Chipsworks: GH2 Teardown

[Steve Castle]

Chipworks, a reverse-engineering firm for image sensors, has a tear down of the Panasonic GH2. Lots of good info, but unfortunately they charge for the all the real detailed stuff (basically x-rayed and microscopic analysis of the sensor itself).

http://www.chipworks.com/en/technic.../2011/01/teardown-of-the-panasonic-lumix-gh2/

The short of it; 3.8 µm pixel size (pixel size of the Sony IMX071 sensor in the Nikon D7000 is 4.8 µm), advanced ISP by Panny, an evolution of the (nu)Maicovision line of Panasonic sensors called the "MN34070", the camera is almost completely Panasonic designed and made in-house (very little out sourcing). "Nice job Panasonic!"

 

[bumkicho]

Does it mean its still picture quality is as good as Nikon D7000's still quality?

 

[nyvz]

The short of it; 3.8 µm pixel size (same pixel size as the Sony IMX071 sensor in the Nikon D7000), advanced ISP by Panny, an evolution of the (nu)Maicovision line of Panasonic sensors called the "MN34070", the camera is almost completely Panasonic designed and made in-house (very little out sourcing).

You seem to have misread, it says "with a 16.0 Mp effective resolution. This contrasted the Sony IMX071 found in the D7000 DSLR, which featured a 16.2 Mp effective resolution". It is just mentioning that the effective pixel count in the GH2 is similar to the effective pixel count in the D7000, and as they are totally different sized sensors, they could not have the same pixel size... Seems a little random that they even mention the D7000 at all, it may just have been the most recent product they have experience with that also had a 16MP imager.

 

[nyvz]

Does it mean its still picture quality is as good as Nikon D7000's still quality?

Nope, all it means in relation to the D7000 is that still images will have been captured from somewhere near the same number of photosites plus or minus 4MP depending on your aspect ratio. It means nothing about the quality of the signal created in the process or the processing of that signal. You can be pretty sure that the D7000 will have better still picture quality in most cases as it has larger photosites and a larger sensor, which usually directly correlate to better image quality. Not to mention the D7000's RAW image quality has been tested in various places and in most accounts is one of the best performing imaging systems of its kind around.

The irony is that I don't see how their statement about the GH2 having a 16MP sensor could be correct, since the widest aspect image on the GH2 uses 4976pixels across and the tallest uses 3456pixels, so it would probably have to be a 17.2MP sensor to accomodate those formats, even though it doesnt even seem to support capturing in the sensor's native aspect, which would then be 1.44:1. Unless somehow it uses some kind of scaling in some of it's aspect ratio modes, but that would be difficult with raw image recording.

 

[Steve Castle]

You seem to have misread, it says "with a 16.0 Mp effective resolution. This contrasted the Sony IMX071 found in the D7000 DSLR, which featured a 16.2 Mp effective resolution". It is just mentioning that the effective pixel count in the GH2 is similar to the effective pixel count in the D7000, and as they are totally different sized sensors, they could not have the same pixel size... Seems a little random that they even mention the D7000 at all, it may just have been the most recent product they have experience with that also had a 16MP imager.

The GH sensors are over-sized compared to the average FourThirds cameras but you're right they shouldn't have the same pixel size as the GH. And looking at the D7000 tear-down Chipworks has the IMX071 pixel size as 4.8 µm. I'll change the OP to reflect this.

I'm guessing Chipworks compared it to the IMX071 as its expected to go into a bunch of future mirrorless cameras that will compete against the GH2.

 

[jakobim]

can we upgrade the memory to ddr3 eheh

 

[nyvz]

I'm guessing Chipworks compared it to the IMX071 as its expected to go into a bunch of future mirrorless cameras that will compete against the GH2.

Oh? A mirrorless camera with the sensor of the D7000 and the video functionality of a GH2 would be a beautiful thing.