Panasonic G1 Digital Camera First Impression Review

by Steve Morgenstern
Published on September 25, 2008

Navigation
Intro	Physical Tour
Components	Design / Layout
Modes	Control Options
Conclusion	Specs

The Micro Four Thirds camera format, developed jointly by Olympus and Panasonic, is an aggressive attempt to lure more point-and-shoot users into the system camera fold. By "system camera" we mean a camera with interchangeable lenses. And while that's traditionally been an Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera, the Micro Four Thirds cameras take a different approach. An SLR uses a mirror to bounce incoming light up to an optical viewfinder and then, when you press the shutter, swings the mirror out of the way so the light can hit the image sensor behind it. In a Micro Four Thirds camera there is no mirror. The light hits the sensor directly, and the preview image is shown on the rear LCD, like on a compact camera. The advantage to this system: by eliminating the mirror, manufacturers can build a camera body that's about 50% shorter front-to-back and, of course, lighter. The potential problem, though, as seen with the SLR cameras shipping currently with the Live View feature, is that the LCD view can be slow to refresh, and even slower to auto focus.

These are the problems Panasonic claims to have solved with their 12.1-megapixel Lumix G1 model, the first camera announced in the Micro Four Thirds format, expected to ship before the end of the year at approximately $800 with the kit lens. At a pre-Photokina event we were able to shoot with a pre-production sample of the G1 for a few hours, and were impressed overall with the performance. (see photo gallery here).  The unanswered question is whether there's actually a market for a camera that's significantly smaller than a traditional SLR, but still much larger than a pocketable point-and-shoot. Let's look at the G1 in some detail, then come back to the major marketing challenge we foresee for the format.