Panasonic’s DMC-G: a breakthrough in SLR technology
Panasonic’s DMC-G1 is a DSLR which solves apparently two contradictory problems. It is a genuine digital single lens reflex and it is smallish, light and handleable.
There are those who still want the facilities that are available with a single lens reflex — an SLR. But they want it to be digital, which is pretty logical, and they would like it, please, not to be so heavy and cumbersome as the film SLRs of yesteryear. (In truth, the Olympus SLR was light and small and used film and was fanatically loved by its users. )
The advice has always been that you will have to get something at the high end of the range which will cost a fair about of money. Or a high-end compact which can be quite snazzy but is not a single lens reflex and composing pictures is, in truth, not that easy.
What we want is a camera which is a DSLR and has a large sensor — the Panasonic’s DMC-G1 provides that — because most of the highly portable small compact cameras have small sensors although this may, in a year or so, change.
For the moment you perhaps want something that falls between the high-end compact cameras — which is very lovely but still with that small sensor and very few with a proper viewfinder — and a DSLR which is affordable and can be carried without the aid of a willing mule or your partner, as the case may be.
The Panasonic’s DMC-G1 has some up with a solution.
This is a niche in the market — perhaps bigger than is thought — and Panasonic caters for it with the Lumix G1 which, although it may look ordinary, breaks new ground.
First a short, non-technical explanation. The standard single lens reflex — think Nikon, Canon and so on — has the light enter through the lens and strike a reflex mirror.
One part of the image goes to the viewfinder and one part to the autofocus sensor and exposure meter if your camera is equipped with these, and most are. So you press the button and the reflex mirror flips up out of the way (very quietly in most cases) allowing the light which is the picture to strike, originally, the film and nowadays the digital sensor.
With the Panasonic’s DMC-G1 the designers have got rid of the reflex mirror (which was responsible for the bulk), and with it the optical viewfinder.
Instead you have an electronic viewfinder and live LCD monitor. You still have the DLSR sensor; the same size Four Thirds sensor as the Olympus E-system. The LCD monitor hinges out.
This new camera is a collaboration between Panasonic and Olympus although there is a smaller lens mount than the one on regular Four Thirds DSLRs from Olympus and Panasonic. With Micro Four Thirds, the distance from the back of the lens to the image sensor is shorter — no allowance for a mirror box and thus no optical viewfinder.
The design also permits relatively snall lens, even with lens-based image stabilization. Compared with DSLR glass, Micro Four Thirds optics are about half the size (and about half the weight) for an equivalent focal length.
And as with Four Thirds cameras, there’s a 2X lens factor.
With the superior Lumix G Vario 14-45mm/F3.5-5.6 we are in serious, serious wide lens territory and the lens would make most professionals drool.
With the Lumix G Vario 45-200mm/F4.0-5.6/ Micro Four Thirds tele lens we are probably looking more at pro/am.
The Panasonic DMC-Gt weighs around 580 grammes depending on the lens. This is a small, non-confrontational DSLR camera and a lot of amateurs who would like to take better pictures will want one.
The big question: is an LCD viewfinder as good as a standard viewfinder? The simplistic answer is no. But there is more to it than that.
When your eye presses to the viewfinder you do not have problems with ambient light sneaking in. So, true, it will not be quite as sharp but it will be more than bright enough and sharp enough for you to use under any circumstances. Including Bondi Beach in Australia at high noon.
And before you ask, I seriously lust after this camera. With both lens. But I was ever greedy.
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