Has anyone else noticed that the GF1 seems quite limited in dynamic range? I have been quite surprised by the number of shots that get blown out with this camera.
I've heard this since the G1 model released last November. Several months ago I decided to do some DR and meter calibration testing, comparing my E-1, L1, K10D, G1 ... and a week later had a D200 to put through the same test as well.
What I found was that the G1's ISO sensitivity setting is 0.3-0.5EV pessimistic compared to the E-1/L1/K10D and the D200's sensitivity about 0.5EV optimistic. What this means is that if you set ISO 100 on all five cameras, the actual sensitivity measured by a calibrated reference incident meter and gray card target indicates that the G1 sensor is actually at ISO 140-150, the Nikon is actually at about ISO 50-64, and the other three are with 5% of 100.
The next thing I noticed was that the metering characteristics of the cameras varied quite a bit too. The E-1 was most protective of highlight saturation (it would suggest about -0.7EV compared to a nominal reference reading), the L1 and K10D were closer to accurate at -0.3, the D200 showed nominal at 0, and the G1 tended to be right on the line or a little over at +0.3 EV.
These mapped pretty closely to my picture taking experience where I find I normally have the E-1 set to +0.7EV compensation, the K10D and L1 set to +0.3EV, the D200 at 0EV, and the G1 at -0.3 to achieve the same average mid-gray point with the RAW processor at the defaults.
Once I dialed in these corrections and ran the DR test, all five cameras showed remarkably consistent DR performance. Absolute numbers are not really very interesting, but relative performance is useful since they were all tested in the same circumstances using the same methodology .. DR decreases as ISO goes up, so the numbers are presented in stops as {lowest ISO} to {highest ISO}:
K10D: 10.5 to 9
L1, E-1: 10 to 8.5
G1: 10 to 7.5
D200: 9.5 to 8
So ... The G1's DR is fairly comparable to similar format DSLRs, with a little hit at the highest ISO settings. However, the combination of the most pessimistic ISO sensitivity setting and metering calibration that pushes the saturation exposure limit will artificially restrict DR if you don't adjust take the hot sensitivity and metering calibration into account.
The GF1 is the same sensor, same metering, and almost the same data system ... I'm sure the results for it would be very similar to the G1.