James Wong Photography & Blog: Back to Micro 4/3 after 6 years

Year 2020, the whole world is adapting to a new normal in our life due to the Covid-19 virus infecting more than 19million people worldwide. Lives are lost , people are changing their way of life, some business boom and some business burst during this period. Olympus has also announced that they will be selling their photography business to JIP in June 2020.

I was using the fullframe D750 system and FZ1000 (1inch) bridge camera at that time, when the news of Olympus selling it’s imaging wing was announced. I was once a Olympus m4/3 user. During the 2008-2012 period , mirrorless cameras were launched by Panasonic and Olympus jointly. I had the GF-1, GH1, Pen EP-1/2. It was in 2012 , the launched of OM-D Em-5 finally made the m4/3 a system to consider for serious photography. I had the EM-5 and enjoyed the camera alot. That time, the pro lens from Olympus were still lacking. It was in 2013 that Olympus launched the EM-1 OMD and the f2.8 lens , 12-40mm & 40-150mmf2.8. This was the time when Olympus want their serious users to moved from the DSLR E-5 to mirrorless fully.

I found the pro lens are too expensive and some older FF pro lens from Nikon are much cheaper, I then changed my system to Nikon D600(unfortunately destroyed by sea water during a oversea trip) then to Fuji X system and back to Nikon D750 system. In recent years, I started to do more videos using tele-zoom lens (handheld) and I seriously find D750 with Sigma 100-400mm is not a good system for that. Handholding a super tele zoom while looking at the live view is no joke. The AF-C focusing during video is very bad on the D750, however the new D780 has solved the issue. I also prefer looking at the EVF of FZ1000 while handholding during shooting of videos. Pressing the camera against my face also helps to stabilised the video too.

As the prices of Olympus equipment are dropping in the used market , I began to build up the Olympus system once more and this time my system is more towards the pro-grade zoom lens rather than the fixed lens which I used to have. The zooms F2.8 are great for low light shooting. The 5axis-stabiliser of OMD-EM1 works great for handheld video. I used to use the FZ1000 for tele zoom video work but now I combine the photography and videography into one body OMD-Em1. Currently I have the Em-1 mark 1 which is still a great photo tool and good enough HD 1080p 25 & 30p video. I do not intend to go 4K yet. And if I am going for 4K video, there are many other newer and cheaper bodies to consider from Panasonic or Olympus. The OM-d Em-1 Is selling at SGD$350-400 in Singapore now, I find it is a great bargain. With it’s new firmware v4, it has some new feature like focus stacking, 4K time lapsed video and many more. Once I master this EM-1, I may upgrade to Em-5miii or EM-1 markII or III depending on my budget. For now the 2014 Em-1 Mark1 is good enough for my use.

The Pro grade M.Zuiko 40-150mmf2.8 lens. This is a versatile, sharp, weather sealed and bright lens, This lens is my main reason why i go back to Olympus. Coupled with the tele-converter Mc-14 and Mc-20, I have basically 3 lens ( 40-150mm f2.8, 56-210 f4 and 80-300mmf5.6) So in term of FF format equivalent, I have 80mm to 600mm for my wildlife shoots. I have the first generation Lumix 12-35mmf2.8 pro grade lens for general use. There is a lumix 45-175mm lens which is for situation when I wanted to cycle with my camera system.

To me, M4/3 will still a place in the photo and video world. In the video below, it is only with Olympus I am brave enough to continue shooting during a downpour. I wouldn’t dare to do the same with Fuji or Nikon system. Big brands are coming out FF mirrorless in full force. But let’s not forget that with all systems, we need to consider the lenses too. Size vs quality vs type of usage are very important criteria to consider. I personally feel the m4/3 bodies and the 40-150mmf2.8 pro lens are a great balance for the photographer’s needs!