Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 review

Stills and video in one package. Too good to be true?

It’s not often that the photographic industry sees the launch of a new system but that’s what we got when Olympus and Panasonic announced the Micro Four Thirds system earlier this year. The original Four Thirds system, if you’ll remember, allowed for the design of DSLRs that were much smaller than those from other manufacturers – or rather it was supposed to. It could be argued that Olympus were getting there with diminutive cameras like the E420, but the reduction in size promised by Four Thirds never really came to be.

Undiscouraged, the designers went back to the drawing board and came up with Micro Four Thirds: the same sized sensor, but without a reflex mirror or pentaprism to get in the way. This means a lens mount, with the rear element of the lens sitting much closer to the sensor, and the renewed promise of smaller cameras.

Overnight, industry speculators, internet bloggers and members of the public all came up with back-of-envelope designs based on the new standard, and soon after we saw the first Micro Four Thirds offering from Panasonic: the G1. Not quite SLR, not quite compact, the G1 was more like a bridge camera on steroids. Fully featured, yet light enough to sling a bag. It did lack one feature though – a video mode. This was seen as odd, what with Canon and Nikon releasing DSLRs with HD capture built in. After all, here was a camera with no reflex mirror (the major hurdle to capturing video on a DSLR), but that could only shoot stills.

But fear not – video was in the pipeline all along in the form of the newly announced Lumix GH1 – essentially a G1 with video added and a few other tweaks like face recognition AF and a new kit lens. The inclusion of video has only added 5g to the weight, however, meaning the GH1 is still very small compared to video-enabled DSLRs like the Canon EOS 500D or the Nikon D5000. Visually it looks very much like a DSLR, with a faux-pentaprism that actually houses the built-in stereo microphone that captures sound during video capture. Panasonic are keen to point out that the GH1 is a ‘true hybrid’ meaning it should be able to shoot video as well as a camcorder and stills as well as a still camera. But is it really all things to all men?

It’s safe to say that the GH1 is a well-specified machine. In fact, this is a camera that not only has it all but does some things better than your average DSLR. Despite the plastic construction it feels solid in the hand, and it’s diminutive size doesn’t interfere with operations. All controls fall nicely under a thumb or finger.

The GH1’s top plate is dominated by a large mode dial on the right-hand side, which gives access to no fewer than 21 subject modes (four action modes, four close-up, five portrait, etc), a trio of custom modes, intelligent auto mode and the usual P, A, S, M exposure modes.

Around the bottom of this dial are separate controls for power on/off and drive mode/bracketing. The right-hand side of the top plate is also home to a Q Menu button, which brings up a short-cut list of frequently used commands, and a Film Mode control that allows a user to select picture styles such as Standard, Dynamic and Smooth. On the other side of the top plate is a control for activating the built-in flash (GN 10, m, ISO100), a button for toggling between the view screen and the electronic viewfinder and a dial to control focus mode.

Not having a mirror to let the user see directly through the lens, DSLR-style, the Lumix GH1 employs that most controversial of devices, the electronic viewfinder (EVF). It’s safe to say that the world is divided into two types of people: those that don’t mind an EVF, and those that think they are the worst thing to ever come out of Japan. The GH1’s EVF is, however, pretty damned fantastic, whichever way you look at it. Much of the improvement is down to Panasonic’s use of LCOS technology (that’s ‘liquid crystal on silicon’ for those not up with their semiconductor terminology), which is borrowed from the company’s top-end camcorders. The GH1’s viewfinder is also magnified to the point where you’d swear blind you were using a full-frame DSLR, not a Four Thirds camera.

Panasonic have also worked hard with autofocus on their G-series cameras. Without a reflex mirror the GH1 can’t use phase detection AF, like conventional DSLRs, but instead relies on contrast detection AF - the same system used in compacts and in some DSLRs operating in Live View mode. Contrast detection AF is usually much slower to operate than phase detection AF, but the boffins at Panasonic have made huge improvements, taking the speed of operation up to near DSLR levels. There is little delay when shooting and the system operates well even in low light. Face recognition is a new feature on the GH1 and one that works very well indeed. The camera will even remember a particular face and give it priority in subsequent pictures, as well as track an object around the frame all by itself as it moves about. These features operate in video mode as well as still mode.

The more you use the GH1, the more you believe Panasonic’s claim that this is a true hybrid camera. Accessing video is as easier as pressing the dedicated red button under your thumb, and the camera transfers over settings from whatever still mode you are in at the time – be that a scene mode or something more manual like aperture priority. Accessing the dedicated movie mode proper, via that exposure mode dial on top, you get full manual control over aperture, shutter speed and ISO, which is something the Canon EOS 5D MkII couldn’t do until a recent firmware update.

There is always a downside, of course. In terms of handling, we found the GH1 to be so feature-laden that, occasionally, we froze, not knowing how to access a particular feature. As we’ve said, this is a camera packed with features, but sometimes it’s not immediate obvious how to access all of them.

Still image quality from the GH1 is as good as any Four-Thirds DSLR to date, and leagues better than bridge cameras, to which it’s comparable in size. JPEG images show impressive amounts of detail at low ISO values, with Raw files turning in an even better performance. At higher ISO sensitivities just enough noise reduction is applied so that artifacts are reduced without image detail being sacrificed. There isn’t as much room for exposure error when shooting with the GH1, though, and highlights are easily clipped in contrasty conditions. We also noticed that the automatic white balance setting isn’t very accurate under artificial light when there is no actual white in the frame as a reference – something we’ve seen in Olympus Four-Thirds DSLRs too.

The GH1’s speed of operation is swift in almost every regard, with only a sluggish 3fps continuous shooting rate letting things down. Otherwise, the camera is very responsive to use, with controls reacting quickly. AF is fast too, and we like the way it can track subjects around the frame.

Video performance from the GH1 is every bit as good as a mid-level camcorder, and one of the best implementations of video capture in a still camera that we’ve seen. In full HD mode (1080p) the Lumix can capture footage at 24 frames per second for 12 minutes, and 60 frames per second for 18 minutes at 720p resolution. The built-in microphone isn’t bad either, and you can connect an external device through the plug in the side. Using video mode on the GH1 is actually a lot of fun. It’s easy to do, gives good results, and features like the swivel screen mean you can explore unusual shooting angles.

It’s worth mentioning the Lumix G Vario 14-45mmf/3.5-5.6 14-140mm kit lens that comes with the GH1, as it’s been newly developed by Panasonic with video in mind. The company claim the lenses AF and image stabilisation motor are virtually silent and so you won’t hear them on your recordings. There is a large degree of communication between lens and camera too, meaning problems like light fall-off and distortion are corrected electronically as a JPEG or Raw file is written.

When looking at the GH1 many will be surprised by it’s price: on the face of it, £1300 seems a lot of money for a camera like this, especially with Canon’s 500D and Nikon’s D5000 selling for £970 and £799 respectively, and small entry-level DSLRs coming in at less the £500. But remember this is good quality video camera too, and if you add a 18-200mm superzoom to the Canon and Nikon cameras then that brings them firmly up to the same price point as the Panasonic.