Panasonic's New G5 Performs Well

Panasonic has released media organizations from the embargo against talking about the new G5, and a few reviews have trickled out, most notably at TechRadar. It's not a complete iteration of the same freaking camera, but it's close.

The good is that the sensor's quality has received quite the bump. Not Olympus level, which does lend credence to the assertion that the Oly's sensor is a Sony, but the sensor does have slightly lower noise and about 1-EV worth of dynamic range over the Panasonic G3's sensor. Interestingly, the comparison between the RAW resolution tests at TechRadar all but confirms that Oly is cooking their RAW files, which is annoying. Sony did that in the past and it was always a turnoff. Other than that, it would probably be difficult to tell the G3 and G5 apart, even when processing RAW.

There are also a few welcome ergonomic tweaks, but nothing to get excited about. So while this isn't an iteration on the level of the two years of repeated GF1/EP-1 clones, it's not good either. The E-M5 is a significant leap in every way from the Pen series of cameras, making it a good buy for those already in the system. If you already have a G3, there is little reason to buy the G5.

Panasonic better have something much more significant in the works for the GH3, else I am going to be one disappointed little camper.

P.S.

Panasonic also released their new 45-150mm lens. It costs slightly more than the $250 45-200mm lens at $299. There had better be a significant increase in... something good otherwise I will mercilessly make fun of them. Panasonic's supplied MTF charts show an increase in quality at 45mm, but as we all know, manufacturer-supplied charts are worthless. The 45-175mm was supposedly superior to the 45-200mm, but was all but identical in tests.