Dear All,

Whilst I know some reviews are critical of the GF1 jpeg engine, my sense is that this often concentrates on the colour rendition. Can anyone tell me how they find the jpeg resolution? What I mean is, in b&w how do the GF1 jpegs compare to the EP1/2/L1 in terms of image calrity, contract and resolution?

I know that when shooting RAW similar results can be achieved (with the GF1 perhaps offering even more detail) but I wonder about jpeg. For example, is it easy to change settings (i.e. contrast and sharpness) to get good results?

The reason I ask is that I'm trying to decide between pany and oly m4/3 cam. One use for the camera will be attched to my (400mm) refractor telescope (and with 2.5x barlow) for near full-frame shots of the moon. The image stacking program I use (to counter atmospheric turbulance etc) works on jpegs and whilst I could shoot RAW and then develop jpegs I would prefer not to have the hassle (I usually stack about 50 images at a time).

Thanks very much for any advice/help,

Nick

There's different film modes on the Panasonic cameras, several for color and several for b&w, all of which can be adjusted for contrast, sharpness, noise reduction, and vibrance. They can then be saved as custom pre-sets. Image clarity and resolution are a function of the lenses you put on the camera, so by those two accounts there would be no difference among the m4/3 cameras (the GH1 has a bit higher dynamic range and better ISO performance because it has a different sensor than the other cameras in the class). By adjusting the film modes I've been able to get the same brilliant JPEGs colors as I've seen from Olympus cameras on my GH1. I think for the most part users don't make an effort to adjust the film modes, and complain about the default colors on the Panasonic cameras.

I would suggest grabbing a GF1 manual off Panasonic's website and looking through it on the operation of the different film modes to see what the camera can do. I would bet you'd be satisfied by the JPEG output of the GF1 in b&w.

__________________
-Dragos
Panasonic GH1 + various lenses

The RAW from my GF1 is noticably sharper than the high-res JPEG.

surely that simply means your RAW conversion default sharpening is greater than your jpeg settings - nothing more.

overall you have the hardware capabilities of the image capture device (lens, AAF, sensor) and then the software - the latter can be in camera or out (or a combination of both) but doesn't inherently affect the capability - only the ease with which it's achieved etc

G'day Nick, I now shoot RAW with my GF1 but previously I used to shoot Jpeg. I fiddled around for ages and set the jpeg as my preset on the dial C1. I saved it as my Film 2 and the come out really good. So the settings I like are 'My film 2'
Contrast -2
sharpness +2
Saturation +2
NR +1

Here is an image I took with those settings just now to show illustrate. On my desk at night with my lamp on. The blacks as you can see are nice and this is at -2 any other I found was too stark. The saturation is nice and not overdone and I like most of my images sharp so +2 does the trick.

Hope this helps a bit, I've spent along time to come to these settings and I'm finally satisfied.

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Our pictures are our footprints

GX1 OM-D (with Grip) 7-14 20 25 45 75 and adapted 24 45 50

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Dear All,

Thanks very much for your informative replies, much appreciated. It looks like many folk are able to squeeze good images out of the jpeg engine. However, another thing that occured to me is using batch processing of RAW files as a quick way to develop jpegs if I wanted to go that route. This leads to another question! If one decides to shoot with a 1:1 ratio (or 16:9) does the saved RAW image have this crop size (like the jpeg) or does it always stay at 4:3?

Thanks for any more help,

Nick

I have been mucking about with custom jpeg settings in the GF1 and not really settled on a particular set yet. Are your settings based on the standard jpeg preset?

Andrew

I guess - I use rawdrop/dcraw to convert, I don't think it applies any sharpening. You can see that files saved in RAW are clearer when zooming on just the camera LCD as well. I surely could be wrong I guess, try it for yourself.

the image file you 'zoom in on on the camera LCD' is not the RAW data - it's an embedded jpeg file created by the camera jpeg engine from the jpeg settings.

there are many possible reasons that it appears clearer (than the image when you shot in a jpeg mode) - the most common is a miss match of resolutions and zoom ratios. It's a fairly common phenomenon and you will often see recommendations to shoot RAW + a particular jpeg setting if you want to review on the LCD - it's rarely the highest jpeg resolution either. It has no relevance to the final image sharpness or clarity.

RAW convertors do what you tell them to do, as do jpeg engines.

The only other factor that enters the equation is the NF setting - if this is not at 0, off etc then it will irreversibly remove detail elements. As long as that's off RAW and jpeg should both be capable of exactly the same levels of clarity and sharpness with appropriate processing.

Maczero, I can tell you what I did in a bit more detail for you. Press the mem/set button and make sure you're at the top and REC mode. Slide across into film mode. Slide left again until you come across 'my film 1' or '2'. You will see you can adjust the contrast, saturation, sharpness and noise reduction underneath 'my film'.
I have them as
Contrast -2
Sat +2
Sharpness +2
NR +1

Once you've set them press the 'menu/set' button to set the settings. Now you can access 'my film' via the quick menu. I like the setting so much I set it as my custom preset on the dial C1. To set it as C1 it's really easy. C1 will set the camera the way you have the setting you see on the screen so when you move the dial to C1 the settings are alway the same. Make sure you like what you have set on the screen, like OIS modes, focus points jpeg setting ect then press 'menu/set' button. Move down to the C and the spanner icon. Slide right onto 'custom.set mem.' Slide right again onto C1 and press the 'menu/set' button again to set it.

It's not really hard to do and I keep it on my preset C1 all the time. If there is something that you would like to change on the C1 mode like the AF mode ect all you have to do is change it by the quick menu and then go back and set it as C1 again.


One other thing is that I have 'i exposure' setting on standard. Not sure what this does though.

Let me know if you decide to try the settings and I'd love to hear what you think of the pictures taken with them.

CU
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__________________
Our pictures are our footprints

GX1 OM-D (with Grip) 7-14 20 25 45 75 and adapted 24 45 50

http://500px.com/iconindustries