Why I Use Micro Four Thirds To Photograph Gigs. 

Good video. Many photographers (especially pros) choose multiple systems for the same reasons you do. When you're limited by both shutter speed and depth of field, such as in concert photography, there's frequently little to no advantage to having a larger-sensored camera/lens setup -- this is just how the physics of equivalence works. Additionally, the smaller/lighter kit allows you to enjoy shooting more and have less fatigue. Larger sensor kit has its unique strengths when conditions and subject matter allow one to shoot with shallow depth of field (thereby letting in more light through a wider aperture); when you can shoot at extremely low ISOs and longer exposure times to take in more light and get a better SnR image; when you need (or want) shallower depth of field at a given focal length and there's no equivalent lens in the smaller sensor system; and when you need more megapixels in the output (for cropping or enlargement). In other circumstances, the smaller-sensored system can often produce a roughly equivalent image which is usually "good enough" (or better) for the desired end use. As a hobbyist and former long-time APS-C owner, I've been perfectly content with m43 as my only system for the last 5 years. As RAW image processors and AI noise reduction have catapulted ahead in the last few years, I simply don't need better image or video quality, and the smaller/lighter overall kit (and less wasted disk space) is the compensation I happily enjoy.

Your photos are beautiful with a journalistic flair. Your local newspaper should hire you if only as a freelance photographer.

It's all about atmosphere and feel Gideon. Your photos deliver bucket-loads of that

Love the argument for increased depth of field. Context is important. You e.g. want artist+instrument. Don't see that explained in RU-vid reviews enough.

Good to hear that a photographer finds the greater DoF of m43 to be advantageous! Mostly it is "not enough bokeh", when in reality results are actually very balanced with lenses like the tiny M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8.

I popped in out of curiosity, I shoot concerts for bands and venues and other outlets, and I've never came across any other photogs shooting with MFT for paid live music and events. I would give it a go,as there is a claim the OM-1 is capable in lowlight but I don't think I could risk it for client work, but I have used Fujifilm in the past. Interesting non the less.

Breath of fresh air and something of a relief.... I shot my first gig a few weeks ago (for a friends band) and used an E-M1 and a venerable Oly E-5. My usual shooting is landscape/environmental and long exposure night shooting in industrial facilities. I have very good quality fast glass - the six SHQ lenses Oly made for the 4/3 system along with the HQ lenses, the former being fixed aperture. But the 4/3 glass is big - i used the 14-35mm f/2 and the 35-100mm f/2, the latter weighing 1650g. So it's what i've got, and that's why i used it. But you've made it really clear to me that i could have got away nicely with the 50 f/2 Macro and the smaller zoom, which would have saved me from spending the next morning icing my wrist. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the IQ (even from the 12MP E-5) and everything that went wrong was definitely down to my inexperience and not the gear. Enjoyed your video very much, along with the excellent and evocative images. Lkd&Subd. All the very best from a cabin in a swamp in a rainforest in New Zealand.

Thanks for your perspective, good to know other photographers are shooting indoor events with m43. Here in Cuenca, Ecuador, many restaurants are now featuring live music. I frequently get asked to photograph the live music and the restaurants and event spaces. Shooting with an e-m1 iii and olympus 12-40 2.8 and sometimes swapping out lens to 75mm 1.8 for longer shots in slightly larger venues. So my kit is heavier than yours but still not in full frame territory. You have inspired to me to drag out my ancient e-m5 so I don't have to switch lenses. I also forgot I do have a messenger bag more than big enough for both cameras. My go to editing software is dxo photolab 6 for fantastic noise reduction (frequently shoot at very high iso) and all-around editing capabilities. Like you I've never had complaints about quality of images coming from m43 sensors.

Great video mate, this addresses one of the biggest concerns I've had about MFTs. I really appreciate how many of your own photographs you've shown off in the video, as a lot of people on here can talk about tech specs and little pixel nitpicks all day, but so many seem to never provide personal and real thoughts as well as practical work like you have. Love most of the images you shared with us. Cheers.

Informative, inspiring, candid, eloquent and artistic. Thank you for your contribution to the endless conversation about the unique art of photographing performers in action in low light and crowded spaces. Thank you also for reminding us, photographers and artists in general, how important it is to turn limitations into advantages (and there will always be limitations), which is really the foundation of any decent artistic practice. I shoot M43 and love shooting musicians and dancers. So far, the M43 system has produced for me often spectacular results, which at the end of the day might be what really matters. That is, your amazing photos speak for themselves. Thank you once again and hope to see many more videos from you inn which gear, craft and art are seen as an indivisible whole. Thank you too for elevating the level of gear talk, which can indeed be simply utterly boring.

Bottom line . YOU have to start out with a " Skill Set " whatever kind of gear you may take with you . Your photographs are both well composed , well lit , and correctly exposed . They are immersive and " Tell The Story " . Good on YOU , sir !

Cool. Old East German Praktica cameras on your shelf 🤓

Since Topaz DeNoise / Photo AI Noise is a non-issue for me when using M43. Having that extra step is a good trade against less weight, smaller gear and quite honestly lower equipment cost. And yes, I also love the 45mm lens, it's so fun to use and gives just excellent images. I would be very interested in the editing process.

Hi Gideon, at the end of the day it's the right tool for the job and you have cracked it.

Excellent live gig pictures, Gideon!

I agree with the DOF/aperture, size, etc is a real advantage for MFT. I also like that for APS-C also. I have no need for Full Frame.

I do much the same - just a little different. I shoot at a local small venue with room for 50-100 people, but with lower light, than a club or pub. My camera of choice is the GX8, and I use the 20mm f1.7 and 45mm f1.8 (with the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 as a backup). I shoot with wide open aperture, 1/60 - 1/125 and auto ISO limited to 12800. As far as white balance goes, I never use auto - I set a custom WB and stick to it for the entire evening, because auto WB is no good when the stage lights keep changing. And of course, I use spot metering - and very important - I shoot in silent mode with the electronic shutter. Last time I photographed at a concert, I got keepers at ISO 8000, and I felt no need to edit much at all - other than cropping a bit. I set my camera to both RAW and jpg, and I was happy I did the last time I photographed at a concert as the jpg files looked great, while the RAW files were quite terrible. The MFT prime lenses are small, light, sharp and fast and even with the GX8, it means my kit is small and highly portable. It's exactly what I need for my venue of choice.

Thanks. I use the Micro 4/3 most of the time for exactly the same reasons. This system has its advantages. Thanks once more.

Loved the photos!

Great shots. Totally with you. Also though, I noticed a lot of those m43 bodies focus as well or better than top end DSLRs in low light, around -5ev. Really enjoy the freedom to hold the camera one-handed, way above my head, screen out, maybe even a beer in my other hand, and get high quality, emotive shots. M43 does that for me. On expense, I'm now at a point where I've got more money sunk into m43 than my FF gear, but it still makes more sense more of the time - it's more liberating to use.

I'm also an MFT club/ music/ nightlife shooter and agree with all of your points The venues love my stuff, the subjects love my stuff, and my own dissatisfactions are usually my failures ..not the equipment. Not a lot of us out there. I need to invest in that Panasonic prime...the 2.8 12-35 is my default lens on my g95 or g95.

Agreed! All you need for events is the 20 and 45.

Ah! Another M43 gig photographer👍 I started with the Lumix GF6 (!) and 25mm f1.4 summilux shooting local bands and some not so local. I went up to the GX7 but now use 2 Lumix G9's and my go to lenses are the 10-25mm f1.7 Lumix and 75mm f1.8 Olympus prime which is so sharp it stings! also in the bag is the olympus 45mm f1.8 prime - an absolute steal at around the £120 mark second hand. My kit is hardly pocketable but still within the realms of 'lightweight' when comparing to FF. As for PP I use DXO Photolab, Nik Collection and Topaz sharpener and sometimes Gigapixel if I've cropped and want to enlarge. I'm itching to get my hands on the G9ii when it comes out next month!.... Keep Music Live!

Wow, I couldn't have said it better myself. What a great video. My experience is really close to yours. I started shooting clubs using an old Canon Rebel APSC setup, but I wasn't happy with the results. Being a little naive I got a 5D and used that for a couple of years. I was really happy with the improved IQ, but man that kit gets really heavy by the end of the evening. I do use it for other work like landscapes. But one time I took my GX7 to a gig (yes, it was my first M43 too) with the OLY 45 (and yes, I really love that lens!!!), and I was surprised at how good the results were. It took a little learning curve to improve my techniques, but essentially I've never looked back. I have a Lumix G9 as well now and I pretty much use the same ideas as you outlined in the video. I can agree with everything you said, and especially the depth of field comments - I think that's a huge advantage (not a detraction) of M43 for this type of work. I love your photos --- I find them inspiring. Thanks so much for putting this together, I really appreciated it.

Enjoying these, I am on similar path as you, film, M43, and Nikon Full Frame. It’s all fun!

Love to see your editing workflow

Lovely images!

Very nice video. Not what I normally shoot, but this was very educational.

That was a wonderful video presentation. Thank you so much. Do you realize that you have one of the coolest jobs ever? 😊

Fabulous images & I agree the DOF on M43 for the shooting I do is an advantage. I almost never need razor thin DOF. Great Video v honest appraisal

Great shots

Excellent video nice photos

I find Micro 4/3 to be more fun (and convenient) to use. And with RAW files and Photoshop AI technology any potential compromises in low light conditions can usually be fixed quickly.

Excellent inspiration , thank you , subscribed 😊👍👍👍👍👍📷 .

Great video and Interesting what you say about DOF and I agree. Also interested in your editing workflow. I also use MFT for video and stills for gigs.Use the 12-40 F2.8, 25mm f1.8 and the 45mm f1.8. Had great results with the EM1 MKII and the EM10 MKIII. Got some great footage in The Dublin Castle in Camden and other venues. I don't have an issue with noise at high ISO as this has always been an issue with music photography even in the film days. Some bands actually want me to add more noise. Small size and outstanding OIS is a deal maker. Subscribed.

80 percent of my shoots are with m43 for concerts and the like, with the right lens it makes it a good option.

Very nice images❤

Great pics

Lovely video! I shoot for a local band’s insta page and use a gh5 with a 35-100 f2.8 and a gx85 with either a lumix/Leica 25mm f1.4 or a Rokinon 12mm f2. Both cameras perform beyond adequately at high ISO settings and the shots I get are great. I’m impressed you can get such intimate shots with such wide lenses for concerts! I’d love to see a vid on how you approach shooting a show with these focal lengths (you may have this, i haven’t checked yet). I often feel like reaching for my 100-300 at my gigs, but typically don’t, since it’s too slow.

Fascinating video. Interesting to see how far you push the ISO. I’ll certainly have to try this now.

An interesting video. To be honest I expect some noise on an image in the low light in those situations. That's probably due to the fact that that's how this sort of image looked years ago before we had digital editing. It's sort of how it's supposed to look in some ways, certainly for me anyway. As for the noise on the Olympus looking almost like film but not quite, I would just look at from the opposite perspective. Film doesn't give noise that looks the same as the Olympus. I feel it's best to just see them as different.

You and I use the same lenses at the same type of gigs! I use two Lumix g85's. Do find the focusing a tad problematic at times. Seriously considering splashing some cash on the G9ll. I always use the electronic shutter as this causes less disruption in gigs, particularly acoustic ones!

I occasionally find myself in similar situations and I like that f1.7/8 gives me more DOF than a larger sensor would.

Great video. I love your photographs. 🙂 Where, roughly, are you located? Editing - yes please! Paul 😎

Very interesting. Agree with everything you said. I always use two bodies and two primes. I use Canon FF (6D and RP) with a 40mm and 85mm. Last gig I also used a 16mm which was surprisingly useful (audience and performers taken from behind the stage or slightly in front). I go up to ISO 12,800 on some shots. Yes it's heavy but I put my bag down backstage so I can walk around with just two bodies. I also own two Panasonic bodies and have wondered if I could use them for concerts. Probably with my 15mm f/1.7 and a 42.5mm f/1.7 (do not currently own). In addition to size, M4/3 has better highlight control and better face recognition. One issue in larger events is whether you will be taken seriously by performers, gatekeepers etc carrying two small consumer cameras when all the other photographers are using large professional gear. Sometimes you just need to look the part to get access.

Great video, your photos are amazing and speak for themselves. Very inspiring for me to use my current gear more (and visits gigs more 😅). I have some questions to learn from you: - nailing the exposure at high iso is indeed important but I struggle with it when it comes to bright lights and skin/people, do you spot meter on people? - with a lot of mixed lights and dark venues, how do you set your whitebalance?

Personally, I'd add the 12mm f2 and 9mm f1.7, but that's just me. Brilliant video & photographs, thanks for sharing!

Interesting, I hadn't considered the reduced DoF in this context. I would very much like to see how you are working with these images in post. I'm not in my comfort zone with post work. Thanks for another great, real world video.

Great Video :)

Very interesting video!!! (And very good photos!!) You have a new subscriber!! 😉👍🏻 When you're at concerts, what type of light metering do you use? Spot, center or matrix? And what about AF, how do you use it? Maybe you set it up differently on the Olympus than on the Panasonic

The issue with the Olympus f1.8 primes is their relatively low light transmission. F1.8 on those lenses exposes darker at the same shutter speed compared with f1.8 on the equivalent f1.2 Pro lens. This doesn't sound important, but it can mean the difference of freezing motion in challenging light conditions while keeping ISO reasonable.

Really enjoyed the video. When you are shooting in the bar, do you expose to the right?

First class shots Gideon and a very interesting and helpful video! I’d be very interested to know if you specify a minimum shutter speed and if you use spot metering etc etc. Best wishes.

How do you find the 40mm with not having AFC

I see the 20mm 1.7, I hit like. Good shooting setup.

Really love the photos!!! Maybe a really dumb question? Are these photos shot with or without flash?

Really impressed by your work. Recently picked up Olympus em10 mk 4. Looking forward to using it. Ps fuck full frame. Looks a hindrance Justus lol

It’s about time someone pointed out the benefits of MFT depth of field. I don’t even have a MFT camera but my 1” Sony has this benefit where my FF camera gets a lash in focus.

In a totally different scenario, I would guess that being able to carry two bodies with a different lens on each to save changing would be an advantage if you're an area with dust. If you can avoid, or at least minimise lens changing, then there's less chance of getting dust in the camera.

Regarding the noise aspect that you touch on: if, as you say, you would not want the depth of field to be any shallower, then shooting on full frame would not give you any less noise. Your f1.7 on MFT would become f3.4 on FF thereby resulting in four times higher ISO.

Why didn't you include the shutter speeds?

What shutter speed do you usually use for pub gigs?

Good video and nice images. I own the two cameras you use … you say that you use auto ISO but the GX7 doesn’t have that function … am I wrong ? Thanks 👍

Great! What SPEED do you set??

I only have m43 gear so it's not as if I'm criticizing the format, but I disagree with what you say about the advantage over larger formats as far as aperture goes when compared to larger formats. True at any given aperture number, m43 will have greater depth of field, but since a larger format is less noisy, you can do the same thing with a smaller aperture and not have a the same noise issues by increasing the ISO. A bigger format really just allows for shallower DOF, when you want it. It allows for greater flexibility with DOF...

For me mFT works for nearly everything - people, nature, architecture, landscape - now more than ever, as sensor technology, processor technology and raw converters have become so much better. I just can't see a rationale reason to shoot full frame, for at least 95% of purposes.

I'm my experience, even though they are technically interchangeable, using an Olympus lens on an Olympus body and a Lumix lens on a Lumix body gives your better autofocus - but it's just my experience.

Señor, con todo respeto, las razones que da, aplican a tecnología de hace 8 años, le presento esta bonita marca de cámaras fullframe pequeñas y lentes pequeños, llamada Sony, dese la oportunidad de usar la serie a7c.

Argument of the wider depth of field is coming back again and again and I simply don't get it. It makes no sense. There is always a possibility to stop down on the aperture and get the desired depth of field. There is absolutely no advantage for mft in that regard. This system is relatively cheap and compact and these are the only "real" advantages over larger formats.