Panasonic Falters With Button-Light Lumix GF2

How do you follow up on an almost perfect camera? If you’re Panasonic, and that camera is the mirrorless, lens-swapping GF1, then you forget about incremental updates and just ruin everything.

The new GF2 tosses many things that were good in the compact, Micro Four Thirds GF1 in the name of miniaturization. But first, what’s new? The GF2 gets an update to the Venus Engine image processor which boosts the maximum ISO to 6400, a touch-screen, which now controls almost everything, and an upgrade to the HD video mode, now shooting 1080i and 720p at 60fps, with a built-in stereo microphone. The 12.1MP sensor, however, is the same one found in the GF1.

Gone are the mode selector dial on the top plate, along with the very useful drive-mode lever that surrounded it and offered quick access to burst, self-timer and bracketing modes. Also missing are most of the buttons on the rear-panel. The camera keeps the multi-function D-pad along with the playback and quick-menu buttons, but loses the AF/MF selector, the AF/AE lock and display buttons and also the dedicated depth-of-field preview button.

All these functions are now shifted off to the touch-screen, which has the same 3-inch, 460,000-dot resolution as the GF1. The menu system has been completely redesigned (thank God), and some neat functions have been added. For instance, you tap on a face and to focus and the GF2 not only sets the exposure mode to “portrait” but can also lock on and follow the subject around the screen.

Clearly Panasonic is positioning this as a step-up for compact users, not as the do-anything pro camera that was the GF1. And what do we get for these sacrifices? A few fractions of an inch shaved off the size (4.4 x 2.7 x 1.3-inches vs. 4.7 x 2.8 x 1.4-inches) and a weight saving of a half an ounce.

The kit lens has also changed, from the lovely 20mm ?1.7 of old to the 14mm F2.5. You can also pick the adequate 14-42mm zoom, just as you could before, or pick a box that includes both.

If you currently own and love your GF1, there really is nothing to see here. If you’re thinking of buying the GF1, you still should, as this new camera is something completely different. In fact, it might be worth keeping an eye on what Olympus does with its Pen series, as from now on that seems it may be be the only way to get a proper Micro Four Thirds camera with actual buttons.

Price TBA, the GF2 will go on sale in January 2011.

Press release [Panasonic]

PAnasonic GF2 Hands-on video [Which? UK]

See Also: