daily dose of imagery | by Sam Javanrouh
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wolf moon | January 31, 2010

wolf moon || Canon 5D2/EF200f2.8L | 1/125s | f9 | ISO100
I thought the brightest moon of the year (aka Wolf Moon) was a good excuse to compare two cameras and lenses for sharpness. Shot around 2:15am on January 30th, the above photo is shot with Canon 5D Mark II and Canon EF 200 f2.8 L lens at f9. Image is cropped in actual pixels (no resizing). Only sharpness is added in Photoshop which is normal for shooting RAW.

wolf moon || Panasonic GF1/Pana45-200@200 | 1/125s | f11 | ISO100
This one is shot with Panasonic GF1 and Panasonic 45-200 lens at 200mm at f11 (400mm in 35mm world; GF1 is a Micro Four Thirds system camera so the sensor crop factor is 2x) which is why the moon is larger in actual pixels crop, even considering the resolution difference in camera bodies (5D2 is 21MP, GF1 is 12MP). Again only sharpening is applied to the RAW capture here.

Obviously the L series lens on a full frame camera like 5D2 wins in capturing fine detail, but for a cheap consumer level lens on a Micro Four Thirds sensor the Panasonic is not bad at all. (5D2+L lens combination is around 3 times more expensive than the GF1+Lens combo)
Just to clarify, there are way too many variables in comparing two systems that are so different in nature. I was just curious to see the results of these systems. This by no means is a "buy this or the other" post. For comprehensive reviews visit sites like dpreview.com