Olympus E-M5: Post #8: Dynamic Range Part 3

I received an email about the last couple of posts.  Seems my conclusion that the dynamic range of the E-M5 and GH2 is similar is contrary to what's being published on the Internet.  According to many users and reviews it is claimed that the dynamic range of the E-M5 is higher than the GH2.

That may be true and I hope it is!  But, actually what I posted in the prior two posts was that in the one shot in which I compared the two cameras the dynamic range was similar.  Assuming for the moment that the dynamic range of the E-M5 is greater than the GH2, the reason that they seemed similar in my example is because the sensors were not being stressed enough to show a difference.  I plan to try the experiment on some images in more challenging situations, although my guess is that in the "real world" the difference will not really make a difference.

With regard to the images I used in the prior two posts, examining the histograms shows that though there were bright areas (clouds) and dark areas (pine trees) in the scene, that this was all handled nicely by the sensors.  As you can see below, the histograms are pretty normal (and very similar), with few pixels on the black and white ends of the spectrum.  There were no "blown out" highlights and no "blacked out" shadows.

Olympus E-M5 histogram of original image in prior post

Panasonic GH2 histogram of original image in prior post

I'm working on another sample in which I have definitely created a dark scene within a relatively bright scene.  The dark areas will come from a parking lot under my office building. It will be the subject of my next post.