GH4 GH5: Seems they haven´t thought about DR at all. Awful DR?

Actually I do not think it was Panasonic's decision to sacrifice DR. THis is the sensor Sony would sell them. Sony contractually limits what each camera can do with each sensor. Many reports say it is in the contract. THis sensor is one or two generations older than the higher DR and more sensitive sensors Sony uses in their cameras. For example, the GH sensors do not even have backside illumination. So, it is no wonder that Panasonic has announced that the next 8k GH sensor will be developed in house.

You have to understand that Panasonic bet big on 3D and lost that bet. AFter that money was tight and all camera lines suffered. THerefore, it is amazing that Panasonic put so much thought and effort into maximizing what they could do with what components they could get. Texas Instruments introduced a new generation of DSP chips with so much power that Panasonic could program their new Venus engine. THe result is the best possible camera that could be designed around the available Sony sensor, keeping in mind that it has to be dual purpose stills and video.

This speaks really well for the next generations of GH and makes me confident to invest in the system. The YAGH gave me doubts. THis camera clearly shows that they will give us the best they can. That is what I want in my camera and lens manufacturing partner.
 
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Given that the GH5 is Panasonic's flagship Micro 4/3 camera, I'm sure that Panasonic used the best Micro 4/3 sensor that was currently available. It's just that the best Micro 4/3 sensors currently available have a bit less dynamic range than the best APS-C or full frame sensors. The reality is that there just aren't a whole lot of different Micro 4/3 sensors out there (as it's not a huge market and I'd imagine sensor development is rather expensive). Which is why you see a lot of Micro 4/3 cameras using the same sensors.

But the situation is also similar for APS-C and full frame sensors. And Sony sensors have been used in various Nikon cameras, such as the Nikon D810 which was released about 6 months after the Sony a7r and had basically the same Sony sensor (in terms of dynamic range the sensors performed about the same). It's true that the sensor from the Sony a7r II hasn't shown up in a Nikon camera yet, but that could just be because Nikon hasn't updated the D810 in a couple of years. The Nikon D5500 uses an APS-C Sony sensor and has about the same measured sensor dynamic range as the Sony a6300.

Canon makes their own sensors, but by most measures they tend to perform worse than the best available Sony sensors.

The imaging sensor market has grown a great deal in recent years, but the market for large sensors for digital cameras has become an increasingly small part of it. Most of the growth has been in sensors for mobile devices and for other applications (automotive, industrial, etc.). And occasionally some of the improvements designed for smaller format mass market sensors make their way into larger camera sensors, but it can take a while.

The first back-side illuminated (BSI) sensors started showing up in consumer products in 2009 and made it into the iPhone 4 in 2010. But it wasn't until the Samsung NX1 in 2014 that we saw an APS-C camera with a BSI sensor, and not until 2015 that Sony released the a7r II with a BSI full frame sensor. And still most large sensor cameras to-date have traditional rather than BSI sensors. Other than the now-defunct Samsung NX APS-C cameras and the full frame Sony a7r II and Sony a99 II, I'm not sure there are any other BSI large sensor cameras out there. Even Sony's own APS-C cameras like the a6300/a6500 are not BSI.
 
Vesku said:
GH2 has too nervous auto exposure. GH3 and GH4 are very good. The auto exposure reacts slowly and the adjustment is very smooth in A and auto iso. The AWB also changes quite smoothly and slowly, usually not at all during a clip.

The good improvement for auto exposure/AWB would be semi-auto. Things would adjust when half pressing and the stays unchanges during a clip. We could get the best of auto and manual. Of course we must see the exposure numbers.
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To each his own, but I find the GH4 auto-exposure and auto-focus to more resemble Uncle Hank's Handycam than a DP riding the aperture and focus. I've resorted to using autoexposure in some really uncontrollable situations in which it was important to get something, anything, but have never once found a scenario in which I was happy using either for something other than my kid's birthday party.
 
davedv said:
It's just that the best Micro 4/3 sensors currently available have a bit less dynamic range than the best APS-C or full frame sensors.
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DXO published their take on the new Olympus EM1 Mk2 today. Check out the EM1 Mk2 DXOMark score against the new Nikon D500 APS-C camera near the bottom of the page.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II sensor review: A New Standard

With the exception of DR, there's not a huge amount of difference between these two.
 
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