Panasonic G9 focus stack test

[tom mann]

So while my kids were in soccer I became the team photographer. This gave me an opportunity to buy the Panasonic G9 for better sports shooting.     Like my old Panasonic G85, this camera can do focus stacking in-body. However, it has a 20 megapixel sensor which creates an 18 megapixel automatically focus-stacked image essentially using a 10 second video capture (got that? ) 

The G85 did an OK job but it was unreliable and it resulted in a lot of areas that were not in focus and wavy. It appears the G9 can do much better, as you can see from this photo:



edit: http://eng-ca.faq.panasonic.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/48653/~/how-do-i-use-the-post-focus-%2F-focus-stacking-feature%3F-dc-g9

[wcfn100]

That did a great job of stacking but the whole image seems pretty soft.

Jason

[tom mann]

That did a great job of stacking but the whole image seems pretty soft.

Jason

It’s my stingy compression here.

[wcfn100]

It’s my stingy compression here.

Yeah, after a saw there was no full size, I was wondering about that.

Can you post the first (closest) picture of the stack?  I'm curious how much flattening the stacking created.

Jason

[tom mann]

I didn’t save it. My lens doesn’t have much focus breathing so flattening appears minimal. Next test I’ll save it.

[tom mann]

The weathering isn’t finished, but I wanted to see how the focus stacking would work around handrails. It’s pretty good, but oddly the rear of the model never made it into focus.



So it’s pretty good - but if I was going to publish this in a book or magazine I will take the time to take about 15 focus-bracketed photos and combine them on the computer with Helicon instead.

[robert3985]

I've found that hunting for focus-stacking artifacts around handrails, particularly on handrails that have scenery behind them, is best done with a background that isn't a simple gradient, like your nice, seamless background.  Might try the same test on a layout, with complicated scenery as a better test of your camera's focus stacking software prowess.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore