Leaving Leica And Going Micro Four Thirds
Image courtesy: Leicarumors
What happens when you realize how cool the Micro Four Thirds world is?
What I am going to feature is almost a Christmas tale (because it happened on Christmas) 
J Shin wrote a long and interesting post at Leicarumors about how it came to the abandoning of the Leica world, and to the entry into the MFT world. Definitely worth to be read.
Have fun!
amalric
5 months ago |It’s funny, it’s exactly the argument I was making the other day here, mentioning S. Huff Crazy Comparisons between Leicas and m4/3 cameras.
If you can’t tell the difference in resolution with the naked eye, then other factors come into play, like size, weight and flexibility. Not to mention $$$
MarcoSartoriPhoto
5 months ago |Amen! Right now I’m fighting against Gear Acquisition Syndrome: I’m tempted by Zuiko17mm f1.8. AND by incoming Fuji x100s.
BUT I already own the fantastic Voigty17.5mm f0.95 (and it lacks only AF)and an OMD-Em5, which is fantastic too.
SO, I’m excited by new products, but this time I think I will use my brain LOL
Rutrem
5 months ago |Steve Huffs website is really a great website for unbiased infos about cameras/lenses… thumbs up for hes reviews very open minded and unbiased even if he is a Laica fun
i think i have seen him with an Oly Pen P3,last summer, befor Seals concert atPula,Croatia
He really like photography over gears.
Anonymous
5 months ago |Steve Huff is nothing but Biased towards Leica. Constantly he’s questioned about what he’s said and most of the time he ignores them. But as soon as someone has a “Safe” question, he’s quick to answer them.
Steve’s reviews are garbage.
SonyCyberPunk
5 months ago |What Leica, they dont even make their own FF sensors, they dont make there own rangefinders, its outsourced, the probably cant make shit electonics for their cameras. Leic what? Leica non factor. The modern leica lenses are sharp but have no character, all a waste of money fo rich pretentious folks who cant take pics and got too much money and or time on their hands.
james
5 months ago |Such a silly article
Lets compare a BMW X5 to Dacia Duster
What about the RX100, dump the over priced m4/3s market altogether !
BdV
5 months ago |I’d say get the RX100, but keep your MFT stuff.
By the way, I don’t see much difference between a duster and an X5, weight, size? I expect one is cheaper than the other.
Dummy00001
5 months ago |> Lets compare a BMW X5 to Dacia Duster
Yet as a matter of fact, both get you from A to B.
> What about the RX100, dump the over priced m4/3s market altogether!
As post showed, if one really wants, they can get m43 gear on cheap, for less than $200 for a piece. RX100 at the moment goes 540€ in Germany. So what’s overpriced?
RX100 potential would be only fully exploited when competition would force its price down. (Fuji X20 seems to be an interesting experiment in that regard – 2/3″ X-Trans sensor – but I doubt that it would sell cheaper than the RX100.)
james70094
5 months ago |You missed the point of the blog. It’s not about a simple comparison. It’s about finding what fits your needs. The RX100 will fit the needs of many people. The only reason people should want a interchangeble lens camera is the versatility, not quality since there are several fixed lens cameras that can match and even beat them there.
J Shin
5 months ago |>It’s about finding what fits your needs.
+1!
Elf
5 months ago |I found it a very interesting personal account of one mans journey of liberation from gear obsession and resultant joy in embracing photography as the criteria of importance. I enjoyed it.
Rutrem
5 months ago |in offroad environment Dacia Duster kicks BMWs ass for shure
Anonymous
5 months ago |//
br
5 months ago |Same experience for me coming from Leica R going to m43.
I will sell my leica lenses this year.
Dummy00001
5 months ago |To me it is about the IQ plateau. To me personally, the E-M5 is “it” – first Oly to get to it. GH2 was the first Panny. To J Shin the IQ limit is even lower. Good for him. And good that he has reconfirmed the axiom: “The best camera is the one that you have with you.”
All in all, he makes a very strong case for the E-PM1
Leica Hater
5 months ago |“So you are leaving using Leica for what can at best be called a system that is an insult to the photographic process made only for filthy common peasants and deluded fauxtographers? Good riddance.”
I hate Leica shooters with a passion. Biggest bunch of rich amateur snobs in the world. I guarantee there are better photos being generated by M43 than all the Leica shooters combined.
SURE FAUST
5 months ago |Generalize much?
Jesse
5 months ago |Ok, I can understand if you hate leica users. I hate the majority that wank on about their gear too. But I hate anyone who wanks on about any gear, and there are people with all types of gear that do it. I am a leica user, but I don’t wank on about it. I also see a lot of rubbish taken with leicas, as I do for every camera product out there. There is a lot of good stuff too, this is a sweeping generalisation. Why don’t you just dislike leica because of their lens quality or something (I guess you can’t) or something that actually matters, rather than what leica users do. I think it might just be envy not hate. Anyway, shoot what you want, with what you want. I hate sigma, cos I had a sigma lens where the os died after a couple of months, shook around all over the place and the af was only accurate 50% of the time, that seems a little more justified….
Brent
3 weeks ago |I know the type of person he’s talking about, but it is an unfair generalization. When I used to autocross we had people running junkers to Vipers. We all had a good time, but the Porsche guys would never play with us. They had their own group. I had one of them say to me once, “When you have an expensive machine like this, you want to race with people who have made a similar commitment. Someone who will respect your equipment.” He seemed to think the poor guy who worked on his junker in his spare time weekend after weekend, year after year, wouldn’t care if he slammed into your car and dented it up. Like the poor person would have less respect for someone else’s vehicle. Kind of an arrogant jerk, if you ask me. Also, since we never raced side by side, there really wasn’t any difference anyways.
amalric
5 months ago |I think that Shin’s argument is not (only) about versatility, but about resolution. This is also what I noticed at Lenstip. Once you are above their 50 lpmm you are not going to be able to tell the difference with a finer outfit.
Simply because human vision has it’s own limits.
It’s not even a matter of sensor. Shin notices that the limit was reached with 12 Mpx sensors, and indeed Lenstip still tests new lenses with an E-PL1. In you can’t tell the difference with a Leica, why buy it. Shin after all has a wife to reckon with
I think that this has always been for Olympus the aim of 4/3: to show that with a smaller format they could achieve the same or better resolution than FF 135.
What prevented it was the SNR of their early sensors and the AA filters. By developing better denoising FW, and the latest sensor technology they have finally achieved their aim.
People don’t buy m4/3 because it’s small, but because it has the same IQ of larger sensors.
The only tradeoff is ease of bokeh, but that can be offset by fast lenses, and lenses which are v. sharp at full aperture, so that you don’t need to stop them down.
DonTom
5 months ago |@amalric….good point about resolution, but not so good about size!
I bought m43 because it was small, and from the start looked like it had hit the sweet point between size & IQ, for me. I was at the time prepared to step up to a Leica M system if I wasn’t satisfied with m43 IQ, but I was never going to go to the size of a FF DSLR.
I’m still using the same E-PL1 3 years later, and have never had anyone I know personally comment on the lack of IQ, or DR……quite the opposite.
The point I took from Mr Shin’s essay was …..m43 is good enough, for most purposes. And because it is small and comparatively cheap, amateurs will use their cameras more.
I’ve just come back from a 3 week holiday in the Alps with my family. Size really matters to me! My shoulder bag carries 2 laptops, my m43 outfit (3 primes), chargers for all, a water bottle, sunglasses, binoculars and all the travel documents. Not a problem, because the laptops are MacBook Airs and the m43 system. When skiing, the E-PL1 goes in one pocket with the 20/1.7 on, the 45 @ 14mm lenses go in the other pocket.
I’ve said it before, and will again: m43 is many different things to many different people. The common factor is that it is good enough for most users. Every camera system has trade-offs, m43 has hit the sweet point for today’s market.
amalric
5 months ago |@ Don
I tried to address the inferiority complex that bogged down so many 4/3 users, and even m4/3 users, but of course I find small size paramount. The difference between early beginnings and now is that I believe I am not giving up any IQ.
And that is the reason why even pros are giving up their larger systems. They might keep them for portraits or other specialised tasks, but they don’t look down on (micro) four thirds like they were doing only a few years ago.
Micro is becoming a universal system, a scalable one, and literally for all pockets.
The Real Stig
5 months ago |I could only read 40% of that awful ode to technical pomposity before the urge to kill or throw up overwhelmed me and I had to stop.
SonyCyberPunk
5 months ago |jesus, it took this guy that long to figure this out? that he was a nobody like all of us and came to the conclusion that the fact that his pics didnt need a lecia? I could told him that for free. in fact, no one needs a leica to take a pic, i seen enough shit sharp pics to last me 10 life times. And those who THINK that their pictures are worthy of a “Zeiss or leica or the best nikons or canons, ill tell the now they are not worth shit. Dilusional folks need to ake up and smell the shit every now and then
Sam Waldron
5 months ago |Hmmm… that article really showed me that guy was a little obsessive and paranoid – hopefully he enjoys his new journey though.
He did have some misconceptions about M43 however, although I guess he was looking at older technology.
Modern higher end M43 (EM5 plus primes) gives me the same or better quality than I ever got with my APSC DSLR’s and gives up little to previous generation full frame cameras.
That’s why I finally switched – it hit that threshold were you were not really losing anything significant (1/3 stop and a bit of DOF to APSC), and gaining other areas (Better primes, IBIS, EVF, size, sound…)
Oriol
5 months ago |Take a look at photos from your favorite photographer, no matter if it is Steve Mc Curry, Alex Webb, Sebastiao Salgado or Henri Cartier Bresson. You will see that what makes their photos so wonderful is the composition, emotion or how they use available light, but technical stuff like sharpness or bokeh have no importance at all (ok, maybe with the exception of portraits). For me micro4/3 is the perfect balance and I am more than happy with my old EP2 and my primes.
Bob
5 months ago |Boy…that was a loooooooong movie….(I am going to call the director and tell him to send me the version that was edited for the public..I fast forwarded it…and, actually I liked the ending, though!
twofeet
5 months ago |This guy is hardly “leaving Leica.” He owns a few R lenses. It’s not like he’s selling his M9 and a pile of Summiluxes to buy his EPM-1 or something. And on a $200 budget, it’s not like he was going to purchasing the new M any time soon.
Really, the only thing sillier than the Leica fanboys are the Leica bashers, and the preoccupation in some quarters with “beating Leica.” If you shoot M43 and are happy with it, that should be enough.
Jesse
5 months ago |+1
Anonymous
5 months ago |Nothing is more Sillier than Leica Fanboys… NOTHING. To think that you have to spend Thousands to take better pics is a joke. We’re really just making fun of them.
To spend money on a Leica branded point and shoot when you can buy the Panasonic variant is hilarious.
Levi’s has made denim jeans for how long now? I don’t see any jeans in a store over $300.00
Randy
2 months ago |Leica??? the first pictures leica fanboys take is of their leica!! Probably use a 4/3′s to take it!