Decent noise scores for its class
Exceptional kit lens sharpness
Some really nice control features
Unimpressive color results
Introduction
The camera is highly accurate in both auto and custom modes, which is good, because there aren’t many presets.
White Balance (13.52)
White balance accuracy is a definite strength of the GF1: it outscored all the other cameras in our comparison group by a healthy margin. The automatic white balance system is the strong suit here, with extraordinarily accurate results under often-tricky fluorescent lighting, and very little of that orange tint that seems almost inevitable when shooting with auto white balance using standard household incandescent bulbs.
We test white balance both using the camera’s automatic setting and by taking a custom white balance reading under three different lighting conditions. Consistent illumination for test purposes is provided by an X-Rite Judge II lightbox. More on how we test color.
Automatic White Balance (15.33)
The overall results here are exceptionally accurate, with minimal color shift even under difficult lighting conditions. The daylight test shots produced colors that were slightly cool, but it’s very unlikely you’d notice the difference in an actual photograph. Incandescent lighting is the bane of every digital camera, consistently causing higher color error than other types of illumination. For the GF1, though, the shift toward warmer tones is barely noticeable. The automatic white balance system produced nearly flawless results under fluorescent lighting.
Custom White Balance (11.7)
Taking a custom white balance reading essentially eliminated the already modest warm shift under incandescent lighting, and didn’t really make much difference under fluorescent and daylight illumination, which were already pretty spot-on using the automatic white balance system.
The GF1 scored significantly better than the competition here. It’s interesting to note that the E-P1 also showed better-than-average performance in our white balance testing.
Shop for the Panasonic DMC-GF1
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