In his latest video, Robin Wong proves that you don’t need high-end gear to capture professional-looking images. Shooting a mini concert from the audience with the compact Olympus OM-D E-M10 and the budget-friendly Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R, he delivered sharp, vibrant, and emotionally powerful photos — even in challenging low-light conditions.
The takeaway? Skill, timing, and understanding your gear matter more than the price tag. Robin’s message is a welcome reminder that with the right mindset and discipline, even entry-level gear can shine.
Micro Four Nerds revisits the Panasonic Lumix GX80/GX85, calling it one of the most balanced and underrated cameras ever made — even nearly a decade after its release. She also wishes Panasonic would release a GX90 or GX100 successor, let’s hope this dream will become true!
Can a camera really make you a better street photographer? George Holden explored this question in a recent video, and his answer might surprise you. While high-end gear can help refine your technical skills, it won’t necessarily improve your ability to spot great moments on the street.
He compared the Olympus Pen F to the technically superior Sony A9 III. On paper, the Sony—with its global shutter and 120 fps RAW shooting—is flawless. But Holden argues that the Olympus Pen F, with its manual controls and vintage charm, better captures the essence of street photography: simplicity, intuition, and imperfection.
Interestingly, his Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens broke down over time, forcing him to use manual focus. That accident turned out to be a blessing—it recreated the “Leica-like” shooting experience through zone focusing, where you pre-focus about 1.5 to 2 meters ahead and shoot freely within that range. According to Holden, this limitation brought back the joy and creativity often lost with modern cameras overloaded with automation.
He admits that his Sony A7C II is the better camera for video and professional work, but it feels more like a “work tool” than a creative companion. The Pen F and Fuji X-T2, on the other hand, make him want to shoot for fun again.
Holden ends on a simple truth: image quality isn’t about megapixels. A 10MP CCD DSLR in great light can beat a 100MP medium-format camera in bad lighting. What matters most is how you see, not what you shoot with.
Wildlife photographer Scott Keys set out to prove that full-frame systems outperform Micro Four Thirds in macro work — but the results surprised him. After testing the OM System OM-1 II with the M.Zuiko 90 mm f/3.5 Macro IS PRO against the Nikon Z6 III with a 180 mm macro lens, he found the smaller OM System consistently delivered sharper detail and greater usable depth of field — even at f/22, where diffraction should have ruined sharpness.
Despite theoretical disadvantages from its smaller pixel pitch, the OM System somehow mitigated diffraction better than expected, producing crisp, contrasty macro images with deeper focus. The Nikon setup still offered richer files and better cropping flexibility, but in practical, real-world close-ups the Olympus/OM combo simply performed better.
Keys’s takeaway: for pure macro photography, OM System wins on portability, depth of field, and surprising image quality. For broader wildlife work and heavy cropping, full-frame still holds the edge — but for anyone focused mainly on macro subjects, the OM System may now be the smarter choice.
If you’ve been curious about the OM-System OM-3 or are looking to downsize your camera kit for travel and adventure photography, this episode of the “How It Feels” series is for you.
Over the past decade, I’ve carried cameras through places like Antarctica, the Alps, and New Zealand, but these mountains in my backyard are where it all started for me. They’re wild, raw, and endlessly inspiring. This time, I wanted to see what it feels like to film with a smaller, lighter setup – and how the OM-3 changes the experience of being out on the trail.
The OM-System OM-3 uses a Micro Four Thirds sensor, which was somewhat of a mystery to me before filming this vlog. There’s both upsides and downsides to a M43 camera. In this video, I talk about the tradeoffs of Micro Four Thirds for landscape and adventure filmmaking, the importance of weight when hiking with camera gear, and how simplifying your kit can change the way you create.
The video dives deep into whether Micro Four Thirds systems can truly compete with full-frame setups in sharpness, depth of field, and low-light performance. The new OM System 50-200mm f/2.8 offers an equivalent field of view of 100-400mm f/2.8, weighs just 2.4 lb, features IP53 weather sealing, in-lens stabilization, and an integrated Arca-Swiss tripod foot. When paired with the OM-1 body, users can achieve up to seven stops of image stabilization.
Comparing it to the Sony full-frame setup, the reviewer notes that while the full-frame camera still delivers slightly better image quality and creamier bokeh, the Micro Four Thirds system remains far more compact and enjoyable to use, especially for travel and handheld sports or wildlife photography. In field tests covering wildlife, golf, tennis, and even night pickleball, the OM-1 Mark II delivered excellent autofocus, light weight, and remarkable stabilization performance — all while costing about 40 percent less than the Sony and Sigma combination.
Ultimately, the video concludes that full-frame systems still produce marginally superior images, but Micro Four Thirds cameras like the OM-1 Mark II offer a more versatile and enjoyable shooting experience for most photographers, achieving 80–90 percent of the image quality at a fraction of the size, weight, and cost.
