What Is A Micro Four Thirds Camera Explained In Less Than 10 Minutes

Hi everybody. Welcome to Episode 52 of the Photography Explained podcast.

I’m your host Rick McEvoy and I explain one photographic thing per episode in plain English in less that 10 minutes without the irrelevant detail. I have well over 30 years of experience in photography so I do know what I am talking about!

In this episode - What Is A Micro Four Thirds Camera?

Here is my answer
A micro four thirds (MFT) camera is a mirrorless camera which has a smaller sensor size than full frame and cropped sensor cameras. The micro four thirds system was created by Olympus and Panasonic, and shares a common lens mount available to third party manufacturers. MFT cameras are generally smaller and lighter than other mirrorless and DLSR cameras, and are an excellent alternative providing high quality imagery.

Listen for more, or check out the transcript and even the blog post - so many ways to find out more!

What’s next?
Episode 53 - What Is A Cropped Sensor Camera Explained In Less Than 10 Minutes

Transcript

What is a Micro Four Thirds camera explained in less than 10 minutes? Hi everybody. Welcome to Episode 52 of photography explained podcast. Easy for me to say.

I'm your host Rick and in each episode I will explain one photographic thing in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. I explain things in just enough detail to help you and I without photography.

What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience, not Google.

Right, let's go straight into it.

But no, before we do that, I hope that my podcast finds you well, this one, which is being recorded just after the Easter break, on a nice sunny day here in England. I’ll work on that one needs a bit of polishing, doesn't it?

Right then what is a Micro Four Thirds camera explained in less than 10 minutes?

Here is my answer. This is the written down bit or as I like to call it the answery bit.

A Micro Four Thirds (MFT) camera is a mirrorless camera which has a smaller sensor size than full frame and cropped sensor cameras. The Micro Four Thirds system was created by Olympus and Panasonic and shares a common lens mount available to third party manufacturers. MFT cameras are generally smaller and lighter than other mirrorless and DSLR cameras, and are an excellent alternative providing high quality imagery.

Not cropped sensor cameras
Now on a point of order here, I haven't included Micro Four Thirds cameras, which I'm going to call MFT from now on because I've got a better chance of saying MFT correctly rather than micro four thirds. I haven't included these as crop sensor cameras for a reason.

We've got three different main types of consumer cameras

• Full frame
• Crop sensor
• Micro four thirds.

Now some people refer to micro four thirds as a crop sensor. I don't - I refer to it as Micro Four Thirds as a separate system distinct from cropped sensor cameras, which I will cover in the next episode.

I use a Micro Four Thirds camera
It's the Olympus EM5 Mk 2, or to give it its full title the Olympus OM-D EM 5 Mark 2 – why don’t they just call them Bob or Eric or something. I don't know.

I use this camera for my travel and personal photography work. 

And I have to tell you here now, I love it. Let's explain what it's all about then.

So first thing, how big is the sensor?
Now the sensor is the bit that records the image. And this is the main but not the only differentiation. (good use of that word - glad I said it). It's not the only thing that sets these different systems apart.

But it is a fundamental one, and for me is the logical starting point, as the other things fall out of that.

More about sensor size
In episode eight of my podcast, I did go through the different camera sensor sizes - this is so significant that it made it on to episode 8, but now we're just going with micro four thirds.

So I'm saying so far too often.

Sensor sizes quickly

• A full frame camera has a sensor, which is 36 millimetres wide by 24 millimetres high.
• A Micro Four Thirds camera has a sensor which is 18 millimetres wide by 13.5 millimetres high.

It's considerably smaller. It's a lot smaller, isn't it?

Does this matter?
It's one of those isn't it, whichever answer I give here somebody will be able to criticise and disagree with it, which is fine. This is after all my opinion.

And I'm trying to tell you the things you need to know that will help you so the general rule of thumb is this.

The larger the sensor, the better the quality of images that you capture.

That's the general rule.

So in theory a full frame camera takes better or higher quality pictures than a Micro Four Thirds camera.

Now let's not forget
You can take great photos with an average camera and you can take rubbish photos with the best camera on the planet.

Best camera doesn't equal best photo - how you take the photo is much, much more important. You can get great photos with a Micro Four Thirds camera. Of course you can they pack a load of technology software and processing which helps and there's quite a few other little tricks.

My Olympus EM5
I think I might have to do an episode on my EM5 – I am not being paid to do that (by the way). I bought it myself. I have tried to get some support from Olympus, but I think I was a bit too subtle!

So what does Micro Four Thirds actually mean?
Sorry for the dramatic pause there. The honest answer is, I don't know. And even more honest, I don't care. Understanding this won't help me with my photography.

It's just another of the baffling terms that we have to navigate our way through in photography. I'm sure there's a simple explanation for it, but I'm not bothered. Let's get on to things that do matter.

Crop factor
Going back to a full frame camera, you put a 50mm lens on a full frame camera, and that gives you what I call a standard view, as in, it's the same focal length as the human eye.

What you're seeing through the lens is pretty much what you see through your eyes, it's the same kind of thing.

Now, you put a 50mm lens on a Micro Four Thirds camera, and you get an effective focal length of 100mm, which is telephoto.

To get the same standard view, you would need to get a 25mm focal length lens, when you multiply that by the crop factor of two, that gives you the (effective focal length) of 50mm.

Big difference, a fundamental difference between the cameras.

Depth of field
Next one more baffling than anything, I need to work on this, one depth of field. You get more depth of field with a Micro Four Thirds camera.

I still can't get my head around this.

But luckily I'm not losing any sleep over the why - I don’t like that losing sleep over the why.

So the crop factor. Now this this is Google research because I didn't know this. Apparently, F2 on a Micro Four Thirds camera gives an effective depth of field, which is the same as f4 on a full frame camera.

So you can apply the crop factor to depth of field and aperture.

Do we want to do that? No. What I know is the photos I take with my micro four thirds camera and the photos I take with my Canon 6D.

I don't worry about this.

Confused? Yes, I certainly am. But let's move on.

Cheaper
Micro four thirds cameras are in general terms cheaper than cameras with larger sensors. The main reason is that sensors are quite expensive. So the bigger the sensor, the more it costs. Now when you scale down the sensor from full frame to micro four thirds, you scaling down, well not everything else, but a lot else gets smaller and smaller is cheaper.

Are they fiddly to use?
Now one thing I haven't put on my notes is this - are they fiddly to use? I have to say I don't find my Olympus as easy to use as a Canon 6D if I'm being brutally honest with you.

But then again, I've been using my Canon 6D day in day out for years and, I do not use my Micro Four Thirds camera as much.

I'm pretty sure I've never thought, oh it's a bit of a pain, it’s a bit fiddly, the buttons are too small or anything - I've never actually thought that.

I've never thought about this until now to be honest with you. But now they're not fiddly, they might look it as there's lots of buttons and stuff, but it's never been a problem.

In some ways. I quite like that. Well, I like the compactness of it certainly. So I'm not finding a problem with it being smaller.

Pocket sized?
And one of the massive, massive benefits is this. I've got a 12-42mm lens (that's 24-84mm in full frame terms).

Pancake time
And it's a pancake lens. If I put that on my EM 5, I can actually put that camera in a pocket. I also have an EM10, which is the smaller version, which certainly will go in a pocket with that little lens on it.

One of the (not a myth), but one of the realities of micro four thirds cameras is yeah, the body is smaller. But when you put something like I've got, a 12-40mm lens, which is my day to day use lens, you put that on the front, you're not getting that in your pocket. It's a lump of metal, let's be honest with you.

So are they any good?
I think yes, is my considered answer. Let me justify that. Now I've done a lot of architectural photography shoots for the same client. Now one shoot, I used an Olympus EM1 Mk 2, with the (wonderful) Olympus 7-14mm f 2.8 Zuiko Pro jewel of a lens.

It's a stunner and it gets me down to 14mm in full frame equivalent, which is actually wider than the 17mm on my Canon lens.

Working with MFT
So I did the shoot, I used the high res mode. And I actually took the photos in JPEG by mistake. I got back, I couldn't find the raw files. I'm not gonna say where, I don't want to because nobody knows this. It was an interior space that was being handed over for use by the public. So it was a one off opportunity to photograph it.

One off opportunity, it couldn't afford to get it wrong.

Anyway, I took the photos in JPEG by mistake using the high res mode. By the way, that's where it takes eight photos and throws them all together somehow - I don't understand that either (but it is ace). I issued them (the photos) to the client who has seen many, many sets of photos taken with a Canon 6D shot in raw.

And you know what?

Nobody knew. Nobody noticed. Nobody said anything.

How we view photos
As we're actually viewing these photos, which is predominantly for commercial work, now it's on a screen, it's on a monitor - can you tell the difference?

You genuinely can't.

Now if you blow these photos up, I'm sure you will see a difference. You know, you blow them up to A3, or A2, yep, you'll lose quality quicker with a smaller sensor compared to a larger one.

But who does this? Let's be honest with you. I don't. My clients don't.

So yeah, nobody noticed. And if I did it again, I'm sure nobody would notice or care.

MFT cameras are great
Really the photos you get with micro four thirds cameras are great. People will tell you, the bigger the sensor, the better the photos and that's absolutely true. But with this small, technologically advanced camera system, you can get great photos.

So what do you do?
Well, that's what I do. I use both. I use my full frame camera for my architectural photography work, and I use my Micro Four Thirds camera for travel and personal work.

Where did this come from?
How did I get into Micro Four Thirds? Well, basically, we were on holiday in Greece, and I took my Canon 6D, lenses, you name it, blah, blah, blah. And I found that I couldn't be bothered on holiday getting the camera out of the boot (not boat) to take photos. I did for a sunrise because that was different, but for general day to day stuff I was using my iPhone more and I wanted something a bit better than the iPhone.

And that's how I started looking at smaller cameras and ended up going with the Olympus EM10 to start with. The first photo I took with that is a lovely photo.

I then upgraded to an M5 Mk 2 two which is slightly bigger, which is great.

Olympus EM1 Mk 2

I've tried an EM Mark 2, which Olympus (kindly) lent me which was brilliant and I loved it. So yeah, don't be put off by the size of the camera. You can get great photos with a Micro Four Thirds camera.

I have spoken much longer than my script.

Here is my one line summary
Micro four thirds cameras are a great option if you want a smaller camera, but you can still get great quality photos as long as you know how to use the camera.

Next Episode - 53 - What is a cropped sensor camera?
What is a cropped sensor camera explained in less than 10 minutes? That was me falling foul of the lack ability of reading, that was me failing to speak what I was reading – I can’t do two things at once. Okay, things you can do to help me

You might not want to after that little bit of bumbling which wasn't great was it? If you enjoyed this episode and you want to help me please leave a nice review and rating wherever you get your podcast from, subscribe so you don't miss an episode and share my podcast with anyone who you think might enjoy it.

Thank you
Thank you for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast, check out Rick McEvoy Photography to find out about me and the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out all about my podcast what I'm going to answer, and ask me a question.

This episode was brought to you very much by the power of me stumbling over my words and I've gone over time.

Apologies for that I've been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again for very thanks again. Let's do that again.

I've been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me nearly 15 minutes of your valuable time and I'll see you on the next episode, which will be shorter.

Cheers from me, Rick.