While the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G10's photos can be quite good, it nevertheless lags the rest of the crowd when it comes to the quality of its noise suppression.
Lori Grunin
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
As with the G2, Panasonic's aggressive default noise reduction can smear detail in JPEGs as low as ISO 200. The camera simply has a poorer noise profile than most of its competitors do.
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Noise, ISO 200
Even at ISO 200 you can see the noise-reduction patterns.
(1/80 sec, f4.4, ISO 200, spot meter, AWB, Standard film mode, 45-200mm lens at 78mm)
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Noise, ISO 400, raw vs. JPEG
At ISO 400 you can see significant color noise. You can also see how much better you can do by processing the image yourself with raw software. This is quick-and-dirty adjustment using Adobe Camera Raw, though not using the default settings.
(1/80 sec, f5.6, ISO 400, evaluative metering, AWB, Standard film mode, 14-42mm lens at 14mm)
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Dynamic range
The G10 does have a solid dynamic range. There's quite a bit of detail in the shadows in this exposure. (1/80 sec, f11, ISO 100, spot metering, AWB, standard film mode, 14-42mm lens at 21mm)
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Intelligent Resolution
Panasonic's Intelligent Resolution feature sharpens distant details that its image processing would normally render kind of smeary. I found it kind of hit-or-miss; in this shot the differences were pronounced, but in a few other series of shots I couldn't see much difference. The top photo is a normal shot; the bottom has IR on maximum. (1/200 sec, f8, ISO 100, spot meter, AWB, Standard film mode, 45-200mm lens at 200mm)
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Sharpness
The lens is quite sharp. (1/50 sec, f5.6, ISO 200, spot meter, AWB, Standard film mode, 14-42mm lens at 42mm)
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Sharpness
At ISO 100 and close up, photo quality is quite good, and images are sharp without looking oversharpened. (1/50 sec, f5.6, ISO 100, spot meter, AWB, Standard film mode, 14-42mm lens at 42mm)
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Mid-image detail
As with the G2, details in non-macro-type shots tend to look a little crunchy and digital. (1/80 sec, f4.2, ISO 100, spot meter, AWB, Standard film mode, 14-42mm lens at 19mm)
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Film modes
Like the G2, The G10's default settings produce pretty accurate colors. While several of the preset options do induce some color shifts--here, Smooth is more accurate than Standard, for example--they're not as egregious as those I've seen on many consumer dSLRs.
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Color
The G10 renders saturated, pleasing colors.
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Burst shooting
As with most EVF cameras, the ability to get any decent burst shots is a fluke. For instance, in this case, because I couldn't tell--or control--where it was focusing, it latched onto the squirrel's paws instead of its eyes.
(1/80 sec, f5.6, ISO 200, spot meter, AWB, Standard film mode, 45-200mm lens at 72mm)
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Video
Like many cameras, the G10 grabs a frame for a thumbnail to to with video clips. This one is pretty representative of the camera's video quality. It also shows the vignetting that occurs when using the lens (14-42mm) optimized for 4:3 aspect ratio to record at 16:9.
