This morning, Panasonic released the G3, their latest camera in the microFourThirds range. It sports 16 megapixels and FullHD video recording in 50i/60i (PAL/NTSC). According to Panasonic, the G3 is currently the smallest interchangeable lens camera with a built-in viewfinder.
And I can believe that.
I’ve had a brief hands-on courtesy of Panasonic, and can tell you that this thing is really quite small and light, but for the most part it doesn’t seem to be too costly in terms of performance, except for in one area: The battery.
The G2 could give you 360 exposures per charge, according to CIPA, whereas the G3 has to make do with 25% less, only 270. Sure enough, most users will get far more exposures per battery, because they use the power-consuming functions like LiveView and the flash to a far lesser extent than the CIPA standard makes room for. Still, even so, I think this battery is way too small. If you are planning on using this camera as your main shooter for anything, better get a few spare batteries.
Other than that though, it’s hard to find fault with this little beaut. Most other features are either as good as the G2, or improved to some extent.
The screen, for example, is exactly the same as the G2′s. It’s good enough, with its 460 000 subpixels on 3 inches of screen, but it’s hardly perfect. Personally, I’d like to see twice the resolution, but not if it’ll cost any significant amount of money, so I can sort of see where Panasonic is coming from here. Like before, the screen is touch-sensitive and is hinged on the left-hand side for easy swiveling and tilting.
Same goes for the electronic viewfinder. Panasonic’s EVF has gathered some well-deserved praise, and it’s still holding its own against the competition. Panasonic hasn’t had to change it significantly, and thankfully they have been able to leave a Good Thing alone. Well, MOSTLY alone. The EVF is said to have received better color rendition that the EVF previously used, but other than that the specs are the same as before. It seems a little too large for the otherwise slim camera though, and might snag on the camera bag coming out or going in. It’s not surprising though. In this housing Panasonic has squeezed in not only one of the best EVFs around (if not THE best), as well as a half-decent flash that rises comfortably high over the lens,and lastly a set of stereo microphones. Not too bad at all, even if I personally would have liked to see the mics go in favor of a smaller EVF-housing. But that’s me. Your mileage may vary.
I’m not sure upping the resolution from 12 to 16 megapixels is an improvement though, but judging the image quality based on the early sample I was shown was a no-no, so I won’t go there. The press release is full of marketese and bullshit phrases like “virtually noise-free images”. Time will tell if there is any truth to that, but the increase in resolution isn’t so drastic that there isn’t at least a possibility of an overall improvement in image quality per picture. Not sure about image quality per pixel though.
Speed is up, which is a definite improvement. Full-res shooting speed has been increased to an even 4 frames per second, and if you can live with reducing the resolution to 4 megapixels, max speed is an impressive 20 frames per second.
Video recording is as I mentioned 1920 x 1080. The sensor delivers this at 25 fps (PAL) or 30 fps (NTSC) and the camera’s processor converts it to 50i or 60i, respectively. The format is AVCHD, and the G3 can also deliver video files at 720p in this format. Alternatively, it can also give you 720p Motion JPG-files, if you prefer that.
The G3 is also a very beginner-friendly camera. The new and improved iA-mode will make most choices for you if you don’t care for making your own decisions, and if you agree with the camera but want to feel like you did it all on your own, you can adjust the cameras choices without knowing a thing about aperture, exposure, or white balance. Simply slide the slider across to the point you want it, between such extremes as dark/bright, blue/red, or background in/out of focus. So simple even grandma can do it.
Panasonic may have a winner here. Most enthusiasts will probably be a tad underwhelmed, but the truth of the matter is that this seems to be a very capable little camera, for the everyday shooter. It seems to be a great choice for your first system camera, and it’ll give you plenty of growing space, and something to grow into as well. As such, its scope seems much wider than most traditional entry-level cameras, which is clever by Panasonic, as it’ll leave customers free to spend their money on lenses instead, thereby gluing them even more to the mFT system.
