M43 Compact Interchangeable Lens System

[Panasonic G3]

Here is my notes on m43 systems.

I met some of the young friends during the Thanksgiving holiday and found out they all now own m43 systems. One couple just got GF3 and about to put their hands on. I felt that being an old man and having been using compact system for a while, I can share with them some of my experience. However we don't have a lot of time to chat. After I got home, I wrote them the following facebook message. I will just put it here for my other friends and also for my own record.

[The message starts from here]
m43 system is a joint efforts between Olympus and Panasonic. Actually it's started by Olympus and Panasonic was invited to join the camp later. As a result of that, all the m43 lenses made by both companies are interchangeable on all the m43 cameras. But there is a catch. The catch has something to do with the so called "image stabilizer" (IS) or anti-shake mechanism. In low light situation, you need steady hands to keep the camera still. With IS, even your hands shake a little bit, IS will correct it to some extend. Oly and Panny have different concepts. Oly uses in-body IS, meaning that the camera itself has the IS functionality built in. Panasonic implements IS on the lenses. So in this regard, Oly has the advantage, since all the lenses, with or without IS built in, when they are used on Oly cameras, they got IS functionality automatically.

Using GFx series, if you are lazy (like me most of the time), you just put it on iA mode (intelligence automatic), it will take care of most situations. I think GF3 has a dedicate iA mode button on top of the body. Don't feel shame to activate it. As you go along, you can explore other shooting modes (P,A,S,M modes).

The compact mirror-less systems (Panny's and Oly's m43, Sony's NEX, Nikon's 1, Canon's M, Fuji's XF,...) all promote prime lenses (fixed focal range). The reason is it's easier to make good prime lens in compact size than zooms. So you see every system all came up a very compact and everyday lens (so called the pancake lens). Panny has two good pancake lenses, 20mm f1.7 and 14mm f2.5. The 20mm one is almost a must-have lens on m43 camera. I feel 14mm one is also very good but people keep saying it's not as good as 20mm one. The only issue I have with 14mm is I wish it could be also f1.7 (or f1.x. But f2.5 is not bad at all). m43 has a corp factor of 2, meaning that with the focal range you got, you have to double it to get the normal equivalent focal range in 35mm film. So for example you got 14mm, it's actually has a viewing angle of a 28mm lens used in the film era. 20mm is actually a 40mm lens. These two excellent lenses cover super wide and near-standard (standard should be 50mm but 40mm is close) angles. I wish there is a good 17mm pancake lens (take care of 35mm angle). Oly has an old 17mm lens. That's an expensive lens and I've heard some complaints about its sharpness. Oly just released a new 17mm lens but it's even more expensive and not so compact. I will wait and see how the market embraces it.

You ask: how good is the 14-42mm kit lens? My answer? It's actually very good. The only issue with the kit lens is under indoor low light situation. For outdoors activities, the lens is pretty good. There is a power zoom version costing double and since I don't like the power zoom, I didn't try it. If you don't have kit lens but want one, go to ebay, you can get the brand new one at a very low price.

People always say Oly cameras generate better pictures than Panny's. I've used both (I own oly E-P2 for a short time and still own E-PL2) so I can say, the difference is really, really, really marginal. The color tones are different though (Panny's cold vs Oly's warm) so it also depends on the personal taste. I personally think all the Oly cameras are over priced and the prices hardly go down. Panny cameras are cheaper but as I said, they are not bad at all (oh and most of them are still made in Japan). I used to have GF2 and G3, I sold both of them to get GX1. But till this day, I still miss my Girl Friend #2 (GF2) every now and then.

If you are bored let me know. We can talk about the carrying bags for m43 next time.
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