E-P1 + 14-42/3.5-5.6 ED vs. Canon 5D + 24-105/4 L IS

What would be the perfect travel camera? Which lenses? How much weight and bulky size? What kind of compromizes between size, quantity and quality? I guess these reflections are quite familiar to every photographer.

Canon 5D and zoom lens 24-105mm f/4 L IS was my travel companion for a few years. I don´t like to carry a lot of equipment with me, and this combination gave me good image quality and versatile focal lengths in a manageable size and weight. Image stabilization compensates for a mediocre maximum aperture, and lens focuses close enough. 5D has also very good high ISO performance up to ISO 800. Later I have used the same lens with 5D MkII but this combination is not as balanced because this zoom is not able to perform with 5D MkII´s higher resolution sensor. But that would be another story. Below is a landscape from Mauritius with Canon 5D and 24-105mm lens. Focal length here is 45mm @ ISO 400.

 

But then came Olympus E-P1

When I compared the general look and feel of my E-P1 shots with my earlier shots with various digital cameras, I noticed that at ISO 100 they are not that far behind from 5D images. Both have a 12 megapixel sensor which explains some. 5D is also an older camera. I don´t know how Canon and Olympus sensor tehcnologies are evolving comparatively but still 5D sensor has quadruple area which makes it even now a far better camera at higher ISOs. But lets forget high ISOs now and stay at ISO 100.

I can already hear people crying that it is not fair to compare these two cameras. A used 5D with a new 24-105mm lens costs three times as much as E-P1 with kit zoom. 5D is full format camera and 24-105 has wider zoom area. Yes, all of this is true but I can compare which ever cameras I want to when I choose my travel camera. It would be futile to compare cameras like Sinar P2 with PhaseOne digital back and Canon´s any Ixus. In that case there´s no point because they really are different, but here I have a reason!

To compare travel cameras I decided to travel with E-P1 and 5D. I took a train to Helsinki and shot churches and statues and boats and market and streets and buildings and shop windows... and some trains. It was nice to behave like a tourist for a couple of hours, have ice cream and then travel back home. Well, the train ride took only 20 minutes, but still it was nice to visit downtown Helsinki on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, which I don´t do often.

Shooting with these cameras

5D wins hands down because it has a view finder and can be hold steadily like a camera should. I had VF1 on E-P1 all the time but it is usable only for a limited range with kit zoom. I do not like to shoot through LCD screen. Period. E-P1 wins hands down because it is so light and small. It is also as fast to use as 5D. It´s easy to shoot candidly, and after that shooting with 5D feels like a performance. Both feel solid, real cameras but using them are different experiences. For how and what I like to shoot both cameras focus and expose equally well and both can be tailored to behave as I like.

Images

I took a few dozen pictures with both cameras. I used E-P1 kit zoom´s focal lenghts: 14, 18, 25, 35 and 42mm and tried to frame as closely as possible with 5D from the same spot. There were of course some fluctuation in corresponding focal lengths because these cameras have sensors with different aspect ratios. Taking several images at every focal length cancelled any unbalancing effect from this. 

I shot SuperFine JPG + RAW with E-P1 and RAW only with 5D. I opened Olympus JPGs and Canon RAWs in Lightroom. Images were quite close in general appearances, and as needed, I fine tuned Canon images as needed to have same tone and sharpness as E-P1 JPGs. Then I chose 15 representative image pairs and printed them in A3 size for evaluation. Of course I compared those pairs also on screen.

Observations

At E-P1´s (right) 14mm and 5D´s (left) 28mm focal length 100% crops are very close to each other. In this pair Canon´s lens was at a little bit wider setting because it´s difficult to set it exactly. 

At E-P1´s (right) 18mm and 5D´s (left) 35mm focal length 100% crops are again very close in quality to each other like above.

These crops are from E-P1´s (right) 25mm and 5D´s (left) 50mm focal length images. Now here is a difference, which can be seen very obviously in the word ”NESTEKAASUA”. Actually the same thing is seen in previous images if you look closely at leather surface or stone around ”1863”. Also you can see some graininess in E-P1 crop. 5D images are very clean, it simply has a better sensor and related algorithms etc. than E-P1. Now we must remember that E-P1 images are in-camera processed JPGs. We need to wait for Adobe´s RAW processor update to get really comparable results. Okay, so there is a difference in 100% crops. Images are very seldom enjoyed in 100% crops in real life. When can we actually expect to see this or any difference in practise? In A3 size prints I can´t see any these mentioned differencies. In size A2, yes, some people can see it when they are asked to compare prints closely side by side. Otherwise, it´s there but it´s not obvious to anyone. In the internet? No-one has monitors large enough. And, really, I think very few photographs are about extreme micro contrast. By the way, look at the ropes. Don´t they look sharper in E-P1 image? Here E-P1´s slight roughness is actually good and it also shows in A3 prints when compared.  

Let´s move one step forward: E-P1 (right) at 35mm and 5D (left) at 70mm focal lengths. E-P1´s humble little kit zoom has not been any worse so far compared to Canon´s mighty professional L-zoom. Actually it is slightly better at 25mm (50mm) focal length and another tad better here. Neither lens has a straight image plane, which means results are depending on subject, but these pairs seem quite typical. Also this contrast difference is barely noticeable in A3 prints. One of the worst features in E-P1 is smearing in red color. You can see it clearly in diagonal red lines.

Finally we descend to E-P1 (right) at 42mm and 5D (left) at around 84mm focal lengths. Descend because here E-P1 kit zoom is clearly worse than Canon lens. In A3 prints the difference between cameras is seen mostly as lack of contrast in almost all E-P1 images. In my opinion Olympus m4/3 kit zoom an admirable lens at 14-35mm area. It´s value for money is outstanding. At 42mm it is not actually bad but, well - try to walk a bit closer and shoot at 35mm setting.

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