As a generation XY, my upbringing was steeped in the culture of 20th century late renaissance photographers, whose film cameras were at the highest level of prosumer portability. Visitors to our lava jungle outpost in lower Hawaii could fit a few cameras, a half dozen lenses, and three months’ supply of film rolls in a small carry-on duffel bag, padded by the few bits of clothing one might need in the tropics.
In good hands the quality would be excellent, and most of us are hanging onto hoards of negatives and prints from that era to this day. I am going to include my legendary Viewmaster collection in this category, whose ultra-classic records of iconic subjects and landscapes around the United States (and beyond?) offer instant time-traveling, in mind and heart, back to a Golden Age of happiness and technological appreciation in American culture.
I think the first decent digital camera that I proudly owned was a compact Canon G10, a cool gift from my father. With a 1.7" (7.44mm x 5.58mm) sensor and 4416 x 3312 pixels, it collected a fairly impressive ~15 megapixels, with a pixel pitch of ~1.7µm. The photographs it recorded were certainly as good a common film camera would have produced twenty years ago in their heyday. This packed into a quite compact frame with an array of useful features, and of course no need for film rolls. A win for modern technology!
Still selling for $298.99! I guess I am not that old yet.
This pocket powerhouse digital camera was more than good enough to earn praises from the prolific Ken Rockwell.
Nevertheless, with a good image viewer/editor–or a high digital gain (‘ISO’)–you could easily squint to notice pixels and noise that are unique to our new digital world. Simultaneously, professional (and prosumer) photographers were getting their hands on high end digital SLRs whose pixel densities, sensor sizes, body weights, and price tags all promised to meet or exceed the performances of even the best film cameras that ever existed. Sales and visual results agreed!
It turns out that a few things matter for what we see in a photograph. Maximum pixel resolution isn’t necessarily one of them. A 4K computer monitor is just over 8 megapixels, and often regarded as near the limit of detail that the typical human eye can see at a typical viewing distance–much like photo prints.
Perhaps more important are color depth, low noise, sensitivity, depth of field, and dynamic range, each of which is typically better in those large sensor, high end digital cameras. In addition, you could use all of those ‘wasted’ extra pixels by aggressively cropping, context-aware de-noising, etc. But there is a reason by Sony’s full-frame sensor A7Siii camera records ‘only’ ~12 megapixels. Its 8.36µm pixel pitch is like millions of little owls staring out into the night!
This post, however, is about finding a happy medium in between. And one of those mediums is the Micro Four Thirds format, as implemented very capably and beautifully into my Olympus OM-1 camera.
“Look at that body."
The ‘Olympus’ OM-1 is the new digital mirrorless interchangeable lens flagship model for the new OM Systems brand, which now carries the torch of what used to be Olympus brand con/prosumer cameras. Collecting heaps of incident light with its 5184x3888, 17.4mm x 13mm stacked CMOS sensor, it produces thoroughly enjoyable ~20MP stills and video @4K, with a reported ~7 stops of dynamic range. This is quite short of the mythical 15+ stops of range that is claimed by the aforementioned Sony A7Siii or high end cine cameras, but arguably plenty for well lit subjects and scenes.
Long exposures on a MFT sensor in very dark conditions are very viewable, as evidenced by this Live Composite of glowing tree mushrooms that I recorded in Singapore.
Check out the naturalistic details and context of these and more stunning MFT captures on iNaturalist.org!
Perhaps the best feature of all with the micro four thirds platform is that it gives the same kind of ‘full frame mirrorless interchangeable lens experience’ (and modestly comparable performance) but for half the cost, as well as lenses which yield the same ‘reach’ and optical quality as much bigger and heavier lenses in the larger sensor formats.
Not surprisingly, OM Systems has nailed its target customer demographic of avid, highly mobile adventure photographers who want the most cutting edge digital camera technologies (dual IS, stupidly fast burst modes, focus stacking, smart tracking autofocus etc) in an ultra-portable prosumer package.