Introduction
The panasonic lumix gf5 mirrorless camera is one of the newest members of the four thirds family of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras from Panasonic. Over the years they’ve become one of the biggext brands in this segment together with Olympus, however they are feeling the competition of more recent entries into this field from the likes of Nikon (J1 / V1) and Canon and to a bigger extent, Sony with the highly regarded NEX series of cameras.
So, does Panasonic’s lead of a few years pay off in the more recent models? Let’s find out.
Specifications
-Screen Size: 3 inches
-Screen Type: LCD Digital Storage Media Type: SD, SDHC, SDXC Image Sensor
-Camera Resolution: 12.1 Megapixels I
-SO Sensitivity (Max): 12800
-Lens Range: 14-42 mm Camera
-Exposure Compensation: 1/3EV Step ±3EV
-Exposure Control: Program AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Priority AE,
-Manual Flash Modes: Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Forced On, Forced On/Red-eye Reduction, Slow Sync., Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction, Forced Off
-Shooting Modes: Clear Portrait / Silky Skin / Backlit Softness / Clear in Backlight / Relaxing Tone / Sweet Child’s Face / Distinct Scenery / Bright Blue Sky / Romantic Sunset Glow / Vivid Sunset Glow /Glistening Water / Clear Nightscape / Cool Night Sky / Warm Glowing Shutter Speed (sec): 1/4000
-White Balance: Auto / Daylight / Cloudy / Shade / Incandescent / Flash / White Set 1, 2 / Color temperature setting
-Battery Type: Lithium Ion Dimensions
-Product Width: 10.7 cm Product Depth: 3.68 cm Product Height: 6.66 cm
-Product Weight: 264 Grams
-Full specifications can be found here: http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/DMC-GF5XR
What’s in the box
– Panasonic GF5 camera
– Neck strap
– Li-Ion Battery
– Battery charger
– AV cable
– USB cable
– CD with software
– Instruction manual
First impressions
At first sight and use, the GF5 is a very well thought out camera. Just small enough to fit in jacket or the bigger pants pockets, but not too small to lack a lot in thr rgonomics epartment. The rubber pistol type grip helps in holding it, while the zoom and focus controls on the lens help in finding a place for your left hand. The size is a bit smaller than expected, but it doesn’t feel any less sturdy by that. On the contrary, everything feels very 
solid, from lens to buttons, from the grip to the overall body construction.
A telling point in this is that, on the body itself, only four parts are made of plastic: the battery door, the flash Nd on/off button and the connectors door. One last thing about ergonomics: both the front pistol grip as well as the rear thumb grip are rubberized, so it feels like a very serious tool in uour hands.
Touch screen interface, menus
This camera is partially controlled by touch menu options. It saves having a boat load of external buttons, or everyting buried in menus, but it need some getting used to. This touch interface includes the selection of focus point, iso value, focus type and such: not everyone changes those a lot but others would like a dedicated button for that.
Shooting, operating speed, battery life
When it comes to shooting, it’s all quite straightforward: just point and shoot it like a compact. There are classic modes like MASP available, but also scene modes and iA which is intelligent auto. Setting up the device, selecting modes and tweaking a little bit is speedy enough when you gt the hang of it: the same gwoes for focus and continued shooting speeds. The GF5 receives good marks for this.
In burst mode, the camera focuses once and then fires away until the card is full at about 3fps: fast enough for the slower sports or when shooting young children.
One thing about noise (sound of the release, not image noise): the shutter together with aperture makes quite some noise actually. This surprised me because the camera has no mirror: most of the time the noisiest part of the camera. It’s not as loud as the shotgun style clang of the Nikon D3, but still.
The battery life is good: for a battery of its size it lasted quite well. Video does eat up the battery a bit more, especially recording a lot in a short while, or for a longer period: make sure to have a fully charged battery then or have a spare with you.
Image quality
For a camera of this type and price, image quality is fine up to a certain point. You really need to be in extreme situations with mixed or bad light before this sensor gives up: most of the time it will do just fine. The flash helps in this regard: even though it’s not that powerful, it gives the option to use a nice subtle fill flash when and where it’s needed. Also, the flash pops up a bit over the lens, so it should give enough clearance to avoid red eye and lens shadows in flash pics.
Sample images.
The GF5 allows for a little bit of play with depth of field, despite its crop sensor (4/3rd sensors have a crop of about 2 compared to full frame sensors). Here’s a few sample images:
Here’s the GF5 compared to a regular size compact, the Casio EX ZR-300 on the left, and a regular size dSLR, the Canon 600D with its kit lens:
As you can see, for size the GF5 is closer to a compact camera than to a dSLR. this is a good thing – what helps is that there is no mirror on the GF5 like on the 600D, which allows the depth of the camera to be much less, and the overall camera size to be slimmer. What you gain in weight and size advantage though, you lose in sensor performance. However, not too much, so on to the verdict it is.
Verdict
All in all, the GF5 surprised me, positively: for being such a small camera, its performance is very nice. Panasonic has had some time to refine their Four-Thirds Limux series, but still: it’s a lot of bang for your buck in a small package.
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