Digital Home Thoughts: Panasonic LUMIX GF1 Unboxing and First Impressions

This is an unboxing and first impressions video of the Panasonic LUMIX GF1 [affiliate], easily the most unique camera I've ever had the opportunity to look at. It's similar to a DSLR in that you can change lenses, but the micro four-thirds system doesn't use a pentaprism or mirror, so it's not a DSLR (which I think I got wrong in one of these videos when I said it was a DSLR). Panasonic calls it a DILC: Digital Interchangeable Lens Camera. I don't see "DILC" taking off as a term, because it sounds vaguely dirty, but this camera is hot stuff...it's been selling out everywhere, and Panasonic is struggling to keep up with demand. It uses SD cards and supports SDHC, so you can slap a 32 GB memory card in there for a massive amount of pictures and videos.

The GF1 has a 12.1 megapixel Live MOS sensor (17.3 x 13.0mm in size), capturing JPEG or raw images at a maximum resolution of 4000 x 3000 pixels. It's also capable of 720p video capture (1280 x 720) in either AVCHD Lite or MJPEG formats. It can shoot in burst mode, up to three frames per second, and can capture in a variety of aspect ratios: 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, and 1:1 (square - which puzzled me for a moment in the video). You can check out the full specs at Panasonic's site.

To give you a little preview of my review, so far I'm loving using this camera. The 20mm lens is f/1.7, so it's really fast and great for available light photography. The micro four-thirds system has a 2x lens multiplication factor, so it's a 40mm lens. Not wide angle, but it doesn't force you to take steps back either. This camera is really high on the "fun factor" - it's a joy to use and I have very few complaints about it so far.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He's still searching for the ultimate netbook.

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