Micro Four Thirds Camera System

A Panasonic G3 in the micro four thirds format...

As most of you know, one of my many hobbies is photography. As most of you probably do not know, there is no one camera that can do everything. Each camera has its strengths and each camera has its weaknesses. As a result, I have quite a little collection of gear, each piece sporting its own advantage.

I have a very limited budget so I often pick up used gear at very tempting prices rather than buy new at unattainable prices. 

A number of months ago I decided to drop my Olympus gear and upgrade significantly by getting some full-frame Sony gear. "Full-frame" refers to the size of the sensor and this full-frame size is huge compared to most cameras. The sensor on this Sony camera is the same size as a single 35mm negative frame... hence the name "full-frame". By comparison, compact cameras have sensors the size of a pencil eraser... and higher quality cameras have sensors somewhere in between the two in various sizes. 

The larger the sensor, typically, means better image quality, better tonal qualities, better low-light sensitivity, and better color. This Sony camera not only has beautiful image qualities but it is also a very high quality piece of hardware. Everything about this camera screams quality. Needless to say, after using this gear for a number of months, I've become a bit spoiled and my standards unwittingly rose significantly. This new Sony system is simply amazing and produces absolutely stunning photos but it can't do everything...

...the Panasonic G3 with my Olympus lenses and adapter allowing me
to mount them onto this new tiny camera body...

There is one drawback to much larger sensors like in this new Sony camera I use... the need for larger lenses to focus light onto this huge sensor. The need for physically larger lenses limits affordability for long lenses...  ie, for zooming to get good photos of wildlife, birds, anything at a distance. Additionally, this new Sony system is in its infancy and doesn't yet have a full line of lenses so it is lacking on the longer end. I shoot a lot of photos at the lake house so I really need a camera with appropriate lenses for shooting long focal lengths so I can capture loons and other birds as well as all wildlife.  

For these longer focal lengths, smaller sensors are better because this provides a proportion which causes a multiplication factor for lenses. For instance, if I use lens 'A' on my full frame Sony camera, I get a focal length of 'b'... yet, when I put lens 'A' on a camera with a smaller sensor, I could get a focal length of '2 x b' or '2b' for the mathematicians. Of course, if you go too small, the image quality will deteriorate too much. The trick is finding a happy medium. I've been thinking that this happy medium, for these longer focal lengths, is the Micro Four Thirds system which doubles the focal length of lenses.

I hung on to my old Olympus lenses so I decided to give this fairly new Micro Four Thirds system a whirl since I knew I could possibly convert these lenses to the m4/3's (Micro Four Thirds) lens mount. I knew autofocus could be too slow using these lenses but it was worth a shot. I already had a long lens in this format so it made sense to try the Micro Four Thirds format.

A snapshot of Sheila while she was doing dishes
using this Panasonic G3 with my
25mm, f2.8 Olympus pancake lens.

For months, I researched and scanned used gear nightly. I finally found a Panasonic G3 in 'like new' condition for a great price being sold by a very reputable used camera shop. Actually, I prefer to buy all my used camera gear through this one retailer because they are so good. All the reviews for this camera were very favorable so I put this low cost used camera body in my cart and hit the "Buy" button.

As I mentioned above, you need to keep in mind the fact that I have been spoiled lately by shooting a very high quality full-frame camera.... so my standards and expectations, admittedly, are high.

When the box arrived, I opened it quickly... unrolled all the bubble wrap... opened the zip-lock bags...  and pulled out a camera body and a kit lens... an insanely tiny camera body and an even more insanely tiny lens! This lens was the approximate size of a golf ball!

The Sony full-frame system is small by full-frame standards when compared to Canon and Nikon but this Panasonic G3 and lens was tiny!

Fortunately, the battery was charged already so I popped it into the camera, screwed the lens onto the body, inserted one of my memory cards and powered up the camera... 

The menu system was old...  and different than those I always used in the past. No surprise here since this is an older used camera but it was a bit of a disappointment. The buttons are tiny and hard to press with my big fingers. And, the camera body seemed 'cheap', low in quality.

I played with this camera all day...  then a little bit that night... then more the following day before deciding that I would send the camera back for a refund. I just couldn't get comfortable with it. I was having difficulties with the autofocus. I was having difficulties with color balance. I was having difficulties in low light (something I have no problems with when using my Sony gear). I just was not happy with this camera and I couldn't believe that anyone would be happy with it. It was now the weekend and the store was closed, however, so I had another couple of days to play and decide before contacting them for a return authorization. 

Another snapshot using the 25mm pancake lens...  nice and crisp!

Compared to my full-frame gear, the quality of this little Panasonic G3 just seemed very toy-like.... it was hard to hold because it was so small... it was difficult to keep steady because it was so light... I kept playing with it though... trying to like it... I really wanted to like it.

This morning I decided to see if there were any firmware updates for this camera... yes, I quickly found that there were a couple of updates available. My hope was that I might see some improvement in how it operates after updating the firmware...  

While I was updating the firmware on the body, I figured I should check the firmware versions of all my Olympus lenses too. I knew that the most recent firmware updates would be better for compatibility between the camera body and lenses hopefully improving autofocus ability. It turns out that a few of my lenses needed updating as well so I tackled that this morning.

As I was testing my big, clunky 18-180mm lens, this bird perched itself
on this tree about 50 feet away... I was using the wrong lens at the time
and the bird wasn't very cooperative but even this shows
some potential for my longer 70-300mm lens...

I immediately went outside with the updated camera and lenses and started shooting... what a difference! 

Focus was snappy for the lenses I had hoped to use from my Olympus collection. Conversely, focus was still slow for some of my more obscure lenses that I had no intention of using anyway. The camera started to 'feel' better in my hands. And, I was impressed with the quality of the images even at default settings. 

Most importantly, I needed my longest lens...  my Olympus 70-300mm lens (140-600mm equivalent in 35mm terms)... to work well with this Panasonic m4/3's body and, after updating the firmware from version 1.0 to 1.4, it did! Focus was snappy and solid. When I used this combination before the firmware updates, focus was slow and it often missed focus leaving me with blurred photos far too often. Now this combination seemed to be working quickly, surely, smoothly and beautifully!

I changed my mind, again (something I did about a dozen times in the past two days) and, at this point, I plan to keep this little camera so I can give it a go while we are at the lake this summer. Hopefully I will have no problems capturing some nice photos of loons, hawks, eagles, turtles, ducks, geese, and whatever else presents itself. 

It took some getting used to but I just might end up liking this fairly new little format...  Micro Four Thirds... this format will certainly help gain some reach in my wildlife photography. For everything else, I will continue to use my full-frame Sony gear...

Snappy autofocus using my Olympus 70-300mm lens...  nice quality and even captured a little dragonfly in the frame!
This was shot, handheld, at 600mm equivalent...  not bad at all...  and there is no image stabilization either...
Yes, I know, we need to get the Christmas lights off this tree... we are still waiting for snow to melt though.

Focus snapped quickly and surely between the tree and the utility pole
at 600mm equivalent... this combo just might work at the lake house for wildlife!