Panasonic Lumix DMC-G7 real-world samples

Does anyone know a link to download PDF User's Manual? Panasonic UK provides manuals in exotic languages, but apparently not English. (For those who prefer Romanian, Slovak or Slovenian, here are the links for those languages.)

DMCG7
Operating Instruction 12/06/2015 Romanian All
View4.9MB
Operating Instruction 19/06/2015 Slovak All
View2.1MB
Operating Instruction 17/06/2015 Slovenian All
View9.2MB
Available Downloads

Jun 24, 2015permalink

Vesku

Does the new 14-140mm kit lens has jittering OIS in video? If you plan to buy it for 4k video you must test it because my GH4/14-140mm is not good for hand held video.

Jun 21, 2015permalink

Palau Blue

Panasonic has produced yet another rubber stamped plastic toy to try to lure you out of $1000. After the EM1 and EM5 II, hasn't the Panny dropped yet?

Jun 10, 2015permalink

Why pay $1000 when that is more than they are asking for body plus 14-42mm lens? Unless you don't have any Panny lenses you like.
Moreover, if you don't like Panny, why waste your time and everyone else's with negative comments about the product? Use your Oly and spend the time shooting and enjoying.

Jun 24, 2015permalink

Shadow Warrior

Despite the View finder I'll stick to my amazing NX500. Thought Panny would up the game and make a 25+mp camera that's compact with the view finder. Really wished Samsung would have created one for the NX500 but I'd rather have amazing photos and use the OLED screen/ipad to capture shots for the time being. Shame really because I was hoping for a better LX100 to compete on par with the NX500 but obviously it hasn't come yet.

Jun 4, 2015permalink

"Thought Panny would up the game and make a 25+mp camera that's compact"
25mp+ on an MFT sensor would have been a bit much--smaller pixels and more electronic noise. (20mp would have been nice.)
But since there has never been any indication that MFT was going to anything anywhere near 25mp (and many comments by Panny to the contrary), why would you think that in the first place?

Jun 24, 2015permalink

tmurph

Got to say, there are some really stupid remarks on here.
When it comes to colour and how the camera deals with it, if you're not happy then change the settings slightly.
The debate about how the camera performed in lovely sunny conditions is totally irrelevant, why discus how the shot was taken? why not just enjoy the results and be done with it. If the camera performed really badly then surely the results would stand out like a sore thumb and no doubt the reviewer would also mention it.
At the end the camera was used to show what it can do and looking at the results it does what it says on the tin.
Discussing how and why the camera didn't do this or that is just complete waste of time.
Why do people on here always have to look at things at the minuscule level, oh no the photo of the guy being interviewed is not absolutely perfect, Panasonic...bin the camera it's no good....GENTS! STOP THE BORING COMMENTS, YOUR'RE PUTTING GLASS EYES TO SLEEP...

May 31, 2015*permalink

buybuybuy

It's funny to see shots at ridiculously small apertures. Ostensibly, you people were going for panning blur.

A vari-ND would have helped achieve shallow DOF, but that might have exposed flaws in AF--and that would be very inconvenient, wouldn't it? ;)

May 31, 2015permalink

Macro Nutrients

Haha the one shot where the car is coming relatively straight at the camera, and it's shot at F18........ That doesn't suggest the most confidence in the AF tracking.

May 31, 2015permalink

rfsIII

Thanks again for getting out and shooting test photos in the real world.

May 29, 2015permalink

Dougbm_2

IQ looks good. Question mark over af tracking and what about high ISO?
How about with a brighter lens?

May 29, 2015permalink

Gear_junkie

I was able to play around with a prepro model and tracking was pretty impressive-Panasonic touts that it's faster than the GH4. It did a very good job subject tracking in slow to medium speeds, I don't think it'll keep up on a racetrack, but everyday action I was surprised how well it stayed on subject.

May 29, 2015*permalink

nelo

Does the new Lumix DMC-G7 have better specs/tech than the Lumix FZ1000? I'm trying to decide which one I should I purchase. I would mostly be using the camera for video.

Thank you.

May 28, 2015permalink

Yes it does. Better IQ for photo and video with a much larger sensor, you need the right lens to benefit from it. Also I remember that DFD on the FZ1000 for shooting action is nt as good as on GH4. If true, G7 which probably is as good as GH4, will be better for that too.

May 29, 2015permalink

Gear_junkie

Both are different beasts, with the FZ1000, you have no room to grow after the initial purchase of the camera, which can be a positive or negative depending on your budget. The FZ1000 is a more convenient camera that sports a pretty respectable digital zoom to get you up to 800mm if you absolutely needed it. The G7 obviously has the capability of switching out lenses that will prove to be better in situations, like low light, since you have a choice on some wider aperture lenses. You're just going to dump a bunch more money into an ILC than a bridge camera. I like both cameras to be honest, but if I'm traveling and it's a secondary body, for convenience, I'd rather use the FZ1000, but if it's going to be your main camera body, I'd probably choose the G7.

May 29, 2015permalink

Gavril Margittai

These images are very similar to each other. I did not learn from them too much. With plenty of daylight my wife's Iphone6 can do just as well. Maybe not if you pixel peep, but these are not images worth pixel peeping.
I would expect DPR to take the trouble of putting more variety in. How about some night shots? how about a nice portrait in available (low) light inside a subway station?

Should I learn from these "real world samples" that the G7 is only good for snaps? I don't believe this is true.

May 28, 2015permalink

Panasonic kept the camera, so this one situation is all we have samples from currently. I'll make sure your requests are fulfilled.

May 28, 2015permalink

rfsIII

Don't be so hard on old Sammy...I shot a job last weekend in a similar situation and full midday sun is one of the hardest environments for any camera because the range of tones from light to dark is HUGE. So on the one hand it makes certain aspects of the camera look better (like autofocus and grain) on the other it really tests metering algorithms, and ability to hold highlights. The only useless tests are the ones they do on overcast days in Seattle where everything really does look good.

May 29, 2015permalink

Jeff Keller

To be fair, Seattle is mostly cloudy 300 days out of the year ☺

May 29, 2015permalink

rfsIII

That's why I love the fact that you guys are willing to venture outside your comfort zone and shoot somewhere other than Seattle's all-forgiving overcast. Next assignment: do more testing of fill flash accuracy. You guys don't need it, but for many of us it often makes the difference between a salable photo and a blown assignment. It's amazing what a largely invisible kiss of flash set 1 2/3 stops below your overall exposure can do to make visual magic.

May 31, 2015permalink

Best just use your wife's cell phone and let the rest of us enjoy photography with a variety of lenses, various 4K options, etc.
And what is "pixel peeping," really? A hackneyed, despective term used by people who don't do significant cropping and/or enlarging and don't care about detail in photographs.

Jun 24, 2015permalink

lem12

Very natural looking tones and defined colors, plenty of DOF showing at sample #3.
Thanks!

May 28, 2015permalink

For those asking, the JPEG settings were just the standard profile, with the iDynamic settings on Auto, and diffraction correction was also on.

May 28, 2015permalink

Pandimonium

Looks very similar to this amazing gallery: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/panasonic-g7/panasonic-g7GALLERY.HTM

May 28, 2015permalink

Images in this gallery (imaging Resource)are much better than DPR's. Only 2 or 3 are flat.

DPR, please comment on the photos in your samples.

May 28, 2015permalink

The galleries look similar because thats ME in the first shot! And serious props Mike Tomkins, he's a real class act.

May 28, 2015permalink

Ulfric M Douglas

I'm seeing "grey" results overall. This could be due to the day's light.
Did DPR try to vary the Jpeg choices and see what came out?

May 28, 2015permalink

DPR, please address.

May 28, 2015permalink

Take a look at my comment above. There was so much constantly happening I left my JPEG settings alone (I was in RAW+JPEG except for when I was using 4k Photo mode).

May 28, 2015permalink

LaMesa

The colors look better, more natural than on any JPGs I've seen from Panasonic before. There seems to be a large dynamic range, and skin tones are really good.

Herbert

May 28, 2015*permalink

With respect, this is hard to believe.

DPR, please adjudicate.

May 28, 2015permalink

Forgive me, LaMesa.

May 28, 2015permalink

Just Ed

The long tele and action shots look a bit blurry to me. Was there a focus problem or stabilization problem. Could just be too fast of action for the chosen settings.

The static shots a very impressive. I like some of your compositions and choice of interesting colors/garb.

May 28, 2015permalink

I was dragging the shutter to try and give a sense of speed, which obviously isn't going to produce tack sharp panning shots. It was more of a creative choice that hasn't been received all that well... Imaging Resource has shots from a similar spot with the aperture wider open than I had, which should give you a better pixel peeping experience.

May 28, 2015permalink

Demon Cleaner

I don't think it's fair to blame the equipment in this instance.

Take photo 3 for example, the picture of a stationary gent being interviewed. A 1/125 shutter isn't nearly fast enough for a 600mm equiv focal length. Compounding matters is the choice of an f/16 aperture, which is heavily diffraction limited on m43.

Modern cameras may be incredible feats of engineering, technology and design, but there's still some limitations even they can't overcome.

Which is why they still put a 'P' on the mode dial...

May 28, 2015*permalink

Just Ed

Sam, wasn't being critical of your shots....just asking what I was seeing.

I like the composition of your shots and the effort
it took in the "Pits" to get them.

May 28, 2015*permalink

Thank you, I appreciate the compliment!

May 28, 2015permalink

jonathanj

Personally I think it's good to see real photos under real conditions. Yes, he probably could have used an ND filter for those panning shots, but I suspect most of us have had similar experiences of forgetting gear and shooting under sub-optimal settings. Much better to post the images you do have than post nothing at all! (And maybe my standards are lower, but I'd be quite happy with them myself!)
Edit: I forgot the point I was planning to make: *but* I'm not sure that these images couldn't have been taken with the G3. I'm considering upgrading the G3, but there doesn't seem to be a particular improvement in IQ in good light, or am I missing something? I'll wait for the RAWs to make a full judgement.

May 28, 2015*permalink

G3? G3 is improved over G1/G2. If you mean G7: it is much better also in low light. Much better tonality, colours and above all dynamic range. GH2, better than G3 still, canot come close to GH4 hence G7.

May 28, 2015permalink

jonathanj

Yes, the G7 will be better than the G3 in low light. But I have a different camera with an APS-C sensor I prefer to use in low light anyway. In daylight, normal shooting scenarios, I'm less sure - I'm finding it hard to judge which panasonic cameras actually have improved sensors. But like I say, I'll wait for the RAW files to evaluate.

May 29, 2015permalink

papa natas

I don't see the need to have this camera beefed up with technology and all these f-stops testings plus raw & whatnot cooked up possibilities to shoot....snapshots of a day at the races?
You guys are here debating as if ANY of these takes will make the museum wall.
Can't you see that since three years ago camera manufacturers discovered that instead of giving firmware ups to respectable customers they're selling the same camera under a new tag with apps to idiots?
When it comes to snapshots & video takes I stick to my ipod5. It's unobtrusive, fun and non aggressive. I laugh at all those idiots wearing caps, t-shirts, vest & camera name's bandannas to run and incommode people because they are taking DA picture...

May 28, 2015permalink

rubank

How interesting to see what the G7 can do at f/16-22.... (maybe not)

May 28, 2015permalink

He says he had little choice giving extremely bright weather, so..

May 28, 2015permalink

photofan1986

Well, I guess there are neutral density filters for those occasions.

May 28, 2015permalink

rubank

Yeah, 1/160 sec and f/16 is a givaway. Extremely bright, eh.
:)

May 28, 2015*permalink

forpetessake

Last time I shot with Panasonic was 4 years ago. I didn't like it because of poor colors. Now 4 models later Panasonic still has the same poor colors... On the other hand they make very good rice cookers... Maybe they should stick with that.

May 28, 2015permalink

photofan1986

And if you can't shoot raw to tailor colors to your own taste, maybe you should get back to the kitchen and prepare some rice.

May 28, 2015permalink

0MitchAG

You don't even have to shoot RAW. You just fiddle with the inbuilt white balance, temperature, contrast and saturation settings until you get something you like. It takes less than 5 minutes.

May 28, 2015permalink

I have G1, Gh2 and GH4 and yu may find them "poor" of course. But they are not the same at all and especially GH4 has a very different JPG engine. I like it a lot, no more or less than my Oly EPL5 JPGs btw.

May 28, 2015permalink

maxnimo

The colors on my Nikon and Canon DSLR's used to be way off... until I learned how to set the controls properly.

May 28, 2015permalink

chj

I love Panasonic color. A slight white balance adjustment is often all I need in terms of color adjustment. Color palette is always a matter of taste. Your photos clearly favor a warm approach. Some might consider Panasonic a little dry, but the balance between the colors is excellent, no colors are favored over others. If you like warmer, simply adjust accordingly. Depending on your taste, other manufacturers could be considered overly warm and saturated in comparison.

May 28, 2015*permalink

Valiant Thor

I have a GX7 and the colors are outstanding. Panasonic's rice cookers are lined with Teflon (a cancer causing chemical). Some people are just backwards on everything.

May 28, 2015permalink

0MitchAG

Most if not all of my frypans are lined with Teflon, and it's not actually carcinogenic lol. Not sure where you read that...

May 29, 2015permalink

maxnimo

"Teflon, and it's not actually carcinogenic lol."

An excellent example of the danger of half-truth. Pure Teflon may not be toxic but when the pan gets overheated, worn and scratched you not only get a steady dose of industrial binding chemicals, but toxic aluminum as well.

May 29, 2015permalink

0MitchAG

Only after 350+ degrees Celsius hah. I think you should be more worried about the carbon you're ingesting since you've probably burned your meal. ;)

May 30, 2015permalink

These images are flat and have a cool cast. I hit some of them hard with Photoshop and achieved snap and pop. I applied White Point to remove the cast. Digital ROC was no help.

Is this a beta example?

Everybody's having a great time on a memorable sunny day.

May 28, 2015*permalink

RJPeter

No problems on my screen. Images have plenty of contrast and no cast.

May 28, 2015permalink

Thank you, RJ.

Anyone else want to have a say?

May 28, 2015permalink

rubank

There are some flat and cool pics for sure, but they are mainly with the 100-300 lens as it seems (on my screen).

May 28, 2015permalink

Thoughts R Us

Did you have a chance to test out the 4K photo mode, where you can extract stills from 4K video?

It seems to me that this is a new frontier; the ability to capture video and then extract very usable images from it.

Thanks for any insight you can give.

May 28, 2015permalink

I shot quite a bit with the 4k photo mode, but had to give the camera back before I could extract any stills. As soon as a copy arrives I'll get some extractions added to the gallery, as well as low light shots.

May 28, 2015permalink

Thoughts R Us

Thank you Sam. I can't wait to see the results of your tests.

May 28, 2015permalink

aris14

My opinion is that it was rather a lens performance abilities than a cam's. I mean that it's rather difficult in one hand to present cam's abilities and in the other hand trying to overcome the lighting situations in contrary to the needs that a motorsport is demanding. It's hard to compromise. That is why I disagree with the use of ND even if it was included in cam's specs.
I am also saying that panning is rather a rare skill in our days, panning lays in the seas of oblivion due to tech evolution of cams the last 20 years I guess.
I think that the G7 performed well overall, perhaps lenses had their role in its performance. A second shooting round is necessary, go go go Sam...

May 28, 2015permalink

Searching

You can hardly call these high octane samples, quite frankly I'm disappointed and was expecting more, these are quite average in every regard.

May 27, 2015permalink

Rishi Sanyal

OK. We won't fire him. But we'll flog him. Just for you.

May 27, 2015permalink

b craw

Searching. Perhaps the search should be for some perspective in terms of expectation.

May 28, 2015permalink

KerryBE

In every regard doesn't really tell us anything. Wondering what caught his eye or didn't.

May 28, 2015permalink

Expectation Management is a recognized business tool.

May 28, 2015permalink

Rishi Sanyal

I like how people are really afraid to like my comment. I bet they're wondering: 'If I don't like it, will he not flog Sam? I'm all for flogging but that Canon 11-24mm F4L should primarily be used as a photographic tool, you know? So yeah I think I'm going to leave that 'Like' button alone'...

May 28, 2015permalink

Henry McA

Sorry for like your comments, Rishi ;) It´s a case of (mild) OCD.

May 28, 2015permalink

@Rishi

We need 4K video of the flogging or it didn’t happen.

May 28, 2015permalink

jon404

Good seeing great pix from Indy. So many drunks! Babes! Cars! This is the kind of field test DPReview should be known for. Way to go.

May 27, 2015permalink

Kevylloyd

Is there any chance you could measure e-shutter sensor read out speed in future camera reviews? Ie the time 100th's of a second?
I'm wondering if this cam may be even faster than the GH4 in this regard, and certainly faster than most other mirrorless cameras.

May 27, 2015permalink

ThePhilips

Good subjects, good lenses = good images.

May 27, 2015permalink

norman shearer

I'm assuming the minimum iso was 200? No extended iso like the GX7 which lets you drop down to iso 125. Gotta be better than shooting at F22.
Nice shots I thought and I fully understand the attempts at injecting some sense of motion into the car shots. Much harder to pull off but better than looking at tack sharp photos of a car that looks like it is parked up!

May 27, 2015permalink

BarnET

Pack a ND filter when shooting races.

May 27, 2015permalink

^what he said.

May 27, 2015permalink

norman shearer

Better still, buy a camera that has a more user friendly base ISO to begin with. Too much focus on high ISO these days though I do understand the need to compete on specs.

May 28, 2015permalink

norman shearer

Just read the specs on Panasonic site and the G7 does have ISO 100 (extended). It also has fast shutter 1/16,000s. Also can focus down to -4EV. Eye-sensor AF. Silent mode etc.
Looks excellent on paper..

May 28, 2015permalink

BarnET

The mechanical shutter only goes to 1/4000th of a second
A electronic shutter is not useable in race events on current CMOS sensors.

Perhaps later with global shutters in modern stills camera's but that's gonna take a while.

May 28, 2015permalink

steve_hoge

Was this production firmware or pre-release? In a handful of the shots I see oversaturated blues (esp crowd shots - see the blue shirts) similar to the weird effect I experienced in "Standard" picture style on my GX-7 before I switched to the flatter "Natural" setting.

May 27, 2015permalink

(unknown member)

Thanks,
Nice mix of lenses used.

Is there any chance DPR has the new Kipon AF adapter yet and could add some Canon EF shots soon?

May 27, 2015permalink

I really liked the content of the images. However, far too many of them were simply ruined by stopping down too far. That produced motion blur, shutter shock blurring, and low detail images because of diffraction.

The person taking these pictures treated the camera like it was a full frame camera. There was absolutely no reason to stop down that far in several of the images.

No wonder everyone thinks m4/3s can’t be used for action sports. If you shoot with the camera in this manner you definitely will not have a good keeper rate.

May 27, 2015permalink

You are far better off to shoot in shutter priority mode with Auto ISO with the Panasonic m4/3s cameras and telephoto lenses. Don’t worry about the aperture so much. It isn’t full frame. You don’t need to stop down to prevent shallow depth of field quite like you do with full frame.

Just select a reasonably fast shutter speed and let the aperture and ISO float to get you your desired exposure. This works extremely well with Panasonic m4/3s cameras.

May 27, 2015permalink

"There was absolutely no reason to stop down that far in several of the images."

I assume you're referring to the passing vintage car shots, and there is a reason I stopped down that far. It was an insanely bright day, and wide-open I was getting shutter speeds in the thousands, approacing e-shutter territory, which would have had rolling shutter issues. Plus, fast shutter speeds would have just produced a static shot of the car where even the wheels are sharp. While perfect for pixel peeping, I don't think it makes a very compelling photograph of a car passing by. There's no motion, no action. It's just a car and a road. I was kicking myself for not bringing an ND filter for this reason.

Treating it like a full-frame is just speculation. I figured because I was shooting 4/3 at 16MP the impact of diffraction wouldn't be as severe as a full-frame camera, meaning the shot would still be acceptable, and would have a sense of speed to it, which is what the whole weekend was about.

May 27, 2015permalink

aekn

Samuel - so how was the shooting experience?

May 27, 2015permalink

Working on writing that up soon. In a word, it was pleasant.

May 27, 2015permalink

@Sam

I simply don’t buy your argument. The shots at F22 were at very slow shutter speeds and absolutely everything in the image was blurry including the subject. Simply using F8.0 would have resolved the issue and still kept the wheels blurry even at 1/500 of a second.

Image 27 was the worst offender. The wheels blurred so much that you really can’t even see the blur. It looks more like a solid wheel than anything. Image 27 is not an image you could sell. It is simply a mistake on the photographer’s part.

May 27, 2015permalink

AlexisH

A MFT 16MP should be treated as a 64MP FF camera in terms of diffraction effects observable at 100%. The FF camera would have an advantage because for the same print/display size, you could hide the impact of diffraction by effectively scaling down the image.

But in the end, diffraction was not the issue here, panning was. It just wasn't that effective. And that has nothing to do with sensor size, diffraction, or aperture value.

May 27, 2015permalink

It has absolutely everything to do with the aperture value. If you are panning and your speed does not quite match the subject then the faster your shutter speed is the more forgiving the image will be.

He could have completely alleviated all of the issues in image 27 simply by using a faster shutter speed. The scenery still would have been blurred by the motion of panning even at a very fast shutter speed. However, the slow shutter speed he chose made it almost impossible to get this shot and keep the subject from blurring.

May 27, 2015permalink

Welp, I guess I screwed up the panning shots then. Hopefully the rest of the gallery has suitable shots for everyone.

May 27, 2015permalink

I am not trying to single you out specifically. This thing happens every single time dpreview posts images for m4/3s cameras. I am just trying to express that this type of mistake makes it look like the camera is at fault when that isn’t necessarily the case.

I am sorry that I didn’t initially point out the good images that you took because there were some I really liked. Image 7 of the helmet was great and I really liked image 11 as well. And by coincidence both of those shots were at very fast shutter speeds.

With m4/3s you are better off erring on the side of too fast a shutter speed than having too slow a shutter speed mostly because of shutter shock issues but also because the lenses are usually very good close to wide open.

May 27, 2015permalink

And now I know it for next time I shoot m 4/3, thanks for the info!

May 27, 2015permalink

Barney Britton

@ mpgxsvcd - can I interest you in a new, easier to spell username? I have some suggestions.

May 27, 2015permalink

Photomonkey

Shutter shock had nothing to do with the blurring in these images. A pan will completely eliminate an visible shutter shock by replacing it with motion blur. The set is a good example of real world use of this camera. The very blurry image is one that I would have left out but in truth is closer to what so many get when working with the technique.

May 27, 2015permalink

Buttons252

This is how my wedding was shot years later i bought a fuji S3 camera and did portraits of my family to see if the camera was really that bad or just the photographer... I really hate going past F11 unless its a macro lens.

May 27, 2015permalink

fatdeeman

I don't understand why a few people are struggling with the concept of panning and bright lighting much less understand why staff members are apologising!.

If you want to pan successfully you need a slow shutter speed, 1/500 isn't going to cut it if you want the background to have a decent amount of motion blur. Without an ND filter to hand the only option you have to get a low enough shutter speed is to use a small aperture. The fact that they didn't come out perfect has nothing to do with the wrong settings being used, it's just that the photographer didn't quite pull it off.

Under the circumstances and with a lack of ND filters those were the correct settings to get a look that is representative of the technique, a faster shutter speed would have resulted in too little motion blur.

The idea is to use as low a shutter speed as possible, that's basically the idea with panning.

May 27, 2015permalink

@Barney

What did you have in mind? My 2nd choice would have been Turk182. Would that have been better?

May 28, 2015permalink