Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 Reviews

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 ($899, with lens) is a compact interchangeable lens camera that uses the Micro Four Thirds standard. When Panasonic introduced their first Micro Four Thirds camera, the DMC-G1, many folks (myself included) were disappointed that it was fairly large, and not the compact model we hoped the MFT format would deliver. Olympus upped the ante with their E-P1, which has a compact, retro-styled body that is a lot closer to what many people expected in the first place. Unfortunately, that camera was plagued by slow autofocus, no built-in flash, and the lack of a viewfinder (with the exception of the one mated to the 17 mm pancake lens).

Panasonic’s new DMC-GF1 takes everything that made the DMC-G1 (and the GH1, for that matter) so appealing, and puts it into a more compact body. It’s not quite as stylish as the Olympus E-P1, but it offers faster autofocus, a pop-up flash, and support for an optional electronic viewfinder which that camera lacks. Other features include a high resolution 3-inch LCD, full manual controls, an Intelligent Auto mode, and an HD movie mode.

Since a lot of people are going to be comparing the GF1 and the E-P1, I’ve created this chart to illustrate the differences:

Is the DMC-GF1 the interchangeable lens camera everyone’s been waiting for? And how does it compare to the Olympus E-P1? Keep reading and I’ll tell you!

What’s in the Box?

The DMC-GF1 will be available in two kits, both of which will cost $899. The first includes a new 20 mm pancake lens, while the second has the same 14 – 45 mm Micro Four Thirds lens that was introduced with the DMC-G1. Here’s what you’ll find in the box for each of those kits:

• The 12.1 effective Megapixel Lumix DMC-GF1 camera body
• F1.7, 20 mm Lumix G lens [20 mm kit only]
• F3.5-5.6, 14 – 45 mm Lumix G lens w/MEGA OIS [14-45 kit only]
• DMW-BLB13 lithium-ion battery
• Battery charger / AC adapter
• Body cap
• Lens hood [14-45 kit only]
• Lens bag
• Shoulder strap
• USB cable
• A/V cable
• CD-ROM featuring SilkyPix Developer Studio and PhotoFunStudio HD 4.0
• 202 page camera manual (printed)

The GF1′s two kit lenses

There are two possible lenses that you’ll find in the box with your GF1. The first is a brand new F1.7, 20 mm (unstabilized) pancake lens that is a perfect fit for the GF1′s compact body. The other lens is the same F3.5-5.6, 14 – 45 mm IS model that was introduced with the DMC-G1. I really have no complaints about either of these lenses after using them for a few weeks. Sure, I wish the 14-45 was as bit smaller (not to mention faster), but it does the job. The 20 mm lens is especially nice due to that F1.7 maximum aperture.

If you want to use other lenses, you have a variety of choices. First, there are other Micro Four Thirds lenses available, from both Panasonic and Olympus. They include:

• Panasonic F2.8, 45 mm Leica DG macro w/ MEGA OIS
• Panasonic F4.0, 7 – 14 mm Lumix G
• Panasonic F4.0-5.8, 14 – 140 mm Lumix G HD w/ MEGA OIS (designed for movie recording)
• Panasonic F4.0-5.6, 45 – 200 mm Lumix G w/ MEGA OIS
• Olympus F2.7, 17 mm M. Zuiko Digital
• Olympus F3.5-5.6, 14 – 42 mm M. Zuiko Digital

But wait, there are more lenses you can use, if you buy the required adapter. You can use regular Four Thirds lenses with the DMW-MA1 adapter, though only fairly recent lenses will support autofocus. For the more old school users out there, you can pick up the DMW-MA2M and DMW-MA3R adapters, which let you attach Leica M- and R-mount lenses, respectively. Naturally, the Leica lenses will be manual focus only.

Whichever lens you end up attaching to the DMC-GF1, there will be a 2X focal length conversion ratio. So, the 20 mm pancake lens has a field-of-view of 40 mm.

As with all D-SLRs and interchangeable lens cameras, there’s no built-in memory or a bundled memory card included with the GF1. Thus, you’ll need to pick up an SD or SDHC memory card right away, unless you happen to have one already. I’d recommend starting with a a 2GB or 4GB card with the GF1, and it’s definitely worth spending a little extra for a high speed model (Class 6 is good), especially if you’re planning on taking HD movies.

The DMC-GF1 uses the same DMW-BLB13 lithium-ion battery as the G1 and GH1. This battery packs an impressive 9.0 Wh of energy into its boxy shell. Do note that Panasonic cameras now require the use of their own batteries — third party models may not work. Here’s how that translates into battery life:

Why are there two different battery life numbers for the GF1? Simply put, it takes more juice to power an IS lens (like the 14-45) than one without it (like the 20 mm). It’s hard to compare the GH1 with regular D-SLRs when it comes to battery life, as the manufacturers typically don’t release numbers for live view-only usage. For the cameras I do have info for, the GF1 comes out on top — regardless of your choice of lens.

I should point out a few things about the proprietary batteries used by the GH1 and every other camera on the above list. For one, they’re expensive — you’ll spend at least $55 for a spare battery. Also, should your rechargeable battery run out of juice, you can’t use something off-the-shelf to get you through the day.

When it’s time to charge the DMW-BLB13, just pop it into the included charger. It takes around 155 minutes for a typical charge. Unlike most Panasonic battery chargers, this one doesn’t plug right into the wall — you must use a power cable. The charger can also be used as an AC adapter, though you’ll need to buy the DC coupler part first (see below for more on that).

The GF1 with its optional electronic viewfinder
Image courtesy of Panasonic

The Lumix DMC-GF1 has plenty of accessories available, with the most notable being the electronic viewfinder pictured above (Panasonic calls it a Live View Finder). This viewfinder fits onto the hot shoe and connects via a special port that you’ll see later in this article. This viewfinder isn’t nearly as nice as the one on the DMC-G1/GH1, with a pixel count of 202,000 pixels. It displays 100% of the frame, and has a magnification of 1.04X (0.52X in 35mm terms). The EVF can tilt up 90 degrees, so you can use it at a variety of angles. I did not get a chance to test the viewfinder in action, unfortunately.

Here’s the full list of accessories that you can pick up for the GF1:

Not too shabby!

PhotoFunStudio 4.0 HD in Windows

Panasonic includes two software products with the Lumix DMC-GF1. First up is PhotoFunStudio 4.0 HD, which is for Windows only. This software has the usual image viewing and organizing features, and I especially like you can filter photos by things like scene mode or if faces are recognized. You can also drill-down by date, as you can see above. One thing I don’t care for about PhotoFunStudio is its reliance on "wizards" to do everything, which just adds unnecessary steps.

Editing photos in PhotoFunStudio

The still image editing tools haven’t changed a whole lot since the last version of PhotoFunStudio. Here you can adjust things like brightness, contrast, color, and sharpness. Images can be changed to sepia, black and white, or "negative color", and redeye can be removed with the click of your mouse. There’s also an auto enhancement feature, for those who want to keep things simple.

While PhotoFunStudio can view RAW images, it cannot edit them or export them to other formats.

SilkyPix in Mac OS X

For editing RAW images, Panasonic supplies you with SilkyPix Developer Studio 3.0 SE. While its interface is better than earlier versions, SilkyPix is still fairly clunky and hard to use. That doesn’t mean that the software isn’t capable — quite the opposite, in fact. SilkyPix is a powerful RAW editor, allowing you to adjust everything from exposure to white balance (with fine-tuning) to the tone curve. You can also adjust noise reduction, lens distortion, chromatic aberration, and much, much more.

If you’ve got Adobe Photoshop CS4 (or a recent version of PS Elements), you can also use the Camera Raw plug-in to work with the GF1′s RAW files.

What is this RAW stuff all about? RAW images contain unprocessed data from the GF1′s Live MOS sensor. In order to do anything with this information, you must first process it on your Mac or PC, as shown above. When you do that, you can adjust white balance, exposure, and more, without reducing the quality of the image. It’s as if you get to take the photo again. Do note that RAW files are larger than JPEGs, which take up more space on your memory card, and can also reduce camera performance in certain situations (like shooting in burst mode).

Trimming a video in PhotoFunStudio

Jumping to the video side of things, there are a couple of basic editing tools available in PhotoFunStudio. You can trim unwanted footage off the beginning or end of a clip (though the interface hurts my brain), burn your movies to a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray disc, or upload a video to YouTube. There aren’t any serious editing tools here, and there’s no way to convert AVCHD Lite files to another format.

So what about working with movies using other (non-Panasonic) software? I’ll break this section down into three parts: viewing, transcoding, and editing. This is specifically for AVCHD Lite files, not Motion JPEG, as those are easy to view on your computer.

Viewing AVCHD Lite movies

The first thing to know is where the AVCHD files are kept. On your memory card, they’re the .MTS files in /PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM. They’ll have very descriptive names, such as 00001.MTS.

If you’re on a Mac and want to just watch your AVCHD Lite files, I recommend VLC (free) or Toast Titanium 10 (not free). QuickTime Player cannot open the MTS files, but you can transcode them into another format to do that (see below).

Those of you already running Windows 7 can view AVCHD movies in Windows Media Player, without having to install any additional software. If you’re running an older version of Windows, you may want to try VLC or K-Lite Codec Pack.

Transcoding (converting) AVCHD Lite movies

Life gets a lot easier when you convert AVCHD Lite movies to more common formats. Some editing suites (mentioned below) do this automatically, but let’s just say that you want to convert an MTS file to MP4 or WMV format.

My personal favorite for the Mac is Handbrake. It’s not pretty, but it’s free, fairly quick, and managed to maintain the faux 60 fps frame rate of the original movies. Other options include Toast Titanium 10 (which can also burn movies to DVD or Blu-ray disc), VLC, and VoltaicHD, though the frame rate of the resulting movie was always 30 fps (not that it seems to make a difference).

Windows users can also use Handbrake, VLC, VoltaicHD, Free AVCHD Converter, or CoreAVC. I didn’t test all those out to see what the resulting frame rate was.

Editing AVCHD Lite videos

AVCHD Lite is not an editor-friendly codec. There aren’t any native editors on the Mac side, though things are more promising for Windows users. If you’ve got a Mac, you can import the videos using the latest version of iMovie 09. The software transcodes the MTS files to Apple Intermediate Codec, so you’re not natively editing AVCHD Lite. Still, it works just fine. Final Cut Pro doesn’t support native AVCHD editing either, but it’s a much more powerful set of tools, if you can figure it out.

Some modern editing suites for Windows actually work natively with the AVCHD Lite files. Two products that I know work are Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Pinnacle Studio 12 Plus/Ultimate, and Sony Vegas. There are probably others, and there’s a list on Wikipedia of software that supports AVCHD (the regular version, at least).

I’m spent — that’s enough about software for now!

You’ll find a thick, detailed manual included in the box with the GF1. The good news is that you should find the answer to any question you may have about the camera inside its pages. The bad news is that finding that information requires digging through confusing tables and lots of fine print. Documentation for the bundled software is installed onto your computer.

Look and Feel

The DMC-GF1 is a compact interchangeable lens camera similar in size to the Olympus E-P1. Both of these are rangefinder-style cameras based on the Micro Four Thirds standard. The GF1 doesn’t have the cool retro-styling of the E-P1, instead taking a more conservative approach (it looks like a big DMC-LX3).

The E-P1 and GF1 side-by-side, fairly close to scale
Photos courtesy of Olympus and Panasonic

The GF1 is made almost completely of metal on the outside, and I assume the inner frame is mostly composite (AKA plastic). The body is well built in most respects, though the pop-up flash seems a little flimsy, along with the door over the battery/memory card compartment. Rangefinder-style cameras don’t usually have much in the line of a right hand grip, and that’s the case with the GF1. While you can hold it with one hand, I felt a heck of a lot more comfortable using both. Controls are logically placed, and if you’ve used one of Panasonic’s point-and-shoot cameras, you’ll feel right at home with the DMC-GF1.

Now, here’s a look at how the DMC-GF1 compares to other compact interchangeable lens cameras in terms of size and weight:

The DMC-GH1 is tied with the Olympus E-P1 as the smallest interchangeable lens camera in the world. It’s the lightest of the group, too.

How does it compare to a full-featured compact camera? Here’s a table comparing various configurations of the GF1 and the E-P1 with the new Canon PowerShot G11:

As you can see, the GF1 and E-P1 are larger than the PowerShot G11, but not by a whole lot. Obviously, your choice of lens will determine just how portable the DMC-GF1 is.

Alright, I’ve had enough tables for right now — let’s begin our tour of the Lumix DMC-GF1 now, shall we?

Here you can see the front of the GF1, with the lens removed. That shiny thing at the center of the picture is the camera’s 12.1 Megapixel Live MOS sensor, which I believe is the same one as in the DMC-G1. While this Four Thirds sensor is larger than those on compact cameras, it’s still smaller than the APS-C-sized sensors used on conventional D-SLRs. The GF1 does not have sensor-shift image stabilization, unlike its Olympus counterpart. You’ll have to rely on in-lens stabilization for shake reduction instead.

As you might imagine, an exposed sensor on an interchangeable lens camera is just begging for dust. Thankfully, Panasonic uses the Supersonic Wave Filter (originally developed by Olympus) to literally shake the dust off. I’ve used four Micro Four Thirds cameras now, and haven’t seen a spec of dust.

That’s a Micro Four Thirds lens mount that surrounds the sensor. Straight out of the box you can use any of the eight MFT lenses that are currently available. If you want to use classic Four Thirds, Leica, and even Olympus OM lenses, then you’ll need to pick up the appropriate adapter. Whichever lens you attach, there will be a 2X focal length conversion ratio, so (for example) that 14 – 45 mm kit lens has a field of view of 28 – 90 mm.

To release an attached lens, simply press the silver button located to the right of the mount. I learned to dislike the size and placement of this button after spending three weeks with the camera on vacation. It’s easy to bump accidentally, which can bump you out of the menus or playback mode, or produce a lens error.

Comments above updated on 11/1/09

Directly above the lens mount is the GF1′s microphone. Unlike on its movie-centric big brother (the DMC-GH1), the GF1 records monaural sound only.

At the top right of the photo you can see the feature that really differentiates the GF1 from the Olympus E-P1: a built-in flash. This flash, which is released manually, isn’t terribly powerful, with a guide number of 6 meters at ISO 100 (about half that of a traditional D-SLR). Still, it’s enough for using as a fill flash, and if you need more light, the hot shoe is right next door.

The last item of note on the from of the DMC-GF1 is its AF-assist lamp. located just below the Lumix logo. The camera uses the lamp as a focusing aid in low light situations, and has a maximum range of 3.0 – 3.5 meters, depending on which lens you’re using. The AF-assist lamp also serves as visual countdown for the self-timer.

The main event on the back of the camera is the GF1′s 3-inch LCD display, which has 460,000 pixels. Not surprisingly, the screen is tack sharp, and everything moves at a fluid 60 frames/second. I found outdoor visibility to be very good (especially with Auto Power LCD turned on), and in low light the display brightens up nicely, so you can still see your subject.

Since Micro Four Thirds cameras don’t have a built-in optical viewfinder, you’ll be composing all your shots using live view. On the GF1 you can use the LCD, or the optional electronic viewfinder. In live view you’ll see 100% of the frame, get a real-time preview of exposure, white balance, and depth-of-field. There’s a 23-point autofocus system, with center-point and face detection options, as well.

That histogram can go anywhere in the frame that you’d like
You can even create your own grid lines

What else can you do in live view mode? You can have a live histogram, even selecting where it goes on the screen. There are three choices of grid lines that can be displayed, one of which is customizable (see above right). The icons that are at the top and bottom of the screen are actually menu shortcuts, which you can access by pressing the Quick Menu button on the top of the camera (more on that in a second).

Frame enlargement in manual focus mode

If you’re manually focusing, the center of the image can be enlarged by 5X or 10X. When you’re zoomed in, you can move around the frame by using the four-way controller.

There’s one other live view-related thing I want to show you before we move on. If you remove the cover over the hot shoe, you’ll find this:

That port is where the optional electronic viewfinder I told you about earlier plugs in. Just slide it onto the hot shoe and you’re set. For those wondering how you switch between the LCD and the EVF, there’s a button on the side of the EVF for just that purpose.

Getting back to the tour now: just to the right of the Micro Four Thirds logo is the release for the pop-up flash. Continuing to the right, we find the AF/AE lock button, with the command dial next to that. You’ll use this dial to adjust things like shutter speed, aperture, and exposure compensation, or just quickly navigate through the menu system.

Now let’s talk about the buttons to the right of the LCD. Starting at the top, we have the AF/MF button. This lets you select from single, continuous, and manual focus. As you saw earlier, you can enlarge the frame in manual focus mode, though I really wish there was some kind of focus distance guide on the LCD.

Quick Menu

The next button down (Q. Menu) opens up — get ready — the Quick Menu! Here you can quickly adjust some of the most commonly accessed settings on the DMC-GF1. They include:

• Flash setting
• Film mode
• Image stabilizer
• Movie quality
• Aspect ratio/picture size
• Still quality
• LCD mode
• Intelligent Exposure
• Metering mode
• Exposure compensation (-3EV to +3EV, in 1/3EV increments)
• ISO sensitivity (Auto, Intelligent ISO, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200)
• White balance
• Remaining display (Shots, recording time)

The only options that are exclusive to that menu are exposure compensation and ISO sensitivity. There are two Auto ISO modes available: regular and Intelligent. The difference between the two is that Intelligent ISO takes subject motion into account when it’s choosing how high to boost the sensitivity. The more movement, the faster the shutter speed you’ll need, and so the ISO will go higher. You can set the maximum ISO setting that the camera will use in the menu.

Next up is the four-way controller, which you’ll use for navigating the menu system and reviewing photos that you’ve taken. These buttons also control the following:

• Up – ISO (Auto, Intelligent ISO, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200) – described above
• Down – Function – by default this lets you select the Film Mode; I’ll tell you what else this button can be defined to handle later in this review
• Left – AF mode (Face detection, AF tracking, 23-area, 1-area)
• Right – White balance (Auto, sunlight, cloudy, shade, incandescent, flash, preset 1/2, color temperature)
• Center – Menu / Set

The camera locked onto five of the six faces in our test scene. Sorry about the lousy quality of these captures
The camera can learn to recognize certain faces, and give them focus priority.

There are four focus modes to choose from on the GF1. In 1-area mode, not only can you select the area in the frame on which to focus, you can also select from four focus point sizes, from tiny to huge. Next we have 23-point AF, which is good for everyday shooting. For people pictures, you can select from face detection or AF tracking mode. The face detection feature can find up to 15 faces in the frame, making sure they’re properly focused and exposed. If you’ve got "face recognition" turned on, the camera will identify any faces it has learned, and give them focus priority. Both of these features worked very well in my time with the GF1. The AF tracking option allows you to "lock on" to a subject, and the camera will follow that person as they move around the frame.

White balance fine-tuning / bracketing screen

The GF1 offers several white balance options, including most of the usual presets (strangely, there’s no fluorescent option), two custom spots (for which you can use a white or gray card as a reference), and the ability to set the WB by color temperature (from 2500K to 10000K). If that’s still not enough, you can fine-tune white balance in the amber/blue and green/magenta directions, bracket for it, or both.

The final buttons on the back of the DMC-GF1 are Display and Preview/Delete Photo. The Display button does just as it sounds — it toggles the information shown on the LCD. The Preview button is for a live look at depth-of-field or, if you press the Display button also, simulating the effect of the current shutter speed.

Right at the center of the photo of the top of the GF1 is its hot shoe, with the microphone right above it. The GF1 works best with the three external flashes that I described in the accessory section, as they’ll sync properly with the camera’s metering system. If you’re not using one of those flashes, you may have to operate the camera and/or the flash in manual mode. The GF1 can sync as fast as 1/160 sec with an external flash.

Next up is the camera’s mode dial, which has the "drive" switch beneath it (which I found quite easy to bump accidentally). I’ll get to the drive options in a minute, but first, here’s what you’ll find on that mode dial:

The DMC-GF1 has a nice mix of automatic and manual controls. If you want a point-and-shoot experience, then look no further than the Intelligent Auto mode. This mode automatically takes advantage of a number of Panasonic features, including image stabilization, Intelligent ISO, Intelligent Scene Detection, face detection, subject tracking, and Intelligent Exposure. In short, the camera will pick a scene mode for you, detect any faces, give you the option to track one of them, and ensure that the shadow detail is up to snuff. Heck, the camera can even show the names of people it recognizes in the scene, assuming you’ve already registered them with the Face Recognition system.

Scene menu

If you want to select a scene mode on your own, that’s not a problem either. The GF1 has over a dozen scene modes, with the most notable being the new peripheral defocus option. If you want to take a photo where your subject is sharp but the background is blurred, but don’t know how, that’s the scene mode you want to use. Just select the area in the frame that you want in-focus, and the camera does the rest.

The My Color mode has changed a bit since the G1 and GH1: it now has Olympus-style Art Filters. Choose from expressive, retro, pure, elegant, sepia, monochrome, dynamic art, silhouette, and custom. The custom option lets you adjust the color, saturation, and brightness using simple slider controls.

This guide shows you the relationship between shutter speed and aperture

For the three shooting modes I just described, don’t expect much in the line of menu options or exposure control. For a point-and-shoot experience with full menu access, you’ll want to use Program mode. There you can use the command dial to activate the Program Shift feature, which lets you choose from various shutter speed/aperture combinations. The camera does a good job of showing you the relationship between the two on the LCD (see above). If you want full manual controls, the GF1 has those too, with shutter and aperture priority, full manual, and bulb modes. You can also save up to four sets of camera settings via the two "C" spots on the mode dial.

As I mentioned, under the mode dial is the switch for selecting the drive mode. You’ve got single-shot, continuous, auto bracketing, and self-timer. Let’s start with the continuous shooting options. Here’s what you can expect from the GF1 for both its low and high speed burst modes:

The DMC-GF1 is certainly not going to win any awards for its continuous shooting performance. It doesn’t have a ton of buffer memory, so any bursts involving RAW images end quickly (well, they don’t end, they just slow down dramatically). If you’re shooting JPEGs, however, it can keep firing away until your memory card fills up. The frame rates I experienced were lower than the 2 and 3 fps numbers advertised by Panasonic. Oh, the LCD keeps up nicely with the action, so you should be able to track a moving subject.

The auto bracketing feature takes anywhere from three to seven shots in a row, each with a different exposure. This is a great way to ensure proper exposure every time, if you don’t mind all the extra photos on your memory card!

The last three items on the top of the Lumix DMC-GF1 are the power switch, shutter release button, and dedicated movie recording button. You can take a movie in any mode by pressing the red button to start recording, and again to stop. In the actual movie mode, you’ll use the shutter release button to do that.

On this side of the GF1 you can see the image stabilization on/off switch on the 14 – 45 mm kit lens, as well as the camera’s I/O ports. These ports, kept under a plastic cover, include:

• Wired remote input
• HDMI
• USB + A/V output

If you have the camera hooked up to a modern Panasonic television via HDMI, you can control it from your remote control — perfect for slideshows.

The only thing to point out here is the little door through which you’ll pass the power cable of the optional AC adapter.

On the bottom of the DMC-GF1 is a metal tripod mount, and the battery/memory card compartment. The door that covers this compartment is of average quality. The question of whether you’ll be able to access the memory card while the camera is on a tripod depends on your mount — it doesn’t work for me.

The trusty DMW-BLB13 lithium-ion battery can be seen on the right.

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