Review: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1

Note: This is a longer version of my GH1 review that was published in The National newspaper on August 2, 2009. There is also a shorter version in Shufflegazine’s September 2009 issue.

When I tried the Panasonic DMC-G1 late last year it struck me as a very nice and small camera, a good alternative for those who want a bit more options than a compact offers but don’t want to go up to a DSLR, which is often pretty bulky. With the GH1, expected to be released in the Middle East in September, Panasonic continues on the success of the G1 and adds HD video recording.

Basic specs

If you have the G1 from last year you basically have a G1H minus the video recording capabilities, more on that below. The GH1 is a 12.1 megapixel digital still and video camera designed for the Micro Four Thirds system. If we look at the design the GH1 is slightly smaller than Canon’s 500D, for example. This is due to the Micro Four Thirds standard, which allows for smaller body and lens designs because there is no glass prism like what you find in DSLRs. With a glass-prism DSLR you see exactly what’s going on when it happens, with the digital viewfinder in the GH1 there is a slight delay which makes me feel like I’d miss taking that perfect photo that happens in a fleeting moment, especially if you’re shooting a scene in which elements move around a lot. The viewfinder shows 60 frames per second at 800×600 pixel resolution. In addition there is a 3.0-inch LCD display on the back of the GH1, which folds out for easy tilt and swivel.

Panasonic has bundled the GH1 with a new kit lens. It’s a Panasonic G-Vario 14-140mm f4.5-5.8 ASPH. That’s the equivalent of 28-280mm in 35mm format. From my testing of the lens it seems very well built, as does the GH1 overall, and with a metal lens mount there’s all reason to believe Panasonic has put in a lot of effort into making their new camera and lens a good choice for quality-conscious customers. Besides the great zoom range the lens seem to perform well even in near-macro situations.

In my rather large hands the GH1 feels a bit too small and I struggle to get my fingers to fall on the right controls. But that’s a problem most photographers will not have and I suspect your hands would fit very nicely. Personally I like the size and feel of something like the Nikon D90 more than what the GH1 offers but there’s no denying the small size of the GH1 would appeal to me more when facing a decision about which camera to carry in situations where size and weight is of primary importance.

A quick look around the outside reveals two large dials on the top of the GH1. One to the left of the viewfinder for selecting focus mode (autofocus single, autofocus continuous, and manual focus) and one to the right for selecting shooting mode (video, still photography mode, etc.). On the right you also find on/off switch, selector for exposure mode (single, continuous, exposure compensation, and self timer). I appreciate that Panasonic chose to put a lot of basic functionality on dials like these. It very much depends on what you’re used to, of course, but typically I find as you get more advanced as a photographer you want control over your photography and controlling functions through physical dials is often quicker and easier than on a display.

On the top you find a built in flash, hot shoe, and microphones for stereo recording. Finally, on the back you find quick access to set the ISO speed, white balance, and all the other options available through the menu system on the LCD display.

One interesting detail of the GH1 is that you can run it off AC power. It has a dummy batter that fits into the camera and that connects to the charger. So you can run the camera off of AC power and the battery can charge at the same time. It’s not something most photographers will be interested in but for some it’s an interesting detail. Perhaps they included this knowing the short battery life of the GH1 is an issue. It seems to eat battery much faster than I feel comfortable with so a spare battery is almost a must-have for GH1 owners.

Still pictures

Although still image quality is really impressive, it would not be a reason for me to to pick the GH1 but more on that later. I would say it doesn’t quite go up to the quality levels offered by DSLRs such as Canon 500D or Nikon D5000 but there is not enough difference for most regular hobby photographers to notice. Shutter speeds can range between 60 seconds all the way up to 1/4000th of a second. For exposure there are Program, Manual, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, as well as Bulb (up to four minutes). Of course you’ll also find Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto mode, which basically turns the camera into an all automatic machine that makes all decisions about exposure itself. Yes, I’m generally a bit skeptic about such functionality but it works surprisingly well in my experience from the Lumix DMC-FX48 as well as the GH1.

For autofocus you can pick between 1-area, 23-area, autofocus tracking and Face Detection modes. That should be plenty for most photographers. Leaving it on the 23-area setting will be the best choice for most. For light metering there is spot, center-weighted, and multi-metering modes. The multi-metering mode is what most of you will want to use; it seems to do a correct decision about exposure in even pretty tricky situations but I really like the option of spot-metering in situations that call for it. With sensitivity from ISO100 up to 3200 there should be enough for most photography situations. Overall the GH1 focuses and meters very well. Sometimes it happens that the autofocus “hunts” a little bit to try to find the correct focus but it’s nothing out of the ordinary. Focusing is fast and silent.

Face Detection is a fun function of limited use in my opinion. Especially since you can only register up to six faces and there is no way of syncing the information with iPhoto ‘09. In Face Detection mode the camera tries to recognize faces. If it thinks its found one you can enter the person’s name and the camera will thereafter recognize that person’s face in future still pictures as well as video.

To help you take sharp photos Panasonic’s Mega Optical Image Stabilization, O.I.S., is pretty impressive in what it can do. I would say that depending on how steadily you can hold the camera and other factors in the particular situation you might get a gain of up to tw0 to three stops with O.I.S. enabled. As an example, that could be the difference between 1/30 (without O.I.S.) and 1/125 (with O.I.S.)

Video

Video is where the GH1 really shines. It can record 1080p HD video (1920×1080) at 24 fps or 720p HD video (1280×720) at 60 fps saved as motion JPG or AVCHD. In video mode it’s clearly more convenient to look at what you’re shooting at the LCD display rather than the viewfinder and the tilt and swivel functionality can really be helpful. The LCD display does suffer a bit of lag though and if you try to shoot fast moving action it may appear a bit blurry.

One other thing that impressed with the GH1 and video is that you have full control over the camera’s exposure while actually recording. That’s not something we’ve come to expect on recent video-capable DSLRs. Panasonic has gone all-out with continuous autofocus, face detection, intelligent exposure, O.I.S. as well as use of the scene selector. That’s impressive and something we’ll expect in all comparable digital cameras from now on.

The GH1 also has an HDMI output so you can show your photos and video directly on a TV. With all its video-shooting provess I can very well see the GH1 being a credible replacement for a dedicated camcorder for some videographers. As far as I can tell it’s the best all-in-one camera that we’ve seen so far.

Software

For Mac users the software for processing RAW photos from the GH1 might be an issue. It’s called SikyPix and it has a non-standard interface that is pretty tricky to get used to. I tried opening a RAW file from the GH1 in iPhoto 09, Aperture 2.1.3 and Photoshop CS3 with no success. These are basically the same things I pointed out in my review of Panasonic’s DMC-LX3 earlier this year.

The video imports into iMovie ‘09 without problems.

Conclusion

In conclusion, one of the main selling points of the Micro Four Third system is that it allows for smaller cameras and lenses. And without argument the Gh1 is smaller than some of the closest contenders like the Canon 500D and Nikon D5000. For some customers that small difference in size is going to tilt the scale in favor of the GH1, for many others the difference isn’t that big a deal. And although the Panasonic’s lenses seem very good and you have a wide selection of Four Thirds lenses to choose from by using a converter the choice is infinitely more extensive with regular DSLRs.

For me what really makes the GH1 worth looking at is the video mode, which beats almost anything else available right now. It’s not that the GH1 takes bad still pictures, in fact they’re really good, but in kills in video. So if you want a small camera that takes great still photos and you want to shoot a lot of HD video, the GH1 is a good choice. My only reservation is really the price; for the same price or even less you get a DSLR. Remember though that you get a seemingly great lens with the GH1, better in fact than some kit-lenses offered with DSLRs, and the GH1 can potentially replace a dedicated camcorder as well as a still camera since its video-recording ability is that good.

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