PANASONIC GF1

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 Review

Although the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 might not quite have the slick, retro design of its principle market competitor, the Olympus E-P1, the Lumix's design is excellent - it is perfectly designed to slip comfortably inside your pocket, with interchangeable lens option. The device might not be designed for serious photography at low levels of lighting or for action shooting, though, however these deficiencies are slightly more forgivable at the GF1's more modest price as compared to the more expensive GH1. It does, however, lack an optical viewfinder for continuous shooting, and this could weaken it slightly against a DSLR at a similar price.

The GF1's design is strong and sturdy and has a large grip, making it ideal for most types of users. It certainly comes complete with plenty of features as well and the controls appear to be user-friendly and easy to understand. There does not appear to be the need to do much menu navigating, also, which is good for newer users. One example of user-friendliness is that the switch for bracketing, burst shooting and self-timer is right around the mode dial, making it far easier to located than on many devices.

The device also affords the user plenty of flexibility, with an interesting 7-frame bracketing option. There is also a face recognition option where you can register up to six faces in the device's memory along with their names and birthdays. The person's name will also appear during playback, although you will not be able to use this information to search during playback.

In addition to these feature there are also two custom setting slots, and the Motion Picture program mode allows the user to adjust both aperture and exposure compensation. The navigation button of the device is also good at affording the user fast and direct access to their most often used shooting controls.

In terms of setting up a shot the user can also preview any changes made to the various settings in order to gauge the effects of the new settings in advance, which is a nice touch although it can be more difficult to make out depth-of-field changes. Video recording is decent and efficient along with the auto-focus and also supports continuous AF, an attractive feature for those looking to do more than simply take regular still shots. It has a very fast power-up-and-use speed of less than one second, which is very responsive indeed.

As far as picture review is concerned the device has a decent, large and vivid LCD which, unlike many compact cameras, is easy enough to view in direct sunlight. It also gives around 2.5 hours of video shooting which is actually better than a number of camcorders.

The picture quality delivered is decent, although there can be a few problems at larger resolutions. The device's movie quality isn't quite as up to scratch, though, with the 720p video looking rather unimpressive when up scaled for a larger display.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 Pros

• Good picture quality
• Fast, user-friendly navigation
• Fast auto-focus

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 Cons

• Not great at low-lighting
• Fairly poor up scaled motion images