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Re: [OM] 4/3 format is lousy for portraits - dof

Subject: Re: [OM] 4/3 format is lousy for portraits - dof
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2015 13:22:45 -0400
It is a perfectly lovely portrait and no doubt much better than I could do or even have imagined. But I do wish you would refrain from claiming that I said 4/3 format is lousy for portraits and that a photo such as yours is impossible. I never said any such thing but did say that getting a shallow depth of field was more difficult than full-frame.

The thing that raised the question in the first place was an upper body shot at 50mm from 10 feet and a head/shoulders shot at 50mm from 5 feet. I was complaining that neither of the 4 *native* lenses I own have either the appropriate focal length or a sufficiently large aperture to do shallow depth of field at those distances. I also own four 50mm OMZs but it was my choice not to use manual lenses. You've chosen a clever way to defeat a problem but you've chosen to solve a different problem that doesn't meet my original requirement.

Jim says: "It's all in one's choice of the lens. The sensor size really plays very little part in this." Well, the sensor size plays a very large part in this. It dictates a focal length only 1/2 that for full-frame for a given angle of coverage which, in turn, dictates a 2-stop larger aperture for a given depth of field. I don't have those 2-stop larger apertures other than my old Zuikos.

Chuck Norcutt


On 4/12/2015 10:55 AM, Ken Norton wrote:
Chuck,

Here is an example of why you can't use 4/3 for portraiture. You just
can't get a narrow DoF.

http://zone-10.com/cmsm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=506&Itemid=1

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