Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1

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By Leonard Goh, CNET Asia
Sep 22, 2009

When the Olympus E-P1 was unveiled in June, it took the imaging world by storm not simply because of its unique retro styling. Rather, it showed what the Micro Four Thirds system is capable of--decent image quality in a compact package. Olympus' other partner in the Micro Four Thirds consortium, Panasonic, then had two shooters using the new system, but they employed dSLR-like aesthetics which didn't go down well with us. But earlier this month, Panasonic announced the Lumix DMC-GF1, a Micro Four Thirds camera which seemingly fulfilled what we've been wishing for, and more.

The GF1 will be slugging it out with the E-P1 to capture the same market. Though it doesn't have Olympus' Art Filter feature which we liked, the Lumix snapper has a useful onboard flash and connector for an electronic viewfinder which the Olympus lack. So which will emerge victorious?

Design

At first glance, it's noticeable that the GF1's design is different from Panasonic's other Micro Four Thirds cameras. The shooter looks similar to its rival, the E-P1, in the sense that both drew references from classic rangefinder camera designs of the 1970s.

On its own, the GF1 is 35 percent smaller than the GH1, having no faux prism hump or large handgrip. Also, there is no onboard electronic viewfinder and this greatly reduced the footprint of the camera compared to its siblings. But when we compared the GF1 to the E-P1, we were hardpressed to find any differences except for a few millimeters.

The GF1's dimensions are quite similar to that of the E-P1's.
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However, we are impressed by Panasonic's engineering efforts to include a popup flash in the GF1 which the E-P1 lacks. The double-hinged implementation is manually activated and pops up when you press the flash button behind. Although the hinges look firm, we have concerns that we'll rip the flash off the camera if it were to hit the sides of a table. So our advice to users is to activate the flash only when needed, and when done, push it back into the camera.

Users who are accustomed to Lumix cameras' layout will find the button placement on the GF1 familiar. Unlike the E-P1 which has two command dials, the Lumix has only one. This is located on the top right corner and can be easily accessed using the thumb.

Top view of the GF1. Attached is the 20mm F1.7 pancake lens.
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Besides the usual options, the mode dial at the top of the GF1 has slots for two custom options. This function is absent on the Olympus and we are glad to see it on the Lumix because we could save commonly used settings and access them with a quick turn of the dial. Fitted below the mode dial is a switch for bracketing, self-timer and burst mode options. On several occasions, we turned them on when we adjusted the mode dial and had to check constantly to make sure we were in the right mode.

In summary, the handling of the GF1 was good. The compact weight and size didn't weigh us down even when we slung it on our shoulders and went around shooting pictures with it. The camera's build felt solid and though it didn't have a dSLR grip, we could still get a firm hold on it. The flash was good to have, even though we didn't use it much.

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