Panasonic Lumix GF5

Always keeping an eye out for camera deals, back in November a deal on the Panasonic Lumix GF5 caught my eye. While I love my S90, something with a larger sensor that would allow me to do more in lower light situations (though I realize it isn’t any better than the S90 for long exposure).

The kit 14-42 lens is not anything to write home about. While many people like zoom lenses, I find myself shooting as wide as possible with my S90. The biggest downer with the 14-42 was the So, per the recommendation of JD, I picked up the 20mm f/1.7 prime.

First picture taken with 20mm f/1.7

The Good

• Micro 4/3rds system has a good collection of lenses available
• Micro 4/3rds sensor has 4X the area of the S90’s sensor
• The 20mm f/1.7 lens is awesome, and pretty much a must have for any micro 4/3rds owner
• Supports SDXC standard cards, which means 64GB+ cards should be supported (that’s 2.5k RAW+Fine JPEG photos)
• The touchscreen can be used as a secondary, rather than only, way to do things for most tasks (I like manual controls and buttons)

The Bad

• No hot shoe for external flash, this was known before getting the camera, not a huge deal at the moment
• No way to save photos in “by date” directories, was something the S90 supports and is surprisingly nice to have
• No manual mode wheel, other micro 4/3rds models have this, as does the S90, however the touchscreen functionality covers it for the most part

Neither Here nor There

• The touchscreen in general, while some will not touch a camera without a touchscreen, I’m not sold on the feature
• Size, it’s larger than the S90 by a significant amount, even with the 20mm f/1.7 I don’t think it is pocketable, was expecting this so not really a negative

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]