Among the Professionals with the Cheapest Mirrorless Camera

My Olympus link: https://my.olympus-consumer.com/gallery/m/eu/155576?GalleryPostSort=PostDate&idx=47&aid=275922

My story began in New York in autumn 2017 at Adorama's major photography expo.

It was the third year I had been lucky enough to attend this prestigious event and listen to presentations by some of the best photographers in the world. You can read elsewhere how I managed to make that happen.

That year's expo revolved heavily around mirrorless cameras — a subject that still divides professional photographers today.

I attended a presentation explaining that, because of the short flange distance, adapters make it possible to mount lenses from almost any manufacturer on these cameras.

The idea immediately fascinated me.

Perhaps one day I could buy a mirrorless body as a backup alongside my full-frame camera.

Still, I was so sceptical about the entire subject that by the following day I had already dismissed the idea.

A few weeks later, after returning home, I saw an advertisement for a Mirrorless Day at Tripont.

That was enough.

I went in enthusiastically and tested practically every camera in the category below HUF 200,000.

My future little machine had to satisfy quite a demanding list:

- With adapters, it needed to accept my full-frame lenses as well as my M42 Helios lens. - It had to reproduce what I saw with my own eyes as accurately as possible in terms of colour, dynamic range and detail. - Sensor-shift image stabilisation. - Acceptable noise up to ISO 1600. - Full manual control, just like on my DSLR — including the ability to calibrate display colour temperature and brightness. - A hot shoe. - Small size and high-quality construction. - Programmable buttons. - A display that remained colour-accurate and detailed in different conditions and offered 100% frame coverage. - A tilting or articulating screen for alternative viewpoints. - Strong performance both in studio and outdoors. - Good enough for professional work. - A classic rangefinder-style design.

I brought an iPad, memory card and card reader with me.

After all the tests, to my own surprise, the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL8 came closest to what I wanted.

The store, however, had it only in what I jokingly considered a “girly colour”, so I chose the previous generation instead — the four-year-old outgoing E-PL7.

In the end, I did not regret it.

It was cheaper too, and I thought that if I hated it, at least I would lose less money.

I ordered the adapters I needed:

an M42-to-Micro-Four-Thirds adapter and an EOS-to-Micro-Four-Thirds adapter.

Then I began getting to know the camera.

I carried it everywhere because its tiny size meant it could fit almost anywhere.

At first, focusing and controlling the camera through the rear screen felt strange.

I kept telling myself:

It's only a toy. Don't expect too much from it.

Then came the first serious test:

an artistic nude shoot using Lume Cube lights.

I photographed with a manual 7artisans 25mm f/1.8 lens ordered from eBay.

I was nervous about whether I would see anything at all on the display in such low light — and how I would focus manually.

The magnification function turned out to be extremely useful.

I could enlarge the live view five times, and to my astonishment I managed to create perfectly sharp photographs rich in colour and detail.

You can see those images in the related article.

That may have been the point where something clicked in my head.

I began wondering how much more I could get out of such a tiny camera.

The thing I missed most was a viewfinder.

So I started looking for ways to solve that problem.

I found two alternatives.

One was Olympus's own electronic viewfinder, the VF-4, which fits into the hot shoe.

The other was a video loupe mounted over the rear display.

There are many versions of those available.

I chose the second solution for several reasons.

With roughly 3× magnification, the display feels as though I am watching the scene on a huge television.

That makes composition very easy in almost any lighting.

When I activate 5× magnification, I can still see everything clearly and in detail, which makes accurate manual focusing possible.

Held to the eye, the loupe also gives the camera much more stable support.

And because the rear screen itself tilts, the combination remains highly usable at unusual angles.

It almost feels as though the viewfinder itself were articulating.

I absolutely love it.

And in studio I can still use the hot shoe for my flash trigger because the loupe does not occupy it.

Most exciting of all, the display reproduces reality remarkably well in almost every situation.

I tried to demonstrate that in the mobile-phone photograph below.

With this solution, I could finally work comfortably in the studio as well.

And the image quality speaks for itself.

At this point I thought:

Fine, perhaps it creates beautiful photographs in this environment. But let's start pushing its limits.

The results seemed almost unbelievable from what was, after all, an entry-level camera.

The real love affair began when I photographed inside a forest hotel with the kit lens in fully automatic mode and JPEG format.

The scene contained several light sources with different colour temperatures.

Despite those far-from-ideal conditions, the automatic system reproduced the colours and tonal relationships extremely well.

Using the same basic approach, I also made an outdoor night photograph during a blue-moon evening.

Even there, detail remained clearly visible.

What impressed me most was that these were essentially straight-out-of-camera files and still looked remarkably good.

From then on, I constantly searched for challenges of different levels so I could test the camera further.

It is true that it lacks several functions a professional photographer may need for everyday work.

But this was already a four-year-old entry-level body.

Its newer successor, the Olympus PEN E-PL9, had by then received the latest-generation image processor also used in Olympus's flagship OM-D E-M1 Mark II.

I mentioned earlier that one of my favourite M42 lenses is the ZENIT HELIOS-M44-6 58mm f/2.0.

Yes, it distorts and vignettes toward the edges.

But because the Micro Four Thirds format has a 2× crop factor, that 58mm lens gives the field of view of approximately 116mm on full frame while retaining its f/2.0 aperture.

It offers a broad creative range.

With a macro attachment, it can even produce roughly 1:1 reproduction.

That was when I finally decided to start using RAW as well.

I had never even heard of the .ORF extension and was curious which of my programs would support it.

Then came another surprise.

Not only did all my iPad and iPhone applications handle the format automatically, even good old Picasa could open it — and Picasa, for example, had never been particularly fond of Nikon RAW files.

That was all the encouragement I needed.

I set myself the goal of reproducing in the photographs what I actually saw in reality.

From that point, I began developing my images from RAW.

For anyone interested, beyond the examples below there is also a gallery containing more photographs made with this inexpensive Zenit lens.

Before long, I found myself wanting to use this tiny camera in more and more situations.

The first native Olympus digital lens I bought was the M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8.

On full frame, that gives approximately a 50mm-equivalent field of view.

You can buy sophisticated electronic adapters that transfer EXIF data and even autofocus information when using lenses from other systems.

But in some cases, third-party lenses can only approach the image quality of lenses designed specifically for the Micro Four Thirds format.

Naturally the Zuiko lenses have an advantage because they were engineered precisely for this system.

The 25mm f/1.8 is a bright, highly versatile general-purpose lens with which I could create in almost any situation.

It was less ideal for portraits at greater distance because it did not separate the subject from the background strongly enough for what I wanted.

Among the photographs below is one made inside the Hungarian Parliament at f/1.8.

Despite that aperture, detail remains convincing throughout the image.

The photograph was created directly as JPEG.

That was the point when I realised the lens had not been an unnecessary investment.

Price-wise, it competed with Canon's 50mm f/1.4 — a full-frame-compatible lens with an even brighter nominal aperture.

The two lenses are not far apart in overall image quality, but for my purposes the M.Zuiko leads.

Canon's 50mm f/1.4 is widely known for significant chromatic aberration, while with the M.Zuiko I found practically none.

Of course, Canon had already been manufacturing that design for more than fifteen years, whereas the Olympus lens was much newer.

Modern software can correct many of these issues.

But in professional work, these parameters matter to me because I always try to get as close to perfection as possible.

If I want optical distortion, I prefer to mount a lens that gives me that distortion intentionally.

I do not want to create everything later in post-production.

I like the image to look the way I want at the moment I press the shutter.

Once I saw the image quality, I wanted to use the Olympus PEN Lite in even more situations.

I no longer thought of it as an entry-level camera.

I began to see it as a remarkably effective image-making tool that helped me communicate almost exactly what I was seeing — all in a tiny body.

By May, around six months after buying it, I was back in New York for an exhibition project.

I decided to photograph some of my favourite parts of the city with the Olympus too.

I realised I was missing two things:

a useful telephoto zoom and the eternal classic — a fisheye.

I was determined.

I visited a second-hand camera store and found a second-generation M.Zuiko 40–150mm f/4.0–5.6 R telephoto zoom and an M.Zuiko 9mm f/8.0 fisheye body-cap lens.

With those added, I could cover almost everything I wanted for street photography.

Thanks to the five-axis sensor stabilisation, at maximum telephoto I could use shutter speeds as slow as 1/15 sec handheld.

That genuinely impressed me.

Even more important, however, was the image quality.

Both lenses produced surprisingly convincing, detailed photographs.

My photographer colleagues in New York did not believe it when we viewed the files on a 27-inch iMac.

But the EXIF data did not lie.

Do I really need more?

I asked myself.

Of course, in the megapixel race this camera would lose.

Its Micro Four Thirds sensor offers only around 17 megapixels.

But if I think about it honestly — and I almost hesitate to say it — that is actually more than enough for most everyday uses.

First, here are some of my favourite photographs made with the telephoto.

The most unusual one for me is the first image, photographed through the window of the aeroplane on the journey home during mild turbulence.

My Olympus link: https://my.olympus-consumer.com/gallery/m/eu/153806?GalleryPostSort=PostDate&idx=94&aid=275922

At first glance, the fixed-f/8 9mm fisheye looked almost like a toy.

It is about the size of a mobile-phone lens.

It has two focus positions:

roughly 20 cm and infinity.

Honestly, I did not expect much.

Only the test results I had seen convinced me to spend around HUF 30,000 on it.

After just a few exposures, however, there was no question:

It had been an excellent purchase.

Another star appeared on the imaginary rating wall of my little creative system.

The images below show why.

Looking back, by this point I was already proudly creating with my slightly unusual-looking camera.

This may also have been when I decided to write an article about it.

My students kept telling me:

If you do not have a huge camera, nobody takes you seriously in this country.

I wanted to challenge that assumption.

Again, I emphasise:

This Olympus body was an entry-level model and already discontinued.

Every newer camera in Olympus's mirrorless range should therefore be at least as capable, while each one also adds its own features.

By then, my commitment was complete.

I loved creating with the camera.

And I reached the point where I increasingly began replacing my DSLR with it.

Only one thing was still missing before I could truly work with it professionally:

a native Olympus lens suitable for portrait photography.

I had two strong alternatives.

The M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8.

Or the M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 Macro.

Because I already owned a roughly 60mm lens — my Zenit Helios, which could also perform nicely with a macro attachment — I chose the brighter 45mm Zuiko.

That completed my lens kit.

One of the things I loved most was that the entire system — camera, lenses, charger and video loupe — fit inside a relatively small camera bag.

But was it genuinely suitable for serious work?

For me, the answer is in the photographs.

It worked.

I had never really bonded with my cameras before.

I had never experienced what a painter might feel about a favourite brush — the sense of having a creative partner with which something more can emerge than either could create alone.

Now I finally had that feeling.

And it made me genuinely happy.

I had already been working in photography for close to twenty years.

When you truly love photography, you always need something that keeps inspiration alive.

Here is my complete lens kit, including the M42 Zenit lens shown mounted on the camera in the opening photograph.

I also considered lens hoods important for every lens so that I could control stray light as effectively as possible.

For portrait photography, that matters a great deal to me.

At other times I deliberately search for flare because it can give an image a distinctive atmosphere.

I only needed one professional 46mm ND filter because, with step rings, I could use it on all the lenses.

That also meant the camera's maximum shutter speed of 1/4000 sec was not a problem even when I wanted to work wide open.

The built-in colour-filter effect can also be useful when I want to isolate a single colour while leaving the rest of the scene black and white.

So what can the 45mm lens really do?

With the 2× crop factor, it gives roughly the angle of view of a 90mm f/1.8 lens on full frame.

It can create excellent portrait images even in weak light.

It focuses quickly and accurately.

It separates the subject from the background beautifully.

If I remember correctly, an Olympus commercial once described this kind of bokeh as the future trend.

I personally still adore the character of older lenses too.

Different tastes.

To close, I would say that the Olympus PEN Lite did not become only a perfect travel companion for me.

Based on everything above, I can confidently say that in certain areas it also became a genuinely effective professional tool.

As mentioned, I now work exclusively in RAW.

For processing I use Luminar 2018 because it gives me the greatest creative freedom, and I handle noise reduction with Noiseless.

In summary:

For quite some time, my full-frame camera had mainly become something I used for work.

Because of its size, I could not always carry it with me.

With this tiny, classically styled mirrorless camera, by contrast, I felt that I was genuinely creating again.

So much so that today, at a parliamentary press conference, I was brave enough to photograph the press and advertising material for Hungary's 2018 “Bread of the Country” presentation using the Olympus PEN Lite and M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8.

Natural light.

Handheld.

Here are a few unofficial photographs. :)

Now that I have finally written all of this down, I have the slightly strange feeling that I am becoming an Olympus mirrorless fanatic without ever intending to.

I would never have expected that after almost twenty years working exclusively with one of the two major DSLR brands.

And yet:

When something is good, it is good.

All of the test photographs can be viewed with EXIF data here: https://my.olympus-consumer.com/members/banhalminorbert

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For the professional context and practical side of portrait photography, visit the BANHALMI professional website. Related art series, books and exhibitions are preserved in the BANHALMI ART archive.