I am finally getting to review the images of the E-M1 Mark III (I am working in the caring system in the UK and the job is keeping busier than I would have preferred). The IQ out of the 20 MP sensor keeps blowing my socks off (compared to the 2nd generation 16 MP sensor) and even more impressive is the crazy good IQ I am getting from the HHHR images in both details, dynamic range, color rendition and noise. For me, the improvements feel like going from the 1st generation 12 MP sensor (of the mirrorless version) to the 1 and 2nd generation 16 MP sensor.
Though I am noticing an unexpected side effect of HHHR output and I need to test it to fully confirm it. At the moment it seems that at certain upper ISO range the HHHR files are compressing the shadow and highlight ends of the image into the mid-tone range and there is very little that can be recovered. I will try in the next couple of days to test HHHR throughout 1 spot ISO increments during daylight and nightlight to properly confirm this.
I will drop 2 screenshots of Before/After Lightroom edits on these HHR files, I know they are not proper IQ representation but I am swamped by work at the moment, sorry:
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I never expected the stars to show up in the sky but 16 images at 0.7 sec evidently stacked up all of that date in the shadows (I had to crush the black in the sky to keep the star's lightspots and turn the depp blue of city lights into the black of night).
100% Crop at the near centre:
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There is a lot of details in the brickwork and teh cracking of the white paint. I have noticed that to bring the details out of these 50 MP images I need to push +100 Sharpening at 1.5 Radius and +50 Detail. The highlights are pretty well preserved and looks about 1 to 1.5 stops before the white turns into gray with no colour information in it. The shadows are more dependent on the ISO then the highlights on how much is recoverable/pushable (1 stop at high ISO to 2.5 stops on the base ISO I'm guessing).
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100% Crop on the upper side of the frame:
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The Dynamic Range has preserved the small smearing from rain and weathering of the paint on the refregeration unit (the gray verticle streaks on the middle, bottom, and corner of the unit), the details on the bricks and the moss is amazing as well.