The old 16mp m4/3 sensor

[nzmacro]

Megapixels is an interesting one for sure and look at how far we have come.

An example from many years ago. I was asked to do milk drops for an advertising company in Indonesia of all places. This was the days before all the fancy water drops we see now days, so this was fairly new at the time. I was using A Sony CD-1000 which Sony called a 2.1mp sensor and they got in trouble over that because it was actually a 1.9mp sensor. Yeah I know, Oh wow! Film was still the main medium used for advertising at that time, but I had to try with me being me.

So I submitted a shot and was told, sorry but the image is a bit small. Well that was easy, I just resized it up and saved it as a TIF. Ahhh that's much better To my surprise it worked. Otherwise I would have just gone back to K25 with the Canon T90 and strobes.

Anyway, from a 1.9 MP 1/2.7" sensor

So you don't need fancy, you only need what they want or what we want.

Danny.

 

[Pete_W]

Might be, likely the higher DR of 20Mp sensor would be the reason behind? I have no 20Mp model to compare.
I suppose 20Mp sensor models might need less of the above to work with? It doesn't bother me too much since by the end we have to be adaptive at some points.

You might be right, I am not great at the technicalities and I'm just an average amateur photographer, so if a camera has more leeway in making up for my lack of skill in getting the settings right, that's a win for me! It's why I am having greater success with the FF Panasonic S5 - the shooting envelope provides a lot more scope for me in challenging light and scenes.

 

[nzmacro]

You might be right, I am not great at the technicalities and I'm just an average amateur photographer, so if a camera has more leeway in making up for my lack of skill in getting the settings right, that's a win for me! It's why I am having greater success with the FF Panasonic S5 - the shooting envelope provides a lot more scope for me in challenging light and scenes.

Good point Pete and that's where the different sized sensors come into their own. I have pulled back highlights very well with m4/3 in motorsports and birds, but not the shadows as much. With the 61 mp Sony sensor it does have a lot of leeway, but it also comes with issues of it's own. You better have excellent lenses on it and it's totally unforgiving if you make mistakes and man, do I make enough of those. It can crop like crazy, but if something is slightly wrong, it just magnifies the issue. Whereas with m4/3 it's already cropped well and the 20mp sensor does well. But yes, FF does have that extra latitude when it comes to DR. The 24-32mp FF sensors are much more forgiving in FF.

Megapixels and sensor size is a funny beast and each has benefits the others don't have. Maybe diminishing returns even.

 

[Pete_W]

But yes, FF does have that extra latitude when it comes to DR. The 24-32mp FF sensors are much more forgiving in FF.

Megapixels and sensor size is a funny beast and each has benefits the others don't have. Maybe diminishing returns even.

Yes, thanks Danny.

I'm enjoying the 24Mp FF sensor in the S5 and can't really see me needing any more for my basic photography,

 

[MNE9476]

I have a 16Mp E-M10 II and a 20Mp M-1 II and I use them about the same amount of time ,,, maybe a little more with the M-10 II. The differences important to me don't really have to do with the sensor. The 16Mp is still serving me well.

Your bird photos are wonderfully fantastic!

 

[PentUp]

Just going through an old folder here with bird shots and old Canon tele lenses with the E-M10 (original) and the E-M1. The 16mp sensor was and IMO still are excellent. No doubt some of my best shots have come from those two cameras and the 16mp sensor.

Yes, nice to have the m4/3 20mp sensor for sure and maybe even the GH6 26mp new sensor, but those old sensors can still hold their own today.

So a few shots from the 16mp sensors

Nothing wrong with those photos at all mate. they are superb!
And the 16mp sensors were fantastic. I love the 16pm images that my Pentax K5II could produce. The AF wasn't much to write home about. But the image quality was good.

 

[Adrian Harris]

Just going through an old folder here with bird shots and old Canon tele lenses with the E-M10 (original) and the E-M1. The 16mp sensor was and IMO still are excellent. No doubt some of my best shots have come from those two cameras and the 16mp sensor.

Yes, nice to have the m4/3 20mp sensor for sure and maybe even the GH6 26mp new sensor, but those old sensors can still hold their own today.

So a few shots from the 16mp sensors


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Always fun looking back on the older sensors and I did start with the 12mp m4/3 sensors. There was a difference there for sure, but I think a lot of it progressed with new tech being done besides just the mp.

All the best folks and just an old fart reminiscing over the older sensors is all.

Danny.

Danny these are truly wonderful images, they are beautiful and the quality is fabulous. But I have a feeling that you would be able to take fantastic images even with an old Box Brownie

 

[nzmacro]

Danny these are truly wonderful images, they are beautiful and the quality is fabulous. But I have a feeling that you would be able to take fantastic images even with an old Box Brownie

Good to see you here Adrian, the more I see the more it feels like it could become home

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Try the free FastStone. The resize feature (a button and set the resize parameters, e.g. 50% etc) could quickly resize an image for posting here while the IQ would not be degraded too much (at 100% view).

Thanks Albert, I have been using a program called Thumbs+ (Cerious Software) for many years - it is an excellent multi-purpose album program with a bucket-load of tools. Included is a pretty good re-sizer which has all bells and whistles. I just need to brush up on using it. My first image was only about 50 pixels over so I thought i would wing it through but the gateway was up to the test. So I fiddled around for a while just trying to shave a tiny bit off. The next one was over 18Mb and needed more drastic surgery so I was trying percentage adjustments with it. I am sure that I will get use to it. The Thumbs+ routine is excellent and quick and I can use quite a few different methods as well - perhaps that is the issue. I have not had to re-size images for a while, I will get used to it.

 

[nzmacro]

Thumbs+ is an unusual one Tom. Not many people even know about it. Used it for around ...... 20 odd years now. Excellent for setting up html folders for websites. One very versatile program.

Danny.