4/3 sensor question

Deeclif75

Probably a stupid question but does a 4/3 sensor affect how much of the image you can see in the screen/ viewfinder? Inherited an Olympus om-d em mark ii and finding it hard to get whole images such as buildings into a shot without keep having to move back. Smartphone can get same whole image in at the same distance.

magicbastarder

that's almost certainly going to be due to the lens you have on the camera, rather than the sensor. the lens is just not designed to be as wide as the one on your smartphone.
different lenses have different focal lengths, which determine their field of view; some are designed to go for close up shots, some for very wide ones.

Alanstrainor

What camera were you using before this? Your issue isn't really an issue at all. It's just a different focal length than you're used to. If you've come from using a phone only, then most phones have very wide lenses which allows you to shoot buildings and such while standing rather close. The best option is to just shoot more with the new camera and get used to it. What lens does it have?

Deeclif75

magicbastarder wrote: »

that's almost certainly going to be due to the lens you have on the camera, rather than the sensor. the lens is just not designed to be as wide as the one on your smartphone.
different lenses have different focal lengths, which determine their field of view; some are designed to go for close up shots, some for very wide ones.

Thanks very much for the advice
It's 14-42 mm that came with the camera. Haven't been using it very long but was surprised how far back from a building i have to stand to get it all in the shot. Was using Nikon D3400 before this which i know had full frame. I'm a bit clueless about sensor sizes and crop factor.
So when it says micro 4/3 crops the image they don't mean what's on the screen/viewfinder?
Cheers

magicbastarder

basically, the bigger the sensor, the wider the shot will be for a given focal length.
four thirds is smaller than the DX sensor in the D3400, so a 14mm lens on the four thirds camera will be 'zoomed in' a little more than a 14mm lens on a DX sensor.
and a 14mm lens on a DX sensor will give a more 'zoomed in' look than the same lens on a full frame camera.

however, what's on the screen/viewfinder *should* reflect what you should capture in the image.

ED E

'zoomed in' a little more than a 14mm lens on a DX sensor.

Well. A lot more.

Canon APSC are 1.6x, Nikon 1.5x. The Olympus is 2x.

So a 14mm is a 28mm effective. Thats coming close to the 35mm which is called "normal". A 14 on your Nikon is 21.

There's a reason nearly all MFT cameras come with pancake lenses. They crop like mad.

however, what's on the screen/viewfinder *should* reflect what you should capture in the image.

On many cameras its 95% or thereabouts, the file is slightly wider than the OVF/EVF.

magicbastarder

ED E wrote: »

Well. A lot more.

depends on whether you want to call 25% difference a little or a lot, i guess. they're still both about in the middle of what you'd call a reasonably normal wide angle.

anyway - @OP - what lens did you have on the nikon? if it was the standard 18-55mm lens which ship with a lot of the nikons, you shouldn't see a huge difference between that and the lens on the olympus, they have a very similar effective focal length when used wide angle.

ED E

The small numbers mask its impact. This is the change.

Deeclif75

ED E wrote: »

The small numbers mask its impact. This is the change.

So it avoid that would i need to get a wide angle lens for landscape/architecture shots? (Complete beginner here!) Thanks

ED E

The 14 is 28 effective and a kit lens would be about 27 effective so you should be ok as is unless you had a pancake lens on the Nikon.

Check the Olympus isn't set to use a strange resolution and thus sensor cropping.