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Cameras

Field Review: Panasonic GF-1 (Day 1)

Chris Gampat
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09/02/2010
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 09/02/2010 by

Though it is surely not a new camera, the Panasonic GF-1has finally arrived on my doorstep for review. This review should’ve taken place a year ago when I was still at Photography Bay, but complications in shipping prevented it from happening. Now that the camera is finally in my hands, let’s drive deep in! Right before doing that though, I’d like all users interested in reading this posting to also please check out my posting at Digital Camera Review about how to use these cameras like a pro.

Technical Specs

Ergonomics

The Panasonic GF-1is larger than the Sony NEX-5(first day review here) but still isn’t really a large camera per se. It does surely have a hefty feel to it but it is a beautiful camera nonetheless targeted to a more experienced user. In comparison, the NEX-5 is smaller and has less buttons—effectively telling the user to just leave the camera in Auto mode and snap away.

The GF-1can be held in two different ways: like a standard point and shoot and like a DSLR in Live View. The shutter has very little kick to it, though with the Panasonic 20mm F1.7lens one still does need to remain still in order to ensure no motion blur and sharp images that take true advantage of the pancake lens.

The camera in a way remind me a bit of my old Leica CL that I sold years ago. It would’ve been almost dead on if I had the electronic viewfinder sent to me as well. However, it is interesting to note that the aperture and shutter speed are both controlled through the back dial and switched by pressing in the dial. Panasonic has done this with all their G series cameras at the time of writing this and I find it to be very comfortable especially in opposition to holding down another button and then turning the dial.

The screen is nice, but I can’t help but wish that it were higher resolution like that of the NEX-5.

Before I go on, I should note that I am testing the camera with the Panasonic 20mm F1.7lens and nothing else. At the moment, Vincent is reviewing the Olympus PEN E-P2 with 17mm f/2.8 Lens and Electronic View Finderand Will is reviewing the Panasonic G2with the Panasonic 20mm F1.7and the Panasonic 45mm f/2.8 Aspherical MEGA OIS Lensso items will perhaps be swapped amongst one another.

Autofocus

Perhaps the camera’s strongest feature is the autofocus. If Nikon is the king of autofocus in the DSLR segment, Panasonic is the one that needs to be dethroned in the mirrorless compact segment.

Not only is the camera fast (even in low light) and smart about where/what it is focusing on based upon your composition, but it also allows for a very simple Autofocus with manual override function to ensure that the eyes of the beautiful lady you’re about to take a photo of are tack sharp.

Menus

Panasonic’s menus haven’t changed significantly in a long time and I’m quite pleased with this. Like the Panasonic ZS-7 (also reviewed here) the GF-1 menus are simple to navigate and mostly everything that you want to get to is intuitive. My only problem that I had was that I could not figure out how to format my SD card.

No, I’m not joking. This is always the first function that I always look for as well. After a bit of searching, I finally found out how to do it.

Image Quality

So far, the image quality seems very solid although I have not tested the RAW files to a large extent yet. More will come on this as the review continues.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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