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Stills image quality of Olympus EM1 Mark II vs Panasonic GH5 ?

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George Umber

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Can anyone comment on the difference in stills image quality between the Olympus EM1 Mark 2 and Panasonic GH5 for landscape photography.

I use a tripod and manually focus my shots and do not require IBIS, and I do not shoot video.

I am looking for an upgrade to my GH4 and Olympus EM1 Mark 1. I am currently considering the Olympus EM1 Mark 2 which seems to be slightly better than the GH5 for stills.
 
They use the same sensor. It is good, really good. But shoot HiRes with the Oly and then compare. Be prepared to be blown away (you need chair, I did). I was staring at my 4K screen for seriously half an hour when opened HiRes RAWs. And I find it very usefull, even on days with serious wind and leaves and reet moving waving....At a short distance this DOES cause artifacts. But if they are at > 5-10 m away somehow even at fullsize it seems they are fine. I cannot completely understand it actually. I mean windspeeds of 20-25 km/h at least. Or more in blustery showers.

Enfin: the HiRes mode to my mind clinches this one for the Em1.2 by no small margin. I will restate: colourreproduction is BETTER than current 44 x 33 Medium Format. And it is beautiful. Noise is WAY down. You gain 3 stops at least over the single shot. sharpness and resolution....80MP with the best lenses is still a little soft. Sharpen them up, downsize to about 60-65 MP and you are fine. The pics are supersharp.

But again...that is me! ONLY HiRes makes me keep my Oly Em1.2. Others will not nearly be so into it I think.
 
George Umber said:
Can anyone comment on the difference in stills image quality between the Olympus EM1 Mark 2 and Panasonic GH5 for landscape photography.
Click to expand...
Differences are close to non-existent at base ISO200.

But then Oly has ISO64 which can make difference with landscapes. (Pana only goes down to ISO100.)

Plus, conditions allowing, the high-res mode offered by Oly is unmatched by GH5.

If you are into landscapes, Oly is a better choice, IMHO.
 
Jorginho said:
I mean windspeeds of 20-25 km/h at least. Or more in blustery showers.
Click to expand...
What kind of tripod are you using? I would think my tripod would vibrate slightly and cause small artifacts to show up. Also, what shutter speed / ISO are you using. I haven't determined if it's better to shoot with higher ISO and get faster shutter speeds or a lower ISO to get better color but risk the chance of smaller movements.

Thanks, Louis

 
Jorginho said:
Enfin: the HiRes mode to my mind clinches this one for the Em1.2 by no small margin. I will restate: colourreproduction is BETTER than current 44 x 33 Medium Format. And it is beautiful. Noise is WAY down. You gain 3 stops at least over the single shot. sharpness and resolution....80MP with the best lenses is still a little soft. Sharpen them up, downsize to about 60-65 MP and you are fine. The pics are supersharp.
Click to expand...
I've found that when handling the HiRes RAW files you need a bit more sharpening than normal but that the files are much more malleable before they get that gritty oversharpened look.
 
Jorginho said:
They use the same sensor. It is good, really good. But shoot HiRes with the Oly and then compare.
Click to expand...
Do we know for sure that the Panasonic GH5 uses the Sony IMX 270 sensor. If so, then I don't know why they would not have similar Electronic Shutter readout speeds.

From an image quality standpoint, I don't see a great deal of difference in any of the newer mFTs sensors other than with HiRes.
Jorginho said:
Be prepared to be blown away (you need chair, I did). I was staring at my 4K screen for seriously half an hour when opened HiRes RAWs. And I find it very usefull, even on days with serious wind and leaves and reet moving waving....At a short distance this DOES cause artifacts. But if they are at > 5-10 m away somehow even at fullsize it seems they are fine. I cannot completely understand it actually. I mean windspeeds of 20-25 km/h at least. Or more in blustery showers.

Enfin: the HiRes mode to my mind clinches this one for the Em1.2 by no small margin. I will restate: colourreproduction is BETTER than current 44 x 33 Medium Format. And it is beautiful. Noise is WAY down. You gain 3 stops at least over the single shot. sharpness and resolution....80MP with the best lenses is still a little soft. Sharpen them up, downsize to about 60-65 MP and you are fine. The pics are supersharp.

But again...that is me! ONLY HiRes makes me keep my Oly Em1.2. Others will not nearly be so into it I think.
Click to expand...
 
George Umber said:
Can anyone comment on the difference in stills image quality between the Olympus EM1 Mark 2 and Panasonic GH5 for landscape photography.

I use a tripod and manually focus my shots and do not require IBIS, and I do not shoot video.

I am looking for an upgrade to my GH4 and Olympus EM1 Mark 1. I am currently considering the Olympus EM1 Mark 2 which seems to be slightly better than the GH5 for stills.
Click to expand...
It depends if you shoot JPG or RAW/if you are planning for HiRes shots/ just to name few. Generally not that much difference between the two.

When shooting JPG - I like GH5 more, they revamped their JPG engine and it so close to XT2 that spotting the difference has no practical meaning. However beyond ISO 3200 XT2 is still slightly better. Comparing to EM 1.2 GH5 has more natural processing, better distinction between textures and noise, improved sharpening - less halos without loosing details.

GH5 has no HiRes - if you want this feature EM1 is a must.

If you are going to shoot RAW without using tripod (i.e. no HiRes) than GH5 sensor + processing gives you approx. 10% more resolution at all comparable ISO settings. It does not seem to be much (and luckily practically it really isn´t) however if EM1.2 is 20MPix then GH5 with 10% more resolution is 24MPix (1.1x1.1x20). You can check the DPR review - resolution section of the scene. Does it matter in reality? Hardly. Only when having special type of textures, very good lenses and no hand shake (even IBIS as good as they are not 100% guarantee that you will get utmost maximum).

When it comes to IQ - I will be completely happy with both - the difference is minuscule - from practical viewpoint not worthy to talk about.

Me personally found much more important if I need HiRes and if I can live with Olympus UI.
 
_vlad said:
George Umber said:
Can anyone comment on the difference in stills image quality between the Olympus EM1 Mark 2 and Panasonic GH5 for landscape photography.

I use a tripod and manually focus my shots and do not require IBIS, and I do not shoot video.

I am looking for an upgrade to my GH4 and Olympus EM1 Mark 1. I am currently considering the Olympus EM1 Mark 2 which seems to be slightly better than the GH5 for stills.
Click to expand...
It depends if you shoot JPG or RAW/if you are planning for HiRes shots/ just to name few. Generally not that much difference between the two.

When shooting JPG - I like GH5 more, they revamped their JPG engine and it so close to XT2 that spotting the difference has no practical meaning. However beyond ISO 3200 XT2 is still slightly better. Comparing to EM 1.2 GH5 has more natural processing, better distinction between textures and noise, improved sharpening - less halos without loosing details.

GH5 has no HiRes - if you want this feature EM1 is a must.

If you are going to shoot RAW without using tripod (i.e. no HiRes) than GH5 sensor + processing gives you approx. 10% more resolution at all comparable ISO settings. It does not seem to be much (and luckily practically it really isn´t) however if EM1.2 is 20MPix then GH5 with 10% more resolution is 24MPix (1.1x1.1x20). You can check the DPR review - resolution section of the scene. Does it matter in reality? Hardly. Only when having special type of textures, very good lenses and no hand shake (even IBIS as good as they are not 100% guarantee that you will get utmost maximum).

When it comes to IQ - I will be completely happy with both - the difference is minuscule - from practical viewpoint not worthy to talk about.

Me personally found much more important if I need HiRes and if I can live with Olympus UI.
Click to expand...
I thought that the GH5 has a 20 mpx sensor, just like the EM1 mkII?
 
Yes you are absolutely correct. Just resolution corresponds to 24MPix (compared to OLY) -

Please no flame wars :-)
 
Louis Calisi said:
Jorginho said:
I mean windspeeds of 20-25 km/h at least. Or more in blustery showers.
Click to expand...
What kind of tripod are you using? I would think my tripod would vibrate slightly and cause small artifacts to show up. Also, what shutter speed / ISO are you using. I haven't determined if it's better to shoot with higher ISO and get faster shutter speeds or a lower ISO to get better color but risk the chance of smaller movements.

Thanks, Louis
Click to expand...
I have read time and time again; you need a sturdy tripod etc. It seems to me most are just regurgetating the OLD HiRes. I have shot Hires handheld 100 mm with the 100-400. One out of ten shots is perfectly sharp. The rest between still a bit better than the single rez and far worse and most. sure: far worse.

But you do not need a sturdy tripod at all. I can use that little 19 euro manfrotto thingy and it will do fine. It is more important it seems to use an external shutterrelease or touchscreen with 1 s delay.

Shutterspeed: faster than 1/60s preferentially is my best guess. But it is not nearly as demanding as it is portrayed to be. Not in my experience so I think people tend to equate Em1.2 HiRes to the older version where it is clear it is not like that.

We have to be realistic: it is not ideal either. It is a good step up over the old version but we need may 2 such steps to get it working ideall handheld.

I shoot ISO65 or ISO 200. ISO64 is superclean. So hires takes advantage of that too but the lacking DR shows as well.
 
drj3 said:
Jorginho said:
They use the same sensor. It is good, really good. But shoot HiRes with the Oly and then compare.
Click to expand...
Do we know for sure that the Panasonic GH5 uses the Sony IMX 270 sensor. If so, then I don't know why they would not have similar Electronic Shutter readout speeds.

From an image quality standpoint, I don't see a great deal of difference in any of the newer mFTs sensors other than with HiRes.
Click to expand...
I used Em1.2 extensively for landscape shots from 15-20 January. I immediately noted it seemed visibly better than my GH4 (which I had with me too). Colours, tones everything. Now do note: this was just before DxO mark showed the difference AND I thought "just bet on similar IQ, it won't be better". But by then I had a RAW convertor and it was very clear it had better IQ. Not a huge amount on one hand but easy to spot on the other. I also found the noise to be better. Not a whole stop but ISO6400 was now usable and close to ISO3200 on my EPL5 and GH4 may be not quite identical but very very close. Especially colourretention was far better than ISO6400 on my EPl5/GH4.
drj3 said:
drj3 said:
Be prepared to be blown away (you need chair, I did). I was staring at my 4K screen for seriously half an hour when opened HiRes RAWs. And I find it very usefull, even on days with serious wind and leaves and reet moving waving....At a short distance this DOES cause artifacts. But if they are at > 5-10 m away somehow even at fullsize it seems they are fine. I cannot completely understand it actually. I mean windspeeds of 20-25 km/h at least. Or more in blustery showers.

Enfin: the HiRes mode to my mind clinches this one for the Em1.2 by no small margin. I will restate: colourreproduction is BETTER than current 44 x 33 Medium Format. And it is beautiful. Noise is WAY down. You gain 3 stops at least over the single shot. sharpness and resolution....80MP with the best lenses is still a little soft. Sharpen them up, downsize to about 60-65 MP and you are fine. The pics are supersharp.

But again...that is me! ONLY HiRes makes me keep my Oly Em1.2. Others will not nearly be so into it I think.
Click to expand...
--
drj3
Click to expand...
 
Agree completely. I do not value DXO test that much. You can measure separately x-variables and changes might be very small - however when you put them together to produce the final image - you can see the difference. And you can see it not just discuss it.
 
Jorginho said:
They use the same sensor. It is good, really good. But shoot HiRes with the Oly and then compare. Be prepared to be blown away (you need chair, I did). I was staring at my 4K screen for seriously half an hour when opened HiRes RAWs. And I find it very usefull, even on days with serious wind and leaves and reet moving waving....At a short distance this DOES cause artifacts. But if they are at > 5-10 m away somehow even at fullsize it seems they are fine. I cannot completely understand it actually. I mean windspeeds of 20-25 km/h at least. Or more in blustery showers.
Click to expand...
Every single non static high res image with moving objects in the frame { especially ones moving at the speeds you claim here } I have seen ,show very clear artifacts which are clearly visible certainly at full size. Unless the subject is absolutely static the resulting images are always visually affected. You have posted examples you declared sharp which very clearly were not ,so perhaps your acceptability level is lower .The high res mode is capable of very good results with limited utility just as with all multi-image stitch/stacking techniques are. You repeatedly ask folk to compare an 8 shot multi-image stitch to a single shot from other cameras. All camera can benefit from using multi-shot techniques to increase res and reduce noise the Olympus cameras simply make it a little easier

Jorginho said:
Enfin: the HiRes mode to my mind clinches this one for the Em1.2 by no small margin. I will restate: colourreproduction is BETTER than current 44 x 33 Medium Format. And it is beautiful. Noise is WAY down. You gain 3 stops at least over the single shot. sharpness and resolution....80MP with the best lenses is still a little soft. Sharpen them up, downsize to about 60-65 MP and you are fine. The pics are supersharp.
Click to expand...
Colour production is indeed very good though no better than the Pentax K1 { which costs less than the E-M1 II } . As for noise unless the subject is totally static in low light allowing for 8 exposures, you are going to be using a tripod anyway you might as well use a much lower ISO with longer exposure

Jorginho said:
But again...that is me! ONLY HiRes makes me keep my Oly Em1.2. Others will not nearly be so into it I think.
Click to expand...
 
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_vlad said:
Yes you are absolutely correct. Just resolution corresponds to 24MPix (compared to OLY) -
Click to expand...
Why the difference? I thought that they had pretty much the same sensor.

 
The same question here :-|
 
samtheman2014 said:
Jorginho said:
They use the same sensor. It is good, really good. But shoot HiRes with the Oly and then compare. Be prepared to be blown away (you need chair, I did). I was staring at my 4K screen for seriously half an hour when opened HiRes RAWs. And I find it very usefull, even on days with serious wind and leaves and reet moving waving....At a short distance this DOES cause artifacts. But if they are at > 5-10 m away somehow even at fullsize it seems they are fine. I cannot completely understand it actually. I mean windspeeds of 20-25 km/h at least. Or more in blustery showers.
Click to expand...
Every single non static high res image with moving objects in the frame { especially ones moving at the speeds you claim here } I have seen ,show very clear artifacts which are clearly visible certainly at full size. Unless the subject is absolutely static the resulting images are always visually affected. You have posted examples you declared sharp which very clearly were not ,so perhaps your acceptability level is lower .
Click to expand...
No. Those were pics comparing IBIS and how long it could be used handheld. Not Hires. I do not remember one argument. I can show you HiRes shots where you can see the water moved since the reflections are blurred. But the non reflected trees and reet are perfectly sharp. I can attest there was wind. Hires will not cause blur when things are at a distance but it cannot deal with large movements (like reet nearby).
samtheman2014 said:
The high res mode is capable of very good results with limited utility just as with all multi-image stitch/stacking techniques are.
Click to expand...
So I bet landscape users do not use 6 stop and 10 stop filters since movement must be unusable? In short: for landscapes images blur is not always a problem either.
samtheman2014 said:
You repeatedly ask folk to compare an 8 shot multi-image stitch to a single shot from other cameras. All camera can benefit from using multi-shot techniques to increase res and reduce noise the Olympus cameras simply make it a little easier
Click to expand...
Sure..With stitching you get true colours magically too I guess. And a bonus is of course as by some miracle lower noise. And movement will be the very same problems as always right....Well...If you believe that I am fine. There are enough articles here and on IR that show how amazingly good Hires is and you cannot get that IQ by stitching. Not at all.
samtheman2014 said:
samtheman2014 said:
Enfin: the HiRes mode to my mind clinches this one for the Em1.2 by no small margin. I will restate: colourreproduction is BETTER than current 44 x 33 Medium Format. And it is beautiful. Noise is WAY down. You gain 3 stops at least over the single shot. sharpness and resolution....80MP with the best lenses is still a little soft. Sharpen them up, downsize to about 60-65 MP and you are fine. The pics are supersharp.
Click to expand...
Colour production is indeed very good though no better than the Pentax K1 { which costs less than the E-M1 II } . As for noise unless the subject is totally static in low light allowing for 8 exposures, you are going to be using a tripod anyway you might as well use a much lower ISO with longer exposure
samtheman2014 said:
But again...that is me! ONLY HiRes makes me keep my Oly Em1.2. Others will not nearly be so into it I think.
Click to expand...
--
Jim Stirling
Click to expand...
 
_vlad said:
Yes you are absolutely correct. Just resolution corresponds to 24MPix (compared to OLY) -

Please no flame wars :-)
Click to expand...
 
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