Are Everyday Carry Cameras Now Luxury? | OM systems OM3 vs Nikon Zf
The OM3 may not be $5100, yet this micro-four thirds camera cost more than the full-frame Nikon Zf?
I took 10,000 photos to figure out why I like cameras both so much. Its retro veneer’s a disguise, hiding four flagship features unheard of for the price. But is it overkill for an everyday camera?
A luxury I shouldn’t get used to.
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Viltrox 50mm f2.0 Air (E/Z mount): https://geni.us/9abnu
Nikon Zf: https://geni.us/YOH8bh7
Smallrig Nikon Zf leather case: https://geni.us/QYOLzc
Panasonic Leica 25mm f1.4 II: https://geni.us/jtVR
There’s no denying that camera prices have gone bananas.
I bought my first mirrorless camera - the Olympus Pen-EPL7, on sale for just $200 US dollars (crazy discounts were still possible back then?).
10 years later the OM3 is 10x the price, but it’s not just about the money. Finding time for photography is a luxury I can’t always afford, when I do have time I want a fun shooting experience.
If a brand wants a hit in the premium enthusiast category they’ll need great product design. This wasn’t the case for Nikon and OM’s last retro cameras. The Zfc and OM5 felt rushed, a little cheap in hand, but for the ZF and OM3 they didn’t hold back.
The OM3 in particular houses 4 flagship features (the Zf has one), and I’ll be comparing these 2 cameras’ value proposition, starting with:
Build Quality
Retro designed cameras aren’t always well built, but the OM3 and Zf use more metal. Both have metal top plates, the OM3 has a metal bottom plate. The dials are metal on both - the Zf’s top dials are famously brass. When you pick these cameras up they’re heavier than expected. There’s this subconscious feeling of quality when a machine feels dense.
When you scroll the command dials there’s just enough resistance. You can stop on a dime, and feel the haptic feedback. It’s clickier and more responsive than you’d expect, and the buttons have travel without being loose or squishy - a tight linear response. The OM3’s buttons actually feel better than the Zf despite being smaller.
Then there’s that all important shutter sound - the Zf has a beautiful clunk, hard to hear in the crowd because of those lower frequencies, the OM3’s shutter is a little quieter, more mid-range in tone, not as rich and full of bass but still very pleasing. I’d be happy to listen to both fire away all day.
When you take lenses on and off, the OM3’s lens mount feels really well sealed - especially for lenses with rubber gaskets - very reassuring. Both cameras are weather sealed but the OM3 has an official IP rating. When you add all of these little details to a beautiful design, both cameras feel premium.
Should that make them luxury?
Using more metal than normal comes at a cost.
There’s a reason why flagships like the Z8 use more rubber and plastic - that premium feel is why the Zf’s so heavy. The ergonomics don’t work for half of the photographers I’ve talked to. There are now so many options for grips, but my go to was the Smallrig silicon grip. Its one design flaw was not adding a backgrip, which they’ve fixed in their new leather halfcase. The front grip is less substantial, but it does add an extra backgrip, which solves a lot of the handling problems.
And this is why you hear fewer complaints about the OM3’s ergonomics - there’s no front grip by default, but the backgrip is built into the camera. When combined with the lighter weight, it all feels fine, which is good because there’s not as many grip options yet. I have tried a Kaza Deluxe leather halfcase (which sadly blocks the memory card door), and I’ve settled on iWoodstore wooden grip which works for both my wife’s hands and mine.
It doesn’t add much bulk, still feels sleek, a little bit of luxury.
The second flagship feature is one OM systems is leading the industry:
2. Computational Photography
Most brands have their own version of pre-capture implemented - OM calls it Procap - images start saving as soon as you half press the shutter - but this isn’t necessary for my street photography. I do use this mode by default though - more on why later, but most of these features are neat but not for me. I don’t need the high resolution mode, I don’t focus stack, or use HDR - if I did it processes it all in camera - saves a lot of time for landscape shooters.
But the most attractive computational feature for me is Live ND.
5 different intensities, I don’t know any other brands who have this, it is so useful for street. It’s very easy to use - I enable it in shutter priority, but disable it in aperture priority, so I switch between A and S if I want to freeze motion vs motion blur during the day with live ND. I can get that motion blur look with passing traffic or crowds in bright day light, coupled with a bit of shallow depth of field if I want to, all without screw on filters.
The graduated live ND breaks my mind, electronically compositing part of the frame across multiple long exposure images. So much computation behind the scenes. If they ever enabled this for video they’d instantly win over every content creator on YouTube - no more variable NDs.
3. Stacked Sensor
If you don’t mind the very slight hit to dynamic range the extra speed gives a lot of benefits for street.
I don’t need continuous burst shooting up to 120 frames per second - but I love blackout free shooting. A continuous uninterrupted feed of the scene on screen means it’s very hard to miss a moment, and it offsets how small the EVF is. The only way to set this up I’ve found is to set the camera to Procap SH2 - but I don’t want all these extra images pre-capturing, so I fine-tune this in:
Drive mode > Sequential Shooting settings > set pre shutter frames to 0, and a frame count limiter of 2.
Essentially neutering the burst shooting mode, I’m just using it for the blackout free EVF and screen.
This does limit the minimum shutter speed to 1/160th, force the camera into electronic shutter mode, which means I can’t hear that lovely shutter sound. But because the stacked sensor scans so fast I don’t see any banding in fluorescent lighting (unless the LEDs are visibly flickering in the room?). I’m very happy to use electronic shutter 100% of the time. In Procap SH2 there’s still autofocus and metering, the advantage over SH1, and the stacked sensor also means there’s great autofocus.
It has a spot tracking mode -I find it works well, not as sticky as Nikon, but its face and eye detection is super accurate. I toggle between spot tracking and subject detection using one of the function buttons, but for family photos the subject detection simply hasn’t missed.
I believe the OM’s the cheapest fully stacked sensor camera on the market?
Plus style and size - it’s quite the little luxury.
Of course a micro four third sensor is smaller than full-frame, but how big is the difference in image quality really?
20 vs 24 megapixels on the Zf is barely noticeable. What is more noticeable is the different aspect ratio 4 to 3 versus 3 to 2 - every image is a little taller and narrower on the OM3 vs the Zf. I shot wide open at f1.4 on the Panaleica 25mm for as much bokeh as possible on this smaller sensor, but it’s still a lot less blur than even the slower Viltrox 50mm at f2.
This tree is about 4 or 5 meters away from me, and on full frame you can get separation from the building in the distance. While we’re here you can see a lot of CA and purple fringing on the panaleica wide open, that’s usually the cost of f1.4 into the sun. The Viltrox at f2 looks a lot cleaner, but that’s not sensor size, just great lens optics. There’s still separation on the panaleica at f1.4, just not as much, although you can focus closer on micro four thirds lenses with a shorter minimum focus distance.
The Panaleica is still very sharp in the centre, just a bit more of a flawed nostalgic look, Viltrox is a sharper across the frame whether it be up close or at infinity for a clean modern rendition. It even handles flaring really well - dampens it nicely, for modern performance on third party glass Viltrox is the best I’ve tested. The optics look as good as first party to me - impressive for the price.
Smaller lenses have traditionally been a huge advantage for micro four thirds - so many fast primes to choose from …but third party manufacturers are quickly filling the small prime gaps left open by Nikon for full frame Z-mount.
Viltrox 50mm f2.0 Air on Nikon Zf
Viltrox 50mm f2.0 Air on Nikon Zf
Viltrox 50mm f2.0 Air on Nikon Zf
Viltrox 50mm f2.0 Air on Nikon Zf
Full frame is a luxury that’s not really necessary for street.
I know a lot of photographers with repetitive strain hand injuries, so sacrificing a bit of subject separation for a smaller kit is a fair trade, but the biggest sacrifice of a smaller sensor is low light performance.
In this moderately high dynamic range scene I’ve set the Zf and OM3 at an exposure compensation of 0 - all the way from ISO 100 to ISO 32000, shot in raw, noise reduction turned off in lightroom on both. I’m not trying to break the image - just seeing how much noise there is.
Up to ISO1000 there’s not much on either image then at 1600 there’s a jump on the OM3. Already see color noise and banding, whereas it’s absent on the Zf. This jump is exaggerated by a lot at ISO3200 on the OM3 - grain, banding, although at a global level the image is still usable.
You don’t see anything close to this level of noise on the Zf until ISO12800 - that’s a pretty huge disparity. What max ISO would I be comfortable with? On the OM3 it’s ISO6400 before you lose too much detail and contrast for my liking.
On the Zf - it’s honestly 32000, you never lose that much contrast even this high up, the noise is fine grain that’s easy to remove and there’s minimal color banding.
That’s a 2 stop difference in low light performance, maybe 2.5 to 3 if I push it with noise reduction. But this isn’t a fair fight, even compared against other full-frame options the Zf has ridiculous low light performance. I know higher res doesn’t automatically mean bad in low light, but on the higher res Z8 I max out at ISO16000, ISO20000. I know if you downscale and export the Z8 files to the same resolution it looks about as clean as the Zf, but there’s something undeniably satisfying about zooming in and not seeing noise. I think low light is still the Zf’s most impressive flagship feature, a clear performance gap compared to the OM3.
But what helps to close this gap is the fourth flagship feature on the OM3:
4. IBIS
Both the OM3 and Zf are rated to 7.5 stops, but I can hand hold the OM3 for 1 second, 1.5 second shutter speed, no problem. I can do up to a max of 1 second hand held on the Zf, but it’s much more hit or miss. I need to hold my breath and tuck my elbows to get the best results, whereas it’s more run and gun on the OM3 for hand held long exposures.
When paired with its Live ND I get some really interesting shutter drag results, something I can’t get on the Zf. You can also fine-tune the IBIS on the OM3 for which direction of movement to control for - I wish this was on every camera, and especially useful for handheld video. The stacked sensor means there’s no jello effect, the IBIS is rock steady, fantastic for filming some B-roll at a pinch. And how good it is for video is probably why the OM3 comes with a flip screen - just like the Zf - it’s not my favorite but given all the other flagship features - the whole package is a luxury.
But the real luxury is finding the time to go out shooting, and focus the lens on something worthwhile documenting.
You don’t need a stacked sensor, IBIS, or computational photography.
If I could only choose one camera for a casual shooter I’d still go for the Nikon Zf - third party glass like the Viltrox 50mm f2.0 Air is small, affordable and full frame means you can adapt vintage glass for not much extra cash. If you don’t care for the retro look there’s still the Nikon Z5ii and Panasonic S5ii, both cheaper than the OM3 and full frame.
So who I would recommend the OM3 to?
Enthusiasts and pros, maybe those who already have a main system. The OM3’s tiny, it fits alongside any of my cameras in a 7L bag, perfect for a 2 camera setup. It can handle all the photo/video work I need.
But this isn’t my camera - it’s my wife’s family documentary camera, and what matters most to her is it’s small. Really any micro four thirds camera would do. But it’s important to her the colors look good straight out of camera - she wants nothing to do with editing, and comparing the best in-camera JPEGs on the OM3, Nikon, and the gold standard Fujifilm will be my first step towards quitting Adobe.
Watch me try and fail in the next entry?
Happy shooting everyone, talk soon.
Jack.
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