Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 Micro Four Thirds Camera Review

Image Quality

The GF1 works well with detail and a 100% crop of a full-size 12.2MP image reveals that much of the finer detail is kept. It also does quite well at reproducing color with most shots producing realistic color while the others didn’t need more than a little fine tuning. The white balance modes for the most part produce believable results although, again, you may want to fine tune if you’re shooting in RAW.

The camera’s built-in JPEG processing reduces the level of fine detail when you crop or are seriously concerned about printing but if you’re just shooting regular portraits or snap-shots, the JPEGs are more than usable. You can click the photo above to see the full sized image.

Noise from ISO 100 – ISO 800

One of the biggest worries when it comes to using a compact digital camera is the amount of noise the camera produces at higher ISO settings, mostly in low-light situations. The smaller sensor in comparison to full-sized DSLRs could be prone to producing more noise than it’s counterparts. Here are a few shots going through the ISO range. Click on the image for a larger version.

With the samples above, you’ll see that noise is mostly unnoticeable from a fairly reasonable operating range of ISO 100 to ISO 800. The results are definitely very excellent, but what happens above ISO 800?