Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 review: sample images gallery

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 gallery

The following images were taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1. Unless otherwise stated, the G1 was set to Program mode with Large Fine JPEG quality, Auto White Balance, Multiple Metering, and the Standard Film Mode (the default setting for contrast, saturation and sharpening). Image Stabilisation was enabled for all these handheld images.

The individual exposure mode, file sizes, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO and lens focal length are listed for each image.

The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in Adobe Photoshop CS4 as JPEGs with the Very High quality preset, while the resized images were made in Photoshop CS4 and saved with the default High quality preset.

The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and far right portions of each image.

Note: you may wish to open a number of galleries for direct comparison of detail and noise: Canon EOS 450D / XSi sample images, Olympus E-520 sample images, Canon PowerShot SX10 IS sample images, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 sample images and Canon PowerShot G10 sample images .

Landscape: 5.43MB, Program, 1/500, f8, ISO 100, 14-45mm at 14mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						This first shot was taken with the Lumix G1 and its 14-45mm kit lens under bright light at its lowest 100 ISO sensitivity and therefore represents ideal conditions. The crops are packed with detail and as you'd hope, bereft of noise. Impressively where many lenses become softer towards the corners of this composition, the bundled 14-45mm kit lens remains sharp. Despite high contrast areas on the hull, there's also no visible fringing, although the G1 reduces the effect in-camera on JPEGs.

Landscape: 5.42MB, Program, 1/400, f7.1, ISO 100, 14-45mm at 14mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						Another shot under bright light with the lens zoomed-out and a sensitivity of 100 ISO. This was taken virtually at ground level, where the G1's flip-out screen made composition much easier. Once again there's plenty of detail and no noise to mention, and as above, the 14-45mm kit lens remains sharp and well-corrected right up to the corners.

Landscape: 4.33MB, Program, 1/640, f10, ISO 200, 14-45mm at 45mm (equivalent to 90mm)

				For this shot of an approaching boat we used 200 ISO and zoomed the lens into 45mm. The G1 was set to AFC mode to track the boat, and continuous shooting selected to grab a burst of images. This shot is actually the last in a sequence of six images, and the continuous AF system easily kept them all in sharp focus - although the f10 aperture selected by Program mode didn't hurt. Noise levels also remain low at 200 ISO.

Portrait: 5.28MB, Aperture Priority, 1/800, f6.3, ISO 200, 14-45mm at 45mm (equivalent to 90mm)

						For this portrait we kept the 14-45mm kit lens fully-zoomed into 45mm, and left the G1's sensitivity at 200 ISO; f6.3 was selected in Aperture Priority and Face Detection set for the AF mode. Face Detection easily locked-onto the subject here, and again the increase to 200 ISO hasn't had any detrimental impact on the quality. By selecting close to the maximum aperture and zooming-the lens in, the depth of field has been minimised. The background may not be especially blurry, but you can increase the effect with a more distant background, or by switching to a longer lens.

Macro: 5.36MB, Program, 1/80, f5.6, ISO 400, 14-45mm at 45mm (equivalent to 90mm)

						The VARIO G 14-45mm kit lens has an official closest focusing distance of 30cm at all focal lengths, although we managed to focus with it a little closer here. The lens was fully zoomed-in for this shot, and the magnification is comparable to most DSLR kit lenses. Impressively there's minimal softening towards the corners compared to many rivals, allowing good quality results. The lighting and subject matter have also been forgiving to the increase to 400 ISO.

Indoor: 5.54MB, Program, 1/80, f3.5, ISO 400, 14-45mm at 14mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						Our first indoor shot was taken with the G1 at 400 ISO and the lens zoomed-out. The AF mode was switched to Face Detection and the camera had no problem locking onto the subject. The increase to 400 ISO has resulted in slightly higher noise levels, but the G1 keeps them under control and the image is cleaner than many at the same sensitivity. The subject is a little under-exposed, but the crops are detailed and prove this sensitivity is very usable on the G1.

Indoor: 5.32MB, Aperture Priority, 1/6, f8, ISO 800, 14-45mm at 14mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						Our second indoor was taken with the G1 increased to 800 ISO. To ensure sufficient depth of field and put the OIS system to the test we set the G1 to f8 in Aperture Priority mode, resulting in a relatively slow shutter speed of 1/6. The optical stabilisation has kept the image perfectly steady. Viewed at 100%, there's inevitably greater noise here than the 400 ISO samples, but it's hardly obtrusive and there's still lots of detail present. A great result for the G1 here which remains very usable at 800 ISO.

Indoor: 4.48MB, Program, 1/125, f3.5, ISO 1600, 14-45mm at 14mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						Our final shot was taken with the G1 at 1600 ISO, where there's a bigger drop in quality. The camera has also arguably under-exposed this shot. Noise levels are now much higher than before, although the G1 manages to avoid many of the undesirable chroma artefacts of Canon's budget DSLRs at the same sensitivity. The G1 then goes on to offer a 3200 ISO maximum, and you can see samples at every sensitivity in our High ISO Noise results page.

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