SLRLounge puts Panasonic GH4 and GH3 in head-to-head high ISO tests

While it's the Panasonic GH4's incredible sounding video skills that have drawn most of the attention, we can't forget that this is a still camera, too—and one that we're hoping will take fantastic photos. While we don't have our own hands on the GH4 yet, and haven't had a chance to plug it into the Comparometer, the folks at SLRLounge have managed to get both the GH3 and GH4, and do a high ISO shootout between the pair.

You can see a full set of comparison images at SLRLounge, and they test both of the GHs at ISO 1600-12,800. To our eye, the GH4 looks generally better, but most dramatically at ISO 1600—to the point where we slightly wonder if the GH3 at ISO1600 isn't just a touch out of focus.

Interestingly, the two cameras seem to handle ISO 12,800 pretty differently, in terms of how much smoothing is put over the image noise. Have a look at the crop of the man's face for probably the best illustration of the difference.

We won't know for sure how the GH4 stacks up until we can get one into the lab, and go through proper testing with it. But if these images are anything to go by, the Panasonic GH4 will be more than capable of holding its own when it comes to straight up image quality.

So until we get a chance to try the GH4 for ourselves, this is a chance to do a bit of pixel peeping to compare it against its predecessor.