Panasonic Lumix GH2 First Impressions Review

LCD & Viewfinder

The screen of the GH2 is a 3-inch LCD with a resolution of about 461k pixels. That's a lot less than some (the Sony SLT-A55 has a LCD the same size with a 921k pixel resolution), but it seems enough to get a good preview and view of the image, although you will need to zoom in to see fine details. The LCD screen also rotates and tilts, so it can be used for shooting from above or below head height, or for self portraits. We did see some slight tearing in the image as we quickly panned around, but the live view image was mostly sharp and bright. This rotating screen also means that the screen can be rotated flat against the camera body, which protects it from knocks and scratches.

This screen also works as a touch screen, which makes things like picking a focus point somewhat easier. In our brief tests, we found that the touch screen worked well, and was responsive.

Perched atop the body of the GH2 is the viewfinder. This is an electronic viewfinder, with a resolution of around 1.5 million pixels. It certainly looks sharp and bright, although we did see some obvious tearing in the image as we quickly panned around. This wasn't a major issue, though; the viewfinder was clear and bright.

Flash

A small pop-up flash is built into the GH2. We weren't able to test the performance of this flash, but the one on the GH1 was pretty good, if a bit underpowered. A more power flash can also be attached to the standard hot shoe, which should work with any standard flash. Panasonic offers their own flash line that offer faster synch speeds and through the lens (TTL) metering.

Lens & Sensor

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

There are two ports on the camera body: a mini HDMI port for showing photos and videos on a HDTV and a multi-purpose port that provides analog video out and a USB connection. There is an additional power input under a separate rubber panel.

Battery

The GH2 gets its juice from a 7.2V, 1200 mAH battery that fits into a cavity on the bottom of the camera. This is a very slightly smaller capacity than the GH1 (1250 mAH), but this is unlikely to affect the battery life of the camera much. Panasonic estimates this at around 320 images when using the LCD and 340 when using the viewfinder.

Memory

Images and video are stored on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards that fit into a small cavity on the right side of the camera body. This should provide plenty of space for images when shooting RAW, as the biggest SDXC card currently available hold 64GB of data, but this new format can, in theory, hold up to 2TB of data.