Digital Home Thoughts: Panasonic Announces Lumix DMC-GF5 Mirrorless Camera

I hope you all were not expecting anything big from this announcement; the GF5 is a small refinement over the GF3. The sensor is an improved version of the 12 megapixel one in the G3, while the other main upgrade is a new VGA touch screen. There is no word on what type it is, so hopefully Panasonic has decided to use a capacitive touchscreen instead of its current use resistive touchscreens (yuck). There is also a new processing engine, so hopefully the JPGs will be better as well. The rest of the camera remains pretty much the same, including the 1080 video capability. DPReview has a hands-on, so hit the read link for more. The camera will retail for US$750 for the kit that comes with the 14-42 power zoom, or US$600 for the kit with the much bigger 14-42 zoom (which also defeats the purpose of a small camera). Panasonic needs to find a way to cut down the price of that power zoom!