High ISO RAW Picture Quality Compared with Panasonic GH4 and Nikon 1 V2
I am considering the feasibility of giving up my Interchangeable Lens Camera System and a bag of very nice zoom lenses, to be replaced by the FZ1000.
To make a sensible decision I need comparative data on performance, ergonomics and picture quality. This post is about picture quality.
For my tests I compared the FZ1000 (sensor diagonal 15.86mm) with two cameras, a Panasonic GH4 (sensor diagonal 21.5mm) with Lumix 14-140mm lens and a Nikon 1 V2 (sensor diagonal 15.9mm) with 1 Nikkor 10-100mm lens.
I chose these bodies because they happen to be in the household and selected the lenses because each makes a versatile family/travel/holiday kit when mounted on it's matching camera body. Both the GH3/4+14-140mm and V2+10-100mm have been used by our family in a wide variety of photographic situations. I have found the GH3/4+14-140mm to be a very high performing single module (no lens changing) kit with which I have made thousands of excellent photos. The V2+10-100mm is a less expensive kit which still delivers good results in many settings.
The Test I used each camera on tripod to photograph a static subject at ISO settings from the minimum to the maximum available. I opened the files in groups of 3 (at each ISO level) in Adobe Photoshop Camera RAW then transferred the files to Photoshop with no adjustment beyond the default settings. I viewed the files side by side at 100% on screen.
I looked for grain, sharpness/resolution, color fidelity, color shifts and highlight/shadow detail. As far as possible I matched images for output size which meant reducing the (20Mp) FZ1000 files and increasing the (14Mp) V2 files to match those of the GH4 (16Mp).
I ran the test three times using a different test subject each time. There was some minor variation in the results but overall the results were as described below.
I ran the test three times using a different test subject each time. There was some minor variation in the results but overall the results were as described below.
Results
Exposure The two Panasonic cameras used the same aperture and shutter speed. On each frame the Nikon used a 1/3 stop faster shutter speed. Despite this the Nikon files were slightly lighter than the Panasonics.
Resolution and grain At low ISO settings the FZ1000 had slightly more detail resolution than the GH4 but I had to pixel peep very hard to pick the difference. The V2 files showed some grain even at base ISO and reduced resolution compared to the Panasonics.
Exposure The two Panasonic cameras used the same aperture and shutter speed. On each frame the Nikon used a 1/3 stop faster shutter speed. Despite this the Nikon files were slightly lighter than the Panasonics.
Resolution and grain At low ISO settings the FZ1000 had slightly more detail resolution than the GH4 but I had to pixel peep very hard to pick the difference. The V2 files showed some grain even at base ISO and reduced resolution compared to the Panasonics.
At high ISO settings the FZ1000 continued to provide slightly more resolution than the GH4 with the V2 last.
At ISO 6400 the GH4 showed the least grain, as expected. The FZ1000 was about 0.66 stops more grainy and the V2 a further 0.66 stops more grainy.
For grain the GH4 files at ISO 6400 looked like those from the FZ1000 at ISO4000 and the V2 at ISO2500.
Color Files from the V2 were slightly more yellow and those from the Panasonics slightly more blue. At high ISO settings there was some green shift in the Nikon files.
Color Files from the V2 were slightly more yellow and those from the Panasonics slightly more blue. At high ISO settings there was some green shift in the Nikon files.
Dynamic range One would expect the V2 to have less dynamic range (highlight and shadow detail) than the GH4 with it's larger sensor and I have found this in general photography . FZ1000 DR is very close to the GH4 such that they are difficult to tell apart.
Discussion Of these three cameras the V2 has clearly the least appealing output at all ISO settings. That is not to suggest it is a bad camera but users have to be careful about ISO and shutter speed settings to get the best from the camera.
In general photographic usage in a variety of conditions the FZ1000 and GH4 can produce very similar results. The GH4 has a definite but not dramatic high ISO advantage but the FZ1000 has more effective OIS than any of the Lumix lenses which I have tested, allowing slower shutter speeds and therefore a lower ISO to be selected.
Although not included in this test I have recently tested two cameras with the larger APS-C size sensor (28mm diagonal). These were the Nikon D5200 and Sony ILCE-A3500. Both of these cameras have a previous generation imager. I found the GH3 and GH4 (their IQ is the same) to produce slightly better image quality than both those cameras right across the ISO range.
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