M43 and Full Frame Process Compared
I saw a shot today. A perfect Magnolia stamen wrapped in evenly browned off leaves.
The light was “dappled”, so not ideal. I went inside and grabbed a diffuser panel and the S5 with the kit zoom.
The shot at about 50mm f8 ISO 1000 1/50th. Several were not sharp due to the slow shutter speed and hand holding. There was a little bit of global sharpening, some very slight white balance shifting to warmer, but otherwise as it came.
Yup, all good here. DOF was shallow enough to smoothly blend out of focus areas with the sharp plane. Starting to like this lens.
The mono is nice and easily realised. Compared to the M43 image this one seems more complicated, something that is not always needed for mono.
Slightly worried I would not get a good sharp image with enough DOF, I grabbed a very basic M43 kit (EM10 mk2 and 12-60 kit Pana) and got a second set.
Similar mild processing with a little more attention to the White Balance setting, because I mixed an Oly camera with a Pana lens. ISO 400, 1/50th, f5.6 at 38 (75)mm. So lower ISO, a desire to get in closer in a smaller package.
Less fine detail, but still plenty (damned by immediate comparison?). I did get a couple of duds, but more keepers and at ISO 400. I feel the extra detail is there to get, but my processes were loose to say the least.
A simpler file than the S5’s thanks maybe to fewer pixels (16 to 24), but it looses nothing and if anything, the mono processed a little easier, although the colour full frame image was stronger out of camera. Not much in it and happy to use either. I feel I also have a better eye for M43 DOF, but that can change.
The DOF is shallower in the M43 file, but I was closer. I let the framing do itself by feel, so getting closer may have come from a variety of impulses including more comfort with the camera, percieved safer working range, taking a second image “working it” which often creeps closer naturally, the format shape (I feel like going wider in 3:2, tighter with 4:3), or maybe just that I thought it was a better shot.
Nice to have options.