Crazy Comparison (UPDATED) – Which portrait do you prefer? APS-C vs M 4/3

June 20, 2016 Crazy Comparisons, Micro 4/3, Mirrorless, Olympus, Panasonic, Sony 248

Crazy Comparison (UPDATED) – Which portrait do you prefer? APS-C vs M 4/3

 

OK GUYS, here are the reveals!

#1 – Sony A6300 and Sony/Zeiss 35 1.4

#2 – Olympus PEN-F and Pan 25 1.7

#3 – Panasonic GX85 and Pan 25 1.7

All from RAW, no Processing at all!

——————

Below are three images of my lovely Debby. One was taken with the Sony A6300 and 35 1.4 Zeiss lens at f/2. The other two were taken with a PEN-F and Panasonic GX-85 with the Panasonic 25 1.7. I say it is BLIND as I am not saying for now, which image is which.

I removed the EXIF from the images below as I want you guys to tell me which one you prefer out of the three images. IN the comments, state which rendering and color you prefer and why. All were straight RAW conversions without any editing though I did size down the larger files to match the smaller.

I have a pref as to which rendering and color I prefer, but am interested to see what YOU guys think! BTW, heading out now to shoot the GX85 more for my upcoming review!

MUST click them for full size!

#1

IMAGE1

–

#2

–

#3

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248 Comments

  2. comparing only the colors. nr.1 is most realistic to me. nr.3 is ugly unreal, typical pic for camera ads.
    nr.2 is still unreal. Never saw this unrealistic color from gx80 in reviews. Pentax K-70 ok with a good prime?

  4. Without looking at the answers I had #1 as being the best easily followed by #2 and then #3

  5. Hi Steve,

    I really like some of the Crazy, not so crazy comparisons. Why don’t a JPG shootout?

    One of the qualities of your site is to show real life shooting. This so called crazy comparisons help evaluate systems as whole. It’s like if you have M43 system you are likely to shoot with this lens, and if you have the Sony APSC with this other one, and these are the results. And not going into the unnecessary at this point debate about RAW vs JPG (RAW is more versatile, better etc., no doubt) some if not a lot of people, even with high end gear, shoot RAW+JPG and touch RAW only for the best photos, leaving the rest untouched. And the better the untouched photos come out of the camera, the best, right?

    For instance, I have a few Sony cameras, which can produce these days some very nice JPGs. I have a small Canon, which I like less. But am intrigued by the Pen F, which we can say is a very JPG friendly camera, and the Fujis, with their film simulations. How would the A7RII (one of my cameras) with its Creative Styles (which allow RAW+JPG unlike the “toy” stuff etc.) adjusted to simulate a Velvia or Chrome or B&W compare to the PEN F or the X-Pro 2 JPGs and film simulations (I know Fuji is not your forte, but hey, they are famous for their JPGs)?

    I hope you enjoy the idea, or one of your talented readers (one with many cameras!)! And thank you for the great website, the only one I go daily!

    • I have done many JPEG comparisons, and people would complain saying “This is not the real IQ capabilities of the camera, you must do these in RAW” – So since this is a correct statement, the best IQ comes from RAW, that is how I do them today. I shoot RAW even for snaps, as the quality is much better than JPEGS, so to exploit the highest IQ of a camera or lens, one must shoot RAW.

      • Thanks for taking the time to answer. I understand your point and it is your site anyway… kkk I don’t want to get into a polemic or whatever, but I think it is a little pity. I do believe what I said makes sense to a lot of people (just process the best shots), and whoever shoots RAW just don’t have to read a JPG post, and many may enjoy. I think it also goes well along with your statement of real world shooting. I have never found this type of shootout around, it would have been fun to see it from you who is so passionate. Then again, thanks for the site, it is really good.

  6. Thanks for that.
    And which one did your lady prefer? Can we have the exif now just to compare settings?

    • So many different preferences, so many incorrect guesses simply prooves that all of the cameras can and just do produce great images and quality is no longer a differentiation factor, an “absolute measure” one can use to select a camera. It essentially comes to personal taste and nothing more!
      Now you can start your argument how much I am wrong and how great is your # 1, 2, 3 camera!

  9. Definitely pic 1 but 3 is very close and when pixel peeping 2 looks quite poor and in comparison.

  10. Well, there you go! Without a doubt #1 (Sony) is the nicest of the images here. I’m surprised how poor the Pen F is in comparison. i wonder if it’s the lens or the sensor?

  11. Hah! 🙂
    Based on what I image (and colors) I liked best I chose my own camera (Pen) out of the three in a heartbeat! Seems I bought the right camera for me.

  12. I like #1 best, certainly the sharpest and most detailed. Not surprising considering the lenses used.

    Now it would be interesting to re-do the test with the Sony 35 1.8 on the A6300, the Oly 25 1.8 on the Pen-F and the PL 25 1.4 on the GX80.

    I suspect the results would be a lot closer.

  13. Ya know, if you are selling photos like this to a typical consumer portrait customer, it doesn’t matter. I’m sure the customer would be very happy with any of them.

  14. Nr 1 was en is my Nr. One. But that said the price of gx80+lens is a third of the price of the sony set. Sony a6300+35mm €2600. and gx80+25mm €780.-. Still a very nice comparison. Thank you Steve! Even if a own a 4/3 setup. LOL. you could also state that m/3 is very a live and kicking considering the price and results!

  15. Looks like the gx85 is not even as sharp as the Pen F, although the AA-filter was removed? Should have been sharper………

  16. Impressive to see such an overwhelming majority preferring the Sony capture. This doesn’t bode well for m43.

    • Maybe, but probably not. Its a one-off , specific moment “test”. Do it again and one of the other cams might nail the metering instead.

      Im still curious about #3 (Gx85). Its soft enough to make me think something went awry at time of shutter press. White balance, colours etc are another matter and can be fixed but the 16mp sensor should be sharper than that. The lens may be an issue but the Pen did a better job with same.

  17. #2
    #1
    #3

    is steve gonna answer this or just leave us hanging.
    When the em-1 ii comes out it will be fun to see what
    crazy comparison he comes up with.

  18. Nice post Steve. It was easy, but you should change the title to 160$ vs 1600$ lens! Which do you prefer?

  19. I named the camera sources correctly also. However I did not record it here before the “reveal”. I feel that the Panasonic and Olympus renderings are not too far apart, but the Sony stands out in its banality.

    • Me ! 🙂 Look at the lenses selected for the test !
      Steve, please the same test but with Oly 25mm f/1.8 for the Pen f and Pana 25mm f/1.4 for the GX85 !!!
      And apsc lenses are to big for me 😉

      • I do not have those lenses on hand, and have done many of those comparisons in the past, one directly between those two lenses when they were still new on the scene. It’s here!

  21. Thanks to all for your comments! Whew! I just revealed the answers in the updated post! But here they are:

    1. Sony A6300
    2. Olympus PEN-F
    3. Pan GX85

    All from raw, no PP

      • Also curious about this.. And this was and interresting test. In the end I kinda leaned towards # 2 but thought it was Pana, not Oly which is what I shoot with the most..

        I am also curious about how you got the model to pose the _exact_ way in all three shots. Almost thought for a while it was the same camera and you just applied post processing to fool us.. 🙂

  22. #1 color is dull and flat.Could be Pany.
    #2 i like the skin tone the best. Not too orange so it’s not the Oly.
    #3 too orange. It could be Oly.

    I love Oly if not for the orange tone. Had to use raw wvery time to shoot portrait. But i like the skin tone of Fuji the best.

    • Regardless of sensor, you could purchase about five of those 20mm f/1.7’s for the cost of that Sony 35mm. Of course it’s just for fun but unless you adapt the same lens, it doesn’t seem like a fair comparison between the cameras. Well at least not fair between the m4/3’s and the Sony.

  23. N°1 Best. Best color and sharpness
    N°2 Second. Not so sharp compare to N°1. Just a little sharper than N°3. Color not bad but not as good as N°1
    N°3 Worst Too orange. Not so sharp compared to N°1 (Almost as sharp as 2)

    A bit difficult to compare 2 and 3 sharpness because 2 is a little over exposed compare to 3.
    Too bad you didn’t use the Zuiko 25mm f/1.8 with the Pen f. Quiet often, for many raisons, when you have an Olympus body, you very often prefer to be equipped with Oly lenses. It’s not a rule of course. It’s another topic, I won’t argue… and it’s difficult for me to write in English.

    Sorry for my English, I am French.
    ….and love your website !

  26. Haha, you should have made a vote, almost 200 comments, people love that stuff 😀
    I think your Debbie would have deserved a nicer background and frame… or would that (the bokeh) make guessing too easy?

  27. #1 Sony
    #2 Olympus
    #3 Panasonic

    IMO #2 & #3 have similar softness of the lens (open aperture) – check the hair on dark background . Also it seems the Sony gives less noise in the dark areas (again check the background) whilst 2 & 3 have similar output. What is really hard to distinguish – difference between Oly and Pany…

    • That’s the same list I had earlier, but if you examine the security sign on the right, the difference in DOF is evident and I believe 1, 3 are from the same lens, which would leave Sony w 2 along w high background noise.

  28. #1 must be 1600$ Zeiss for the detail! Please do this test with the PL 25 1.4 or the cheaper 20 1.7

  29. 1,3,2 because of skin tones
    Would be interesting to run a similar test with different raw developers, like Lr, C1 and DxO — I bet my left arm the variance would be even bigger….

  32. #1 has the most detail and the shallowest depth of field. #2 and #3 show quite a bit noise. #3 is (only) pleasing because it is not as sharp as the other. For skin tones, I prefer #1, then #2 and then #3.

    In the past, Olympus has been favored over Panasonic due to better skin tones. On the other hand, my impression is that the target group for PEN-F are JPEG-only shooting hipsters that by default want punchy colors.

    For almost sure I can say that #3 is not Sony. I’m a bit surprised myself, that my conclusion is that #1 must be Panasonic, #2 must be Sony and #3 must be Olympus.

  33. #1; the flesh tones are a lot smoother, especially notable on her forehead (and maybe a more natural smile, very slightly?)

  38. 1st and 2nd are sony and Oly (I guess 1st sony and 2nd oly) the 3rd is for sure panasonic (when you look at full size the magnification factor is the smallest, if steve do not modified the size of the shots no doubt about).
    both 1 and 2 perform really good and since I got the sony 35 I am really happy to see how good is cropped.
    thanks for the effort Steve (as usual)

    • 1. best sharp, of cours Olympus
      2. the face is most big that the others shots. it’s posible by different sensor,… Sony
      3. less sharp and most contrast that One, … Panasonic.

  40. The fact that there are so many different opinions, it just confirms that the differences between these two sensors are not so huge and as far as I’m concerned all three pics are nice and I have no odea which one is which. ☺

  41. #1 > #3 > #2
    #1: best exposure, sharp, nice skin rendering and colors
    #2: sharp but slightly overexposed, therefore skin a bit washed out and colors of dress less saturated
    #3: not as sharp as the other two, nice skin tone and colors though
    I would guess #2 is the Sony as the perspective is different from the other two.

  43. I like #1 best. #2 appears to be overexposed and #3 has motion blur. No idea which is which, though.
    I have an APSC (Nikon) and a 1″ (Panasonic) and I’m perfectly happy with both…
    Good luck! Like your blog.

  44. No. 1 without any questions …

    Whatever the solution will be, I thank you very much for this interessting comparison !
    The right and appropriate equipment does matter !!!

  45. 1# and 2# are m4/3. See head form cause 25mm.
    3# apsc
    1# is panasonic cause color warm is 2# olympus. In fact 1# is Panasonic.
    Ufff. Well done panasonic

  46. #1 is the best, or at least the sharpest. Colors of #1 and #3 are similar. Sharpness, being less than #1, is similar in #2 and #3. So that means: don’t know. If removing that moire filter really made the gx85 any sharper, it could be #1. Then #3 is the Pen F. #2 the 6300. No, wait, #3 is the most saturated one. Why? I think I like #1 the best. All I can say is if that was the gx85, then I want it.

  48. The last two seem overexposed. What gives it away though is the blue sticker in the top right corner of 2 and 3. It looks different and sharper in the first pic. That leads me to think 1 is Sony.

  49. I’d guess #1 is the Sony judging from the DOF. The others are MFT. All are excellent.

    I could be wrong, but being a man, I will never admit it.

  51. This is so difficult. The more I look at these I am leaning towards 1 would be Olympus, 2 is more difficult. Maybe Pana beacuse of the over exposure. But 3: Sony?? I would have guessed more detail in that case.

  54. I prefer nr. 1, more sharp then the others and colors are right.
    Others are less sharp. and the colors are WB to warm, but that can be process in post.

  55. 1 – higher definition, better colors. seems more accurate.
    2 – focus on the eyes. the color is pleasant.
    3 – missed focus on the eyes. seems too magenta. needs sharpening.

  56. Looks like I’m in a small minority of slightly preferring number 2. I find it looks a bit less flat and a little more 3D. Otherwise no strong complaints with the other two, though.

  58. I submit no vote.

    But the at times contradictary votes from others deliver a message to all those who vigerously argue that “full frame” is clearly superior to APS-C, or that APS-C is clearly superior to m4/3.

  59. Very clearly #1. Best exposure and color balance and much nicer rendering around the shoulders.

  60. I’d say #1 did the best for metering/exposure.

    However… while I’m usually a big fan of the ‘real world’ tests and crazy comparisons, I have to say this particular case doesn’t strike me as a common ‘real world’ scenario because there’s no background.

    Most (the vast majority?) or portraits taken by enthusiasts would have a background, often a messy one needing to be eliminated or at least de-emphasised.

    But I think it does make a very valid point (one especially applicable when using smaller sensor cameras such as Micro 4/3) – for best results, choose your background wisely (when you can)!

  62. 1 – just right
    3 – a little warm but still good exposure ( framing is much different then others possibly due to re-framing compensation)
    2 – slight over exposure and cooler (framing is identical to #1 possibly due to same sensor size)

  63. When are you going to reveal the truth @Steve? (I didn´t dare ticking the box for comments via email since I was scared that would overflow my Inbox).

  65. now that ive had a chance to view on computer at full size, it’s clear that #3 suffers from either a very poor lens or focus error. debbies face (eyes in particular) is much softer. given that it cant be a different lens to both others, and all three cams have excellent sensors, I suspect it’s front focused a little bit or camera shake.

  67. Well, 2 and 3 are both soft and have terrible exposures (prob. due to the iffy four thirds sensor).

    So it is safe to assume #1 was captured with the superior lens. Kudos to Sony to get such tonality out of a crop sensor. A6300 seems like a beast of a camera.

  71. 1. PEN-F / 2. Sony A6300 / 3. Panasonic GX85. Based on the images I have seen on other websites. This comparison is crazy indeed because normally you won’t downsize your files. The lenses are not equal and number 2 seems slightly overexposed.
    I think I have fallen in love with Debby, so I would buy all three.

  73. #1 Panasonic (well balanced)
    #2 Sony (over saturated and exposed)
    #3 Olympus (i-auto color)

  74. Steve, Think you have thrown a curved ball here! Any one of the three, possibly adjusted a little for white balance or sharpening, would be an excellent picture. Reminds me of my Hi Fi days when we concentrated more on the noise than listening to the music. I think the differences in quality of results today is so marginal,we are better buying the camera that turns us on and makes us want to take pictures.I have a range of different cameras and my best quality camera gets less use than my fun camera. Thanks for the stimulation.

  75. JAT says:
    #1: Debbie is cute, no matter what camera you shoot.
    #2: Detail follows the numbers: 1, 2, 3
    #3: Yes, #3 is slightly more red than the other two, but I would adjust it with software and not worry one bit.
    #4: I would be happy to own any of these cameras, but would probably settle for the one with the least expensive but top notch glass and fun factor.
    #5: Thanks for the comparison, Steve.

  77. 1 the one I prefer also because of the more balanced background, i. e window frame
    3 second – methinks that this is the APS Sony version because it looks more detached a bit oversaturated colours
    2 not so good as the the above because of dull background which has more to do with the person behind the camera than the camera itself 🙂

  80. I’ll pick @1 as the preferred image. I think I see a little more detail and the color looks good. Number 3 is a bit too red but a slight adjustment in white balance fixes it. Number 2 is OK. All are good and realistically all the cameras will make excellent image and with such a great subject you can’t to wrong.

  81. #1 has the best exposure and good color; it is the best, most natural of the three.
    #2 has good color but is a little overexposed and a little too contrasty.
    #3 is much too red and a little too contrasty, easily the worst of the three.

    • Now that we know which is which: the Sony A6300 was the best. The Olympus was just ok. The Panasonic was unacceptable, worst of the three.

  83. Would rather see the comparisson made with panasonic 25/1.4 as it would provide a more similar equivalent focal length and depth of field. … Can’t comment on colours now – wieving them on a TN panel now…, but best sharpness; #1 = (should be) Sony.

  84. all of them are all doing such a wonderful job with skin tone and rendering. Nr. 1 still looks better then 2 and 3…

  86. I’ll toss my $0.02 in, and agree with the majority.

    #1 has the best overall color rendering
    #2 is overexposed, which reduces the contrast of the image. If I were Debbie, I’d want to keep #1 and delete #2.
    #3 has a reddish tint that doesn’t seem natural to me. It reminds me of the tan on Donald Trumps face… sort of overdone and garish. This image can be salvaged by a slight adjustment in DXO. This was *not* intended as a political statement, only a skin color comparison between Debbie and Donald.

  95. I like the warmth of #3 (Olympus?) but feel that #1 (Sony?) is the most accurate. #2 seems just slightly off to me. Honestly though, it’s really almost too close to call, they are all doing such a wonderful job with skin tone and rendering I think there’s little to choose from.

  96. #1 looks best to me. I think this is the PEN. #2 is worst and looks like Sony colouring to me. #3 Panasonic.

  97. 1st- #2 Looks the most natural and has more character. (Sony)

    2nd- #1 Nice color and contrast, but on the flat side. (Panasonic)

    3rd- #3 Color and focus look off. (Olympus)

  100. 3,1,2.
    how about change the order, first impression decide the result, sometimes. Or put another 3 pics with different order.

  101. #1 – Sharp, with pleasant and balanced color.
    #2 – Overexposed.
    #3 – Reddish and oversaturated, loses a little detail.

    The #1 could be Sony, if so, the pleasant colors and sharpness are due to the camera or the lens? Is the #2 overexposed due to bad metering or bad DR?

  102. Overall I prefer #1. I don’t think it is a fair comparison though because #2 and #3 appear to be overexposed which probably affected the color in subtle ways. (Note that he post to the left side of the model is much more prominent in those two images.) #2 appears to have ever so slightly greater detail than the others which could be a focus issue, but I suspect it is the Sony.

    If your point is that there is not a great deal of difference, consider your point made. The color issues described vacant be corrected to taste.

  103. It may make a difference that I’m viewing on an iPad, but I’d say it’s too close to call between #1 and #2. The skin tones of #3 are too ruddy for my taste, but there’s nothing actually wrong with it.

  104. Wow! Reinforces the argument in favour of M4/3 for me.
    #1 seems a tad sharper with the most shallow DOF.
    #3 Is that the edge of a contact lens on Debby’s right eye?

  107. First #1 – Pleasing skin tone, details, overall rendering has a more 3D feel. Natural.

    Second #3 – Less pleasing skin tone, looks like slight over-exposure, colours smear with less pixel to pixel gradation leading to perceived tonal range.

    Third #2 – Waxy looking skin, struggles with details at 100%, truggle rendering, also looks slightly over-exposed. Both #2 and #3 appear to have shifted a tad towards red. If focus was correct, #2 and #3 are unable resolve images in as pleasing a way as #1.

  110. For skin tones, number one
    The third is too much saturated (skin tones) but has got excellent focus in the eyes. The third is the best lens of all three, I guess

  113. 1 – best overall, from IQ to balance
    3 – IQ is good, a little too orange
    2 – maybe best color, but the face is a little too washed out, lack detail, I guess.

  115. #1 is my favourite – best skin tones, white balance
    #2 is my second choice.
    #3 is a distant third – too saturated, too magenta cast skin tones.

    Number one also captured the best detail within her eye itself.
    I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that 1 was the Olympus?

  116. I prefer #1 but I would be able to make a better judgement from seeing the RAW files.

  117. I have no idea, but the fact that the solutions offered above span all possibilities tells me that the difference between µ4/3rds and APS-C is getting smaller every iteration.

  118. First place – #1
    Second place – #3
    Third place – #2

    Numbers 3 and 2 look very similar so my guess is that they are the Panasonic and Olympus, respectively.
    That would make number 1 the Sony.
    But number 1 reminds me of Panasonic colors.

  120. I’ll throw a curve-ball and say the jpeg from the Sigma dp Quattro < some time ago!
    (Sorry but I think the jpeg out of the camera was nicer then the RAW you worked on.)

    Keep up the good work, Steve. I really enjoy your blog.

  121. #1 is Sony because it doesn’t have fringe colors because of the $1400 lens. The other two have purple fringe so it must came from the same lens. I don’t care about the other two cameras because the DR is very poor.

    #1 is the best and I will be shocked if it’s not Sony.

  125. La n. 1 (credo Sony) per nitidezza e colori neutri la n. 3 per i colori più accesi (credo Olimpus) la n. 2 credo la Panasonic è la peggiore.

  126. Photo 1 seems the nicest image, largely due to skin tone.

    Photo 3 seems a little too orange or warm in skin.

    Photo 2 looks to be a different exposure level – the subject a little brighter relative to pic 1 – but only in some parts of the pic and interestingly the white doorframe is a shade darker to my eye (which one is closest to ‘real’ of course we dont know).

    If it turns out that pic 1 is an m4/3 sensor then it suggests that for portraits at least, white balance, skin tone rendering and metering is more critical to image appeal than the bigger sensor.

    Im going to punt on olympus’ reputation for nailing skin rendering and say pic 1 is the Pen. The different color signature of pic 3 i will guess is the Sony. I’ll probably be horribly wrong, lol. (Just viewing on my phone, fwiw).

  131. No. 1 is overall the best (check out the security sign on the right )
    No. 3 is my second favorite
    No. 2 least favorite, although at first glance I liked the face the best in this.

    • The previous guess is based on the noise patterns in the shadow areas. I took another look today, the differences in DOF tell a different story, by the security warning on the right side, seems 1-Oly, 2-Sony (shallowest) 3-Panny.
      That would mean you used aggressive JPEG setting for 1 and little for 2. A bit confusing.

      • Hi, Olympus and Panasonic should have the same DOF since they share the same lens (unless I missed something).

        • Ya, 1 and 3 are from the same lens. And 1 has more details so it must be the Pen F. But the comparison shows a6300 sensor’s noise lvl is high, check the left window, pretty bad. That’s why initially I thought it must be from a smaller sensor.

  135. Steve, all three images are very nice.

    #1 clearly is sharper and has more depth of color. 2 and 3 are about the same.

    My guess is Sony is #1, not sure which is which for the other two, too close to call.

  136. #3 is my favorite
    #2 is near by
    #3 is way worse (color rendering…..)
    My personal opinion 😉

  138. Steve wouldn’t have missed focus 🙂 so I’d change to #2 Olympus and #3 Panasonic, after a closer look.

    • I’m not sure I understand how the difference between Aps and m43 can be any different than it’s ever been – one is one size and the other another size. Unless you’re just referring to growing MP counts

    • If anything, the gap has widened even more. The A6300 matches the A7 II’s image quality, while there hasn’t been much progress in M4/3. Of course, at ISO 100, the only way you would see this is by recovering highlights or shadows. Easily noticeable by ISO 1600, though.

  140. #1 Sony ($1600 lens)
    #2 Panasonic ($250 lens)
    #3 Olympus ($250 lens), maybe slightly OOF?

  146. # 1 seems to have better resolution than the others, but the tones in #2 seem more natural.

  147. I prefer the look of #1 on my monitor (which I just calibrated).

    It seems by the background that the exposures may not be exactly the same. I’m assuming they are so it must be the way the sensors or shutters are interpreting the pictures.

    • I agree with Ness. The first one has great sharpness and detail, but the colors are too green, so most likely Panny. The third one has very red skin tones, so I am guessing Oly. The middle one is somewhere in between, so Sony.

  152. No. 1: Sony A6300, Zeiss – the sharpness and smooth rendering is there with neutral colour pallette
    No. 3: Pen f, pure guess as the colours are warmer and that’s where Olympus excels -they say!
    No. 2: GX80, sadly this might be it

  153. #1 Dynamic range is either compressed slightly or not boosted, so highlights in skin don’t distract from other features of face. Particularly the eyes.

  154. 1 and 2 very close, I slightly prefer 2. 3 is too warm for my tastes, looks unnatural

  156. My preference is #1 since it looks the more natural in terms of color/rendering.

  159. Nr. 3 becouse for me it is most balanced and harmonic between forground and background.
    Nr. 2 the face is a bit too light – although on the smartphone I liked it
    Nr. 1 is also close but not as harmonic as Nr. 3

  160. I prefer #1 for sharpness, details and colour. Picture #3 has a little to much red…..and #2 I’m missing the details. KR Lutz

  161. My favorite is #1 – Very pleasing/balanced/natural rendering. Perhaps a bit easier to overlook at the small size, but a clear favorite when viewing the larger original.

    Second place would be #2 – while a little too punchy for my liking, there is a certain pop to this one that can be a nice quality depending on the shot. At the smaller size, this photo grabbed my attention first, but I was less enthusiastic upon viewing the larger version.

    Third place is #3 – The color palette is a tad too warm and there seems to be a shift towards magenta, and the overall processing just feels forced.

    Regarding cameras used, here’s my guess:
    #1 – Panasonic
    #2 – Sony
    #3 – Olympus

  163. #1 is the best overall, while #2 has the most natural colors. #3 is just awful, her skin looks like it has got the same treatment Donald Trump gets.

  165. Number 1 unless you drop the exposure on 2 a bit. Then, it’s a draw between 1 and 2.

  169. 1 > 2 > 3.
    1# has the best skintones imo. Not too saturated and most of the skin is in the midtones. The noise seems blotchy compared to the other two. Crappy noise reduction by the in camera JPEG.
    2# Obviously a little overexposed on the skin. Surprisingly the transition into shadows on the arms is grainy and poor in color. Bad dynamic range.
    #3 is really bad imo. Skin tones look horrible. Really saturated and low detail in the highlights.

  171. Overall prefer #1 most natural colours and best resolution, #3 has nice pop, #2 suffering a bit on dynamic range. Will be interesting to the see result, I know the idea is to even things up but would also be interesting to see Sony with a f1.7 lens.

  172. I like #1 for the handling of the highlights on the face imo makes a better portrait. However #3 has a nice look to the rest of the photo.

  173. 1 PEN-F
    2 Sony A6300
    3 Panasonic GX-85

    And I like them in that order. I believe #2 has more detail but colors on #1 is better.

  175. For the details:
    – i like the #1 (excellence details in full resolution), then #2 (like increasing sharpen by software) and then #3 (like a little bit of out of focus)
    For the color and contrast:
    – I prefer #3 (the shiny look of her face makes she look more beautiful), then #1 (neutral color is acceptable) and then #2 (too overexpose IMO)
    For the look of the woman’s face:
    – I prefer #3 (maybe because of the compose, the portrait is good in the scene), then #1 (the portrait is blew up a little bit)and then #2 (the face gets fat look)

  182. I like #2 the best, simply because Debbie’s not as orange as in the other two photos. 🙂 But I like #1 as well.

    Let me go even further and guess which is which:
    1 – Sony A6300 — warm but pleasing skin tones.
    2 – Pen-F — Just a bit over-exposed, a bit more punch in colors and contrast, image a bit more on the cool side….typical Olympus.
    3 – GX85 — The most orange of the skin tones, something that Panny cameras usually struggle with.

    I’m probably totally wrong….but it’s always fun to guess!

    • Yes Steve, you should find a way to include polls in your website, or at least do a Twitter poll and link to it from the article

  195. It seems to me that looking at the IQ in her right eye, there is finer detail in the posting order 1,2, 3. Since I shoot raw only, the col, tone, contrast etc is infinitely adjustable

  199. 1, 3, 2. #1 looks the most balanced. #2 looks over exposed, and the colors wash out on her shirt. #3 has an orange hue to her skin tones, which look off to me.

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