Over the last few months I have seen a growing trend among people I know in the real world, and people I know on social media that seems to be backed up by a poll I am currently running on social media (which I will share when it finishes). I have watched photographers move up from their small sensor cameras to full frame, and now I am watching these photographers and more moving to micro four thirds and smaller sensors. Let us look at the reasons they have been giving.
The most noticeable brand change is moving from Canon, Sony and Nikon to Olympus cameras, although quite a few have even skipped micro four thirds and gone to Lumix TZ (and similar) cameras. Just to make it clear, none of the dozens of photographers I have seen do this, and spoke to are professional photographers in any way, so this is about the average hobbyist photographer, who is often in a camera club or takes endless photos to social media or their websites.
“The reasons within…“
It is no difficult to believe, but the primary reason for these people to move to much smaller sensors has been the size and weight of the cameras and lenses. Many of the people changing have been retired people, or people who travel a lot and now find the lenses on their full frame gear to be too heavy or large. Whereas before they had to have a large bag for their 500mm+ lenses and maybe another zoom or two, now they can have a small bag with their entire kit and cover (in full frame terms) 14mm-800mm in a couple of relatively small, but very light lenses.
Another reason I heard was that, particularly in the OM 1 Mk II, the bird autofocus was now at a level where they could sell their top end Canon R5 Mk II’s, or Nikon Z9’s or Sony series cameras as the OM cameras was good enough to us all the time.
When I asked quite a few questions, the answer good enough came up quite often. I was told when asked how they feel about the image quality of micro four thirds, or their bridge cameras, or their point and shoots (nearly all used for birding and general photography) that the image quality is good enough. And of course, that makes sense. The images are for themselves, for sharing online and for the occasional A4 print for their camera clubs.
“Good enough for you is good enough for me...“
So if you have read my very popular and honest articles on micro four thirds, aps-c and full frame cameras, or are even contemplating a bridge type super zoom camera, chances are, it will be good enough for you and your needs.
People all have different needs and different expectations, so do not be afraid, as there are plenty of people moving back to micro four thirds and smaller, because it is good enough.
My name is Mark G Adams. I am a professional photographer from South Wales, shooting weddings, events and portraits as well as running meets and workshops. For fun I like to shoot landscapes, wildlife and occasionally do street photography. Enjoy my website as I share my knowledge learned over decades of working and having fun in photography.
You can find all the latest articles and blogs on my homepage here.
My main photography social media page is my Facebook One Camera One Lens Photography page.
Nikon Recipes for the Z system can be found here.
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