Photography News Issue 68

Camera test 49

Photography News | Issue 68 | photographynews.co.uk

the 60mm with shutter speeds from 1/60sec down to 1/2sec. I was consistently getting sharp stills down to 1/8sec, which is a sound showing. In video, there’s the option of E-Stabilisation, which aims to correct jitter by using the lens and camera stabilisers, plus an electronic five-axis hybrid image stabiliser. The technology worked impressively – the image remained reasonably steady even while walking slowly. Shooting 4K does mean a significant image crop, soyoushould be aware of that. As a guide with the 12-60mm zoom, a still image at 18mm gives roughly the same image view as 12mm on video. Shoot Full HD and there’s no crop. The Lumix G90 features Panasonic’s V-log L that is capable of handling a contrast range of up to 12EV and gives a flatter, more detailed image for colour grading. It

For burst shooting you need a fast UHS Speed Class

3 card and the camera can get warm if you do a lot of it

Right A twilight exposure taken on the Lumix G90 using an exposure of 10secs at f/5.6 at ISO 200, using live view composite mode Below JPEG taken with the in-camera monochrome mode

is a feature used by the serious video users among us and enhances the G90’s hybrid qualities. Panasonic was really the first to popularise 4K burst shooting to benefit stills shooters and it is available in many of its models. With the mode set, just press and hold down the shutter release and the camera takes a series of 30 images in one second. You don’t get full resolution images but they are still eight megapixels – images measure 3328x2496 pixels – but burst shooting means you stand a great chance of capturing that special fleeting moment.

The G90 has three 4K burst modes. Standard 4K Burst helps you capture fast-moving subjects and you just keep your finger on the shutter button for as long as you want to cover the period of action. 4K Burst S/S helps you capture unpredictable moments and here you press the shutter button to start recording and press it again to stop. In this setting, you can add markers (by using Fn2) to help you go back to the shots you want. Finally, there is 4K Pre-Burst where you can partially depress the shutter button and images are taken, but not written to card until you press the

shutter button down fully and then you get images taken in the previous one second. For burst shooting, you need a fast UHS Speed Class 3 card and the camera can get warm if you do a lot of it. Battery life is also impacted. The other possible issue is that, because an electronic shutter is used, subjects moving fast horizontally may be distorted or you may get banding across the image under fluorescent lighting. Bursts can be checked in-camera and the images you want saved as separate JPEG files. However, this does take up time and battery

Performance: ISO and digital noise

ISO 1600

Original image

ISO 200

ISO 800

ISO 3200

ISO 6400

ISO 12,800

Above The smaller Micro Four Thirds image format does mean that digital noise and image deterioration kicks in at lower ISOs, compared with larger formats. That said, the Lumix G90 delivers a high level of image quality up to ISO 1600

ISO 25,600

Eastbourne pier at twilight was the subject for the ISO test. The Lumix G90, with the 12-60mm, was fixed on a Benro FIF28CIB2 tripod (also tested in this issue and shots taken with in-camera no noise reduction. The exposure for ISO 200 was 1/10sec at f/8.

The Raws were processed in Lightroom with default settings. Digital noise levels were impressively low right up to ISO 800 and no reason why this speed can’t be used for critical purposes. Image quality did start to fall away as noise started to take a grip from ISO 1600 onwards.