Test Driving the Panasonic Lumix G2 (Four Thirds)

Electric Stairs
Originally uploaded by Ame Otoko

After pondering over a host of point-and-shoot cameras for my wife and finding nothing that completely satisfied us (including the pro-am Canon G12 and Nikon P7000), I started investigating the latest crop of four thirds format cameras. My wife insisted on a viewfinder and was willing to sacrifice pocket size for better quality.

We finally discovered the Panasonic Lumix G2, a midrange four thirds camera that seemed to have the functionality we both wanted. The G2 can be set to Program mode and take perfectly serviceable shots in the hands of my 8-year-old or it can be customized to a great degree of detail and the settings can be saved as a custom mode on the Mode dial.

We’ve been playing with it here and there for a couple weeks now, mainly shooting candids and shots around the house. I was finally able to sneak it into my laptop bag and take it on a real test drive during my lunch hour in San Francisco.

The Lumix G2 costs about $500 and ships with a 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 lens (28-85 in 35mm terms) which is not outstanding quality, but quite serviceable. I was shocked to learn that four thirds lenses are not much cheaper than their DSLR or 35mm equivalents, in some cases even more expensive, particularly since they are much smaller and seem to contain a large amount of plastic. I’ve been eyeing the 17mm f/1.7 lens, but at nearly $400, it’s almost as much as the camera and kit lens. For now, I’ll just take some time getting used to the camera and the lens it came with.

I enjoyed the size of the camera, particularly the weight. At barely over a pound, you don’t feel it on your shoulder as you carry it around. It’s dimensions are still quite large, especially with the zoom lens and hood. It is about 3/4 the size of a small DSLR. At that size, it may not be the greatest for street photography and it can still be imposing to point at a stranger. So today, I focused mainly on objects and testing the capabilities of the camera.

Interface-wise,  the Lumix G2 can be a bit puzzling at times, even for an experienced Panasonic user like myself. The touchscreen implementation is very cool, but the icons aren’t really sized for adult sized fingers to tap. I had several mis-taps (no pun intended, but I wish I did) but nothing calamitous. Panasonic may need to redesign their interface specifically for touchscreen technology at some point, but it is perfectly usable. As many have said, there are very few functions that can’t be accessed in an analog way such as using dials and buttons.

My test drive focused on functionality where the four thirds format should be able to outperform a point and shoot. For example, I used the largest aperture to test shallow depth of field capabilities and found it works fairly well, though the f/1.7 lens would certainly produce nicer results than the kit f/4.0 - 5.6.

I also wanted to test noise levels at moderate ISO range, an area Panasonic P&S cameras have been traditionally weak in. The noise levels were very manageable at moderate ISOs, though in the upper range you lose a lot of detail as a result of noise suppression.

As you can see, I was able to capture quite a few good shots with the camera. I didn’t test the RAW capabilities yet, but the JPEG dynamic range was better than I expected.

Overall, the Lumix G2 is a fun little camera that you can grow into, but considering the price of additional lenses, it won’t offer much of a price savings over a regular DSLR. Nonetheless, I can recommend this camera as a great solution when weight is an issue or as a second camera suitable for teaching your spouse or children the art of photography.