Panasonic DMC-G1

LCD Screen (8.75)
The 3-inch widescreen LCD provides 420,000-pixel resolution, not as impressive as the 920,000-pixel screens on some high-end Canons and Nikon, but still a handsome display, with respectable sharpness and well saturated colors. Display accuracy is excellent: what you see is in fact what you get, not some cropped or expanded version of the on-screen image. And we like the pivoting possibilities provided by the articulated hinge on the left side of the screen. Leave the screen with its back to the camera body and it works like a typical camera display. Pull it away from the body and turn it toward you, though, and you have an easily movable display that flips away from the camera up to 180 degrees horizontally and rotates up to 270 degrees vertically. We found holding the camera body with the right hand and the screen with the left was a great way to explore a wide range of potentially intriguing angles on a scene, from a dog's eye view of the world to an overhead shot of a crowd. And unlike most LCDs, which are subject to scratches and smearing when thrown into your bag, the G1 screen can be rotated so the screen faces the camera body and only the plastic back is exposed to the elements.
The display can be adjusted for both contrast and color saturation, each in seven-steps increments. There are also two mode settings for the LCD. When set to Auto Power, the camera adjusts screen brightness automatically based on the brightness of your surroundings. Set to Power LCD and the brightness jumps to torch-like intensity, a mode that holds it own even when shooting in bright sunlight (though screen glare continues to be an issue).

Lens Mount (4.5)
One reason for the smaller size of the Micro Four Thirds format is a lens mount that's 6 centimeters narrower than a traditional SLR, which in turns mean more compact lenses.The new mount also adds two extra electrical contact pins beyond the Micro Four Thirds standard, which is supposed to support unspecified future enhancements.


Compatibility with Four Thirds format lenses is a slightly complicated topic. There will be adapters to mount existing Four Thirds lenses on a Micro Four Thirds camera. And yes, as some of the product literature suggests, any Four Thirds lens should be compatible... to a point. Only a small subset of the total, though, support the contrast detection auto focus used by the G1 and future Micro Four Thirds cameras. The others will require manual focus, which is nobody's idea of a good time on a day-in, day-out basis. Bottom line: Micro Four Thirds buyers will not enjoy the breadth of available lenses available to those who stick with traditional digital SLRs.

In the meantime, only two lenses are available for the Lumix G, the 14-55mm kit lens and a 45-200mm telephoto, both with optical stabilization. The kit lens has a maximum f/3.5 aperture at its widest setting and f/5.6 at full telephoto, while the 45-200mm aperture range is f/4.0-5.6. The lens magnification factor -- the comparison between the physical dimensions of the lens on a digital camera and the equivalent lens on a 35mm camera -- is 1.5x for most SLRs, but in the Micro Four Thirds format the magnification factor is 2x, so the 14-45mm lens is equivalent to a 28-90mm lens on a 35mm camera. The 28mm setting makes shooting wide-angle photos, or squeezing all your friends into a group shot at relatively close range, more practical. However, the f3.5 maximum aperture is disappointing, since is means you'll have to shoot at a slower shutter speed and/or higher ISO setting than you would with a faster lens.

The Lumix G1 relies on image stabilization within the lens (like Canon and Nikon cameras), rather than in the camera itself (like Olympus and Sony). The image stabilization system can be set to one of three modes. Mode 1 is always when the camera is set to Record, Mode 2 turns on image stabilization only when the shutter button is pressed, and Mode 3 corrects only for up and down movements, for use when panning the camera horizontally. If you prefer to disable image stabilization entirely, flip the "MEGA O.I.S." switch on the lens barrel to Off.

In addition to the standard digital zoom function, which creates a magnified image mathematically and causes image quality deterioration, the G1 also offers what Panasonic calls "Extended Optical Zoom [EZ]." This feature works when shooting at lower than full-resolution settings, by using only a subsection of pixels around the center of the sensor, enabling as much as a 4x additional zoom beyond the lens maximum, with no apparent image quality degradation, though at lower resolution..