Understanding DXOMark on GX7 sensor vs peer?

Impulses wrote:

I accept they MAY have botched it but until/unless I see evidence that they did, I will believe they got it right.

Evidence is comparing gm5 and Gx7 pics and seeing that they are identical.

That's not entirely compelling unless you control the circumstances.

It's very unlikely that they botched the test in some simple way - finger on the lens, bumped the tripod - because of the wide variety of lenses tested.

From this thread, I recall seeing at least two theories that don't require complete stupidity and haven't been ruled out:

- They forgot to turn off IS, and that caused problems (e.g., high frequency vibrations from the tripod mount). I'd call that botched, though IS systems I've used (not many) are forgiving of this.

- It's shutter shock. In that case, I wouldn't call it botched, since the mechanical shutter is supposed to be a normal, functional way to use the camera.

Either way, it's strange that the DXO folks aren't curious enough about their own results to investigate and report.

The SS element raises a bunch of questions tho, some cameras and camera/lens combo will exhibit it more than others, as will focal lengths, some shutter speeds wouldn't be affected at all, etc etc. So should the overall score be affected because of it?

It seems to me that the lens score should be evaluated with the settings most favorable to the lens, i.e. e-shutter in this case. SS, if detected, belongs in the body review, though lens susceptibility might be an issue as well. I've noticed that unstabilized lenses, like the Oly 12-40 and the Panny 25 1.4 take a big hit on GX7 scores too, so it's not primarily the lens-body combo that matters here.

In my mind it takes away a lot of relevance if not validity from the score, OTOH it's about damn time Panasonic implements an EFC. All pointless speculation tho since we don't even know that's the culprit for sure. Could be anything really given the little info we have to go on.

DXO's lack of transparency is definitely a big minus.