Digital Camera Review

Digital Camera Review

Sep 25, 2008 - By Steve Morgenstern
Completely new camera formats don't come along that often, but we've just had our first hands-on with one; the first camera that uses the new Micro Four Thirds format. We spent some quality time with a pre-production sample of the Panasonic G1, the first camera in the recently announced Micro Four Thirds format. The G1 is an interchangeable lens camera that looks like a shrunken SLR, but works very differently, with photo composition handled on the live LCD screen instead of through an optical viewfinder. We were impressed overall with the camera's performance, but still wonder if 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. Panasonic has not announced final pricing or availability yet, but we expect that it will hit the market before the end of the year for about $800. Our first impressions review based on our tests with a pre-production unit follows.
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The G1 is an undeniably attractive camera. Yes, it looks like an SLR seen through the wrong end of a telescope, but it has a distinctively curvaceous  physique and, with no viewfinder hump jutting up on top, a streamlined appearance. Digital SLR models haven't monkeyed around with the bold color schemes found in many compact camera lines today, but Panasonic basically decided to have it both ways with the G1: the camera comes in black, red and blue, but the red and blue are subtle, muted tones that even a serious photographer wouldn't be embarrassed to carry.

The G1 measures 4.88 x 3.29 x 1.78 inches (124 x 83.6 x 45.2 mm) and weighs 13.6 ounces (385 g) for the body alone. By comparison, even the smallest SLR out there, the Olympus E-420, measures 5.1 x 3.6 x 2.1 inches, though the weght's about the same at 13.4 oz., and the tale of the tape for the more typically sized Canon Digital Rebel XSi is 5.1 x 3.8 x 2.4 inches and 16.8 oz..


Front
Looking at the G1 from the front, the hand grips juts out on the left side, with a slim silver strip on the lower part and the camera's single control dial near the top. On the right side of the lens is the lens release button. Above this is an orange auto focus illuminator lamp.


The G1 is much smaller than a conventional SLR camera

Back
The G1 features a pivoting 3-inch LCD that folds out from the back of the camera and tilts up and down. Users can shoot with the LCD extended from the body of the camera, which offers a lot of freedom to shoot from odd angles, or leave the screen facing forward, snapped into an inset in the camera body, looking and working like a standard SLR display. When traveling, the LCD can be rotated 180 degrees and snapped back into the inset with the back facing forward (see the photo below), keeping the screen clean and protected.

Directly above the LCD is an electronic viewfinder. To the right of the viewfinder is a sensor that can automatically turn the LCD off and the viewfinder screen on as the camera approaches your eye. To the left of the viewfinder is a button that allows you to manually toggle between the displays if you prefer.

There's a dedicated playback button, with the traditional VCR-style play icon, to the right of the viewfinder and, further right still, the AE/AF lock button. A substantial rubber pad at the top right, with a raised triangular shape that provides a very secure hold whether gripping the camera horizontally or vertically.

The DISPLAY button toggles the LCD panel view through several formats (see LCD SCREEN below). Next down is a typical four-way controller, with a central MENU/SET button. The four-way buttons are labeled ISO (top), WB (right), Fn (bottom) and Focus Mode (left).

The button at the bottom right of the camera back activates depth of field preview in record mode and controls image deletion in playback.


The pivoting LCD can be extended or rotated 180 degrees for shooting,
or placed back-forward for traveling safety..

Sides
The left side of the G1 has a swiveling metal dongle for connecting the neck strap along with two covered compartments. The small top door opens to reveal a remote control connector, the larger one below it conceals micro USB and mini HDMI ports.


Behind Door #1? A remote control connector,
and Door #2 hides the IO ports..

The right side of the camera has the neck strap attachment dongle at the top, a door to the SD card slot compartment below that.


The SD card door slides back and flips out.

Top
The top left end of the G1 sports a dial used exclusively for choosing between single-shot auto focus, continuous auto focus and manual focus. Beside this is a switch that can be pushed forward to raise the spring-loaded built-in flash into place. The flash itself is mounted on arms attached on either side of a hot shoe.

The mode dial offers thirteen separate choices. beginning with Panasonic's iA (Intelligent Auto), which lets the camera choose a preset scene mode automatically. Next comes the well-known PASM family (Program, Aperture-Priority, Shutter-Priority and full Manual). CUST offers easy access to a customized set of shooting parameters preset by the user, while the brush-and-palette icon opens up My Color mode, which lets users interactively adjust color, brightness and saturation settings and preview the results live on-screen. SCN brings up the full range of preset custom scene modes, while the next five icons provide direct access to five of the most popular presets: moving clockwise, these are night portrait, macro, sports, landscape and portrait.

Beside the mode dial are two switches. The first selects single-shot, continuous shot, bracketing or self-timer modes. The On/Off switch with a power indicator light is below that.

Further to the right is the silver shutter, which offers nice feedback when pushed to the half-depressed or full shutter depth. The Q MENU button stands for Quick Menu, and opens up a sequence of settings options the user can change without wading through several levels of on-screen menus.


The top of the G1 is home to the mode dial and other controls

Bottom
The tripod socket is made of metal and centered under the lens. It seemed rugged enough for regular use. To the right is the battery compartment door, with a firm sliding latch that's unlikely to be opened accidentally.


On the bottom of the G1 is the battery cavity cover
and the tripod socket

 
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