Different Cameras & Lenses, Same Point of View

This should be an interesting post to some of you, see that swing in the picture? I take pictures of my daughters ever year in the summer on this exact swing, where they spend the summer vacation time by the seaside. I wanted to make a comparison between the different pictures taken from the spot, with different cameras and lenses, over the years.

What camera/lens combination would you say was used to capture the above picture?


Just a quick note before we get on with the pictures, I didn't pick all the pictures I took of my daughters riding this swing, but I only picked the ones taken in daylight (to show the background) and with the same relative subject size. I have other pictures taken at night, lit up with flash, close-ups, etc...

Let's start with this, and look for clues. Wide angle, infinite depth of field, completely blown-out highlights, bad focus, and a bad composition. This indicates a tiny sensor, slow focus, and an inexperienced photographer, the camera was my old 5 MP Sony Ericsson C905 feature phone, back then, it had good performance compared to regular point and shoots of the period.

Next one, less background with a hint of background blur, that's my Canon G11 at full zoom (100mm equivalent if I remember correctly).

Next, a sudden leap in background blur, and a different model altogether (that's my younger daughter by the way). That's the 5D Mark III and 50 f/1.4 wide open, and apart from the weird lighting pattern on my daughter's face, I like how the background turned out. Dang, I miss full frame already, I wish a miracle would happen and camera manufacturers could make MFT-sized full frame bodies and lenses.

Regular readers already know I had a couple of APS-C camera before the 5D, however, I didn't find any pictures with the same subject size taken with the 550D or the 60D.

Woah, look at this background, a fast telephoto lens, my favorite method for shooting portraits, the background compression and blurry backgrounds caused by the long focal length and fast aperture makes a good portrait in my opinion, that's the 5D3 and the infamous 200L f/2.8 wide-open, don't you just love how the lens renders the scene?

Final picture, any guesses? Yes, that's the OMD and the Olympus 45 f/1.8 wide-open, it might not look as punchy as the one above, but actually the desaturated colors are intentional, I reduced both the contrast and the saturation a bit to get this old-feeling look. I'd say the OMD passed the shallow DOF test, won't you say? If I could just get my hands on that 75 f/1.8!

What do you think? Which one do you prefer? I know I'd pick the 200L any day.