I was considering a rearrangement of my Lumix gear in favor of a G2. I like both my G1 and GH1 but have mixed feelings about each. On the other hand, selling both and grabbing something else is not financially practical! I therefore tried another test to see why I find a benefit to the GH1 sensor elusive. It rates higher at dxo's vaunted website, so something about it should be valuable!
Confining myself to indoor images, I found my wife's purse near a bright window and decided to see how the two cameras handled the absurd range. With both set to similar parameters (iso160, 1/10s f/3.2 using the Oly 17mm prime) I put the cameras on the floor and gave it a shot.
First up, the G1 is fainter for the same image. Its abilities to capture detail look similar but were hampered by that; I tried a second image with +2/3 EV, but that was much too much so discarded. I stuck the two RAW images into a Picasa collage, then boosted the fill light a bit. In this test, unlike the previous ones, the GH1 does look better. Its color balance holds up with less chroma noise, which had appeared before. This time I was more gentle in the fill boost, I guess, as the banding on the sensor was not apparent (I could see it with a larger boost though). Given this result I'm less inclined to let the GH1 go.. but a few more tests could be worth while.
