Equivalent Speed
The next toad to swallow (one more to come thereafter) is speed. Some may argue that the 150mm f/2.8 (MFT) and 200mm f/4 (APS-C) are faster than the 300mm f/5.6 full format lens. Well, this is true for the naked lens but it is actually a debatable observation when comparing the SAME OUTPUT QUALITY - that is by taking the camera into the equation again.
Let's assume that we have 3 different system cameras with 20 megapixels at ISO 200. I think we can agree on the fact that the image noise is best on the full format camera, followed by APS-C followed by Micro-Four-Thirds, right? Now ... what amount of increased image noise are we talking about here? There are, of course, variations due to different sensor technologies but let's assume for a moment that they all rely on the same ingredients. So ? Well, ISO 800 on full format will give you roughly the same image noise as ISO 400 (more like ISO 340 actually) on APS-C and ISO 200 on Micro-Four-Thirds. Or in other words - based on the same output quality - and this is the only thing that counts - full format has a 2 f-stops advantage over Micro-Four-Thirds and roughly 1 f-stop over APS-C. |