Why don’t my Olympus OM-D E-M10 photos look much better than my iPhone 11 Pro’s?
Asked 5/28/2022
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2 answers
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I’m comparing an Olympus OM-D E-M10 (Mark I) with the M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO lens against an iPhone 11 Pro. In normal travel photography, especially in the roughly 24–160mm equivalent range, I’m struggling to see a clear image-quality advantage from the Olympus, even when reviewing RAW/JPEG files and doing light processing.
I understand the Olympus gives me interchangeable lenses, more manual control, and obvious advantages at longer focal lengths. But for everyday photos, I can’t easily prove that the Olympus files are better.
Is this normal? In your experience, should a Micro Four Thirds camera like this clearly outperform an iPhone 11 Pro in straight photo quality, or are modern phones genuinely very close in many situations?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
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It's true that better phones are often "good enough" for general photography.
But an interchangeable-lens camera is going to be much more versatile. For one thing, depending on the model, you probably have 20 Mpx, compared to the iPhone's 12.
The iPhone's sensor is tiny, and if you try to do night photography, chances are it will look noisier than the Olympus. Again, depending on the model, the Olympus probably has better image stabilization — I can take ten second exposures, hand held, with my E-M1 Mark II!
Depending on the model you have, the Olympus probably also has many niceties that the iPhone lacks, like
- multi-shot capability for increased resolution up to 80 Mpx, (HR),
- multi-shot dynamic range improvement (HDR),
- close-up (macro) multi-shot focus improvement (focus stacking),
- multi-shot long exposures for outstanding night photography (Live Composite),
- multiple shots before you trip the shutter (Pro Capture), up to 120 images in a second, which is great for getting the exact instant desired, like when the football touches the receiver's fingers, or when your toddler has the perfect facial expression.
- don't underestimate what you can do with different lenses, from near-microscopic photography, to extreme 210° super-wide angle, to extreme telephoto.
You'll really appreciate the differences as you do more specialized things, like sports, wildlife, or extreme close-up.
But if you're just taking "ordinary" photographs, of family, for example, then you'll probably do just fine with a phone.
Here's some pictures that may be difficult to do on a phone, that were fairly easy to do with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II:
Taken with a 350mm ƒ/2.8 lens and a 1.4x teleconverter at a range of a hundred metres, this would be impossible on a phone.
This was taken in a dark theatre, using a 35-100mm ƒ/2 lens with 1.4x teleconverter; your phone can't get close enough with so little light.
Taken with a 210° 3.5mm ƒ/2.8 circular fisheye lens, which you can't find for phones.
Taken with a wide-aperture, super-wide angle, non fisheye, 7mm ƒ/2.8, this allows great subject isolation.
Industry-leading "In Body Image Stabilization" allows for hand-held creative effects that previously required a tripod.
Using a special "tilt" adapter allows for foreground-to-background sharpness.
Special "macro" lenses allow for much closer photography.
An inexpensive 500mm "mirror" lens allows you true telescopic images.
A "Live Composite" shot automatically takes and stacks, in-camera, over a hundred night exposures.
In short, you don't choose a conventional camera over a phone to make ordinary images better, you do it to make extraordinary images that the phone simply can't do!
Originally by user8358. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user8358
4y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—this can be normal.
An iPhone 11 Pro can look very competitive against an older Micro Four Thirds body like the original E-M10, especially in good light and at everyday focal lengths. Your Olympus has only a modest resolution edge (about 16MP vs 12MP), and the phone applies heavy computational processing automatically, including HDR-style blending, noise reduction, sharpening, and other optimizations that you’d otherwise need to do yourself from RAW files.
So in casual travel shooting, the difference may not be obvious.
Where the Olympus should pull ahead is in situations that stress the camera more: low light, higher ISO, longer exposures, specialized shooting, and whenever you use lenses the phone can’t match. It’s also far more versatile thanks to interchangeable lenses and manual control. Depending on the Olympus model, you may also have features like strong stabilization or multi-shot modes that can exceed phone output.
So the short answer is: phones really are “good enough” in many common situations, and with your specific comparison it’s not surprising that the Olympus doesn’t always look dramatically better. The dedicated camera’s advantages show up more in demanding conditions and flexibility than in every daylight snapshot.
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