Review Date: June 28, 2010
Category: Beginner to Serious Amateur
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2
Photoxels Editor’s Choice 2010 – Compact DIL/DSLR
IMAGE QUALITY
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2 is a Digital Interchangeable Lens camera (DIL, aka “mirrorless DSLR”) targeted to beginner and serious amateur photographers. It has 12.1 megapixel resolution on a FourThirds (17.3 x 13.0 mm) Live MOS image sensor. It is positioned as an entry-level or enthusiast DSLR-level camera and accepts interchangeable lenses on a micro FourThirds mount.
The Panasonic G2 has very good image quality (including very good low-light performance) up to ISO 400 with plenty of details preserved and good colors, with very usable ISO 800 and usable ISO 1600. Higher ISOs suffer from lots of noise and detail loss.
| Lumix 14-42mm 3x Optical Zoom |
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| Wide-angle 14mm (28mm, 35mm equivalent) |
Telephoto 42mm (84mm, 35mm equivalent) |
One of the many advantages of a DSLR is the ability to use interchangeable lenses suited for specific jobs. The Panasonic G2 comes with a new optically image stabilized Lumix 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens as standard kit lens, which provides a 28-84mm equivalent field of view. In the above pictures, we show the coverage for 28mm and 84mm (35mm equivalent).
The Lumix 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 lens has a max. aperture of f/3.5(W)-5.6(T) and min. aperture of f/22. It has a 7 leaf iris with circular diaphragm, and accepts 52mm diameter filters.
The Panasonic G2 has full exposure flexibility with PASM modes, and Program Shift.
The camera also provides exposure compensation (with Auto Bracketing) and Custom (Manual) White Balance. A Histogram can be displayed in both Live and Playback modes.
Shutter speed ranges from 1/4,000-60 sec. in PASM, plus B (approx. 4 minutes) in Manual Mode.
Macro
The actual macro capability is a function of the lens you use. The Lumix 14-42mm kit lens allows you to focus as close as 30cm (12 in.). AF locks precisely and fast.
The AF Area can be manually moved to any of 66 x 49 “areas” [simply touch the screen where you want the camera to focus]. The auto focus frame size can be reduced or increased by easily sliding your finger on the touchscreen LCD [or rotating the Rear Dial] and I find this to be an incredibly useful feature that significantly increases the accuracy of the Contrast Detect AF.
There are three metering modes: Multiple (Multi-Pattern), Center Weighted and Spot.
| Auto White Balance Indoors | |
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| AWB | Custom WB |
As the above two pictures show, the Auto White Balance (AWB) is not accurate indoors under artificial lighting [I have two energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs on the ceiling]. Fortunately, there is Manual WB and WB ADJUST that are easy to set and provide very good results. In bright natural light, AWB works very well.
| ISO Comparisons | |
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| ISO 100 | |
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| ISO 200 | ISO 400 |
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| ISO 800 | ISO 1600 |
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| ISO 3200 | ISO 6400 |
The Panasonic G2 has 7 ISO settings going from ISO 100 to ISO 6400. If you need finer ISO adjustments (e.g. ISO 100, 125, 160, 200 instead of simply ISO 100 and 200), you can set the ISO Sensitivity to 1/3EV. You can also set the max. ISO the camera will use [MENU – REC – ISO LIMIT SET – select an ISO value from 200 to 1600] in ISO AUTO mode. The 100% crops above (area delimited by the white square) demonstrate the noise at the available ISO Speeds. At ISO 100 to 400, noise is under control. Noise starts to be slightly visible at ISO 800 but is still very acceptable, with ISO 1600 also quite usable in smaller prints or for Web only display. Loss of detail is apparent at ISO 1600, and noise (with detail loss) is quite visible at higher ISOs. Overall, excellent noise handling.
CA (Purple Fringing)
CA is under control in everyday shots and is not much of a problem even in high contrast shots. The corner delimited by the red square at top left, and reproduced at 100% crop at bottom right, shows minimal purple fringing.
Long Exposure - 14mm, Manual, Spot, 60 sec., F10, ISO 100, Custom WB, Self-timer (2 sec.), Tripod Used
Our Long Shutter Speed test is a torture test for digital cameras. Here we test whether (and how well) a camera can lock focus, provide accurate WB and obtain a correct exposure in extreme low light situations. I resize the AF frame so the camera quickly and precisely focuses on Bamm-Bamm’s right eye. The Panasonic G2 passes this test quite easily.
The Panasonic G2 allows the use of a long shutter speed of up to 60 sec. in PASM modes, therefore allowing very nice night photography. Generally, with image sensors, noise usually becomes more prominent at slow shutter speeds. You can turn Noise Reduction ON in MENU – REC – LONG SHTR NR – ON; you’ll notice a longer processing time (approx. twice as long) before the next picture can be taken.
To test this noise reduction algorithm, we take a low-light indoors shot. I experiment a bit to obtain the optimum exposure, eventually settling on 60 sec. at F10. Even at this long shutter speed, the Panasonic G2’s noise reduction seems to be working great, producing a nice smooth blurring effect of the background.
The Panasonic G2 allows you to save an image in the RAW file format. I was able to take max. 5 RAW images in 2 sec. (@ 2.5fps) in Continuous Shooting High, 5 RAW images in 2.5 sec. (@ 2fps) in Continuous Shooting Medium, and max. 5 RAW images in 3 sec. (@ 1.6fps) in Continuous Shooting Low. This is slower than the published 3.2fps, 2.6fps and 2fps for Continuous Shooting High, Medium and Low, respectively. It takes about 3 sec. to write a RAW image to memory card (I used a regular 4GB SDHC SanDisk card). Note that these times do not include the extra processing times you’ll experience if Noise Reduction kicks in. You can also select to save a RAW+JPEG (Fine or Standard).
I was able to take 9 JPEG Fine images in 3 sec. (@ 3fps) in Continuous Shooting High, 7 JPEG Fine images in 3 sec. (@ 2.3fps) in Continuous Shooting Medium, and 11 JPEG images in 6 sec. (@ 1.8fps) in Continuous Shooting Low.
I set the camera to ISO 400, shutter speed 1/100 sec., Picture Size Large, and everything else pretty much turned off. Your performance times may vary depending on your camera settings.
At Picture Size = Large, a 12.1MP JPEG image is compressed down to anywhere between 4MB and 7MB. A RAW image occupies about 14MB.
We find the overall image quality of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2 at ISO 100 to be excellent with good details in the shadows and highlights. Images up to ISO 400 are also low in noise. ISO 800 to 1600 are usable. Overall, excellent image quality.
View the Panasonic G2 Photo Gallery [In the Photo Gallery, click on the picture of the camera to return here.]
Next: Panasonic G2 Handling & Feel