Are you sure about that? In the GH2 Setup guide it shows how yes there needs to be an overexposed area but there also needs to be an underexposed area as well. I.dynamic does not affect the overexposed area. It can only bring up the exposure in the underexposed area. It does not bring down the overexposed area at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=uROQbbiiO2I#t=89s

Can you show us a video where the I.dynamic feature affects an overexposed area?

@apefos

Ok I see what you have done. However, I disagree with the testing method that only uses a white wall. It sounds like you are testing the i.dynamic feature on a scene that has uniform exposure? If so then yes it will require you to overexpose to trigger the function. However, it will also require that there is an under exposed area as well.

A uniform exposure is not what the function is intended for. It is intended for scenes with high dynamic range where one portion of the scene is greatly overexposed and one portion is under exposed. It will raise the shadow detail to compensate for the underexposed scene.

It makes sense to only trigger i.dynamic when there is an overexposed area because this is meant to be a "dynamic" feature. It is intended for use when the dynamic range of the scene exceeds that of the camera. When that occurs(which is actually hard to reproduce) then it compensates for that.

If your image is uniformly underexposed then you simply need to turn the exposure up. The error there is user error not a camera malfunction. The whole intent of the i.dynamic feature is to compensate for the GH2's complete lack of dynamic range in jpg and movie modes. It is the absolute worst camera dpreview has tested for dynamic range and the i.dynamic feature doesn't really help since it is so hard to trigger.

Check out the image below to see how good dynamic range enhancers preform.

@apefos

No I get what you are saying and I am saying that it is not designed to do that. This is not trying to maintain exposure. It is trying to expand the dynamic range of the camera by increasing the shadow exposure only when the scene warrants it.

Basically, it waits till the scene overexposes "AND" underexposes. I think you need to try your experiment again. I just tested it by shooting a very bright light that completely fills the screen. While the i.Dynamic mode was showing that it was on, it was not showing that it was active(Yellow color) because there wasn't an under-exposed area to raise the level of.

I then pulled the camera back slowly to fill less of the screen with the bright light and more of it with the underexposed background behind the bright light. Once I reached about 50%:50% between over and under exposed the i.dynamic yellow bricks lit up and the under exposed area brightened up.

If you want the i.dynamic mode to decrease the highlights then you need to manually adjust the overall exposure down and let the i.dynamic feature do what they intended it to do which is raise the shadow level.

I just tested it again by filling half the screen with the bright white background in my computer monitor and the surrounding dark scene. As I decreased the exposure the bright white screen became less bright until the camera was showing that the scene was properly exposed and the I.dynamic feature was still working(Showing up as yellow).

Then I tried increasing exposure until both the white computer monitor and background were over exposed. Once I hit the point where there was no underexposed area and only over-exposed area the yellow indicators turned white showing that the camera will shut off the i.dynamic feature if everything is over-exposed.

I am not saying that their implementation is desirable. However, it does do what they intended it to do which is raise the shadow level. Hopefully the GH3 will raise and lower the shadow and highlight areas respectively but I am not counting on that.

@mpgxsvcd Hi, I found the problem.

The i.dynamic works great with the Lumix 14-42mm kit lens. But it does not work good with legacy nikon and canon fd lenses. The tests I did was with Nikon and Canon FD lenses and the i.dynamic just enable when there is overexposure. With the Lumix lens the i.dynamic works great and enables without overexposure. It seems the camera needs the aperture information from the lens to i.dynamic works properly.

@mpgxsvcd

I did try the i.dynamic with Nikon and Canon FD lenses in M, A, S and P modes, and also in the three metering options, none works. It just works with the Lumix lens.