Tuesday May 19
 
10:18
 
User Review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1

Since I returned my Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1, I can’t do a full review in the same way that I did for the G1. However I can give my impressions from the 10days or so that I used the camera.

Some parts of this user review are clear fact – focus distance, false focus confirmation syndrome, clicking when recording movies – and some parts are subjective – especially my thoughts on image quality and whether whether the camera is light enough to replace a P&S (like the G1 was). Use this as only one of your tools in researching the GH1.

Be sure to read Why I returned my GH1 and click here for the latest GH1 price. For video and photo samples, check the links on my G1/GH1 page.

Negatives

False focus issue: Read the detail here.

Minimal focus distance: The 14-45 has a minimum focus distance of 30cm. The 14-140 is 50cm. Since the false focus issue occurs most frequently around the minimum focus distance, that makes the camera extremely frustrating to use when you want to get close to something or want to flip the screen around and take a self portrait at arms length.

OIS: In my opinion the 14-45 OIS isn’t that great, but the 45-200 is excellent. The 14-140 seems closer to the 14-45 – disappointing when you’re used to the 45-200 or Nikon 18-200.

Weight: One of the reasons why I loved the G1 was its weight – I can throw it in my bag and carry it with me anywhere, and I hardly notice it. That means if I go out at night (eg to a bar with friends), I’ve got a decent camera with me – and the 14-45 is more than enough in that situation. The GH1 with the 14-140 is noticeable in my bag – noticeable enough that I don’t want to carry it around all the time. Yes, I could get the 14-45 but at half the price of a new G1, it’s hardly worth it. The new lens of the GH1 makes me not want to carry the camera around – and if that’s the case, it doesn’t matter whether the camera has video or not, right? Because it’s not there.

Aperture: It’s only a small difference (F4 vs F3.5) but at night, it is a difference. Of course the 14-45 is slower at 45mm, but it’s the max aperture when fully wide that I miss when in a bar.

Focus during movies: When changing focus from a far away to close object (or similar scenario), the focus will often go past the correct point and then go back (ie, out of focus to focus to out of focus and back to focus again). Although the GH1 is the first camera to offer autofocus and therefore shouldn’t really be criticized, “real” HD video cameras are much better with focus. Definitely better to have autofocus than not have it at all, but you’re not going to get cinema quality focus from the GH1 – not unless its Blair Witch.

Clicking during movies: When changing settings (eg aperture) or using manual focus, the internal microphone picks up clicking sounds. This surprised me – the lens was supposedly designed to be silent when focusing which I hoped meant Panasonic had taken care to keep the camera and controls from interfering with the sound. Panasonic really should have replaced that clicky front wheel with something smoother.

Viewing movies: Currently you need to K-Lite codec pack.

No English: In Japan, Panasonic sell the camera in two versions – one has international menus, the other has the international menus disabled. Panasonic take the camera, disable all languages except Japanese, and then sell the Japanese camera significantly cheaper. I think this is a hideous practise which discriminates against foreigners living in Japan almost to the point of racism – they are effectively trying to force foreigners to pay more money for the camera than Japanese. They already designed the camera to be multi-language so the extra price isn’t “extra effort”.

Positives

Colour: The G1 can give rather muted colours – not so with the GH1. I found that the images had the “wow” colour factor that I get from my Nikon.

Multiple aspect ratios: Being able to switch to 3:2 and still keep at the same resolution is nice. There’s a trick with the G1 and GH1 where when viewing images, if you push in the front wheel, you can flick between images keeping the magnification ratio and position the same – that doesn’t work when you flick between images of different sizes though; it isn’t intelligent enough to keep the position in the same place.

Movies: Yes, I have to include this as a positive. Despite the negatives (see above), at least it can autofocus, and the flip-out screen is superb – for movies it is so much better than my D90. How much you make use of the movie function – well that’s debatable. It certainly eats up cards and that prevented me using it in times when I otherwise would have.

Power: The GH1 comes with a “fake battery” which connects to the battery charger and will power the camera. Unfortunately it can’t be used at the same times as changing a battery but for video indoors, it’s a good option to have.

Neutral

Image quality: The G1 is let down by its JPEG processing engine, often giving over-soft result. The GH1 processes images differently, not only in colour (as I mentioned above) but by choosing to leave images a little more noisy. The overall impression is one of the images having more detail, but there are negatives – sometimes instead of clean lines you get fuzzy edges, especially over ISO 320. The camera seems to be working less hard to define clean edges than it did with the G1. Generally I think that most will find the GH1’s images more detailed but there were times I’d look at them and think “Yeah, it’s better defined than the G1, but it’s noisier” or “I can see this is in focus, but why is that edge not clear?”

Conclusion

There’s no getting away from the fact that if you want a digital camera with video, the GH1 is the only one to offer autofocus and a useful flip out screen (unlike the stupid design of the Nikon D5000 screen).

However for me there are too many shortcomings. With the false focus confirmation syndrome, I could not trust that photos would come out in focus. This was further exasperated with the increase in minimum focus distance from 30cm to 50cm and the higher likelihood of getting false focus confirmation at that distance, and by OIS which I felt less effective than my Nikon 18-200 or Panasonic 45-200. Using the camera as a camera became irritating – continually worrying about camera shake and focus.

When it did take photos in focus and without shake, colours were better than the G1 – which I liked a lot. However I missed the size and weight of the G1 and I couldn’t help thinking to myself “I paid more than double the price of the G1 for a camera that doesn’t focus properly and is too heavy for me to carry around casually” – when I say casually, I mean in my work bag, on days when I’m not intending to do photography but it’s nice to have a camera with me. Before I used to carry a P&S in those situations and switched to the G1, but I couldn’t carry around the GH1 in the same way.

Even though video would potentially have been nice, it wasn’t enough to outweigh the negatives – and with time running out, I returned my GH1 due to the focus issue and bought another G1. It was less than half the price, gives me better portability, and just as good photo quality.

Be sure to read Why I returned my GH1 and click here for the latest GH1 price. For video and photo samples, check the links on my G1/GH1 page.

If you are looking to buy a GH1, click here for the latest price and availability. Personally I recommend the G1 instead – it’s much cheaper and better in my opinion.

Click here for my G1/GH1 index page.