Panasonic DMC-G1

Movie Mode (0.0)
The Lumix G1 doesn't offer a movie mode, which came as a surprise. Implementing video recording on a Micro Four Thirds camera shouldn't be any more technically demanding than incorporating the feature in a point-and-shoot, and it would be tough to find a point-and-shoot without movie mode at this stage. Panasonic says their next Micro Four Thirds camera, due sometime next year, will include movie mode.

Drive / Burst Mode (8.75)
There are two burst mode speed settings, High at 3 frames per second and Low at 2 frames per second. In our lab tests, we found the G1 came up a bit shy of the mark at about 2.7 fps maximum. When shooting JPEGS there is no hard limit to the number of burst mode photos to be taken, constrainedonly the capacity of the memory card. When shooting RAW, the maximum number of consecutive frames is 7.

The self-timer can be set to 2 or 10 seconds. You can also have the camera shoot three photos sequentially after a 10-second delay, a convenient choice when you're running like a lunatic to get into a group picture and would like a few shots to choose from for your trouble.

Playback Mode (4.75)
Pressing the DISPLAY button during playback toggles between four screen layouts. The initial view has no information overlay at all, the second adds settings information including shooting mode, image size, flash status, aperture and shutter speed, exposure compensation, ISO and white balance.

Playback zoom is available at five levels, from 2x to 16x, controlled by rotating the front dial right during playback. Rotate the dial toward the left and you bring up first a 12-photo thumbnail display, then a 30-photo version, and finally a calendar mode that lets you navigate based on when a photo was taken.

There is a barebones slide show utility. The only user-controlled setting is the playback duration for each slide, with no transition effects or musical accompaniment. The only additional feature here is the option to tag photos as Favorites, and then have the slide show include all photos on the memory card or only your Favorites.

Limited in-camera image editing utilities are provided, including the option to resize a photo, crop it, and convert 16:9 images to 3:2 or 4:3.  There's no provision for altering color, sharpness or other photo qualities within the camera, though, or even remove red-eye, and while serious photographers are going to use image editing software on a computer for those tasks, folks who print directly from their cameras or carry their memory cards to the photo counter for output will miss the option to give their pictures a good tweak before printing.

Custom Image Presets (10.00)
Scene modes are organized in six groups, each with a separate icon on the mode dial. We found this structure very effective after using the camera for just a day or two; much easier than thumbing through one complete list of all the modes with no apparent rhyme or reason, which is what we expect from your average point-and-shoot. Unlike most menu on this camera, the DISPLAY button brings up a useful text explanation of what each preset does.

 
In addition, My Color mode allows fine control of Color, Brightness and Saturation, in 11 steps, with results of each adjustment displayed on the screen.