction you will be going in and if it is portraiture surely a full frame camera makes the most sense as the size and weight and less intrusive nature of the CSC kit is going to be much less important.
 
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fidsey79 said:
I've got an adaptor which runs canon Fd lenses through the G1. I have a Canon 50mm, 1.8. It is good but imagine not a scratch on the Olympus 50mm 1.8 lens which has just been released.
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Why do you think that? I have 50mm lenses from the 1970s which are better than the Canon 50/1.8 in many ways (build, bokeh, sharpness at infinity), not sure why Olympus would be any different. Designs haven't changed a lot since then (apart from zooms and coatings).
 
fidsey79 said:
Alan, would you recommend a second hand 5d or equivalent rather than a APS-C like a 60d or D7000?
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I have a 5DI and image quality seems to be good but I've not used a 60D or D7000 so I can't really comment on how they compare.

My completely uninformed opinion :D is that a 5DI or 5DII would be a good move as if you're going semi/pro you'll probably at some point want to go full frame as they'll probably always offer the best quality from a DSLR for portrait shooters so why not start as you mean to go on? Even if you initially get an APS-C camera it might be an idea to buy full frame lenses just so you have them ready for when/if you go full frame.

If it helps you to decide at all my niece is now a semi pro portrait shooter working both for a studio and free lance and she uses a 5DII and one L zoom. She seems to manage just fine with just that one setup.
 
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I'm a big fan of M4/3 cameras but I would say get a DSLR too. Apart from anything else people won't take you seriously with a small camera!

5D I is a very good camera for the money they go for now - sensor dust can be frustrating but other than that I'm very pleased with mine.
 
grum said:
I'm a big fan of M4/3 cameras but I would say get a DSLR too. Apart from anything else people won't take you seriously with a small camera!

5D I is a very good camera for the money they go for now - sensor dust can be frustrating but other than that I'm very pleased with mine.
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I'm afraid that that's probably very true plus at some point any up an coming semi/pro is going to come across DSLR's so it's probably best on balance to go with the majority view and be familiar with them otherwise reputation and income could be affected, wrong as that may be it's probably the case :(

I haven't actually suffered much sensor dust on my 5D despite quite a few lens changes although I do have specks in the viewfinder.
 
The day Fuji bring out an interchangeable lens X100 is the day I sell most of my DSLR gear. The weight didn't bother me at first, but when im at a festival/multiday shoot lugging around a bag with my 3 main zooms, some flashes, and crap to go with them starts to get tedious very quick.

Compared to lugging around a 'rangefinder' with tiny lenses, its an easy decision...
 
SamP said:
The day Fuji bring out an interchangeable lens X100 is the day I sell most of my DSLR gear...
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The new Sont Nex 7 looks interesting and I'd certainly like a real 1:1 replecement for the rangefinders and compact 35mm cameras we used years ago but...

...for the OP I still think that a DSLR (and probably a FF one) is the way to go as no matter what the results from non DSLR's I think that Grum is right and that and that customer confidence and perception will be better with a camera that's more easily recognised as "pro."

That may not be right or fair but I think it's a part of the reality of things.
 
I've just got myself a Panasonic GF3 with the 14-42 'kit' lens, so far I'm very impressed with it :thumbs:
I'm off to get the 20mm f/1.7 tomorrow as I think this will be my main 'walkabout' lens with this camera, giving an effective 40mm focal length.
 
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