Camera Labs

Introducing the Panasonic Lumix GX1, a flat-fronted M4/3 camera for enthusiasts.

NEW! Panasonic GX1 review!



Hope you enjoy it,

Gordon

what a let down for this new GX1 body, brings very little innovation compared to GF1 and I fully share your frustration about the MIC input still not implemented, a hotshoe accessory should be no problem but panasonic continues to limit their model for some obscure MARKETING reasons

I'll keep my GF1 no thank you

thx for the preview

Nice interview! One comment that scarred me was comparing the EVF to the G3, he said it is same quality?? I thought the viewfinder on teh g3 was pretty bad. Other than that seems like a pretty nice camera, expensive but nice..

Too bad he didnt offer up anything on the GH3 question! We are all waiting!

Smart marketing moves from Panasonic. They can put a better stuff, such as better LCD screen, built-in viewfinder and more dials, however, it will make the camera bigger and also the cost will approach Sony NEX 7 price point ($1200 body only).

GX1 will be a great match for people who want a simple but tough camera for walk around especially with pancakes and pancake X zoom lens.

It won't satisfy photo enthusiasts with deep pocket, but the price is about right ($699 body only & $949 with x lens). It is a nice compromise.

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Full specs are up on Panny website..

http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemca ... index.html

Looks like they have a video mode that is sort of like a time lapse mode, but records at 1/10th speed. Prob. not good for long term stuff, but intriguing..

Anxious to hear about the external view finder!

Jon

Hows the GX1 - Oly Ep-3 comparision going Gordon? Any initial thoughts?

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Canon 50D
Canon EF-S 17-55 2.8
Tamron 18-270 mm
Canon 10-22mm lens
Canon 50 mm 1.4
Benro Carbon Fibre Tripod C-258 + B-1 Head
Canon 10D EF 100mm 1:2.8 Macro Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX
imac 24" 2.8 Aperature II

Nice writeup but the comparison to the Sony NEX bugs me:



1) The body may be smaller, but it's not an actual advantage. When discussing relative sizes of cameras can you please take into account lens size? It's simply ridiculous to rave about how small NEX-series cameras are when practically speaking they've got huge lenses. By all means use the smallest practical lens if you wish, but it's probably worth nothing that the Panasonic x-series zoom is as small as a pancake while offering 3:1 zoom.

2) Sensor size is irrelevant. Image quality is relevant. Now we know the NEX has better IQ (dxomark gives it 77 overall vs. 60 for the GH-1, which we can fairly safely assume will be similar or identical to the GX-1), but then the pancake on the NEX is f2.8 vs f1.7 on the Panasonic which would pretty much cancel out the sensor advantage.

3) Finally, I believe the NEX-5N's continuous shooting mode advantage is limited to a specific mode that locks focus and exposure on the first shot. Under normal continuous shooting it's pretty much identical with the GX-1. Meanwhile, the GX-1 has a 20fps shooting mode with different restrictions.

So the three summary points here are either wrong or misleading.

And of course you fail to mention the Panasonic's handling advantages (hard controls everywhere, function buttons, regular hot shoe...). Surely these might be interesting to its target audience (and yours).

Hi podperson, thanks for your comments, and I completely agree the lens should be taken into consideration too.

Are you sure you read the whole text though? In the 'compared to Sony 5N' section, I wrote:

"It's not completely one-sided though. The Lumix GX1 claims quicker autofocusing, and if the handling is more responsive then this alone could be a compelling reason for many to go for it. Its body may be heftier, but feels more solid and confident in your hands. It features a built-in flash as opposed to the annoying screw-on accessory for the NEX-5N, and it also has a standard hotshoe and a proper mode dial. There's also an on-screen levelling gauge. Then there's the Micro Four Thirds system as a whole, which boasts more lenses than Sony's native E-mount. This broader selection includes Panasonic's latest Power Zoom models, which unlike any E-mount lens to date offer motorised zooms for smooth adjustments while filming video. The 14-42mm Power Zoom lens also retracts to become very compact, significantly reducing the operational size of the GX1."

So I did cover many of your points afterall!

Hi kmcgreg, I added a feature comparison with the Olympus E-P3.

Remember these are just feature comparisons at the moment. I can't comment on handling and quality comparisons until I have them all side-by-side.

Hi Gordon,

I had no problem with your writeup -- I was criticizing your summary, which assembles a bunch of essentially invalid points and ignores handling.

In general, the lens situation for Sony is pretty dire -- that probably is worth a mention too. (The pancake primes for the Panasonic include both a reasonably fast wide angle and a fast general purpose lens -- the only way to make the NEX "small" is to use a not especially fast 28mm equivalent lens.)

Thanks Gordon - I appreciate it. I think I understand you cant do much else until you have the cameras on hand.
Plenty of action in the m43 front. The Panasonic looks good.
Wonder what will happen with Olympus? Is every country and company broke these days from crazy deals, greed and corruption?
Looking forward to escaping on holidays- got another 6 weeks to go.
Will buy something shortly.

_________________
Canon 50D
Canon EF-S 17-55 2.8
Tamron 18-270 mm
Canon 10-22mm lens
Canon 50 mm 1.4
Benro Carbon Fibre Tripod C-258 + B-1 Head
Canon 10D EF 100mm 1:2.8 Macro Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX
imac 24" 2.8 Aperature II

Hi everyone, I've begun my tests with a final production GX1 and Power Zoom 14-42mm kit lens.

See my Panasonic GX1 sample images!

I've also added a selection of sample movies to my Panasonic GX1 preview and movies page...

I'm thinking m43 is long overdue a real top of the line body such as the NEX-7.

GX1 body and sensor + EP3 screen and IBIS and jpegs + Nex-7 VF


I'm mean, it's not rocket science and I'm pretty sure just about every m43 user and a shed load of non-users would be all over it.

Furthermore, there are some really nice new lenses now (12mm & 45mm primes) and some rumoured classic 4/3 semi-pro conversions into m43. It's about time all the tech from the system came together in one body.

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Panasonic G3: 9-18mm, 14mm, 20mm, 45mm

To my eyes, many of your sample images look fuzzy. For example, the picture of the water with the large tree in it. I can't find any portion of that image that looks really sharp. Certainly, portions of the tree look sharper than the background, but still not really sharp in my opinion. Is that motion blur, or is the photo a little out of focus? Or perhaps it's the lens? It's hard for me to tell.

The white boat at the pier (top photo) looks reasonably sharp, but close-up man-made objects usually look sharp, even when they aren't. The real test is foliage, or buildings at a distance.

I think that the photo of the small yellow boat at the pier is the sharpest one.

So these are all in-camera JPG's, right? If so, then they are still better than the JPG's from the GF1, and especially from the G1.

I wish they offered this camera with a pancake lens.

Hi Caleb, yep, they're all in-camera JPEGs with the default settings and the 14-42mm pancake power zoom (body firmware 1.0, lens 1.1).

I find the default processing on the GX1 to be a little soft, like the G3 before it. The images respond well to a boost in sharpening and a little extrqa contrast, especially when applied to RAW files. You can see all of this in action in my upcoming review.