the Panasonic G1 Digital Camera



Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 12.1MP Digital Camera with Lumix G Vario 14-45 mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH Mega OIS Lens

Ok so I cheated with this photo, it isn’t taken by me put pinched directly from Panasonic’s web site, but how am I supposed to take a photo of a camera when I need to use the camera to take the photo?

various options involving  mirror come to mind but none of them would be very satisfactory. yes I could have used a different camera but it seemed more fun to pinch a photo from the web!

Anyhow, one day I will learn the art of doing brief Product reviews (maybe but then again probably not!) in the meantime, if this review is too long you could always just skip to the bottom and read the conclusion.

I have put some photos with this review which were all taken on this camera, you will obviously need to make allowances for the fact that these pictures were taken by me, a good photographer would obviously have produced much better results but they do give you some idea as to the capabilities.

I do find it a little strange that I actually rarely use photos to accompany my blog posts when I love photography perhaps its better that I dont normally use them otherwise you would see what an awful photographer I really am, but on this occasion it has got to happen.

The Panasonic Lumix G1 is Panasonic’s first venture into very small interchangeable lens cameras, I hesitate to use the term SLR because by definition it isn’t an SLR camera, as it doesn’t use the SLR technology which involves mirrors to transmit the image being ‘seen’ through the camera lens into the viewfinder (I am sure that there are plenty of folk out there far more qualified than I am to explain how an SLR camera works) this method of using mirrors has not changed in all the time the SLR has been around, the G1 is one of a new breed of ‘slr’ cameras that uses a digital viewfinder to achieve the same result, i.e. seeing in the viewfinder exactly what is ‘seen’ by the camera sensor.

they have since released the GH1 and the GF1, the GH1 has the added benefit of being able to do HD video but comes with a pretty hefty pricetag, the GF1 is something of a strange beast, technically very similar to the GH1 but it has a body very similar to a point and shoot yet with an interchangeable lens set-up. Although this doesn’t have a viewfinder at all so you are dependant on the LCD screen, something I have never been overly keen on, anyhow I am not reviewing them so lets get back to the G1.

This camera uses a recently developed format of Micro four Thirds (or Micro 4:3) which has nothing to do with the size of the camera, I have had a few people mistakenly refer to it as a 3/4 camera, which is probably right about the size but more on that later, but format being refereed to is a micro version of the four thirds standard that is prevalent in the normal dSLR market today, it is a standard designed specifically for digital cameras rather than as previous standards, designed for film then transferred to digital but this four thirds standard enables any lens manufacturer (in theory) to make a lens that will fit any dSLR, note the ‘in theory’ bit but I am not going to explain that here, the Micro four thirds is a new standard pioneered by both Panasonic and Olympus to enable this new range of cameras with interchangeable lenses but should, again in theory, set a new standard by which any lens manufacturer can make lenses that are interchangeable within the micro four thirds range of cameras but I will cove that on more detail further into this review.

Anyhow, enough of the technical stuff, well me pretending I know what I am talking about, its not very impressive really coz I don’t know as much about it as I make out

I received my camera in June (or was it July?) along with 2 standard lenses, the 14-45 and the 45-200 lenses, the whole thing looked really well built, I liked the fact that it came in a colour other than black, mine is red as shown in the pic above but it comes in blue and, for the more conservative, black, but for some reason the black comes in at £50 more than the other 2 colours, I like having a different colour camera anyhow.

The whole camera is pretty very small compared to the standard dSLR, which has been achieved by use of the Digital Viewfinder thus doing away with the prism/Mirror setup, this has also made the camera very light compared to a standard dSLR, I wont bore you with the stats you can find them on the Panasonic Website but it is extremely light yet not in the least bit flimsy, dye hard dSLR users will find its small size and lightness a little off-putting but to my mind its easier to lug around and is a lot easier to hold up to take hand held shots without causing your arms to get tired from the weigh, although there is an argument to suggest that the lightness makes it more prone to camera shake my experience is it was less prone to it as I was able to hold it easier than a standard dSLR.

Technically, the main difference between a dSLR and a standard compact other than the fact that the viewfinder shows you exactly what is in the lense, is the size of the sensor on the camera, I wont bore you with tech spec again but in short a Compact has a sensor which is about 1/10th the size of the standard dSLR sensor, this means obviously that less light and less detail gets picked up, it is this factor more than the Pixel count that influences the picture quality, a dSLR camera shooting at 6Meg will produce significantly better results than a compact shooting at 12 Meg, simply by virtue of the size of the sensor, in fact there is an argument that suggests having a camera with a really high pixel count is actually counter productive, as a guide I would suggest not using more than 6Meg in a compact as the results can be worse if it goes higher, simply because you get over pixellation which leads to distortion, just a factor worth bearing in mind, anyhow back to the G1, its sensor is about 85% of the size of a standard dSLR so there is likely  to be some, but not much, reduction in camera capability based on this factor alone. Sorry once again I am not the best person to give all the technical stuff but it certainly helps those who don’t understand digital cameras at all, my friend Mike is likely to read this and he can correct anything I say that is wrong.

OK so the lenses then, generally, and I hear a lot of camera enthusiasts say that when you buy a camera the best thing to do is throw away the kit lens and buy a decent lens, no such issue with the G1, it comes with a very good Lumix lens, the 14-45 is the standard one, which has an exceptionally wide angle and is excellent for close-up shots but, in my experience, lousy for distance work, this is where the 45-200 comes into its own, this does not come as standard but I got mine packaged with the camera, I think they wanted to impress me with what their camera could do! now if your just taking snap shots or doing the touristy thing then the standard kit lens is possibly all that you need but if you are really wanting to do something special then the chances are, unless Macro photpgrapy is your thing then you are going to need the second lens. changing lenses is a piece of cake although whilst I was on photoshoots with a mate, Mike who I mentioned earlier, it was noticeable that I kept changing lenses and he didn’t change lens once, now this could have been that he is just too lazy to change lenses (or afraid to in case he gets yet more dirt on his sensor!) or it could be, more likelly, that his fitted lens had a much better range on it, Although it might eqaully be that I was used to a Fuji Bridge Camera with an 18* zoom, indeed I still take the Fuji with me everywhere I go with the G1 and use it on occasions, it will be interesting to see how Mike finds the dSLR, without changing lenses now that he has been using a bridge camera (Panasonic as it happens) which also has a 18* zoom! copy cat!

must admit that I do feel at times that it would be nice to have a 14-140 lens, which comes as standard with the GH1 but price prohibits, taking of price, just as a guide the Camera with just the 1 kit lense is currently retailing for £485, which is down significantly on its release price last year, the GH1 is retailing at £1200 the 14mm-140 lens that comes as standard with the GH1 is £820 and the 45-200 (my second lens) is currently retailing at £260 which means the package I have would currently retail for around £745.

At the price it, you would be hard pushed to get a reasonable quality dSLR with a couple of good quality lenses thrown in, and some would argue that I have not got a decent dSLR with a couple of good quality lenses thrown in, but I would certainly say I have a very good camera, and 2 excellent lenses which, coupled with a good photographer should be capable of producing dSLR quality results, the hard part is finding he good photographer I guess.

Anyhow,  as I said before this beast feels really good to me but to some dye hard dSLR fans its a show stopper as it is too light and small, the other feature that would be a showstopper is the Electronic Viewfinder, this is the replacement or the Reflex mirror set-up that has enabled them to produce such a small camera, it is strange, to say the least, when you have had years of experience with a dSLR with ‘normal’ viewfinder, but I am used to a Fuji Finepix Bridge Camera that also has a digital viewfinder so it has not been a problem to me, I have found that  the least of my problems.

Other features, and some of these are where this camera really comes into its own:

I Auto (iA) – This is an automatic setting similar to what most compacts have and indeed a setting that most people with compacts would use all the time, without giving a thought to what is going on, this can have its uses, especially if you are not used to a dSLR and you can learn a lot from the camera using this mode, take a number of shots in different situations and check what settings the camera chose, and the effects this gave it then gives you the chance to play around with those settings and see what differences it makes, this I would suggest is the easiest way for you to learn how to use the camera.

Mode settings – There are mode settings galore, for Macro, Night time illuminations, parties, museums, portraits, sunsets, etc, I think there are actually too many different modes and it is difficult to get your head round what each one does, also very often they don’t actually produce the result I want, maybe you would argue the point but if its not pleasing to me its not pleasing to me!

Viewing Screen twist & tilt, this must be the biggest and most fantastic feature of this camera, the screen literally twists into just about any position you could hope for, so for example if you are trying to shoot over a crowd you can tilt the scree so it points down towards you whilst you hold the camera above your head, or if shooting something from a very low, ground, level, you can tilt it the other way, my mate Mike spends half his time on his stomach in mud and muck whilst I just kneel down twist the lens and shoot from that position. I have also used this feature, in conjunction with  tripod and an ir remote, to take group photos that include me! It is also ueful tobe ble to foldthe screen back into the camera with no screen on display, to prevent damage to the screen.

OIS, with compatible lenses, to reduce handshake and blur.

auto face detections, does exactly what it says on the tin.

Auto viewfinder switching, this is really neat, with my bridge I am forever going to look through the viewfinder only to realise it isnt showing me anything because it is set to the screen and I have to manually swap it over, with the G1 that is a thing of the past as it detects when I put my eye to the viewfinder and automatically switches, this can be a pain when your using the screen and you put your hand in front of the sensor or you are trying to hold it discretely against you and use the screen but if it becomes a problem you can switch off the automatic switching, of course with a proper dSLR you wouldn’t know anything about that as your not dependant on an electronic screen.

Dust removal technology, to keep dust off the sensor via a microwave electrical field of some sort, how well it works I don’t know but with this camera not having a  mirror means that the sensor is more exposed and vulnerable when the lens is being changed this is the reason for this, it is supposed to be like a forcefield shield around the sensor, a little like star wars I guess.

And a whole host of features which are pretty common place these days on mid range dSLR cameras.

The camera uses a Panasonic battery and comes with a charger, for out of camera charging but Panasonic committed the, in my view, unforgivable sin, of only supplying the one battery! how can you do that when you use your own standard of battery rather than using aa’s or similar? at least with my Fuji, which takes AA’s, if I am out and my batteries run out I can nip onto almost any shop and pick up some Duracells to whack in, with this thing I would be stuck, fortunately I did get supplied with a second battery so that makes life a lot easier.

The camera is a pretty good camera to get if you are wanting to make the move to something like dSLR quality and capability but you will find yourself seriously limited as you progress in your camera usage, by the lack of lenses and those that are available are very expensive.

Going back onto the Micro four thirds standard, the thing that Panasonic have done is to stick some extra electrical connectors on the lens to come with some of the automatic features that makes this camera an ideal starter but this makes it even more difficult to use alternative lenses, there are now some adaptors to convert the camera to be able to use any normal four thirds camera but as soon as you put this on you have lost the automatic feature and, I believe, even the OIS & auto white balance wont work even if the lens being used has that feature.

I am not even convinced that other manufacturers producing to the Micro 4:3 standard will produce lenses that will be able to use all the features of the Panasonic, certainly Olympus lenses don’t, I know Sigma are in the process of producing some lenses we will have to see what they come up with, in the meantime we are stuck withthe rather limited, and expensive, range that Panasonic have produced, this includes a pancake lens for £326 and a 7-14mm for £1133, yes you did read that right, I didn’t hit an extra 1 or 3!!! Both of these lenses I would love to have but I am not likely to buy them for a while yet!

The Auto White Balance has proved a little less than satisfactory but I notice that Panasonic have now released a firmware update that is supposed to improve the auto white balance so I might give that another try once I have done the firmware update, as it drives me mad that I am always forgetting to switch white balance.

Auto ISO has also been rather hit and miss at times so I have preferred setting the ISO myself.

The other really annoying thing that this camera does is to refuse to take a shot when it doesn’t think it would get a shot, it doesn’t seem to have an override  for this feature either it just stops taking the shot, doesn’t even explain why it wont take the shot, and leaves you to adjust settings before it takes the shot.

Whilst moaning about the camera, I accidentally, at one stage, managed to get the grid lines on, you know the lines that are supposed to help you with the rule of thirds, well! could I get them off again? it took ages and 2 brains, well probably only 1 brain between the 2 of us, and that was in Mikes head, but it took ages to work out how to turn these guidelines off, even looking through the handbook didn’t help, one reason for going out with Mike is at least he can read so if I get stuck he can look up the manual and tell me what to do.

The built in flash is a little pathetic to be honest, I think largely because of how small the body is the flash is much closer to the lens than in a dSLR this gives more risk of red eye and washing out of subjects but the addition of a hotshoe flash overcomes this and one saving grace is that the hotshoe is a standard size so any hotshoe flash will fit it, although there can be, I am told syncing problems with a non-Panasonic flash, I use a cheap Chinese import flash gun and have not experienced any problems but them to be honest I rarely use the flash anyhow, unless it is as fill in flash, I certainly found this camera can take some fantastic shots inside in dim lighting without the need for flash.

The manufacturers have also left it with a standard SD card slot, which take SD cards and SDHD cards up to 32Gb although you do need to watch which SDHD card you buy, I bought a cheap one off E-Bay and found it wasn’t compatible with my camera, for some reason! Since then I have switched to a  4Gb Eyefi Card, which I will review separately.

The Lenses also have a very standard 52mm screw fitting on the front to take filters, this is helpful as I have permanently fitted some safety filter, skylight filters, just to protect the lens form scratches, the Panasonic ones were £16 each but as it was such a common size fitting I was able to buy from e-bay for around £3 each, I have also acquired a whole host of filters for use with the camera which have been good fun to use. some of them have been used in the set of photos that accompanies this post.

In all this is a nice camera and one I would be happy to recommend, as long as you are prepared to put up with the restricted availability of lenses but then with one of its selling features being its compact design and lightness your unlikely to want  to lug around a fe dozen Sigma Lenses. I wouldn’t particularly recommend this as a main camera for a dye hard dSLR user, apart from the fact that you can no longer use your existing range of lovely lenses, you will probably not get on with it very well.

Also, I wouldn’t recommend it for a point and click replacement, its a bit big for that, in spite of its small size, and its also not quite as easy to use, you can’t realistically stick it in auto mode all the time and expect even the same results that you would get with a compact in auto mode, you do have to work with and learn about the camera to get the best out of it, but if you are willing to put in the work and time then you can get some pretty fantastic results from it, obviously I am still learning, I am a bit of a slow learner so it might take me a few years, so my shots are not much to go by, a good photographer could get some really great results out of this little beast.

It also looks a little more impressive hung round your neck than a little point and shoot, you get a few admirers from Joe public but not so much from real photographers.

The rubberised body gives it very good handling as well as help with the feeling of a well made and solid bit of kit.

So, given the choice today, would I buy this camera? On balance I think it would be a serious consideration, largely because of its light weight and small size for its capabilities, but I would rather see the Micro 4:3 standard take off a little more before suggesting you invest in this kit, give you a better range of lenses with more competition driving prices a little lower, that said it is a really fun camera to use so I think the answer would be yes.[houdini]