Panasonic dan Olympus Mirrorless Camera - Kuda Hitam yang mulai populer

The Underdog of Mirrorless Cameras

The Instagramer - Taken with Olympus EM5 with Nikon 55mm f1.2

Setelah beberapa tahun lalu menulis tentang perbandingan Sony dan Fuji, tahun ini saya malah menjadikan Olympus & Panasonic (Micro Four Thirds / M43) sebagai kamera yang paling banyak saya pakai.

After publishing my 2cents observation about Sony vs Fuji Camera System few years ago, this year I ended up using Micro Four Thirds cameras, from Panasonic and Olympus, as the system I uses the most.

Olympus EM1 Mark II Muddied (taken from Gordon Laing's Youtube)

Berikut ini saya coba berikan gambaran hasil foto saya saat pakai beberapa brand kamera, supaya bisa melihat bagaimana kualitas gambar yang bisa saya hasilkan dengan gear berbeda.

First let me show you some images and thoughts on using other camera systems.

This would also double as a comparison with other system, while also letting you know a little bit about my background.

Canon Full Frame Era (6D, 5D II)

Sebelumnya saya beri latar belakang gear yang saya pakai.

Selama bertahun-tahun, saya memakai kamera full frame untuk kamera utama, dari Canon 5D Mark II, 1Ds Mark II, 6D, lalu pindah ke Sony A7, A7ii, A7r, A7rII.

Bisa dilihat di sini, salah satu artikel pertama saya di blog ini tentang lensa Canon 100mm L macro

https://www.foodgrapher.com/2012/01/lensa-macro-canon-ef-100mm-f28-l-is-usm.html

For years, I've had a full frame camera for my main camera. Started with Canon 5D Mark II, 1Ds Mark II, 6D and then moving to Sony camp, with A7, A7ii, A7r and lastly A7r II.

You can see my first article here, about my favorite lens way back then, Canon 100mm L macro lens.

https://www.foodgrapher.com/2012/01/lensa-macro-canon-ef-100mm-f28-l-is-usm.html

Taken with Canon 100mm Macro 

Sekitar tahun 2015 saya memutuskan pindah ke sistem Sony karena Canon saat itu kurang fokus pada teknologi sensor di body kameranya. Setelah Canon 6D, tidak ada perbaikan Image Quality, Dynamic Range, atau fitur yang berarti. Moga-moga tahun depan (2019) akan ada perubahan sensor di Mirrorless Full Frame terbaru mereka.

Saya menjual Canon 6D saya, kamera terakhir dari Canon, dan menyimpan lensa-lensa mount canon untuk dipasangkan di Sony A7 menggunakan Adapter.

Saat ini yang saya suka dari Canon adalah fitur Dual Pixel AF yang berguna untuk video blogging / vlog.

Around 2015 I decided to switch to Sony, since I found Canon lacks technology development in their sensor. Their Dynamic Range, High ISO and IQ in general were beaten by a long mile in comparison to Sony (and Nikon for that) around this year.

Hopefully they'll bring something new IQ-wise on their Full Frame Mirrorless camera, which will be released on 2019

So I ended up selling my 6D, getting a Sony A7, and keeping the Canon lenses to be used on Sony with adapter.

As for right now, what I like the most about Canon System is their Dual Pixel AF, which works great for Vlogging.

Taken with Canon 100mm Macro 

Lalu beberapa tahun kemudian, lensa favorit saya sebelumnya, Canon 100mm f2.8 L Macro dikalahkan lumayan telak oleh Sony 90mm f2.8 Macro OSS dan saya akhirnya memutuskan untuk menjual hampir semua sistem lensa Canon EF saya, kecuali Sigma dan beberapa lensa Zeiss ZE

https://www.foodgrapher.com/2015/11/macro-lens-for-sony-a7-comparison-sony.html

Years passed, and I did a comparison of this favorite lens from Canon, 100mm f2.8 macro, with the latest offering from Sony (E Mount), Sony 90mm f2.8 macro OSS and I found the sony 90mm to be a much better lens in term of image quality, especially in low light.
I ended up selling almost all of my Canon EF lenses, leaving just a Sigmas and a few Manual Focus Zeiss ZE lens.

https://www.foodgrapher.com/2015/11/macro-lens-for-sony-a7-comparison-sony.html

Sigma 35mm art with Canon 6D

Sony A7 Era

Sampai sekarang saya sebetulnya masih memakai kamera A7 (termasuk A7s, A7r, A7ii, A7r ii dkk, tergantung apa yang tersedia)

Kelemahan utama sistem Full Frame untuk saya, dibanding M43, ada di sana, kalau mau bokeh, harus sedikit saja yang focus, kalau mau korbankan bokeh, dapat focus maksimal.
Bisa dilihat di 2 foto berikut

I still now uses A7 series cameras, including A7s, A7r, A7ii and A7r ii, depending what's available.

The Achilles heel of full frame system for me, is the shallow Depth of field, which is the area in focus when using certain aperture / lens opening.
Using F2.8 and wider, like f2, f1.2, will have a result of beatufil picture, with very little in focus.
This is not a problem in M43, since they're using small lens, we can use lens with wide aperture.

Sony A7r with Nikon 55mm f1.2

Beda dengan awal tahun 2012 dimana saya hanya mengejar hasil teknis terbaik, saat era A7 ini (kalau tidak salah 2015-2018) saya mulai mengerti tentang asyiknya memakai lensa jadul / classic / manual. 

Bisa baca tentang pengalaman saya di sini : https://www.foodgrapher.com/2017/02/introduction-to-manual-lens.html?showComment=1533882124270#c6551812738254972959

This time I have a different view of what I wanted for my camera. Not only aiming for what's technically superior, I'm also taking account the characteristic of  images, produced from combining various lenses and bodies. This is also the time I'm started dabbling with Legacy Lenses (manual focus old lens) which were tons of fun.
You can read about them here : https://www.foodgrapher.com/2017/02/introduction-to-manual-lens.html?showComment=1533882124270#c6551812738254972959

Sony A7r with Nikon 55mm f1.2

Sampai sekarang menurut saya Sony paling unggul untuk masalah pengalaman foto dengan lensa manual, fitur focus peaking dan focus magnifynya mudah diakses. 

Fitus in body Image Stabilizer juga berfungsi dengan lensa kuno tersebut.

Panasonic dan Olympus pun tidak kalah jauh masalah ergonomis, tapi lensa kuno ini dipakai pada kamera film, jadi supaya focal lengthnya sama, tentu lebih enak di Sony yang full frame / 35mm dibandingkan Olympus / Panasonic yang ada faktor pengali 2x
lensa 50mm menjadi seperti 100mm di sistem M43.

I found Sony system to be the best for manual focus / vintage lenses.
The features are great, they got easy to use focus peaking and magnify. In body IS also works with this old lenses.

That being said, M43 also implemented good balance of feature and ergonomics for using legacy lenses, but the small sensors means that the focal length of this lenses would be timed by two, which makes a 50mm lens looks like 100mm on panasonic / olympus camera.

Sony A7r with Sony 90mm macro OSS

Untuk bisa mendapatkan focus yang cukup sekaligus bokeh dan image quality yang cantik, saya perlu menggunakan teknik tertentu saat memakai bukaan lensa terbesar di lensa 90mm f2.8 ini, menggabungkan beberapa foto dengan titik fokus berbeda.

Hal ini lebih mudah dilakukan di M43 karena sensornya kecil

Sensor kecil berarti DOF lebar, menggunakan lensa bukaan lebar pun banyak area yang masih focus.

To get both nailing the depth of field and get plenty in focus, along with nice bokeh and rendition of wide aperture at f2.8, I have to do a cumbersome technique here.

Taking multiple shots with different focus point, and stitching them together in post processing.

This could be done easier on M43 system, since they have a smaller sensor, more would be in focus when I'm using big aperture lens.

M43 for Now

Olympus EM5 Mark II

Sekarang kamera utama saya adalah Olympus, terutama seri Em1 dan EM5 Mark II.

Daya tarik utama M43 bukan di ringannya saja buat saya, tapi hasilnya sebaik Sony A7, dengan beberapa pengecualian seperti di low light dan untuk landscape, yang keduanya saya rasa lebih baik di seri full frame sony

As I've stated above, my main camera system is M43, with Olympus EM1 and EM5 Mark II being the body that I often uses.

M43 being a lighter system is beside the point for me, since I'm used to lug heavy DSLR around.

My fondness of M43 camera system is in the image quality it produces, which I found equal to Sony Full Frame system, with exception of low light and landscapes.

Olympus EM1 with Panasonic Leica Nocticron 42.5mm f1.2

Panasonic GX8 &  Nocticron 42.5mm f1.2

Pertama kali jatuh cinta dengan sistem M43 utamanya karena lensa.

Menggunakan lensa murah dan body yang terjangkau, hasilnya tidak kalah dengan kamera dan lensa yang harganya 2-5x lipatnya.

Bisa dilihat di hasil-hasil di bagian post ini. Masalah selera bisa saja pembaca lebih suka dengan hasil dari sistem sebelumnya, Canon dan Sony, tapi bisa dibilang secara obyektif, kualitasnya tidak jauh berbeda, atau malah unggul M43.

What makes me fall in love with M43 is not the body, but the lens performance

Using a combination of affordable camera and lenses, I can get a good quality image, similar of what I usually expect a camera worth 2-5 times their price.

You can peruse this sections of post's images, which although some of you, out of taste, could prefer the previous photos taken with Canon / Sony, objectively they're not that different. You can even say m43 have the edge in more than one way.

Olympus EM1 with Panasonic Leica Nocticron 42.5mm f1.2

Lensa Olympus Zuiko, dan Panasonic Leica, kualitasnya termasuk top. Menurut hemat saya di atas lensa Sony dan Canon, bisa disandingkan dengan Zeiss ZE / ZM dan Sigma Art.

Perlu diingat, sebagian lensa yang saya ulas di sini harganya juga cukup aduhai, berkisar Rp 15juta rupiah bekasnya. Panasonic Leica Nocticron 42.5mm f1.2 dan Olympus Zuiko 25mm f1.2

Olympus Zuiko along with Panasonic Leica are one of the best lenses in the world.
In my opinion, they surpasses Sony's and Canon's offering, more comparable with Sigma art and Zeiss ZE / ZM lenses.
Bear in mind, the top of the range lenses I uses here, costs around $1300 used, the Panasonic Leica Nocticron 42.5mm f1.2 and Olympus Zuiko 25mm f1.2

Olympus EM1 with Panasonic Leica 25mm f1.4

Ada fakta menarik, kalau Sigma dan Zeiss ini biasanya membuat lensa mahal untuk sistem kamera lain, seperti Sigma Art Canon Mount 50mm f1.4 yang harganya 12juta, atau Zeiss ZE 25mm f2 yang mendekati 20juta. 😮

Sedangkan di sistem M43, Zeiss tidak menghasilkan satu lensa pun, sedangkan Sigma bermain di segmen low to mid, dengan lensa termahal sepengamatan saya Sigma 30mm f1.4 art yang ada di kisaran 5juta dan 16mm f1.4 yang 6jt.

Hal ini kemungkinan besar karena sulit untuk menandingi kualitas lensa Panasonic dan Olympus, di kisaran harga dan fitur yang sama. Bisa dilihat perbandingan di bawah ini :

https://www.43rumors.com/zeiss-touit-lenses-no-better-than-the-cheaper-mft-lenses/

There's also another interesting fact I have to mention, whilst Sigma and Zeiss makes a top range lenses for other camera system, such as Sigma Art for Canon 50mm f1.4 which costs around $1000 and Zeiss ZE 25mm f2 which costs around $1800. 😮

Meanwhile on M43, Zeiss doesn't make any lenses, whilst Sigma only competes on the low to mid price range lenses, with the most expensive being Sigma 30mm f1.4 art at the moment, priced around $400 and 16mm f1.4 for $500.

I suspect this is due to the excellent quality of native Olympus and Panasonic lenses, and the difficulties to compete with them on the same price range and features.
You can see the comparison of zeiss aps-c lens (Sony E mount) and M43 lenses on m43 bodies, here : 

https://www.43rumors.com/zeiss-touit-lenses-no-better-than-the-cheaper-mft-lenses/

Satay Night - Panasonic GX8 and Panasonic 42.5mm f1.2

Wendy's Chicken - Panasonic GX8 with Olympus 25mm f1.2

M43 on the Cheap is equally GREAT

Zangrandi - taken with Panasonic GF3

Kebetulan saya sedang memiliki body entry level untuk mendemonstrasikan sistem M43 yang murah meriah, berikut foto-foto perbandingannya dengan lensa yang cukup murah, kombinasinya sekitar 5 juta rupiah.

Lensa yang saya gunakan bukan lensa kit, karena saya tidak terlalu terbiasa menggunakan lensa dengan zoom seperti Sony 16-50mm atau Olympus 14-42mm dan sejenisnya.

I happen to have in my possession an entry level M43 camera and lenses, this lens and bodies combined doesn't exceed $400.

I didn't use the kit lens, since I know my limitation on using those zoom lenses, be it Sony 16-50mm lens or Olympus 14-42mm.

Zangrandi - taken with Panasonic GF3

Foto-foto di sini yang difoto dengan Panasonic GF3. Panasonic GF3 adalah kamera entry level panasonic, dengan harga bekas di kisaran Rp 1.7 jt.

Sedangkan lensanya menggunakan lensa Panasonic 25mm f1.7 yang harga barunya 3jt, bekasnya bisa di kisaran 2-2.5 juta

Lensa lain yang dipakai adalah Panasonic 14mm f2.5 untuk flat lay

This photos here are taken with the entry level and very old Panasonic GF3

It's only available secondhand around $140

The lenses used are panasonic 25mm f1.7, which costs around $250

another lens for the flatlay is the Panasonic 14mm f2.5

Small Comparison of Fuji X100T, Sony A7ii and Panasonic GF3

Neighbors Cafe - Taken with Fuji X100T

Neighbors Cafe - Taken with Sony A7

Neighbors Cafe - Taken with Panasonic GF3 

Neighbors Cafe - Taken with Panasonic GF3

Sony A7 ii with Sigma art 85mm vs Olympus EM10 with Olympus 45mm f1.8

Saya tidak tuliskan harga keduanya di awal, supaya pembaca bisa mengamati dahulu hasil fotonya tanpa bias.

Kedua foto ini diambil ketika kita sedang menyelesaikan job endorsement dari Hevn Cake (yang enak dan worth to try btw :D)

Dua kamera ini dipasangkan bergantian di tripod yang sama, karena keduanya memiliki focal length yang mirip, jadi saya tidak merubah posisi tripod.

I don't want to mention the price of this camera and lenses yet, so you can make an unbiased comparison of this camera systems.

Both camera were tripod mounted, the effective focal length were roughly the same, 85mm and 90mm (45x2) so I decided not to move the tripod.

I believe this one is Olympus

and judging from the bokeh, This is Sigma & Sony A7 ii

Kalau pembaca lebih suka dengan hasilnya Sigma dan Sony menurut saya wajar (atau lebih suka Olympus? bisa komen di bawah kalau berbeda)

Tapi harganya yang perlu dimasukkan pertimbangan, yang bedanya cukup banyak

Saya lebih hafal harga bekas kedua barang ini, jadi berikut saya coba beri perkiraannya

Now, naturally you would choose the Sigma & Sony combination (or not? let me know on the comment)
But what is staggering is the price difference you'd have to factor in.

I'm more familiar with second hand prices of this items, so let me give you a rough estimate on them

• Sigma 85mm Art for Canon (adapted to sony) : Rp 14.000.000

• Sony A7 II : Rp 13.000.000

• Total Rp 27.000.000

🤑

• Olympus EM10 :  Rp 4.500.000

• Olympus 45mm f1.8 : Rp 2.800.000

• Total Rp 7.300.000

👻😮

Another shot of Hevn Cake's Zuz for you (Em1 & Nocticron lens)

Jadi untuk hasil yang tidak terlalu beda jauh tersebut, beda harganya adalah 1 : 4 saudara-saudara 

Ini masih ditambah beberapa hal lain seperti fitur AF di Olympus lebih cepat, ISnya lebih baik (mungkin karena sensornya kecil jadi tidak ribet) dan bobot yang jauh lebih ringan. 🤭

Tapi jangan semata-mata dinilai dari hasil ini saja ya, tidak berarti Sony kamera yang terlalu mahal, karena untuk fitur yang didapat, Sony menurut saya sangat worth it.
Foto ini diambil dalam kondisi cahaya ideal, andai malam, tentu hasilnya tidak bakal semirip ini, Sony unggul untuk low light dan dynamic rangenya 

So for that similar shots, you have a price difference of 1 to 4

Price aside, you still uses a smaller body, with faster af and better IS (probably due to the smaller m43 sensor)  🤭

But don't make this comparison as an excuse to bash Sony, they do make one of the best Full Frame camera system, with a competitive price too.

Also note that this shot were taken during daytime with plenty of sun light. It would be a very difference case, if the shot were taken during the night. Sony have plenty of edge on low light ISO performance, and dynamic range.

Sleeping on business trip - Panasonic GF7 and Panasonic Leica 25mm f1.4

Sekian pengalaman saya tentang M43, moga-moga membantu pembaca yang bingung menentukan kamera yang ingin dibeli di masa mendatang.
Menurut selera pribadi saya, untuk budget di kisaran 5-10 juta, M43 masih menjadi pilihan terbaik

So that's my experience on using my beloved M43 system. Hope it would provide you with information for your next camera purchase.

For someone with a budget around $400 to $800, I found m43 to be the best option in the market.

What about The Much Loved FUJI Cameras?

Bakso Ajis - Taken with Fuji XT2 and Fuji 56mm f1.2

Untuk pembaca yang ingin tahu lebih banyak tentang perbandingan mirrorless Sony dan Fuji, bisa dibaca di dua artikel ini.
https://www.foodgrapher.com/2015/07/pilih-mana-fuji-vs-sony.htm
https://www.foodgrapher.com/2016/03/fuji-vs-sony-real-world-comparison.html

Selama 1-2 bulan sempat mencoba pakai XT2 dengan lensa Fuji 16mm f1.4 (favorit), 56mm f1.2 dan 35mm f2, tapi pada akhirnya untuk selera pribadi tetap lebih cocok dengan sistem M43 dan Sony.


You've reached the end of article about M43 cameras. If you're still curious about other brand namely Fuji and Sony, I've written an In Depth comparison, and also a real world image quality shoot out. You can peruse them on this article links below : 
https://www.foodgrapher.com/2015/07/pilih-mana-fuji-vs-sony.html
https://www.foodgrapher.com/2016/03/fuji-vs-sony-real-world-comparison.html

This year I've used and owned Fuji XT2 for a few month, with lenses like 16mm f1.4 (my fave), 56mm f1.2 and 35mm f2, but in the end found M43 and Sony system to be more suited for my taste.