what are the small full-frame camera options?

You can easily get background blur with small sensors, even with a smartphone, if the subject is close enough. It’s not like you cannot get bokeh with micro 4/3, just that you get 2x the blur on full frame with the same aperture.

I felt the same a lot of times, but unfortunately I am not aware of books, you will have to do with tutorials on Youtube. But I think the best option is just experimenting with your camera (if you already have one).

A lot of people have a preference for one brand on another, but that frequently just comes down to previous experience and personal taste. Other than that, I think the key factor is lens selection; how much are you willing to spend on lenses, which lenses do you want, which mount has them, etc.

That said, check out the new camera color profiles in recent Darkable versions (I think it is in 4.9 only). They can give you a lot of quick & dirty color grading, emulating various cameras.

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and also by using a telephone lens as illustrated ; maybe there are phones with telephoto options but I bet you would struggle using the widest aperture possible and hard to escape high depth of field with a tiny sensor

It’s not going to match the 35mm standard but maybe good to mix with a series taken on micro 4/3

in my earlier post which I can no longer edit I recommended the Canon M50 though now understand that you need a lens with image stabilization as the in camera stabilisation may only work on video which is a shame as there are good prime lenses without it, Silent shooting also only works in automatic on the Mark 1 so a good point made earlier about features disappearing might do me good to lose some control sometimes

Bokeh defined as quality of out of focus areas probably better on full frame but subjective and not too difficult to modify post processing, edge detect blur might please some

gimp bitmap editing using features that have been around for a long time offer a lot of good possibilities, I used selection tools and quick mask, still powerful software in practice I threw a couple of leaf edges out of focus on the picture shown earlier

there seem to be a lot more good open source options for working on bokeh I need to look at

while the emphasis might be on quality if there is nowhere out of focus it can’t have very good quality

Might there be analogous ways of working in related media : black and white printing on an enlarger we always used to try and get black white and every shade of grey in between, might we have sharp, totally blurred and every shade of out of focus inbetween

In drawing we are asked to look at negative spaces a big help in getting accurate drawing might there be a metaphor their for looking at the areas out of focus

It does seem helpful to try to blend edges into the out of focus area

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The Sigma fp L was already mentioned (smallest in the world at the time of issue) but it’s principle is “modular” e.g. if you want an EVF, that’s an extra to be bolted on. So probably not suitable for your purposes, eh?

Does the Panasonic S9 have “convenient manual controls”, even though few?

I have a G9 with so many controls I almost have to read the Manual for every shot - and the the manual controls are far from convenient.

I don’t think a digital camera that ticks your boxes exists.

For proper DOF control you’d also need some large aperture lens and that glass is so big for MILCs that the the body size becomes rather irrelevant.

If you want a compact FF camera that has somewhat fast glass, a used Sony RX1 is an amazing and compact FF camera. Obviously you will not be able to change lenses though.

Tamas said “ILC” not “MILC”, FWIW.

I have to admit that I love the Panasonic menus/controls. Yes, I had to spend a bit of time exploring them, but they are my favorite of all camera brands I have tried (Sony, Canon, Nikon; I never had Fuji or Olympus or other brands). I recognize that these things are subjective though, and everyone has their preferences.

I would be happy to give up IBIS (which makes bodies larger), but it is now a “must have” according to the market, so I have to agree.

I am not sure, there are smallish prime lenses in the focal ranges I like, eg the Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM.

Funny, I can’t stand them. Something about their design is too toy-like for me, which gives me a visceral emotional reaction. Come to think of it, Lightroom Classic’s design has a similar effect.

But in both cases, I recognize there’s nothing objectively wrong with the UIs. I can abstractly recognize them as good, in fact. They just rub me the wrong way.

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I think I already talked about this but I guess you could get the small, cheap EF nifty50 and pair it with a Viltrox EF-M2 ii focal reducer (I see used copies for 70-80 pounds here and Gerald Undone says it’s 95% as sharp as expensive Metabones). That gives you an F/1.2-1.3 max aperture. Whether that’s particularly sharp, I don’t know. There’s also the Olympus pro F/1.2 lenses that can be had for as low as 300 pounds used if you look around.

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Oh, you consider that small. Canon RP with that lens then. Or A7C (II) with the Sony Zeiss 35mm f/2.8.

If ILC APC-C was fine, my M200 with the 22mm f/2.0 is very small. :blush: