Hands On: Panasonic Lumix G3 review

You can now read our full in-depth review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, complete with sample images and verdict.

One of the main reasons to opt for an interchangeable lens camera over a DSLR is to get a more compact camera that’s easier to carry around with a lot of lenses. With its brand new Micro 4/3 Lumix G3, which we’ve managed to get our hands on for a test shoot, Panasonic has managed to make the body even smaller.

Comparing it to last year’s Lumix G2, the G3 is a fraction of the depth and weighs just 336g (body only). It’s pretty comfortable to hold, although the small size and low weight meant that we’d be more comfortable holding this camera with a strap round our neck for fear of dropping it.

As well as redesigning the body, Panasonic has worked on the interior to address some of the issues that we found with the G2. First, is a brand new 16-megapixel sensor, which Panasonic claims produces one-third the noise of its previous generation sensor. In addition, the camera has the Venus Engine VI FHD processing engine to the clean up the image in both video and photo modes.

The auto-focus has also been improved, with Panasonic claiming a focus time of just 0.1 seconds. In our tests, the camera was certainly very quick and didn’t have to hunt through the range in order to focus correctly.

We tested the camera on a boat ride down the Thames on a bright day. Due to the camera using pre-release firmware we’re not allowed to post full-size samples, so we’ve resized all the images here. Using the 14-42mm kit lens (28-84mm 35mm equivalent), we were impressed with our still photos. Detail was impressive and the image very sharp. In particular the detail in the brickwork of the old warehouses was excellent.

Photos were well exposed and even across the whole image, even into the corners. The kit lens is the same as that used on the G2 and remains an impressive choice. We found chromatic aberration was kept in check and there was little distortion to the image.

As with the G2, the G3 has an excellent 460k dot touchscreen display. We found that this was bright enough to use to compose shots on a brightly lit day, although there’s also a viewfinder if you’d rather use this.

The touchscreen lets you quickly access some controls and menu, plus you can use it to select the focus area and even release the shutter. Our one complaint here is that while it’s easy to use the screen to select a single focus point, there’s no way to return the focus point back to the centre of the image. It works quite well, but the more we used the camera the less we used the touchscreen, opting for the well-laid-out dedicated control buttons on the rear.

Panasonic has updated the video mode, so that the G3 will shoot 1080i video, where as the G2 could only shoot 720p. Continuous auto-focus makes sure that the image stays in focus and Dolby Stereo sound processing is designed to make most of the soundtrack. There’s built-in wind reduction for the microphone, too, but stuck in the middle of the Thames with a fast wind blowing towards us, the soundtrack was all wind noise.

Quality of the video is good, but the image starts to loose detail the further away from the camera you get. In our shot of the Houses of Parliament, the brick work loses quite a lot of detail and becomes a bit blurred. From our initial inspection, the video mode isn’t as good as on a high-end DSLR, such as the Nikon D7000. However, as this is pre-release firmware the final version is likely to differ.

We were unable to do any proper low-light shooting with our review model, but the quick tests we did inside showed that the Auto ISO mode was picking a wide range of sensitivities; the G2, we found, tended to stick to ISO settings of 400 or less. We’ll reserve judgement on the quality of shots at high ISO sensitivities until we’ve got a full review sample.

In our short testing, Panasonic seems to have addressed a lot of the issues that we had with the G2, while keeping the best points about that camera. The G3 should be on sale mid-June, with the body-only version costing £550 and the kit with the 14-42mm lens for £629. It will be available in Black, White and Red in the UK. We’ll bring you a full review once final samples are available.