The image above was taken with the Panasonic Lumix G5. The camera was set to Aperture priority mode with the aperture set to f5.6 and the sensitivity to 160 ISO (the base value). The camera metered an exposure of 1/400. The Sony NEX-6 metered an exposure of 1/500 at f5.6 at its base 100 ISO sensitivity.

The test scene on the day that I took these shots was particularly demanding with bright sunshine presenting a very contrasty scene with a wide brightness range. The Lumix G5 slightly overexposed the shot blowing the highlights in parts of the sky and on the white wall of the buildings. There’s a slight gap on the left side of the histogram and a spike on the right, so had the G5 metered -1/3 or even -2/3EV more highlight detail could have been recorded without loss of detail in the shadows. Despite that the G5 has produced a good overall result with accurate white balance and natural looking colours.

Turning to the crops, the first one looks a little soft but this is partly at least due to the slight overexposure and slight atmospheric haze. Despite that there appears to be at least as much detail in the chapel walls and the grassy foreground as in the NEX-6 crop opposite. In the second crop, from closer to the frame edge shows a bit more contrast and the lighthouse is clear and distinct. The window frames and tiled roofs in the mid and foreground of this crop are are a little soft, though fairly typical of the laissez faire processing style of Panasonic Micro Four Thirds models.

The edges in the third crop, from close to the frame border are a little soft, but not noticeably more so than in the middle – at its 28mm equivalent wide angle setting the Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 produces quite consistent results across the frame – and if you compare the RAW file with this JPEG there’s none of the distortion or correction that’s necessary on the NEX-6 with its 24mm equivalent wide angle and larger sensor, although of course the Panasonic could be doing its own corrections before the RAW data is recorded. Finally, the fourth crop from the centre of the frame, other than in the blown highlight regions, shows a good level of fine detail with crisp edges.

Compared with the crops from the Panasonic Lumix G5, the NEX-6 crops look punchier and more detailed, but is there really any more detail being resolved than in the G5 crops? The G5 slightly over-exposed the scene which doesn’t help, but despite that, the gentler Panasonic processing produces less contrasty and slighter softer image detail. I’m not sure that there’s really more detail in the NEX-6 crops, if there is, it’s fairly marginal. Having said that, if you prefer the punchier look to the NEX-6 JPEGs, G5 owners might want to create a custom Photo Style setting with increased sharpness and/or contrast. Failing that, you of course also have the option of shooting RAW and doing your own processing.

Check out my Panasonic Lumix G5 RAW quality results on the next page or see how these models compare at higher sensitivities in my Panasonic Lumix G5 Noise results.

The image above was taken with the Panasonic Lumix G5. The camera was set to Aperture priority mode with the aperture set to f5.6 and the sensitivity to 160 ISO. The camera metered an exposure of 1/400. The Sony NEX-6 metered an exposure of 1/500 at f5.6 at its base 100 ISO sensitivity.

I processed both files in Adobe Camera RAW using identical settings: Sharpening at 70 / 0.5 / 36 / 10, Luminance and Colour Noise Reduction both set to zero, and the Process to 2012 with the Adobe Standard profile. To further reduce any distracting visual differences between the crops I also set custom white balance to 5500K and tint to 0. These settings were chosen to reveal the differences in sensor quality and isolate them from in-camera processing. The high degree of sharpening with a small radius enhances the finest details without causing undesirable artefacts, while the zero noise reduction unveils what’s really going on behind the scenes.

And what’s going on behind the scenes is that, as I suspected the Lumix G5’s sensor is capturing more detail than the in-camera processed JPEGs would lead you to believe. Once again the Lumix G5 crops don’t look quite so punchy as the Sony NEX-6 ones but that’s mostly if not all due to the exposure difference. Look closely at the first crop and you can see a lot more detail in the chapel stonework and the grassy hill than is visible in the JPEG crop on the previous page.

As always, these processed RAW files are very revealing in what they tell us about the NEX-6’s in-camera JPEG processing as well as how much detail the sensor and lens combination is recording. In terms of the detail, the first and last crops are the most instructive. Though this image has had a much higher degree of sharpening applied than you’d routinely use, it does reveal that the NEX-6 sensor is recording a greater level of detail than you can see in the JPEGs. You can see detail in the stonework of the chapel and its surrounding wall much more clearly here as you can in the rocks and grass in the foreground.

There’s more compelling evidence for this in the second and third crops. The lighthouse is a clean-edged cylinder with a distinct lamphouse, window frames are crisp and roof tiles are individually distinct. There’s a little more evidence of noise in these crops, which is to be expected, but ordinarily you wouldn’t be using such a high degree of sharpening with no noise suppression. The point is that there is more detail and better quality to be had from the G5’s sensor if you shoot RAW and are prepared to coax the best results from it. One other thing worthy of note is that there’s no evidence of finging where you might expect to see it on the third crop from the edge of the frame, further comfirming the PZ 14-42’s excellent edge-to-edge performance.

The fourth crop from the centre of the frame again shows a high level of detail being resolved. As before, the central area is blown out, but on the RAW file you’d have no difficulty recovering these highlights.

Now see how these models compare at higher sensitivities in my Panasonic Lumix G5 Noise results.

To compare RAW noise levels under real-life conditions, I shot this scene with the Panasonic Lumix G5 and the Sony Alpha NEX-6, within a few moments of each other using their best quality settings, and at each of their ISO sensitivity settings.

The 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 power zoom on the NEX-6 was zoomed in to 19mm to produce an equivalent vertical field of view with the 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 power zoom on the Lumix G5 and an equivalent focal length of 28mm for both lenses.

Image stabilisation was disabled for this tripod-mounted test and all other settings were left on the defaults.

To compare noise levels under real-life conditions, I shot this scene with the Panasonic Lumix G5 and the Sony Alpha NEX-6, within a few moments of each other using their best quality JPEG settings, and at each of their ISO sensitivity settings.

The 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 power zoom on the NEX-6 was zoomed in to 19mm to produce an equivalent vertical field of view with the 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 power zoom on the Lumix G5 and an equivalent focal length of 28mm for both lenses.

Image stabilisation was disabled for this tripod-mounted test and all other settings were left on the defaults.