Help me evaluate these photographs, please

Jock Elliott

Hall of Famer
Location
Troy, NY
I'm always trying to "optimize" my everyday-carry rig . . . ie, the camera I stick in my pocket in case a really cool sky shot pops up. Generally, that has been the Canon G12.

Around Christmas, I picked up the GX85 with the two-lens kit. A couple of days ago, I noticed that the GX85 with 12-32 is barely larger than the G12.

So I ran this experiment: 4 shots of the sky with each camera set in P mode with Vivid color profile. Looking at the two sets of image, other than the field of view, I don't see a whole lot of difference between the two cameras. At 100%, the trees in the GX85 images appear crisper to me.

What am I missing?

Here's the G12 series:

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And the GX85:

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Cheers, Jock
 
You're looking at high contrast images exposed for the highlights and with everything darker than the sky being black or something awfully close to it.

That gives you no good indication of DR - since you're letting the shadows turn black anyway - and it gives a fairly extreme contrast between the branches and the sky, which makes it very easy to achieve good resolution, unless a lens has a particularly soft rendering.

These shots are great for comparing chromatic aberrations and indeed white balance, but with 2 decent cameras that don't have a massive difference in resolution, that's about all you're gonna find in terms of differences.
 
You might try a subject much closer, (10-20 ft) with lots of detail. I have used this method to help me choose a lens/camera combination. Seems to help me pick out the differences in resolution, color, etc. Flowers, people's faces and such, are usually close to what we typically shoot.
 
I would recommend trying for a day where you have more noticeable cloud formations. Those are unfortunately too sparse. Also eliminating the darker foreground as folks noted would probably ease your evaluation quandry. A more balanced contrast frame is probably desirable.
 
I think some camera fora have a "This vs. That" sub forum for comparing different camera outputs. But I feel like that turns it into a competition and brings out fanboy-ism. What I like about this place is the "Watering Hole" kind of feel. I may be "better acquainted" with the "watering hole" concept living in the land of the corner tap in Milwaukee. But trust me....this place DEFINITELY has the local watering hole feel.
 
seeing if others saw significant differences between the two sets.
To my untrained eyes on my my work machine, I'm with the others in not seeing a discernible difference outside of perhaps the GX85 being a bright brighter in contrast. Some more experimenting may be in order. ;)
turns it into a competition and brings out fanboy-ism
If I allow that to happen here, I shall expect one of you guys to come to my house and slap me with a fish*.



(Why, yes, that is a Monty Python reference! 😁 )
 
Hearty thanks to everyone for your various inputs.

Bottom line, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference between the two sets for sky photography . . . which is the primary target when I carry a pocket camera.

And, yeah, I love the atmosphere here too!

Cheers, Jock
 
The GX85 has better colour (to my eye) but as the others said, you'd need a more detailed subject, up close to make a proper comparison...

I also believe that if you were to print a photo from both cameras to a larger size, you'd see a marked difference in the quality...
 
Even different copies of the same lens/camera model render a bit differently so if you're looking for differences I'm sure there are a lot you can find. That said, what kind of differences are you trying to find in these scenes? It's like what I often say to myself, "this isn't a good photo", but then "what do you expect from the scene instead?"
 
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