Richard Stern
06-18-2013, 09:48 AM
Hi,
I have been shooting with Oly. OM-D E-M5 micro-4/3 and (for birds) Panny 100-300 lens for several months now, and I also shoot with Nikon D7000, 300 f/4 AF-S, and 1.7x TC. For images that need little or no cropping, the IQ of the Oly is excellent - sharp, good contrast etc., but for images that need a lot of cropping, the IQ is invariably better with the dSLR with its APS-C sensor - with more detail, less need to introduce sharpening artefacts in post, etc. Always Raw, processed in LR and sometimes in Elements as well, and usually hand-held.
I have recently tried taking some pictures of the same bird with both sets of gear, one immediately following the other, and it seems a consistent finding even allowing for differences in technique, hand-holding, different shutter speeds and apertures etc. So my dSLR setup has gone back to being my go-to gear for bird photography despite the much higher bulk and weight, and less convenience. Is this just a function of sensor size, or pixel density, or something else, and if so, would a larger sensor camera (e.g. full frame dSLR), but which might require a bigger crop to achieve the same result, do even better?
Always tying to learn, and improve my images --- Richard
I have been shooting with Oly. OM-D E-M5 micro-4/3 and (for birds) Panny 100-300 lens for several months now, and I also shoot with Nikon D7000, 300 f/4 AF-S, and 1.7x TC. For images that need little or no cropping, the IQ of the Oly is excellent - sharp, good contrast etc., but for images that need a lot of cropping, the IQ is invariably better with the dSLR with its APS-C sensor - with more detail, less need to introduce sharpening artefacts in post, etc. Always Raw, processed in LR and sometimes in Elements as well, and usually hand-held.
I have recently tried taking some pictures of the same bird with both sets of gear, one immediately following the other, and it seems a consistent finding even allowing for differences in technique, hand-holding, different shutter speeds and apertures etc. So my dSLR setup has gone back to being my go-to gear for bird photography despite the much higher bulk and weight, and less convenience. Is this just a function of sensor size, or pixel density, or something else, and if so, would a larger sensor camera (e.g. full frame dSLR), but which might require a bigger crop to achieve the same result, do even better?
Always tying to learn, and improve my images --- Richard