The Panasonic GH1 is Panasonic's second micro 4/3 camera following on from the almost identical G1 - the headline feature of the GH1 is the video support which was oddly lacking from the G1. The GH1 supports up to 1080p AVCHD gaining a dedicated video record button (allowing you to record video in any mode), a stereo microphone above the EVF along with a dedicated addon microphone and a new 14-140mm lens with a continuous aperture iris and silent AF which are both important for video work. Less obvious is the new sensor which like the G1 is still 12MP but in the GH1 it's an oversized sensor allowing it to record in 4:3. 3:2, 16:9 and 1:1 modes while maintaining the same focal length as the sensor is larger than the crop circle of the lens.
Micro 4/3 is a standard proposed by Panasonic and Olympus and is as the name suggests a smaller version of the 4/3 standard used for their SLRs, the reflex mirror and viewfinder are both removed and the lens brought much closer to the sensor. It's the same 4/3in sensor as in the SLRs but the mount diameter is reduced and there's two more pins to improve video support. Through an adapter standard 4/3 lenses can be mounted on the micro 4/3 cameras although autofocus support is limited as the smaller cameras focus using the sensor rather than the phase detect autofocus system the SLRs use. In short micro 4/3 gives many of the benefits of the SLR sized sensor in a smaller package.
Anyway, here's a few pictures:
The GH1 with the 14-140mm lens attached along with the lens hood.
This the GH1 with the lens removed showing the exposed sensor, the shutter doesn't close to protect it although it does have the 'dustbuster' - so far on the G1 the dirt doesn't doesn't to be a problem. On the front of the grip is the single command dial which changes aperture, shutter, exposure compensation or menu items all depending on what mode the camera is in.
Round the top of the camera it's quite busy dominated by the large mode dial which has masses of different predefined settings, the switch down the top right conveniently changes the camera between self timer, burst mode and bracketting mode. The Q.menu allows you to change through the main settings without going into the menu, film mode is a selection of different predefined parameters to enhance colours, dull them, black and white etc. In front of the hotshote is the stereo microphone and on the left is the rather wasted focus mode dial.
Round the back of the camera with the 3in 460K screen folded out leaving limited space for the rest of the buttons. At the top right is the video record button which rather cleverly allows you to start shooting a video clip with the same settings you're using for stills, you can switch straight back to taking pictures by pressing the standard shutter button meaning there's no need to change round to a film mode. The d-pad works as expected and also gives shortcuts to ISO, white balance, and metering mode. The other buttons work as expected, over to the left the LVF/LCD button which switches between the EVF and the main display - there is a sensor on the EVF which means it only powers up when it detects the camera is at eye level. Using this button the rear screen can be set to show the current settings similar to an SLR.
One of the criticisms of the Panasonic G series is the unamibitous design as they've produced a camera along the same size as the small SLRs although the G1/GH1 are slightly deceptive as they are smaller than they look. First up here are a couple of pictures alongside the compact LX3, the GH1 has its 14-140mm kit lens mounted (28-280mm equivalent) and the LX3 has its 24-60mm equivalent lens:
Going the other way here is the GH1 and the micro 4/3 7-14mm F4 alongside the E-3 and the Olympus 7-14mm F4:
Here are the two 7-14mm lenses alongside each other:
Both these lenses have the same aperture and same focal length both working with a 4/3 size sensor, one of the advantages of the micro 4/3 system is that with the lens being much closer to the sensor and a smaller mount diameter wide angle lenses can be smaller and lighter. The difference is hard to show in pictures but the Panasonic 7-14mm is just incredibly small despite offering similar optical quality to its big 4/3 brother. While talking about lenses, here is the 14-140mm F4 to F5.8 kit lens:
It offers a versatile range from a 28mm wide angle up to 280mm extending considerably to reach full zoom, the lens is a compact for its large zoom range although starting at F4 and reaching F5.8 at maximum zoom it's relatively 'slow'.
Here is the camera with the optional addon mic installed which clips into the hotshoe then connects through the side of the camera, it's a clumsy system as the mic doesn't get power through the hotshoe nor can it communicate through it.
Some sample shots:
4:3 standard jpeg
1:1 (square) nostalgic film mode jpeg
16:9 standard jpeg
ISO 3200 in B@W mode
A couple of ISO 1600 shots:
John
