Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"The market for a camera like the GF1 falls into three broad groups; those wanting a better quality alternative to a high end compact (such as the Canon G10), those wanting a more portable alternative to an entry-level SLR and those bitten so hard by the camera bug that they want something to fill the gap between their compact and SLR systems. Of the three it's the latter who will be most satisfied by the GF1, since they understand completely the compromises faced by anyone in the other two groups; the GF1 is larger and more expensive than any compact, and it can't match the speed or feature set of a similarly-priced SLR."

In typical fashion, dpreview.com does an exhaustive review - but the end result of a "Highly Recommended" and a fair amount of praise about how fun this camera is to use tells you that Panasonic has hit a home run with this camera...or at least a third-base hit, because there are some minor quirks related to JPEG processing. I for one really like the idea of a camera this small that packs the photographic power of a DSLR. I might have to check one of these out...

"When Panasonic showed us the first Micro Four Thirds camera, the DMC-G1, our first question was 'why does it look like an SLR?'. We'd been hoping for a much more compact body, something that more effectively straddled the line between the convenience of a compact and the quality and versatility of a digital SLR. Well, a couple of months ago we were ushered into a private meeting with Panasonic to see the GF1, Panasonic's answer to all those critics who failed to see the point of Micro Four Thirds if it was simply going to ape conventional SLR styling."

That's pretty much what I was thinking when the first Micro Four Thirds cameras were announced - they looked like smaller DSLRs, but with DSLRs as small as the Nikon D60, did we really need a new system that made slightly smaller cameras? The Olympus E-P1 changed that conversation, and the Panasonic GF1 changes it again. These new body designs don't look like smaller DSLRs; they look like a new class of camera, and that's really what the Micro Four Thirds system was created for. This is the kind of camera that will appeal to someone who wants to move beyond the point and shoot camera realm, but isn't interested in the bulk that comes with going with a DSLR. The GF1 also includes 720p HD video (AVCHD Lite or MJPEG), and a built-in flash (one of the criticisms of the Olympus E-P1). This look like an interesting camera...and the sample images/videos are quite impressive.

Panasonic also sent me the press release about this new camera - it's after the break. Read more...