There is a new Panasonic GF7 review at CameraLabs. This is a camera that didn’t get a lot of attention from the press and has no real big new WOW factor to make the announcement go viral. But for the money it can do a lot of things and Gordon from CameraLabs really likes the camera:
“The Lumix GF7 is a great little camera and I really enjoyed using it. If you take lot of selfies it is, without doubt, the best option, combining ease of use and fun, innovative modes while at the same time offering most of the things you’d expect from an advanced mirrorless compact system camera. The lack of a viewfinder, or the means to fit one, and the absence of a hot shoe are things that the target audience can probably live without. The poor battery life is disappointing, but not enough to deprive the GF7 of a well-deserved Recommended award.”
Panasonic GF7 in Black at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
Panasonic GF7 in Pink at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
11 Responses
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….
…..and it’s ugly to boot……..
zzzzz… another whiner…
BOO! WAKE UP 😉 have some more interesting news or rumours to offer? I’d love to hear it…
It’s just a “meh” version of the GM1 or GM5. Technically decent, but with a seriously strange place in the market. Selfie-screen is exactly why it’ll appeal to those less than serious users moving up from point and shoot to system cameras. It’s not for everyone that’s for certain.
It appears to be a huge slot in the market.
Users want to take good pictures better than the mobile phone. They seem to want decent lenses and then want the camera to do the rest: a high-end compact or something like the GF7. I’d hazard that adding an EVF pushes the price right up.
can’t disagree with that – it’s still a strange place no matter how big it is 🙂 but I think it may actually suck some new users to the format and Panasonic will possibly get some of these new users to upgrade in the future to the more “serious” models.
The lack of proper controls was why I sold the GM1 and yet that had excellent low light capability and never needed its flash to be used. I replaced it with the E-PL7 on which I rarely use the selfie screen except for over-shoulder shots (try doing that with the GH4+100-300 to catch a bird perched 6-ft from your ear). The poor noise level on the Olympus at high ISO limits the low light capability to about ISO6400 at best. I expect the GF7 to be able to take shots in the coal hole, Panasonic seem to be the best at low noise allowing those telephone number ISO settings to be usable.
Chris, our boy from The Camera Store Canada, says the camera is fun. It takes some nice pictures, way better than pocket cameras. Sure does. I thought that jump feature was cute. If I was looking for a pocket-friendly camera that took more nice pictures than the GF7, I would look elsewhere because the slow f3.5 on the pancake zooms destroy the advantage of the comparatively large sensor: In square millimeters, FourThirds is 225, OneInch 116, TypicalPocket 28.5. From the tech head point of view, and to make this camera wonderful, you should mount the 20mm f1.7 and go without zoom. Otherwise, the Sony RX100-III has a net one-stop advantage in low light because of the two-stop advantage on the fixed zoom.You lose a stop because of the higher noise threshold. Both cameras are stylish and fun. That is the sell, and maybe that’s all that matters for the person who would be happy with this daylight camera.
I would not repeat the argument that a kit lens is no good because of its slow f3.5 lens. Well that may be have been true in the past with cameras limited to only ISO 400 for good pictures while the GM series and now GF7 good even at ISO 6400! So unless you have to have a shutter speed in excess of 2000th sec or are a shallow depth of field fanatic this lens is fine for most general photography. Just look at the pictures taken under dark conditions posted in this review. In the past FF zoom lenses that were very fast had to make compromises with IQ as slower lenses better or the cost was very high and large size & weight.
I would agree with your argument that for now the 1″ sensor has an advantage for a small pocketable camera with small fast zoom lens but for now very few if any such 1″ sensor cameras with interchangeable lenses so focal reach is limited.
I mainly use my GM1 for travel and kids photos. For me, the biggest improvement on GF7 over GM1 is the eye detection. I am actually thinking about upgrading to GF7 just for this new function.
I used to use DSLR for kids photos, but after I started using GF1, I figured out that kids actually look into my eyes when I take pictures instead of the camera. If I want them to look into the lens, I can simply cover my eyes/face with the camera also. I can get more natural smiles with mirrorless (small) cameras. Some kids are actually scared of my big Canon 7D with even relatively small 28mm f/1.8 attached to it. With GM1 and 20mm f/1.7 or 45mm f/1.8, I sometimes have to touch the screen several times to focus on their eyes, but with eye detection, I can probably shoot more without thinking about focusing.
I don’t know why, but nobody seems to care about this big improvement (I believe all Olympus has it, but GH4 and GF7 are the only ones for Panasonic). I want to see more reviews on how it well it works.
People here want this and that on GF7 or small compact mirrorless. I understand it would be nice to have everything, but that’s not GF7 is made for. They have (kinda) GX series for that purpose. Nnobody wants to pay $1,000 for GF7.
I would suggest one should take a good look at the image quality and resolution section to see the comparisons with the the kit lenses from EPL7 and NX3000. There is no doubt but what the small Pany 12-32mm lens is a gem compared to Oly 14-45 EZ lens and equals the higher resolution of the APSC BL sensor and lens. Pany should be making this lens the std kit lens on all their models not just the GM and GF series it is so good close to equal to best single focal length lenses.
I think most buyers as well as reviewers are just assuming that since the m4/3 GF7 and EPL7 use the same sensor the IQ from them would be the same but in this case not true as proved in this review as the pictures show the Pany kit lens is superior to that on the other cameras as to sharpness and detail.