Fast Live View autofocus
Low noise for a Micro Four Thirds
Still more noise than most SLRs
Poor color performance
Introduction
Noise levels were very low and color accuracy was good, yet low light sensitivity was not.
Comprehensive video testing and analysis by the staff of CamcorderInfo.com
Video: Low Light Sensitivity (2.77)
The Panasonic GH1 didn’t have very good low light sensitivity, although its results were better than the Canon T1i. The camera needed 17 lux of light to reach 50 IRE on our waveform monitor—an amount that’s nearly double what the Panasonic HDC-HS300 needed. In the camera’s 60p record mode (720/60p) it needed even more light, 36 lux, to reach 50 IRE. Testing the 720/30p record mode, which uses the MJPEG codec instead of AVCHD, 31 lux of light was needed. All of these scores aren’t very good, although the 17 lux performance at 24p isn’t awful. More on how CamcorderInfo tests low light sensitivity.
We expected a better low light sensitivity performance coming from the GH1, mainly because the HS300 did so well with this test, but also because it is a DSLR with a huge CMOS sensor. Still, we’ve noticed a number DSLR cameras struggling with low light sensitivity. The Canon T1i had a pitiful 26 lux performance in both its 20p and 30p record modes. The Nikon D5000 is the best video-capable DSLR we’ve tested so far when it comes to low light sensitivity. It required only 11 lux (shooting at 24p) to produce 50 IRE. Unfortunately, we have yet to see a DSLR camera that really blows the consumer camcorder competition out of the water on this test.
Shop for the Panasonic DMC-GH1
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