GH-1 vs G85 (big generational change)

I've occasionally done a look at the successive generations of m43 cameras, seeing as I started with a G1 (nearly 10 years ago) and then moved to the GH-1 (about 8 years ago,which I've sat with ever since); where I've found that pretty much all the developments have been "interesting" but not enough to "tip me over the scales" and buy a new one.

To my observations the changes have been about conveniences; which would of course be worth having, but for me (who works in RAW and seldom uses the Out Of Camera JPEG file (which I classify as one of the conveniences)) the actual end results in images just don't warrant spending a grand on a new body.

I've looked at different generations twice on my blog:

1. GH1 vs EM5 (mk 1)
2. GH1 vs GH4

and both times found that when processing a RAW file there was little actually in it. Meaning that Panasonic just got the GH1 so right back then that every subsequent camera could more or less be a re-tune off all that research and development.

Today I had the opportunity to have a decent look at the output from the G80 / G85 (depending on the market you're in) and compare it directly with my GH1. I' ve decided to put the spec comparison graphs at the end instead of the beginning this time.

Summary: its a game changer for me.

The GH-1 runs out of ISO at 3200, but soon after my first image I knew that it wasn't worth going over 1600ISO for me (which to be honest fits in well with over 90% of what I do or even want to do). Accordingly I'd resolved to not upgrade my GH1 until either it died, or something substantial came along. Well to me it has.

The G80 is well capable of being used at ISO right up to 12800, with RAW results just way nicer to work with than JPG. Throw in the 5 axis stabilisation and its an incredible camera.

1600 ISO

Given this is my comfortable upper limit lets have a look at what the GH1 and G80 produce at that point. Interestingly they both have different views of what "incandecent" colour balance should look like, but that's nothing really problematic.

These are OOC JPG, and as you can see they're both fairly acceptable at this size. You can see a little more flare from the lamp as I clearly sat down in a slightly different position when I returned to the table with the different camera (using the same 45f1.8 lens)

So lets look at the results from the RAW, stepping right into 100% (pixel peeping) we can see a couple of things, shutter speed was 1/60th and the eye reflection shows that while the subject didn't move, the photographer did (shake) and you can see the drop in detail in the pores of the skin and the eyelashes

not to mention (if you open it up and view it full screen) the amount of (not horribly invasive) noise already present in the GH1 (right image).

So marks awarded to the G80 right there ... and its even clearer when you look at the hairs on his head (both the clarity and the colour channel noise).

this becomes patently obvious when we examine just the Red Channel (if you happen to be one blind to what colour noise looks like)

chalk and cheese right?

Worth noting is that on a single grey hair there you can see the artifact of a stepping pattern which is I believe exactly what you'd expect with the Anti Alias Filter removed (which the designers of this this camera have chosen to do) (if you don't understand what an Anti Alias Filter is please read this).

So to me this is a nice step in improvement and something I'd not seen in any previous sensors I'd tested.

Very encouraging, so now lets go beyond my comfort zone and look at the higher ISO

3200

3200 ISO is the limit that the GH1 goes to, but for some reason I failed, and didn't take a 3200 ISO with the G80, so we have to compare the 6400 ISO (which the GH1 doesn't even go to)

even at this magnification we can see the reasons I've always stayed below 3200 on the GH1, sensor noise is becoming clear and quite marked ... there would essentially be no hope of clearing that up.  As well there is some strange colour casts starting (which correction will exacerbate noise further).

The image from the G80 though is looking a bit "gritty" or "sandy" but is clean enough even if colour vibrance is falling off (something has to give right). Looking in close (50% this time) we see that skin tones are pretty reasonable with the GH1, but its just lost it with noise ...

and the G80 is actually a full stop higher ISO at 6400 ISO ... like wow

Again, looking at the red channel we see clearly that sensor noise is the real source of problems here, but the G80 is just amazingly showing nothing more than just noise which is rather akin to Grain ... so sensor pattern types of noise are amazingly well controlled here.

Lets push this further

25600 ISO

Well I mean this results in (our dim room) me having a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second ... shit it wasn't long ago that such was daylight exposures ... yet this is what we got:

Simply amazing ... and having a closer look:

Grain is becoming more apparent, but we've gone up 4 stops ... so yes, in the same light we've gone from 1/100th of a sec exposure to 1/500th of a second ... that's amazing.

Further this grain is amenable to noise reduction with even simple post processing NR like Nix

Lets compare that to the GH1 at 3200 again

So certainly its losing colour saturation (which fits what we know from the measurements) but with a little more tweaking (just some saturation and local area contrast masking) amazingly this shows you can still get a usable image from the G80 in what would really be impossible portrait lighting just a few years ago.

So to me this a big generational change, not just a small fiddle.

Wow

Specs - and what they reveal to support or even predict this

Despite the contention that exists on forum about DxO measurements of lenses (which I happen to find meets my personal observations) their methodology for sensor assessment is pretty robust. So here is the comparison between actual measured ISO and the camera setting ISO for my GH1, the GH4 and the G80/85

So looking at this graph we see that while the GH4 on its setting appears to goe to a higher ISO it progressively actually only goes to 12800 with 25600 being just a pat on the head to make you feel better (and makes worse images along the way).

Interestingly when the GH1 is set to 1600 (and gives an actually higher ISO of 2154) and the G80 is set to 2 stops higher 6400 ISO (and actually gives a lower effective ISO of 4408) they are infact of shutter speed given only one stop apart (not two) and have similar dynamic ranges (which can be seen in my images above if you go back and look.

I encourage you load the DxO comparison (which I've snapshotted above) and go through the test results carefully.

As I've discussed previously the GH1 is actually performing equivalently at a setting of 1600ISO (when you look at obtained shutter speed) to other cameras (such as the Olympus OM-D E-M5) when set to 6500 (and by that to when its set to 5000 it will give similar shutter speeds to the GH1 when its set to 1600). Meaning that there has been no significant sensor improvement between cameras which are six years apart in release date (2009 and 2015).

However as we've seen the G80/85 camera (and from what I've seen but not presented here the G9 too (and probably the GH5)) indeed does.

I encourage you to have a read of those linked in articles.

bottom line

I feel that the G80/85 is a worthy upgrade for anyone who does a lot of low light shooting, you can actually get usable images from light where the GH1 (or indeed most other m43 cameras) would struggle. Combined with some of your own image processing of the RAW files you can get quite decent images, and in my view probably the equal (in terms of signal to noise and dynamic range) of most full frame cameras (if you are one of those poor bastards somehow in total ignorance and misapprehension lusting after one of them because it'll make you take better images).

experiments with Sony A7 Full Frame

thought I'd take advantage of shitty light to do some testing, because I've long wanted to compare my GH1 in RAW to the (now old) Sony A7 full frame.

To do this I chose:

• Panasonic GH1 + Panasonic 25mm f1.8 
• Sony A7 + Pentax thread mount SMC50mm f1.4

Both shot wide (which is a small EV advantage to the Sony, but a small softness disadvantage to). I chose to also keep shutter speed to the same in both. My "base" speed was 160th determined by the lighting and the selection of 1600ISO on the GH1 (as I find 3200 verging on unusable)

Ok overview

even at this (lack of) magnification that noise and banding effects from the sensor are present in the RAW (although not in the JPG), as an aside I'll say I've not shot this lens at this ISO on the camera before, so I'll need to determine if this (noise) is exacerbated by the lens ... as has been observed in other camera + lens combinations at high ISO

Straight out of dcraw (of course I shot raw) with zero processing (and allowing dcraw to determine everything (which I may say it does very well) including colour balance (to remove camera bias from the equation) )  we see this:

... and my well experienced noise levels in the shadows (restricting the low light high ISO worth of the m43 cameras) are obvious. Clearly looking at the side grain of the wood we see greater ability to resolve features in the wood ... as well as very favorable colour.

Reducing the image of the A7 to the same pixel dimensions (simple rescale) to make it a cleaner comparison:

... reveals that the additional A7 captured detail remains and the noise levels diminish in significance (and well shadow noise is still crummy on the GH1)

I then employed Nik Define (going back to pre-resize) to have a quick go at handling the noise. I chose the setting to only adjust contrast noise by a small margin (24) to not erode details but cranked colour noise right up to 160 (out of 200). I did this to both directly and then (again) resized the A7 image back to 4016 pixels (to equalize image size for ready comparison)

This further equalises them ... but still there is an advantage to the A7 and well that sensor noise just isn't going away is it.

Lastly I've reisized them again further to what I consider is normally visible in a print when viewing them on a decent screen (full screened) or indeed on web forums.

where one just can't get rid of that sensor noise (without also obliterating image details), which brings me to the OOC JPG's of the two, because Panasonic does a more effective job of obliterating the noise in the OOC JPG (but at the loss of details of course ... so here are both JPG's sized the same

... of course the GH1 (and indeed earlier Panasonic cameras) were often criticized for their lack lustre OOC JPG and this is a good example of why (and why I prefer RAW working with them).

I then moved into less dim (but still challenging) light and took some images with Depth of Field and aperture in mind. I was interested in effects on

• contrast (as this also changed with stopping down)
• depth of field (at aperture)
• shutter speed (constant aperture, differing ISO to get the same speed)

overview:

So comparing the P25 at 1.8 vs 2.8 lets start with both on 1600 ISO.

we get a clear increase in constast (that's a good thing) and of course a reduction in shutter speed (because the aperture closed down) from 400th to 125th ... no surprises there.

And comparing the 25f1.8 to the 50f1.4 we see that the Sony yields less noise (as observed above)

as well as both shallower DoF (expectable) and a bit less contrast. As you can see in the data below the pictures I've resized the Sony to be the same dimensions as the Panasonic.

So what if we up the ISO on the Sony to compensate for the dropping of the aperture to f2.8, which should give us the same DoF as the Panasonic at 1.7

which it does. So shutter speed is now 400th between them while the A7 (on the right) is at 4000 ISO ant the Panasonic on the left is still the 1600 ISO image. Now we see that DoF is relatively equalised (as expected from calculation of aperture diameter) but both contrast and noise are still better even though we've gone up that stop (or more).

It gets worse if we then don't resize down the A7 which renders WAY more detail (even from this 1970's lens)

...and is thus more amenable to some post processing without image degredation. You can see its even clearer at the bottle caps.

where print is actually almost readable on the A7 captured bottle

As it happens even stopping the Panasonic down to f2.8 (which will drop the shutter speed or increase the ISO to much worse noise levels and increase the DoF) simply doesn't help

So the Panasonic now matches the contrast (but not the detail) of the Old Pentax lens on the Sony , but at the expense of reduced shutter speed, increased DoF (meaning less background separation) and if you happened to be on the edge of shutter speed (you know, to prevent motion blur with moving subjects like people) you'd need to up the ISO and get more sensor noise.

For instance if I'd had the A7 with me on this evening I could have done a much more clear capture of this portrait (late in the evening, with dimmed lights.

I hope this helps others answer some of the questions about why some people in some situations prefer Mirrorless FF (on the Sony A7) vs m43. I know its swings and round abouts but I've been a proponent of m43 for so long I thought I should provide some balance as to why the new Mirrorless FF cameras are actually pretty attractive in some situations.

Obviously this does not address lens availibility, focal lengths and weights...

T-Max fuel pump cactus

The other week I was down in the capital (200Km from home) and my bike wouldn't start. Turned out to be the fuel pump.

My bike is a 2006 bike, which in my view is the best of them before they went stupid with putting the battery behind the windscreen, tilting the seat in a stupid way and belt drives (among other mass marketing madness).

The Yamaha manual suggests that you need to do heaps of work to get at the fuel pump, but I found that by just lifting the seat (as one would do putting groceries under it) that you can access the pump space neatly. Indeed there is enough space to pull it out with only taking off the vinyl cover (removing the two small fixings).

and then it just moves out of the way easily

with just a little bit of force you can pull back the plastic and easily remove the ring that secures it into the tank.

That little white cap on the fuel line is actually designed to prevent the sides being squeezed in on the fuel line (and is essentially a safety). You'll need to pull it out first, (pressing on the front) and then pressing on the side detach the fuel line and then the connector for the fuel pump / fuel level sender.

The manual makes it look more complex, with item 6 being the assembly.

Basically when you get the fuel pump assembly out, you'll want to detach the bottom section which also has the "gross particle filter" on it (at the bottom). You'll see three "press clips" and if you apply CAREFUL pressure with a flathead screw driver you'll be able to remove it without breaking that plastic.

In Australia that plastic is only sold as one assembly and is $750 ... which contains the motor too and sender too.

To actually get home the day I broke down I pulled that apart and had a go at cleaning the pump (which didn't seem dirty), but ran again when I tested it outside. So I reassembled the whole lot and put it back in and got home. So thats the reason the above looks so clean. It looked like this when I first accessed it

so I blew it off, brushed it off and carefully took it off.

As my hands were covered in fuel I didn't take any pictures of that.

I got my pump today and so pulled it all apart again and fitted it

if you're even faintly mechanical it'll be pretty clear what you need to do to fit the pump.

The pump itself cost AU$50 including shipping (from Italy), so that's an enormous saving over buying the Yamaha part. I did find an entire assembly at a wreckers for $150 but figured that given its age it'd probably need replacing too. But it was good to have that as a "backup" in case I broke the plastic housing.

Just take your time juggling it out (the sender lever comes out last and put the assembly at an angle), and you'll need to pull up on the seat to ensure it has enough clearance ... it only just fits in that hole.

Its worth noting that the wires which clip onto the tags are also held in place by a small spring lock, which will become obvious when you're looking at it clearly. There is a small part to press (with a small flat blade screwdriver) that allows it to simply pull of the tag.

So, then I just re-assembled it and the whole process (this time) took an hour (at most).

I'd suggest nitrile gloves if you're worried about getting fuel on your hands.

Go wild

Gunna do it up

an go water skiin'