Micro 4/3 G7X - does the larger sensor make up for some lens reach via cropping?

swandy

Regular
My "smaller" camera is the Olympus Stylus 1 which has the smaller (1/1.7") sensor but a longer zoom range (28-300mm eq.). I really like what I see of the G7X but feel that I might really miss the zoom range out to 300mm (as opposed to the 100mm limit of the G7X when going to let's say a sporting event or concert).

So my question is (in two parts):

Will the larger sensor allow better results when cropping to make up for some of the zoom range loss?

How is the Digital Zoom on the G7X (with regards to above question)? The one on the Stylus 1 is good in good light and OK in lower light. Probably better than I can do with cropping/etc. in post from the RAW files.

Thanks, Steve
 
I did read the posts and while it assumes that MP = MP, I would still think that the larger sensor on the G7X would provide better quality - even when cropped - than the smaller (with regards to MP and Sensor Size) sensor of the Stylus 1.
 
Even if you were to crop the image of the Canon down to simulate a 200mm equiv lens you would be left with an image that is half the height and half the width of the sensor, which equals one quarter (0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25) of the sensor's area. On a 20mp sensor this leaves you with 5mp, but given that the G7X already appears to do a small amount of interpolation to create a 100mm equiv angle-of-view, the actual resolution of the cropped image would be even less than 5mp.
 
The G7X already does crop it's sensor to get it's rated focal lengths. Some people have gone to the trouble to figure out how much and at some focal lengths it can be as high as 31%. So the G7X can only be using 69% of it's 20MP sensor and cropping. Take that into account if you are planning to crop even more.
 
The G7X already does crop it's sensor to get it's rated focal lengths. Some people have gone to the trouble to figure out how much and at some focal lengths it can be as high as 31%. So the G7X can only be using 69% of it's 20MP sensor and cropping. Take that into account if you are planning to crop even more.

This is mostly an issue (and I use the term loosely) at the wide end, and shouldn't affect cropping for reach. But I think trying to get to 300mm equivalent from a 100mm lens is a step too far. You can crop some but neither the lens nor sensor is good enough to do a 3x digital crop and expect great results. I'd crop shots to get out to maybe a 120-150mm focal length, but not 300... It's a good little standard zoom camera, but if you want a super zoom, buy a super zoom...

-Ray
 
Back
Top