Der Kommentar von Michael H. Reichmann sagt alles:

Four Thirds

People seem to get so much pleasure out of it when I'm wrong. If that's the case then I must give a lot of pleasure, because I'm frequently wrong. Who isn't sometimes?

If I was wrong all the time my opinions as a critic wouldn't be worth much. But, fortunately for me, I'm right more often that I'm wrong, so as long as my batting average remains above 500 I'll keep doing what I do.

Back when the Olympus E-1first came out I opined that the 4/3 format was an evolutionary dead end. I appear to have been wrong.

It does look as if it will survive after all, especially now that Panasonic has climbed aboard. What's happened as well is that we've come to a point where about 8MP is sufficient for most amateur needs, and Olympus et al have been able to get decent image quality from small sensors with this high pixel density.

The problem that Olympus had initially, in my opinion, is that they aimed the E1 at the pro market. A few pros adapted it early on, but as the competition produced cameras with larger and higher quality sensors Olympus had problems with their marketing approach. Since they've since segued over to the consumer side they've done much better.

Pros need files, much of the time, which are larger than 4/3rd cameras can provide, even at 8MP. The big stock agencies demand minimum 11MP files, and some like Getty have stated a 16MP minimum for the past couple of years, though now will accept very high quality images with somewhat lesser pixel counts. Ad agencies need to be able to handle double page spreads and still allow for cropping. Most find that anything less than about 11-12MP starts to hurt when this is done.

This says nothing negative about 4/3rd cameras other than the fact that they aren't suitable for some pro applications because they will always suffer from a smaller sensor. Any technology that improves image quality on a 2X sensor will be even better on a 1.3X or 1.5X or 1.6X, (let alone full frame). In the hands of amateurs, and even some pros like wedding and event photographers, they do a fine job though.

My concern though continues to be that the weight and size savings that were promised have failed to materialize. One look at the new Panasonic L1 makes that clear. And Olympus' lenses, though very high quality, are also high priced, which is problematic for the amateur market that they are now going after. The new Leica 4/3rd lenses aren't going to be inexpensive either.

So in the end 4/3rds isn't going away, and neither will 1.5x and 1.6X APS C sized sensors, nor will full frame. There's room for all. So, yes I was wrong. Won't be the last time either.

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