Lightweight, easy and fun to use, May 29, 2010

Panasonic G2 is a successor of G1, which is the first micro four third camera. G series focus on make the camera as small as possible without sacrificing image quality and control. G2 adds video recording and touch screen feature.

Panasonic G2 main specs

- 12 megapixel - four thirds sensor
- 3"' 460k resolution swivel and touch screen LCD
- 1,280 x 720 high-definition at 60fps
- Built-in Electronic viewfinder (1.44 million dots)

BODY DESIGN

Panasonic G2 weights 371 g / 13.09 oz body only, 593 g / 20.92 oz with battery, memory card and 14-42mm lens. It has dimension of 124 x 83.6 x 74 mm exclude protusion. Compared to regular DSLR camera, The package is significantly smaller and lightweight. Compare to advanced DSLR such as Canon 7D , G2 is approx. half the size and weight. As a result, it is more fun to carry around and it takes only a bit of room to store.

Like G1, Panasonic G2 has built-in electronic viewfinder which is helpful for composing photos, the rear 3' inch LCD is also very bright and nice to use. It can also swivel so you can compose a picture in unusual angle for example overhead or very low in the ground.

New in micro four third system, LCD screen is now equipped with touchscreen technology. You can touch the screen to select or change various settings and also you can touch the screen to set auto focus point.

Therefore, changing AF points in G2 is very fast. In regular DSLR camera, you might need to scroll around until you get AF point that you want. in G2, you just touch it. AF point could be also be enlarged or decreased for precision.

HANDLING

Panasonic G2 is nice to hold, thanks to the grip. It also has many dedicated buttons and switches. It has one main dial, camera mode dial, Release mode switch, Auto focus mode switch, metering switch, ISO button, WB button, Function button, AF/AE lock button, display button, delete button, live/lcd button, intelligent auto button, and video recording button.

As a result, control and handling is significantly better and faster than many entry level cameras where you need to dwell deep in the menu to change setting that you want.

IMAGE QUALITY

Image quality in low ISO setting is excellent. However, like all four thirds system camera, image in high ISO is not as good as regular DSLR camera that has APS-C sensor.

Image quality from ISO 100 to 800 is excellent. in ISO 1600, image starts to lose some details, sharpness and a bit of saturation. In ISO 3200, image starts to breakdown and 6400 is reserved only in emergency situation.

AUTO FOCUS PERFORMANCE

G2 is an very responsive camera. It shines in auto focus performance. AF speed is almost instantaneous whether in bright light or low light condition, I feel it can beat some beginner DSLR cameras. In G2, you can also touch the screen to set up AF point which is very convenient.

Auto focus tracking work well in slow moving subject, such as people walking, however, sometimes, it failed to track, especially fast or erratic movement. This is where the area G2 lacks compared to regular DSLR camera.

There are plenty to like about Panasonic G2

+ Small and lightweight relative to DSLR camera
+ Built-in high-res electronic viewfinder
+ Touch screen that allow you to change setting, set AF and flip image in playback
+ Swivel LCD screen help to compose photos in awkward angle
+ Fast Auto focus performance
+ Many dedicated buttons and switches
+ What you see is what you get (changing color balance, film mode shown in LCD)
+ Very good performance (responsive)

What I don't like about Panasonic G2

- Auto focus tracking is not reliable
- Image quality in ISO 1600 and above is not as good as regular DSLR
- Harder to achieve shallow depth of field (Defocus background)
- 1/2 to 1 second screen freeze after capturing photo
- Auto ISO is not very accurate and tend to stick with ISO 400

COMPETITORS

Samsung NX10 - Digital camera - prosumer - 14.6 Mpix - With 18-55mm Lens - supported memory: SD, SDHC - black (See all Point & Shoot Digital Cameras)
NX10 has bigger image sensor (APS-C) and higher-res (610k) AMOLED screen, however NX10 built-in viewfinder, body handling is not as good as Panasonic G2. G2 also slightly faster in auto focus performance.

Olympus E-P2 12.3 MP Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens (Electronic View Finder not included) (See all Digital SLRs)
Olympus E-P2 has a smaller design and more appropriate to be compared with Panasonic GF1 instead of G2. The main advantage E-P2 has is it has built-in image stabilization, however, it falls short in many areas such as slow auto focus especially in low light condition, low res LCD screen, and no built-in flash.

CONCLUSION

Panasonic G2 is the best flagship micro four thirds camera in 2010 with many new innovative technology such as touch screen LCD and full HD video recording. It is fun to use and carry around. However, G2 still has the same problem that has plague many four third system cameras which is image quality in high ISO setting. Despite it offers up to ISO 6400, but I recommend user to stick with ISO 800 or lower.

Subjective rating relative to mirrorless camera system 2010

Image Quality : 4/5 (with 14-42mm kit lens)
Features: 5/5
Performance: 5/5
Body / Handling: 5/5
Value for money: 3/5

For image sample and iso comparison, please visit my blog. You can find the address through my profile page. Thanks for reading.

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Excellent user interface, June 14, 2010

Many professional websites have quite extensive reviews on the performance of Panasonic LUMIX-G2. As a customer, I think I could offer my experience about the userability of G2.

Let me just focus on G2's touch screen. Is it really a feature I would use again and again? The short answer is definitely yes.

After owning G2 for two weeks, I invited my brother-in-law who owns a Canon 5D along with a high quality gigantic zoom lens ($$$) to my front yard for shooting some flowers together.

Did I use the touch screen to change the setting on the spot? In fact, I did quite many times. The most often used feature was exposure compensation and ISO setting, and a few white balance settings. With the slider and live view, you can decide how the picture would look like. With conventional DSLR, you need to memorize where dedicated buttons are for ISO, exposure compensation and metering method. The truth is that they can not be always at the convenient locations. I found the touch screen a very nice feature because it allows you to make the change so easily. This easiness encourages you to optimize the settings. So, below is my experience of the touch screen:

(1) Quick menu: You can access all settings with two touches. To my surprise, the screen is sensitive to my finger nail. There are several icons on the top and the bottom. If you set the shoot mode to be A (aperture priority), the aperture is shown in red which changes only when you change the zoom or turn a dial. But, everything else can be set really quickly. In the past, when I set the ISO, often I would have cycle through the option several times because I always press the button too quickly. With the on-screen quick menu, you get to see the all options at once.

(2) Focus spot: You can touch the object in the LCD screen to determine where you want to focus. Once you do that, if the object moves or the camera moves, the focus spot will try to follow the object. Amazingly, you can change the focus during video recording.

(3) Playback: When you review the pictures, the touch screen provides a very intuitive way to scroll, enlarge and pan the view. One thing I like Panasonic G2 is its color fidelity. I can have the picture on the LCD or on my computer look nearly identical to the real object.

(4) Release button: You can set it up so that you can shoot by pressing the screen. The camera will first focus to the object you just touched and capture the picture. This feature is very useful when taking the shot at an awkward position, for example, you want to shoot a flower from a hard-to-reach angle. The articulate LCD let you see the composition and by a single touch, the picture is taken. How often I would use this feature? Not very frequent. But, I can see it would not be too rare either.

Panasonic has a balanced view about the touch screen. It keeps the simplicity of the operations. It also allows the users to access all setting via buttons. I think this is necessary often times. For example, if you want to delete pictures, you will have to use buttons.

Overall, my brother-in-law agreed Panasonic G2 is more fun and more flexible to use because it is much smaller, light weigh and equipped by articulate LCD. This nicety gets you to be in the position to take nice shots. And, the iA button to turn on the auto mode is very well done. When pressed, it overrides your manual setting and a light under the button will lit, telling you its status. Many times, under a urgent situation, I simply let the camera make the decisions for me.

On the other hand, the picture quality of Canon 5D is just two notches superior. I still need to perfect my shooting skill with G2. Somehow, I feel the images were not as sharp as they could. I guess more practice would be needed before I finally conclude this.

In conclusion, if you wonder the touch screen worth the money, my review is trying to say: yes because it encourages you to optimize your camera to take nicer pictures.


Update of user interface on 7/5/2010

Before our trip to King's canyon, I gave a 15-minute tutorial to my 18-year-old son on the concept of aperture, shutter speed and ISO using Panasonic G2. When we began to hike, we discussed the object and lighting condition and the possible optimal shooting setting. He could access the control via the touch screen like he has been doing it for a few years. He was practicing photography for the entire trip and seldom let go the camera. The ease of control of the touch screen and the good quality of LCD and EVF for instant replay are very important to the beginners.

In the same trip, a daughter of my friend, who just had her 20th birthday, brought her Canon's entry level EOS Rebel XS. She has been using it as a P&S camera for 8 months. I also gave her a quick tutorial and she got the idea very quick. But, Canon's user interface was a bit difficult to deal with when encountering the scene. It was not straightforward how to adjust the exposure compensation. We eventually figured it out. Yet, many other options were still out of reach.

For experienced photographers, the ease of control may not be very important. But, for me, the fact that I got my son interested in photography, is probably worth every dime I paid for this camera, not to mention the camera had produced many outstanding pictures from his first photography trip.

My brother-in-law's 5D continued to show its superiority in the entire trip. But, it was apparent that nobody envied him at all, seeing him carrying the big heavy DSLR stuffs.

Now, my wife is saying she likes G2 also because it is light and much easier to handle than her Canon SD970 P&S camera, even though she just uses G2's iA mode all the time.

Update of kit lens on 7/5/2010

I went ahead bought the 20mm prime lens and 45-200mm telephoto lens. I was very fond of the 20mm prime lens when shooting at home. But, during the trip, the 14mm-42mm kit lens was the main workhorse. We did change to the telephoto lens a few times. But, the choice of 14-42mm (equivalent to 28-84mm for 35mm film), is excellent for hiking trips. I uploaded several pictures of a lake view in the early morning and night. The ability of seeing the picture before shooting with very high quality in the EVF is essential to take good pictures of the highly contrast scenes. This is the advantage of EVF over OVF. I just love it.