Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM1 Review

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM1 is unbelievably small for a mirrorless. Its clever body shape using a protruding lens mount makes it look even smaller than it actually is. Regardless, this camera is the size of a typical compact and yet very few cameras this small have manual-controls. This is both a source of awe and compromise.

The rectangular body offers no grip at all, just a flat and slightly-textured surface, making this camera precarious to hold. As with other mirrorless cameras, it is expected to be held with two hands, so there is less risk of it falling. An eyelet on each side allow the use of the supplied neck-strap, but one would probably use a wrist-strap instead with such a small camera.

Given how short the body is, one ends up with a cramped two-finger hold on the front. This is similar to compact cameras and is not meant for prolonged use. Still, the GM1 is incredibly light and will not be tiresome without a bulky lens attached. With the 12-32mm F/3.5-5.6 OIS kit-lens, it is a truly feather-weight while offering far better image-quality than any similarly-sized offering.

The top plate of the GM1 is utilitarian. At the left, we can see the top of a small built-in flash. After a tiny bit of free space, there is a stereo microphone, right against a combined rotating autofocus switch and customizable button. The switch rotates between 3 positions for AF-S, AF-C and MF modes. Since there is no direct ISO button on this camera, Fn1 should be configured to control sensitivity. There are 32 additional options to choose from though!

The shutter-release is found, surrounded by a rotating power-switch, further to the right. It has short amount of travel and a soft halfway point. This makes it less likely to shake the camera during exposure but increases the possibility of misfiring. At the edge of the top-plate, there is a traditional mode-dial. The ubiquitous PASM modes are all there, plus a fully automatic mode, a Filter mode, a position to groups all Scene modes, two customizable modes and a dedicated Video mode.

The Video mode in particular is very welcome as it allows to accurately preview video-framing, which is not the case on all modern digital cameras. The Panasonic GM1 is very capable for video. It offers full manual-controls, where the exposure-mode is selected in the menu, and processing parameters which are separate from stills.

All rotating controls on the top-plate have strong detents to prevent accidental changes. The mode-dial is also textured to provide a good grip which makes it usable with thin gloves. The focus switch, on the other hand, is smooth with only a small protrusion for purchase.

All remaining controls are located on the back of the camera which is dominated by a large 3" touchscreen LCD. The display is bright and, at 1 megapixel of resolution, extremely sharp. Unfortunately, it is not Exposure-Priority except in Manual exposure-mode and only when the Constant Preview option is enabled from the Custom setting menu. At least it shows 100% coverage and previews WB correctly though.

The touchscreen feature can thankfully be disabled. While it provides access to more customizable features, the screen is so close to the control-dial that it constantly gets inadvertently triggered. For some unknown reason, it remains active in Video mode. We can only guess that it is to avoid pressing buttons which may affect the sound-track or shake the camera.

To the right of the LCD, there is room for about half-a-thumb next to the Video-Record and Playback buttons. Both of these are slightly recessed from the camera surface to prevent accidental use which also makes them unusable with gloves on. The Video-Record button can be disabled but not reconfigured to anything else. The Playback one works just as usual.

Just below, there is a 4-way controller with central MENU/SET button. Each direction is assigned a dedicated function:

• Up: Toggles EC, except in Manual mode where it switches between Aperture and Shutter-Speed.
• Right: Selects White-Balance. The screen which appears when Right is pressed is also used to fine-tune white-balance or enable WB bracketing.
• Down: Selects a drive mode: Off, Single-Shot, ContinuousSuper-High Speed (40 FPS @ 4MP), High-Speed (10 or 5 FPS) without preview, Medium Speed (4 FPS) or Low speed (2 FPS), Bracketing and Self-Timer2s, 10s or 3-frames at 10s. There is no difference between Off and Single-Shot as far as we can tell.
• Left: Selects the AF mode: Pinpoint, Single-Point, Automatic 23-Area, Tracking and Face-Detect. The focus point or area, depending on the mode, can be set by pressing Down fro there. Pinpoint allows the selection of an exact point while Single-Point allows the selection of an image-area. Four area-sizes are available.

Around the 4-way controller, there is an extremely thin control-dial. This is the only one on the GM1 and is rather flimsy. In Capture mode, it controls the active exposure parameter. In Playback mode, it magnifies images. It can also be used to navigate the menu. The control-dial has soft detents and is ribbed to provide some grip. This is insufficient for use with gloves on.

Along the lower-edge of the camera, there are two more buttons. One is Q.MENU which brings up 2 rows of icons to set some photographic controls. The same button is used to back-out of sub-menus and to delete images and videos, depending on the context. The other button, DISP, cycles over display modes in Capture and Playback.

There are quite a few display options on the GM1. A 2-Axis digital level overlay is available. It is accurate, easy to see and unobtrusive. Exactly how it should be! There is a MF Assist function which magnifies part of the frame to full-screen or PIP to keep an eye on framing. Focus-Peaking can optionally be enabled.

There is a Live-Histogram which sadly shows the display distribution instead of being based on exposure. One of 3 types of framing guidelines can be enabled, as well as blinking highlights. These last ones do not appear to be accurate either.

The bottom of the camera features a metal tripod mount which is perfectly aligned with the optical axis. There is also a rather flimsy plastic door which covers the combined battery and memory-card compartment. The unusual thing to note about here is that the lens mount is flush with the base of the camera. Since the camera is so thin, this makes it difficult to zoom while the camera is mounted on a quick-release plate which causes friction against the lens ring.