I’ll be honest, I was expecting this to be a “aha, I’ve discovered the G5 is significantly worse than the E-M5 piece”.
The summary is that it isn’t as good at high ISO, but that it is good enough for real world use for most purposes (and is certainly much better than cameras with the old panasonic 12mp sensor like the EP-3).
In all honesty, I was very impressed by the results from the G5 at 1600 ISO. Had I known they were going to be this good I probably would have pushed the camera up to 3200 ISO.
So everything is perfect, right? Well no, the camera is very good, but still struggles with DR in bright conditions and the controls and menus can be a bit inexplicable (nothing like as bad as a NEX camera). It is frustrating that there is no IBIS such that I’m limited to OIS lenses in conditions like tonight. Those are very small quibbles to me though.
Again, I would be happy to recommend the G5 as an excellent camera as an introduction to M43s. If you combine it with an excellent OIS lens like the 12-35mm it produces very nice results indeed.
Panasonic Lumix G5 and 12-35mm lens
sgoldswoblog 
The first picture is very cool, I really like it. Can you comment on how to make the bus in color, but the rest b&w. Thank you.
Thanks, I should be clear that these were all processed from RAW in lightroom. I used a plugin for lightroom called NIK silver EFEX. Through use of control points it allows for selective colourisation of images, which is an effect I like a lot as a means of focusing attention.
In this picture I found it a bit busy in colour and I was trying to think of a way to keep the focus on the picture on the amazing red blur of the bus which at the same time minimising distraction. Using the selective colourisation tool was a way to do that.
Love your first image here really made me stop and look (and I’m not a fan of selective desaturation, but this is cool). Thanks for your explanantion above .. you certainly didn’t want to lose that amazing red blur.
Just wondering why you included the OM-D in the opening sentence. Did you do a similar piece with the OM-D?
Thanks for looking! I haven’t done exactly the same shoot with the E-M5, it’s more that I had understood (incorrectly) that the E-M5 would be significantly better in low light. My own perception is that the E-M5 is better, but that at least part of that difference may be down to stabilisation of faster lenses which the G5 cannot do. Take a look at my recent post on a visit to Tate modern to see both cameras used in similar conditions in low light.
very nice photo’s man! love the long exposures!
Cheers! It’s fun to do long exposures when you get good results, particularly if all you’ve used is the street furniture to act as a “tripod”