Click Thumbnails to Enlarge

• 
• 
• 

Panasonic LUMIX GF1 first look

Product news

02 September 2009 05:00

The Panasonic LUMIX GF1 is a direct rival to the Olympus EP-1, utilising a 12.1Mp FourThirds sensor, along with interchangeable Micro FourThird lenses (though adapters are available).

Scroll down to watch our video!

We’ve been very lucky to have had the GF1 in the office for a week or so now and have been able to get out and shoot with it. Here are our initial thoughts on Panasonic’s new star.

Let’s start on the design, and though it’s not quite as retro as the EP-1, still looks very much the part, with a decent, high-end feel, that can trace its influence back to the LUMIX LX3. Pick it up, and it has a solid feel thanks to the aluminium body, though maybe a bit of a rubberised grip wouldn’t have gone a miss on the front to aid grip over a period of time.

If you’ve ever used a Panasonic LUMIX compact before, then you’ll feel right at home with the GF1. It can be as simple or as advanced as you want. There’s Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto (iA) mode to do all the hard work for you, or the more advanced creative controls like aperture and shutter priority, as well as full manual mode are at your fingertips. There’s also a brilliant Quick Menu to quickly toggle through an array of settings without having to dip into the main menu. Everything else is within easy reach and the AF, though it uses contrast-detect is pretty prompt at locking on. We tested the GF1 with the new 20mm f/1.7 pancake prime lens, and it suits the camera very well, allowing for brilliantly shallow depth-of-field shots.

To find out what we think of the image quality and to read our full in-depth review, take a look at the October issue of Digital Photo magazine out on September 10th, and Practical Photography’s first look of the GF1 out on September 9th in the October issue.