pdk42
Moderator
I've been missing a small and portable camera so I recently bought a used GX8 for a good price. Fitted with a small prime (e.g. the Oly 17/1.8 or the PL 15/1.7), it's a decent enough camera and fulfils its intended purpose well - that is, something small and light to take on trips where the bulk of an ILC is too much - a cheapo Leica Q3 if you like! It's a keeper for the time being.
On a separate train of thought, I've been curious about about the Panasonic G9 ii for a little while. For those that don't know much about the G9ii, its sensor uses a fancy dual gain technique ("DR boost") that seems to deliver much cleaner shadows than I've seen on m43 cameras before. Sample images I've downloaded seem to perform very well when I've gone pushing shadows and exposure.
I moved from m43 to FF two years ago predominantly because I was frustrated with the limitations of m43 to deliver clean enough images to do the sort of post processing I often do on landscape shots. It was not an easy decision because I really like the m43 ecosystem in terms of lens choice and performance. FF delivers the IQ I want, but I still hanker for the Oly 12-100!
So, this past weekend I had a play with the G9ii courtesy of the Lumix Loan programme here in the UK. Basically, you can get kit from Panasonic to try for a weekend for no cost at all. Hard to resist!!
Since I had the GX8 with me, I thought I'd do a three-way test. The TLDR is this (and it's sort of obvious really):
Pushing shadows in files shot at base ISO
- The G9ii is notably better than the GX8 but still lags the S5. My measure is noise and colour shift.
- However, the G9ii isn't too far behind the S5 and I think for most landscape shooting it would be fine.
If you want to see the evidence for these conclusions, read on...
Test conditions:
- Shot on a tripod with a 2s delay
- Electronic shutter
- G9ii with Olympus 25mm f1.8 lens. f5.6
- GX8 with Panasonic 12-60 set to 23mm (thought it was 25mm, but...). f5.6
- S5 with Lumix 50mm f1.8. f11
- Exposures more or less matched (but there is some ISO calibration variance so I had to tweak a bit)
Pushing shadows
I shot this scene with all three cameras at their base ISO:
I exposed to keep the sky well within clipping. I could perhaps have added an extra stop of exposure without losing highlight detail, but I wanted to do a stress test on shadow pushing.
On all three cameras, I did this:
- Pushed shadows +100
- Selected the foreground (everything but the sky) and pushed that 1.8 stops
This gives a more-or-less normal brightness for the foreground. Now you might think this is an unrealistic thing to do, but it's something that can happen very easily on, say, a sunrise or sunset (after the sun has disappeared, I'm not talking of having the sun itself in shot). I could shoot a bracket of course, but if the shot is a long-exposure, this isn't usually practical. This is the sort of use case that led me to move away from m43 a couple of years ago.
And this is the result:
GX8:
G9ii:
S5:
I think it's pretty obvious that the S5 is the best - least noise and least colour shift. But the G9ii does OK.
Looking at the trees on the right at 100%, this is what we see:
GX8:
G9ii
S5:
Let's see what happens if I clean the m43 images up using LR's NR (with NR set at 25%):
GX8:
G9ii:
So now we're getting a decent shot off the g9ii. Here it is side-by-side with the S5 (un-enhanced):
The GX8 is still showing too much colour loss as well as a blue/magenta shift, but I've hit the limit of 10 attached images so I'll post it in the next message.
Now, I know that the GX8 is an older m43 camera. But I do know that its sensor is pretty much the same as in the Pen-F. I've run a Pen-F against an EM1.3 and for sure the EM1.3 is a little better. But my recollection is that it is not as much of a step up as we're seeing in these G9ii images. I also did comparisons of the EM1.3 against the OM1 with this sort of testing and I couldn't see any meaningful difference. So my conclusion is that the G9ii is certainly the best m43 camera for landscape shooting.
On a separate train of thought, I've been curious about about the Panasonic G9 ii for a little while. For those that don't know much about the G9ii, its sensor uses a fancy dual gain technique ("DR boost") that seems to deliver much cleaner shadows than I've seen on m43 cameras before. Sample images I've downloaded seem to perform very well when I've gone pushing shadows and exposure.
I moved from m43 to FF two years ago predominantly because I was frustrated with the limitations of m43 to deliver clean enough images to do the sort of post processing I often do on landscape shots. It was not an easy decision because I really like the m43 ecosystem in terms of lens choice and performance. FF delivers the IQ I want, but I still hanker for the Oly 12-100!
So, this past weekend I had a play with the G9ii courtesy of the Lumix Loan programme here in the UK. Basically, you can get kit from Panasonic to try for a weekend for no cost at all. Hard to resist!!
Since I had the GX8 with me, I thought I'd do a three-way test. The TLDR is this (and it's sort of obvious really):
Pushing shadows in files shot at base ISO
- The G9ii is notably better than the GX8 but still lags the S5. My measure is noise and colour shift.
- However, the G9ii isn't too far behind the S5 and I think for most landscape shooting it would be fine.
If you want to see the evidence for these conclusions, read on...
Test conditions:
- Shot on a tripod with a 2s delay
- Electronic shutter
- G9ii with Olympus 25mm f1.8 lens. f5.6
- GX8 with Panasonic 12-60 set to 23mm (thought it was 25mm, but...). f5.6
- S5 with Lumix 50mm f1.8. f11
- Exposures more or less matched (but there is some ISO calibration variance so I had to tweak a bit)
Pushing shadows
I shot this scene with all three cameras at their base ISO:
- Panasonic - DC-G9M2
- OLYMPUS M.25mm F1.8
- 25.0 mm
- ƒ/5.6
- 1/2000 sec
- Pattern
- Auto bracket
- -2.7
- ISO 100
I exposed to keep the sky well within clipping. I could perhaps have added an extra stop of exposure without losing highlight detail, but I wanted to do a stress test on shadow pushing.
On all three cameras, I did this:
- Pushed shadows +100
- Selected the foreground (everything but the sky) and pushed that 1.8 stops
This gives a more-or-less normal brightness for the foreground. Now you might think this is an unrealistic thing to do, but it's something that can happen very easily on, say, a sunrise or sunset (after the sun has disappeared, I'm not talking of having the sun itself in shot). I could shoot a bracket of course, but if the shot is a long-exposure, this isn't usually practical. This is the sort of use case that led me to move away from m43 a couple of years ago.
And this is the result:
GX8:
- Panasonic - DMC-GX8
- LUMIX G VARIO 12-60/F3.5-5.6
- 23.0 mm
- ƒ/5.6
- 1/3200 sec
- Pattern
- Auto bracket
- -2.3
- ISO 200
G9ii:
- Panasonic - DC-G9M2
- OLYMPUS M.25mm F1.8
- 25.0 mm
- ƒ/5.6
- 1/2000 sec
- Pattern
- Auto bracket
- -2.7
- ISO 100
S5:
- Panasonic - DC-S5
- LUMIX S 50/F1.8
- 50.0 mm
- ƒ/11
- 1/400 sec
- Pattern
- Auto bracket
- -3
- ISO 100
I think it's pretty obvious that the S5 is the best - least noise and least colour shift. But the G9ii does OK.
Looking at the trees on the right at 100%, this is what we see:
GX8:
- Panasonic - DMC-GX8
- LUMIX G VARIO 12-60/F3.5-5.6
- 23.0 mm
- ƒ/5.6
- 1/3200 sec
- Pattern
- Auto bracket
- -2.3
- ISO 200
G9ii
- Panasonic - DC-G9M2
- OLYMPUS M.25mm F1.8
- 25.0 mm
- ƒ/5.6
- 1/2000 sec
- Pattern
- Auto bracket
- -2.7
- ISO 100
S5:
- Panasonic - DC-S5
- LUMIX S 50/F1.8
- 50.0 mm
- ƒ/11
- 1/400 sec
- Pattern
- Auto bracket
- -3
- ISO 100
Let's see what happens if I clean the m43 images up using LR's NR (with NR set at 25%):
GX8:
- Panasonic - DMC-GX8
- LUMIX G VARIO 12-60/F3.5-5.6
- 23.0 mm
- ƒ/5.6
- 1/3200 sec
- Pattern
- Auto bracket
- -2.3
- ISO 200
G9ii:
- Panasonic - DC-G9M2
- OLYMPUS M.25mm F1.8
- 25.0 mm
- ƒ/5.6
- 1/2000 sec
- Pattern
- Auto bracket
- -2.7
- ISO 100
So now we're getting a decent shot off the g9ii. Here it is side-by-side with the S5 (un-enhanced):
The GX8 is still showing too much colour loss as well as a blue/magenta shift, but I've hit the limit of 10 attached images so I'll post it in the next message.
Now, I know that the GX8 is an older m43 camera. But I do know that its sensor is pretty much the same as in the Pen-F. I've run a Pen-F against an EM1.3 and for sure the EM1.3 is a little better. But my recollection is that it is not as much of a step up as we're seeing in these G9ii images. I also did comparisons of the EM1.3 against the OM1 with this sort of testing and I couldn't see any meaningful difference. So my conclusion is that the G9ii is certainly the best m43 camera for landscape shooting.
