Based on the above figure ((
https://www.mu-43.com/threads/g9ii-raw-iq-at-base-iso.121973/page-3), it seems like dual output gain does not work with electronic shutter. Could any G9ii owner confirm whether this is the case? I've checked the G9ii Instruction Manual and tried Googling, but couldn't find much information to confirm this. Thank you in advance. Cheers.
That green curve is what you get when the G9II cannot use DR boost feature which is much of the time you are shooting fast or taking advantage of features like Pre-Capture or long exposures at certain ISO's. It is explained here:
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/67747120
Yes, that is, what we assumed when we discussed in the link you provided. However, we do not know that, because it was not revealed by the tester, what was done to get those green data points. Please remember, that William "Bill" Claff does not do all the tests but calculates the graphs from files send by other users, thus Bill is not to blame for this error but somebody else named the files "electronic shutter" while actually something else was changed, maybe SH mode or maybe long exposure time. Bill corrected fast after that error was found in this forum and new data was provided. But still that old error is viral as we see in this thread.
To be clear: No, there is no disadvantage using electronic shutter in G9M2 and it never was. See here how Petapixel corrected their wrong article based on the wrong green data data points suplied from a user in this forum:
https://petapixel.com/2024/05/31/how-i-fumbled-my-report-on-the-g9-iis-dynamic-range-performance/
Users of the Lumix G9m2 must be aware of the effects of DRBoost and its benefits and disadvantages to use the camera best. Thus it was very important to get the wrong message corrected, which now popped up again in the start of this thread.
Now to the point of benefits and disadvantages using DRBoost in Lumix G9M2 and GH7, which have very similar if not same sensor/read out modes:
DRBoost is very good in case you shoot at low ISO: It is like shooting a low ISO image and a high ISO image is automatically blended in in the dark areas of the image - but both taken at exactly the same time. The result is better than you would guess from the PDR curve because in the PDR curve color casts/errors are ignored. If you shoot at ISO 100 an image underexposed by 3 stops the resulting RAW image will be as good as if it was shot well exposed at ISO 800. That is a hugh benefit in case you know how to exploit that.
This DRBoost benefit comes at a price: Slower readout speed. The sensor is literally read out twice, thus rolling shutter is about double and frame rate is limited.
Therefore, in video DRBoost is off at 100 or 120 fps - the process is to slow for that, it works only up to 60 fps.
Second: In SH mode e.g. for fast action and pre-capture it is off - the rolling shutter would distort the wings of the starting bird thus it is good, that SH mode work with low rolling shutter and thus DRBoost off. Furthermore, for fast action you will have short exposure time and thus larger ISO, so that DRBoost would not help much anyway (look at the graph). If you need a fast series with HDR at low ISO and you can accept big rolling shutter you may work arround by getting stills from high quality video at 30-60 fps, with external recorder also with RAW (BRAW or ProResRAW). That works well.
The third condition for DRBoost off is long exposure time: At ISO 100-400 it is off at 1 sec or longer, at high ISO it is off at 1/15 sec or longer and in between there are some steps. This is a pitty and I guess there are technical reasons for this. We do not like it but it is as it is. We have to adapt. The new Lumix S1ii does not suffer this problem, thus Panasonic is getting better (while Nikon with the same sensor in the Z6ii/ZR does not use DRBoost at all).
Since I also often use information I find in this forum I think it is very important to get this correction to the people here, because otherwise we make mistakes during our photography and then we all learn, that information in this forum is perhaps not reliable. I want to avoid that. We can not tolerate that wrong information is shared again without fast correction.
