OM-5 is Amazing!

[snegron]

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to be a fanboy or a troll. I'm just sharing my experience from today. Also, I don't work for any camera manufacturer or marketing team.

Today I was doing some Spring cleaning and came across a few old cameras I had stored away; a Nikon D200 and a Canon 7dmk2. I charged up the batteries and decided to test them out against my OM-5 just for fun.

I remember really liking the images I used to get from those two old cameras. I shot a few owl pics using the D200 with my Nikon 180mm f2.8 AF-ED and my OM-5 with an OM System 40-150mm f4 Pro. The images I got from my OM-5 were sharper, captured more detail, and the colors were amazing!

Then I tried my Canon 7dmk2 with a Canon EF-S 10-18mm f4.5/5.6 against my OM-5 with Pana/Leica 9mm f1.7. The images were very close in terms of detail capture and sharpness, however the colors on the Canon were a bit more saturated.

Overall, I'm impressed at how such a tiny sensor can perform so well! Granted, those two older cameras had older sensor technology, but I also remember comparing those cameras years ago against micro four thirds cameras of the day (Panasonic GX85 and Panasonic G3) and not being impressed.

Hopefully some time next week I'll get a chance to compare side by side pics of my OM-5 and my Canon R7.

 

[doady]

I am guessing those cameras had anti aliasing filters in front of their sensors, which does make a huge difference. It is the same with my old C-7070. But of course with E-M1 II, I now have occasional problems with moire.

 

[snegron]

I am guessing those cameras had anti aliasing filters in front of their sensors, which does make a huge difference. It is the same with my old C-7070. But of course with E-M1 II, I now have occasional problems with moire.

I'm sure the D200 has an anti-alaising filter, but I'm not 100% sure about the 7dmk2. Most likely it does as well. I'm probably going to clean their sensors to see if that helps any.

 

[doady]

As I continue to adjust and improve my post-processing techniques, I occasionally have to go back to re-edit my old photos. I used the C-7070 for 15 years, and the past 5 years I have been using E-M1 II. I think it was 2022 or 2023 that opened a C-7070 file again and I was really shocked and confused at how blurry the photos were. Low megapixels? Diffraction? Lack of IBIS? Crappy lens? I realize now it is mostly because of the anti aliasing filter.

It also explains why I was constantly oversharpening my photos in C1 when I first got the E-M1 II. Of course, a common beginner mistake is the "crunchy" look, so I thought my seemingly aggressive sharpening was part of that. But when I finally revisited the C-7070 files, I realized the problem was because I was trying to use the same sharpening settings for both cameras.