Panasonic GH2 image samples, comparison and availability update
Philippe posted some image sample of the new GH2 on Flickr
David Long made that nice GH1 vs GH2 comparison graph based on the latest Diwa-award test. DR= Dynamic range SNR= Signal to noise ratio. Click on pictures to enlarge!


Ananonymous source told us that “the 100-300 lens will be available in mid-November, and the GH2 is scheduled to arrive in the US on Nov. 28 or 29.“
PanasonicGH2 preorders:
You can preorder the GH2 at Amazon US but unlike BHphoto they don’t have the body only option
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In Europe Amazon UK and Amazon France
do accept preorders!

Panasonic GH2 : de nouvelles photos | hybridcams.fr
2 years ago |[...] Après les photos réalisées au Panasonic GH2 par ghostlayer et dévoilées lundi sur le site, en voici de nouvelles par ifranz (dont je vous proposais la vidéo tournée avec le GH2 ici), et par Philippe Sergent (repérées via 43rumors). [...]
Duarte Bruno
2 years ago |This is merely a JPEG test, so it’s absolutely worthless for me except for assessment of the new Venus Engine (where it passes with flying marks!).
Gabi
2 years ago |Enlargement of the pictures doesn’t work.
Norm
2 years ago |+1 on picture enlargement. Clicking on the picture does nothing
Dave_in_MI
2 years ago |Click on “Actions” (top-left of the pic) and “View All Sizes”. Clicking on the pic (for me, anyway) just opens the slideshow viewer.
Gabi
2 years ago |There is no “action” link or button – at least not in Firefox (I didn’t try MSIE).
Th
2 years ago |Does this take into account that the GH2 supposedly has a different ISO-scale?
david
2 years ago |It uses the measured saturation ISO from the same tests as the x-axis, so the different stated ISO scales don’t matter. However, if the tests are indeed JPEG (it wasn’t clear to me one way or the other), then they don’t really tell you much.
Th
2 years ago |Thanks! Well this shows that GH2 has 1,5 stop advantage at high ISO, that’s more than I thought. And this is good to indicate what people who don’t shoot raw get…?
Maunderer
2 years ago |For those having problems viewing the images, here are the actual links:
http://www.davidlong.org/snr.png
http://www.davidlong.org/dr.png
Gabi
2 years ago |Thanks! This works!
kesztió
2 years ago |Hey, guys, you have an – at least – interesting attitude regadrding to E5 and GH2.
You tend to believe w/o hesitation and judgement that the old-sensored E–5 has crystal-clean image quality on ISO6400, but when speaking of the new-sensored GH2’s image quality everybody becames suspicious about the reliability of the data and measurements.
Double standard, isn’t it?
Zonkie
2 years ago |Well, these seem to be measurements from JGP images so all it measures is how strong the noise reduction is. For example, the Canon S95 (a compact camera) performs at ISO 1600 about the same as the Panasonic G2. But the Olympus E-PL1 performs quite better than both at ISO 1600.
So the GH2 has stronger noise reduction than the GH1 for sure (just like the LX5 has a stronger noise reduction than the LX3). We still have to see if the sensor really produces less noise or not.
http://www.diwa-labs.com/wip4/lab-results/l.epl?cid=12157
Daemonius
2 years ago |Man, if you ever owned Panasonic Gx .. you know that doubting about its ISO performace is very logical. No offense, but they really suck in high ISO.
Only GH1 was so-so.. I guess GH2 will be better, but still it will be at least 2 eV behind regulard dSLRs.
Though, who buys this stuff for high ISO? Not me.
Dummy00001
2 years ago |High ISOs are overrated.
Daemonius
2 years ago |Agreed, I had G1 and it was fine.. only few times I wished better ISO.
Duarte Bruno
2 years ago |That has to be the joke of the century.

Drop by DXOMark to get a free reality check!
Michael
2 years ago |Yes, GHx sensor will be always 2 eV (electro Volt) behind
. No seriously, GH1 sensor is at the level of modern APS-C ones in dynamic range (max. 0.5 EV latitude difference) and GH2 sensor should be better than older one. Panasonic is getting better in sensor IQ performance since huge success of MFT.
kesztió
2 years ago |+1 (eV
)
Ad
2 years ago |According to these graphs the GH2 has the same signal ratio at ISO 1000 as the GH1 at ISO 100: Great! But then again I’m still waiting for raw samples and of course a new Adobe Camera Raw version that can read the GH2′s raw files.
Maley
2 years ago |According to these graphs the GH2 has the same signal ratio at ISO 1000 as the GH1 at ISO 100: Great!
HAHA. That will never be the result in reality.
calxn
2 years ago |I’d like to see the measurements of GH2 vs a DSLR from Sony/Nikon/Canon.
Daemonius
2 years ago |That will be pure fail in everything except LPH.. though, GH2 can have slightly better DR since it has bit more MPix.. but cant bet on that..
Its not comparable and on other hand, it was never meant to be comparable. GH2 is closer to very advanced compact camera than to dSLR. Size and weight are factors, which sells this things.. and for that, its good. Unlike 1DsMK3(or 4 soon), or D3S .. you can have one light camera with equiv of 28-300 in quite small package and take it everywhere you go.
Not mentioning for example GF1 + 20/1.7, which is compact camera killer.
kesztió
2 years ago |“GH2 is closer to very advanced compact camera than to dSLR.”
???
May you prove this statement, please?
Daemonius
2 years ago |Technologicaly, its compact camera with big sensor and interchangable lens. No mirror at all, hence, its not dSLR? Though, you can for example GF1 or EP2 consider as digital rangefinders, if you wish so.
AF system, EVF .. everything is from compact cameras. And thats what actually Panasonic does very good. In my opinion they have best compact cameras for normal price.
dSLR = bigger sensor, different AF, mirror, usually OVF .. and usually bit more DR, better high ISO and overall picture quality output
Personaly, I would be happy if Panasonic abadoned 4/3 and switched to APS-C..
kesztió
2 years ago |dslr bigger sensor. E–5 IS a DSLR, isnt’t it?!
BTW, GH1 beats a couple of DSLRs on high ISO, despite to smaller sensor, by example Pentax K-M, which is about the same generation to GH1.
kesztió
2 years ago |sorry, DSLR not equal to bigger sensor.
Ganec
2 years ago |it is advanced compact .. but with DSLR chip
pixel in GH1 has the same size as the pixel in 7D. And both have pixel 5x bigger that is pixel in LX5/G12/EX1, …
Duarte Bruno
2 years ago |Forget his comments, his arguments are as failed as his English.
Professzore
2 years ago |It may be a stubid question, but… the higher the number on the SNR scale means the bigger noise? At the dinamic range scale: the higher the number mean somewhat bigger dinamic range (in f/stops)?
Thanks,
kesztió
2 years ago |SNR = Signal/Noise Ratio, sot the higher the SNR the lower the noise.
Dave_in_MI
2 years ago |I wonder if Mr. Sergent captured any video of any of the bands with the on-board stereo mics? One of the reasons I’m interested in the GH2 is to capture video of bands live for a future music blog.
ljmac
2 years ago |There is a critical difference between judging the E-5 on JPEGs and judging the GH2 on JPEGs. First of all, the results from the E-5 represent what we will get from RAW if we use Olympus software to process them, as do I and many other Olympus users who wish to preserve Olympus colour. Panasonic does not have their own RAW converter, so it is impossible to reproduce their JPEGs in RAW. Furthermore, nobody would want to do that anyway, as their JPEGs are always soft with terrible colour and excessive NR. Hence, these results will only reflect that excessive NR, and not the full IQ potential (or true noise performance) of the camera. You can only get decent results out of a Panasonic camera using RAW and a third party converter, so that’s how they have to be judged. Olympus on the other hand allows excellent results from JPEG, which can be replicated from RAW.
compositor20
2 years ago |well olympus viewer raw files have the same colour of jpgs from camera but the noise performance of the in camera jpgs is better in my olympus e-pl1!!!! i was amazed that my raw files in viewer had too much chroma noise compared with what i saw in reviews and now i know the answer if i tkae a raw photo + a jpg one the jpg from camera is better than olympus viewer conversion
Ganec
2 years ago |I noticed the same in my E-P1.
It is because RAW converter applies little more gradation (more enlight dark areas). If you wish better noise performance, try to turn off gradation (set gradation to “Normal”) .. but picture will not look as real…
jmlab
2 years ago |Stupid test. Please pay attention to Nikon’s D90 SRN and compare with for eg. Canon 1000D.
http://www.diwa-labs.com/wip4/test_result_overview.epl?product=7091&id=274059
Let’s await GH2 test on http://www.dxomark.com or on http://www.dpreview.com
Boris
2 years ago |“Philippe posted some image sample of the new GH2 on Flickr”
I think those were made by DMC-G2 (not GH2)?