A comparatively large, low-noise sensor, a small housing, interchangeable lenses – Panasonic brings the GF1 the third camera for the Micro Four Thirds system. The core idea of the Micro-Four-Thirds system is the renouncement of the mirror and the reflex seeker. This allows for smaller housings than conventional SLRs. Instead, the monitor serves as a viewfinder. New is the housing form, because like Olympus with the Pen, Panasonic also relies on the GF1 on a camera housing, which resembles the compacts, in order to gain newcomers.
Particularly convincing is the GF1 with the Pancake lens - the 20 mm wide-angle fixed focal length - with which it costs 900 euros in the set. It is a perfect match for a compact, and the astonishment of the uninitiated is guaranteed when the photographer suddenly changes the lens - with a pressure on the metal front button.
As a partner, the GF1 not only tolerates the lenses of the Micro Four Thirds standard, but also thanks to various adapters also Four Thirds or Leica M lenses. The fact that the autofocus works in the film is a rare good. Manual focusing is done with the Pancake by adjusting a non-stop lens ring until the magnifying glass has a sharp image on the monitor, which is high resolution at 153,000 pixels.
Here, in the omission of the elaborate prism-viewfinder including mirror housing, the GF1 saves. This has less effect on the price because the camera is more expensive than a beginner SLR. Rather, only the compact design can be achieved. 285 g without a lens - this is a reduction of more than a third even compared to the compact siblings G1 and GH1. If you do not want to do without the viewfinder, you have an optional electronic flip-flop available to the flash.
It grasps the image information of the display via a socket, which otherwise conceals a plastic cap. This solution is expensive and cumbersome, especially since the loose plastic cover is quickly lost, and the digital viewfinder is not a substitute for a genuine optical mirror detector in the sharpness finding. On the other hand, this accessory helps with dazzling sun when the monitor is no longer suitable for a correct determination of the area.
Simple operating concept
The operating concept and range of functions are the same as those of the sister models G1 and above all GH1. The most important functions like sensitivity or white balance have their own buttons, just like switching to manual focus or exposure lock. The Quick menu for setting all the relevant parameters shown in the display is as follows: Rotating the control dial or pressing the control knob makes the various fades, such as time, aperture, focus type, resolution, even the grating fade-in, appear successively yellow With the setting options. Select the desired one - and done. Therefore, the settings menu does not have to be opened more often than for the basic settings.
The camera is one-handed and comfortable to hold, as long as no heavy zooms are screwed, which by higher headlights point out that the handgrip for the right hand is quite small. On the other hand, with such lenses, the left hand will support the lens, as is also the case with SLRs. The long battery life and the camera's ability to memorize the most recent settings after the battery change is practical.
Fast focusing is not one of their virtues, but with green frames it shows which areas it has just set. As a practical helper there is the use screen, which before the shot quite reliably indicates the actual exposure and approximate depth of field. To do this - completely new - a function that makes the effect of fast shutter speeds predictable on the display. A kind of stroboscope indicates the probable effect. In the playback mode, the camera keeps the adjusted magnification scale - when Panasonic is switched on again. This allows the sharpness of shot images to be quickly checked. As with compacts, there are a lot of creative programs that are only partially useful for serious photography.
Whether the recording gradation for black-and-white photographs or color stitches are already determined depends on whether the user wants to save raw images and to edit them individually. It is only the new depth-of-focus automatic, with which the camera focuses a small, adjustable picture area and tries to image the surrounding areas as blurred as possible. On the push of a button a lightning bolt from the housing pops, the distance to the lens quite good protection against red eyes Is provided. With guide number 6, this is not very potent, but compared to the completely flashy Olympus Pen, Panasonic is an advantage. A shortcoming: The lightning correction is an option in the selection for the freely assignable function key and not buried in the menu
Picture and sound
Unlike the GH1, there is only monoton recording and no microphone jack, but an HDMI connection for a very elegant multi-vision show including music under painting and video scenes. At ISO 100, the limit resolution is nearly 1300 line pairs - a good value. In addition, the resolution down to ISO 1600 drops only slightly. On the other hand, the noise is already quite high at ISO 100 with VN 1.2 for a SLR and rises up to ISO 1600 to VN 3.6 - compared to compacts, the Micro Four Thirds sensor is large but slightly smaller than An APS-C sensor. Similarly, the value for the texture loss is somewhat high, ie fine details are missing in the image.
The shutter lag is 0.63 sec. This is quite long for a SLR, and the contrast autofocus often seeks its sharpness even before the shutter release. But he can hardly be left alone in the dark.
Conclusion: The Panasonic can not convince in all points, but overall. Compared to SLRs with APS-C format sensor, the noise is slightly higher and the detail drawing slightly worse. Compared to compacts the Panasonic scores with a clearly superior picture quality and interchangeable lenses. In addition, the easy handling and the good equipment, only the autofocus could be faster. For Panasonic, the Panasonic is indeed an attractive entry into the SLR photography. For video, full HD quality and a microphone port would be desirable, except that only lenses with built-in stabilizer should be used for shooting.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1
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