SOUNDIMAGEPLUS: Panasonic G5 - Review and User Experience

All images - Panasonic G5 14-140mm zoom - Multi Image Panoramic Stitches

Pretty much the only thing that has stopped me working with m4/3 exclusively in the past is the file size. In stock photography, as I've said many times, size does matter. I've always been able to use photomerge in photoshop to combine m4/3 images to between 50 - 70MB, but the bar has now been raised by the Nikon D800 / D800E and part of my testing yesterday involved seeing how possible it was, and how many more images I would have to shoot, to come up with quality images around the 100MB mark. Stitching images does involve some quality loss because of the warping involved and to get a decent 100MB file I knew I would have to produce an initial stitched image of around the 250-300MB mark and then downsize.

It did involve shooting more images, and obviously takes longer to do the stitching in Photoshop, but I was pleased with the results. Comparing these "stitches" with D800E files, it was difficult to see any quality differences between the two. This is very encouraging and shows that when speed and the need to get everything in a single one-off frame isn't necessary, it is possible to generate extremely detailed high resolution files from m4/3 that stand comparison with one of the best digital cameras ever made.

Improvements in raw processing with ACR in Photoshop CS6 has helped significantly with this. With the ability to remove CA and fringing and with the new subtle sharpening parameters I was able to achieve very impressive results that will stand scrutiny for the most demanding of uses. There is supposed to be some sun later today so I'm going to give the 12-35mm X zoom a try later.