Panasonic GH1 has a
12.0MP Four Thirds (18.89 x 14.48 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Venus Engine HD processor. On the other hand, Panasonic GX8 has a
20.0MP Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Venus Engine processor.
Panasonic GX8's sensor provides 8MP more than Panasonic GH1's sensor, which gives a significant advantage in real life. You can print your images larger or crop more freely.
On the other hand, please keep in mind that Max sensor resolution is not the only determinant of resolving power. Factors such as the optical elements, low pass filter, pixel size and sensor technology also affects the final resolution of the captured image.
Below you can see the GH1 and GX8 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Panasonic GH1 has a 1.2x Larger sensor area than Panasonic GX8. Larger sensors give photographer more control on the depth of field and blurry background compared to smaller sensor when shot in same focal length and aperture.
DxOMark Sensor Scores
DxOMark is a benchmark that scientifically assesses image quality of camera sensors. It scores camera sensors for color depth (DXO Portrait), dynamic range (DXO Landscape) and low-light sensitivity (DXO Sports), and also gives them an overall score. Panasonic GH1 and Panasonic GX8 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that GX8 has a better overall score of 75, 11 points higher compared to GH1's score of 64.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Panasonic GH1 |
64 |
21.6 bits |
11.6 Evs |
772 ISO |
Panasonic GX8 |
75 |
23.5 bits |
12.6 Evs |
806 ISO |