Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2

Shooting Modes (13.00)

The regular shooting modes on the G2 are nearly identical to those offered on the G1, GH1, and GF1. It also carries over the same Custom Settings capability on those earlier models. Unfortunately, the G2 does not possess the secondary dial position for custom settings that the GF1 had. The G2 (like the G1 and GH1) has a single dial position for you custom settings.

Focus

Autofocus performance has been a key strength of the Lumix G series from the start, and this continues with the G2. The Live View autofocus on most digital SLRs is too slow to be practical when shooting moving subjects. Panasonic, though, has figured out how to make contrast detect autofocus nearly as fast as the standard SLR phase detect system, and certainly workable for all but the most sports-oriented photography. This is an area where the G2 has a clear advantage over the Olympus E-P1, which suffers from pokey autofocus speeds.

The continuous autofocus in video mode pioneered on the GH1 is also implemented on the G2. The autofocus system supports four modes, which may be selected via a dedicated dial on the top of the camera:

Beneath the Focus Modes dial is a secondary dial, which allows you to select between AF-S (autofocus single), AF-C (continuous), and MF (manual focus). AF-S focuses when you press the shutter halfway and maintains that setting, even if you move the camera. AF-C keeps refocusing as necessary while you hold the shutter down, even if your subject moves, or you move the camera. Yet another set of autofocus options are prefocus settings, available through the custom settings menu. Here you can choose from Q-AF (Quick Autofocus), which tries to autofocus whenever the camera is held still, and C-AF (Continuous Autofocus), which attempts to maintain focus at all times, even if the camera is moving and your finger is nowhere near the shutter button, with compatible lenses. Confusing terminology rules here: having both Autofocus Continuous and Continuous Autofocus as distinct choices isn’t playing fair.

There’s a bright red autofocus assist lamp on the front left, which does a nice job when the lights are low. However, the positioning isn’t perfect. It’s very easy to cover up the lamp with your right middle finger while shooting, especially if you have large hands. It’s also slightly off-center, so your subject won’t be evenly illuminated if s/he is in the center of the frame.

Panasonic continues with its odd variant to face detection, which it calls face recognition. You can register up to six faces in the camera’s built-in memory, complete with name, birthday and a priority rating if you choose. Then, when the feature is turned on during shooting, those registered faces will be given preferential treatment when focusing and setting exposure. The name can even be displayed on screen, for no apparent reason. The face recognition concept does have some interesting benefits, though. When taking group photos (at a school concert, for example), it will help make sure your little darling is in focus rather than some random kid. And during playback, it’s possible to view only images which include recognized faces.

Of course, there’s also a manual focus mode, chosen via secondary focus dial up top. By default, a zoomed-in view of the scene (up to 10x magnification) appears when you start focusing manually, returning to normal view when you depress the shutter button halfway. In certain circumstances (when shooting on a tripod, for example) we found this useful, though having the rest of the screen disappear while trying to manually focus on a moving subject is less practical. You can also set the camera to allow fine manual focus adjustment after the autofocus system has done its business.

Recording Options

The G2 offers a healthy range of options for picture quality and size. There are four aspect ratio options, each with three resolution settings. There are two compression settings for JPEG images: fine and standard. You can also shoot in RAW, either independently or with an attached fine/standard JPEG image.

Other Controls (1.00)

Audio Recording

The mic can be used to record 5 seconds of audio along with a photo. This is a useful feature when you want to make a note about the shooting situation without fumbling for a pen and paper. Audio annotations can also be added during image playback.