Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

I always enjoy the DigitalRev reviews - that Kai guy is pretty funny - and the hands-on video with the Sony NEX-5 gives you a good overview of what this camera offers. Maybe there's a full review coming up, but it would have been nice if they covered the low-light performance of the NEX-5 versus the Panasonic GF1. In a nutshell, the NEX-5 is a good upgrade for someone who's looking for a higher performing compact, but if you're more into the whole "photography" thing, the GF1 comes out on top.

"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...

"Panasonic Singapore very kindly invited a number of photographers for a preview of the GF1. Having watched the Micro Four Thirds movement with great interest since its introduction (Disclaimer: I own a GH1), I signed up as soon as I heard about the event. Micro Four Thirds, for those who are unfamiliar, is a new system developed by Panasonic and Olympus, which uses the same sensor size as the standard Four Thirds system, but removes the mirror and uses a live view system for composing. What makes it exciting is that it allows for small cameras with quality traditionally associated with DSLRs."

Curious about the new Panasonic GF1? Long-time Digital Home Thoughts reader and sometimes-contributor Lee Yuan Sheng got a chance to get some hands-on time with the new camera from Panasonic and put together a great report for Digital Home Thoughts readers. It's well worth the read!

"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...