Panasonic G5 Flash

Coverage and Range
Decent flash power, with uneven coverage at wide angle. Above average positive exposure compensation required.

Coverage. Flash coverage is rather uneven at wide angle, leaving the corners of our flash target image darker at 14mm, thought that's not unusual. Some of the corner shading can also attributable to the lens itself. Coverage is more uniform at full telephoto (42mm).

Exposure. Indoors under incandescent background lighting, the Panasonic G5's flash produced a fairly bright exposure of our indoor portrait scene at ISO 200, when +1.0 EV flash exposure compensation was used. (An average of +0.7 EV is normally needed for this shot.) The camera's slow-sync flash mode required no compensation, though the longer shutter time resulted in a much warmer cast from the ambient background lighting.

ISO 200 Range. At 14mm wide angle, flash exposures start out dim at 6 feet but brighten considerably at 7 feet, decreasing gradually with distance from there. Usable range is about 14 feet, which is pretty good. At full telephoto, flash exposures start out bright at 6 feet, with brightness falling from there. We'd say range at telephoto is about 8 feet. In both cases, the range exceeds Panasonic's Guide Number rating when len aperture is taken into account.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range Test. Panasonic rates the G5's flash range with the kit lens as 30.8 feet at wide-angle, and 19.4 feet at telephoto, when using Auto ISO. In the shots above, the Panasonic G5 produced well exposed targets at both wide-angle and telephoto. (We used spot metering at wide-angle so that the camera would ignore the bright surroundings.) Good results here. Our standard test method for flash range uses either a fixed setting of ISO 200, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera (at Auto ISO if so specified), to assess the validity of the specific claims.