Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1

Shooting Modes

The GH1 offers both manual control options for picky shooters and an advanced auto mode that relies on scene recognition. And unlike the video-equipped SLRs we’ve tested, the GH1 allows you to maintain settings control while shooting movies, a major step in fulfilling the promise of the product category.

Panasonic offers an oddball twist on face recognition, allowing you to register a particular face (up to six of them, complete with the person’s name and birthday). Afterward, when shooting with face recognition turned on, the camera will prioritize focus and exposure for people it has memorized. It will even display the name on-screen if you like, offering a distinctive Terminator-like experience.

Focus

The autofocus system that made the G1 a breakthrough camera is alive and well in the GH1. Like the Live View mode provided with many SLRs today, Panasonic uses a contrast detect autofocus system, as opposed to the speedy phase detect system used when shooting through an SLR’s optical viewfinder. Unlike the SLRs we’ve tested, though, the Panasonic system is fast and reliable, able to keep up with fast action which would completely flummox other Live View focus systems. You can actually take the GH1 to a soccer game and shoot the action in Live View, something we’d never consider with an SLR Live View implementation.

The autofocus system offers four modes: 23-Area, Single-Area, Face Detection, and AF Tracking.

Focus can be set to single (acquires focus when the shutter button is pressed halfway and maintains that setting), continuous (attempts to adjust focus as long as the shutter button is halfway down) and manual, using a small dial at the top left. If you’re particularly worried about catching a shot,you can turn on the Pre AF setting in the Custom menu. With Pre AF set the camera doesn’t wait until you have the shutter button held down, but goes ahead and focuses whenever the camera is held still (in Quick AF mode) or at all times (Continuous AF). As you’d imagine, you take a battery life hit when this feature is turned on.

A small red aufocus assist lamp sits at the top right of the camera front. It proved more effective than we expected, given its small size. Panasonic gives the range as about 3.28 to 9.84 feet (1.0m to 3.0m) when using the kit lens at its widest setting.

When focusing manually, an enlarged focus assist display is available, though optional. It magnifies an area you select (the size of this area is also adjustable) by up to 10x, on the Live View screen or in the electronic viewfinder. There is no focus confirmation indicator in manual mode, a feature found on many higher-end SLRs. The camera can also be set to AF+MF, allowing fine manual adjustment using the focus ring after the autofocus system has set the focus automatically and the shutter button is halfway down.

Recording Options

The GH1 can shoot in four different aspect ratios, with three sizes for each. There are two JPEG compression levels, Fine and Standard. You can also shoot RAW files, either alone or combined with a Fine or Standard JPEG.

Other Controls (0.00)

Audio Recording

The stereo microphone located directly in front of the pop-up flash can be used to add 5 seconds of audio to a still image in addition to sound recording in video mode. This can be a useful way to record the location or other information about your photos without reaching for a pen and paper.