Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert

Youcan controlwhich of the23focus points
thecameraisusing by actually pushingand
stretching theactivefocus zone around the
screen using your finger
acropped 3:2 ratio (as used by most
modern D-SLRs) or you can choose
to sacrifice more pixels with 1:1 or
16:9 crops. In the UK, maximum
continuous video shooting is limited
to asecond under 30 minutes (a
cost-cutting measure, because this
reduces import duty),but it can
record for this long eveninthe
highest-quality AVCHD format.
One featurethatremains
unchanged is the number of total
pixels available – the same 12.1megapixel
sensor is used on the G1,
G2, GH1, the rangefinder-style GF1
and the soon-to-be-launched G10.
We’re a little surprised that Panasonic
has resistedthe temptation to pack in
more pixels – even though they aren’t
needed, and would have probably
made high ISO performance worse.
A big advantage of the electronic
viewfinder is thatitenablesyou to
focus manually with great accuracy.
Youessentiallyhavefull-time Live
View operation, so youcan check
exposure and colour as you go, and
superimpose useful aids onto the
eye-level finder, such as histogram
or grid patterns (handyfor avoiding
wonky horizons). Turn the manual
focus ring,however, and the LCD
zooms in – enabling you to adjust the
focus with supreme accuracy. This is
agreat boon for close-ups and when
using telephoto lenses.
imAge quALity
Like the G1, the G2 delivers excellent
pictures.The metering and exposure
are efficient and reliable – and the
amount of feedback thatyou’regiven
means it’seasytooverride the
settingswhen youneed to.Auto
white balance, as expected, gave a
good performance in a wide variety of
Above left
The auto-zooming
eye-level viewfinder
makes it easy to
focus manually with
utmost precision –
great for close-ups
kitzone
d-slrreview
MicrOFOur
thirds benchMarks
see how the G2 fares against its rivals
ExPOSuRE ERROR Lowscoresarebetter
Panasonic G2
Panasonic GF1
Olympus e-P2
COLOuR ACCuRACy Lowscoresarebetter
Panasonic G2
Panasonic GF1
Olympus e-P2
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3
0
2 4 6 8
DynAMIC RAnGE Highscoresarebetter
Panasonic G2
Panasonic GF1
Olympus e-P2
5 5.5 6 6.5 7
nOISE Lowscoresarebetter
Panasonic G2
Panasonic GF1
Olympus e-P2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
MICROFOuRTHIRDSbEnCHMARkVERDICT
To benchmark the G2’s image quality against other
MicroFour Thirds cameras aseries of controlled tests
were conducted in the Digital Camera test suite.
Compared to the Olympus E-P2 and the
Panasonic GF1 there were really no surprises, with
the results between cameras being phenomenally
close. The G2’s colour accuracy was marginally more
natural than the other cameras, and the remaining
results showed that the G2’s performance
was consistently good.
It’s difficult to choose between the three
on image quality, so it really comes down to
features and price.
WHAt'S
tHiS?
Find out how
we test on
page 112
lighting,but needed ahelping hand in
low colour temperatures. Fortunately,
unlikethe majorityofcompacts, the
cameracan record in RAW–making
it easy to perform subtle changes to
exposure and colour casts afterwards.
The RAW software provided with the
cameraisfor Mac and PC, but is no
real substitute for a better-designed
program, such as Photoshop Elements.
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DigitalCamera July2010
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