Saturday, February 25, 2012

Panasonic GX1, low light progress (vs Fuji X10)

One of the few heart-breaking things about the Micro Four Thirds format has been that neither Olympus nor Panasonic has until recently exactly been leaders when it came to low-light quality. In fact they have been behind the times for the size of the format and camera.

But now Panasonic, with the new GX1 (following the the GF1 and GF2 line, not sure what the X is doing there) has made remarkable progress. See below cropped images shot at ISO 3200 at GF2 and GX1:

GF2: 

GX1:

GF2:

GX1: 

Like I said, remarkable. This goes straight from "not really usable at this setting" to "very usable at this setting". And this progress is made while at the same time upping the resolution from 12MP to 16MP.
Get the full size images here: GF2 and GX1.
These I got via the very ingenious Camera Comparison page at Imaging Resource.

I must say though, that perhaps I will just keep my current favorite, Fuji X10. As you see here, despite the smaller sensor, it has the same image quality as the Pana GX1! Damnable impressive. And its lens is 1.5 stops faster than the compact zoom which comes with the GX1. It's a very impressive all-round semi-compact camera. So unless you need exchangeable lenses, the choice is hard.

I should note that the GH2, a bulkier and more expensive camera, but highly capable especially for video, has about the same quality again, maybe even a notch better. The GF2 and GH2 came out at the same time about, and I was not aware that there was such a large gap between them in this respect. Usually sensors of the same size from the same time and manufacturer has comparable quality.

3 comments:

Ken said...

Looks like I'm going to have to replace my GF1 with a GX1. I seem to be buying a new camera every year.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Arh, the GF1 is 3-4 years old. And I tell you, you'll see a huge difference in responsiveness, and at least two full stops' gain in low light! That's not peanuts, think of how much you'd pay in weight and money to get a lens which is two stops faster!

Ken said...

I think the GF2 had the same sensor as the GF1. I will also be looking at the G3, it seems a better option. At the rate these are appearing if I wait 6 months the next model may be available.