My camera is a micro 4/3rds camera!?

It’s important to understand foundations before you create art or read about cameras. Please check out my "Intro into photography" post if you don't understand what focal length, aperture, dslr, exposure, fstop, sensor, 4k video, sensor means. Thanks!

    Digital photography is one part gear, one part visual, and one part communication. To fully master this craft, you need an understanding of all 3. You can make spontaneous great images without understanding why. But when you are forced into a studio situation or given a specific client goal, it becomes tremendously harder if u don't know what your gear can do. This post is my attempt at giving you guys a background about the type of “DSLR” camera that I am currently shooting with and how does that affects my images.

    I’m shooting on a Panasonic g85 which has a Micro 4/3 cropped sensor camera. There are 3 main consumer "DSLR" formats Micro 4/3 cropped sensor cameras, APSC cropped sensor cameras, and full-frame cameras.  Traditionally, focal lengths and depth of field are related to a full frame format which dates back to the film days before digital cameras.

    Panasonic and Olympus swap-able lens cameras have Micro 4/3 sensors and use micro 4/3 lenses. They won't be able to  use APSC or full frame camera lenses out of the box. Sony, Nikon, Canon, and recently Pentax sell full  frame cameras. Olympus, Panasonic, and Fujifilm specialize in cropped sensor bodies. And Olympus and Panasonic specialize solely on Micro 4/3 sensor camera bodies. Fujifilm specializes in APSC camera bodies. Fujifilm, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony sell cropped sensor APSC bodies as well.

    Since the sensors for Panasonic and Olympus are ¼ the size of a  full frame dslr, that means an effective focal length’s angle of view is actually doubled in relation to the actual focal length on the lens. The Effective depth of field is also doubled. The light gathering in the aperture remains the same.

    What that means is that you need lenses with wider apertures (aka smaller fstop numbers) to get the same result as a big full frame camera. You won't get a juicy blurry background with a f2.8 aperture on a Micro 4/3’s camera. So for example in a "full-frame" dslr, A 50mm lens would be a 50mm lens. On a Micro 4/3 camera like the Panasonics or Olympuses, a 50mm would have the "look" of a 100mm lens.

    Now you’re thinking, "Why would you want to confuse yourself and get less defocused backgrounds and have to double your focal lengths?" "Doesn't having a nice defocused background help separate your subject from the environment?" Well, Panasonic and Olympus offers other benefits that most leading mid-priced full-frame cameras don't offer, such as, stabilization in the camera body for video, 4k video capabilities, slow-motion video shooting, cheaper pricing, cheaper priced lenses, smaller form factor, and being an open source lens format that allows for a huge offering of lenses developed natively, by 3rd parties, and being able to ADAPT full frame or APSC lenses with an adapter. They simply can be great generalists for a lower cost! You don't need to lug around a 10 pound camera and lens setup to take selfies and photos on your vacation. But, that doesn't necessarily mean that your camera wouldn't be capable of creating amazing professional looking photos.

   In the photography world, there are different tools to do different jobs. Haveing the most expensive stills camera doesn't mean it will produce the best video. Having someone who doesn't understand composition wont make their work look amazing with $5000.00 worth of gear. The highest image quality is achieved only/usually when you harmonize technical, artistic, and communication skills.

*Disclaimer: the images in this post were found online via google searching.