Hey Everybody! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Pretty good. Today's topic is shooting Micro 4/3 sensors. This seems like a weird topic but I've shot 2/3, type 1 or 1 inch, APSC and Full Frame and whatever a iPhone is. Oh I just looked it up tiny! 1/1.23. Now I've shot all of these and have gotten great photo's out of all of them. Well what's the deal about micro 4/3 sensors ? Well I think that the Micro 4/3 sensors have gotten a bad rap over the years. Only a couple of companies have used them exclusively . Panasonic and Olympus or OM systems now. In the photographer's eye they have been looked down on from the full frame sensors and the APSC sensor folks. But why? We like the shots we get from our iPhone and that's a tiny sensor. So why is the shame put on Micro 4/3. Is it because of the word micro? Does sensor size matter? Well Yes it does . To a point.  It's just physics. The larger the sensor the bigger surface area to collect light. The Larger the sensor the better it is in low light. Thats the difference. In low light situations the shadows will show some grain or noise. In years in the past that was a problem but "now a days" with de-noise programs it's not as much as a problem.  One of the advantages of smaller sensors is smaller lenses. Yes physics again. so a small sensor like what's in your phone has tiny lenses like on the back of your phone. Full Frame lenses have to cover the size of the large sensors so they are much larger making them very heavy depending the glass and the construction of the barrel of the lens. 

I currently have cameras with full frame and APSC(Crop sensor) the next size down is Micro 4/3 and then the 1 inch or type 1 sensor. My last EDC (every day carry) was a Canon G7XII which had a 1 inch sensor and I had no problems with it. I've gotten some great shots with it so size really didn't matter. My new EDC camera is the Leica D-Lux 8 which uses the Micro 4/3 sensor size. And I must say it is Fantastic even in low light. Is it as good in low light as my full frame sensor camera? No, but it does what it's supposed to do shoot great photo's in a small package. If I get a little bit of noise in the shadows I don't really care because that's not the most important part of the photo usually. Using just a little of de-noise and you won't be able to tell. Really unless you're pixel peeping you won't notice anyway. I get great color great sharpness out of this sensor. Olympus and Panasonic know how good these sensors are or they wouldn't be using them .  They are great for not only photo's but also video as Panasonic is known for its video capabilities of their cameras and are often chosen over larger sensor cameras.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been shooting micro 4/3 sensor exclusively on my little Leica camera. Before then I haven't really had any experience with the size. After shooting I can say that it is a great size sensor and I can't really tell the difference between Micro 4/3 and Crop and even Full frame sensors. I think the big difference would be at extremes. Shooting in very low light or from very far away and you have to crop in a lot . Like in wildlife or sports. Which I don't shoot too much. In photography there are always compromises there are no perfect cameras or sensor sizes. Micro 4/3 cameras are very popular with birders and wildlife photographers because the cameras are smaller and the crop factor of the sensors. For example a 100 to 400 lens is like a 200-800mm lens due to the crop factor of the sensor making it great for long distance photography like sports and wildlife. The sensor size is also great for street and urban photography . Due to the size of the sensor the cameras and lenses are smaller due to the size of the sensor which makes them more portable and less threatening to people you might be photographing because they don't look so big and scary. But I believe they can be very professional. Brands like Olympus now OM Systems and Panasonic are camera's that use this sensor size and should be considered seriously when choosing new cameras. They are well built and smaller in size to the full frame Nikon and Cannon and Sony Cameras. If you're older in age like I am I think they are a great choice just for the size and portability of the systems.  So my advice is not to turn your nose up at these little sensors. They are a great option when choosing cameras and should not be counted out. Look at the way you shoot and see if you really need that full frame camera that the salesman at the camera store is trying to sell you. I bet for most of us you don't need it. I know I don't. So until next week pull out that little camera and start shooting! Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link