Let’s make a little wager. I’ll put a $1 on the fact that most people who buy the tiny new Panasonic Lumix GM1 will never change its lens, instead opting to use it as a rather cool little compact. Not that this is a bad thing entirely – having a Micro Four Thirds sensor in a body smaller than that to the sensorially-challenged Pentax Q10 is great. But it’d be a shame not to stick Panasonic’s near-legendary 17mm ƒ1.7 lens on this baby and drop it in your pocket.
The GM1 (M presumably stands for minuscule), and the 12–32mm ƒ3.5–5.6 kit lens it ships with isn’t big either (although it does expand when you switch it on). The $750 kit has a 16MP sensor, 1080/60i and 24p video, a 1/16,000/sec top shutter speed (I’m guessing this doesn’t use a physical shutter) and some honest-to-goodness manual dials. There’s also Wi-Fi and a touch screen.
The styling is two-tone retro, clearly a nod to the success of Fujifilm’s X-series cameras.
Speaking of those dials, one of them appears to control your focus mode, letting you switch quickly between single-shot, continuous and manual focus, and there’s also a customizable function button in the center. Not bad for what looks like a compact.
Clearly these big-sensor, lens-changing cameras are what the camera makers see as their saviours in the day of amazing phone cameras. I like this trend – my iPhone is great for taking pictures, but I love my “real” camera even more."
Source: DP Review
