G7, a big leap for a GF3 user

When I bought my first m43 camera a few years ago, I was stepping up from a Panasonic travel zoom, and just dipping my toe into the world of interchangeable lenses and larger sensors. As such, I chose a camera that I thought would be comfortable for me as I made that shift, namely the Panasonic GF3.

After two or three years I outgrew that camera in a variety of ways and so I was ready for a step up. Not being the type of person who can purchase a new camera every year, I've bided my time waiting for something that represents a major leap over my GF3. I believe the G7 is that leap.

There are basically three big improvements that I was hoping to get out of this camera:

1. Improved sensor with better low light performance and more resolution
2. Improved focus, especially C-AF with DFD
3. Better ergonomics and options for control points.

Sensor

Although many on these forums complain about the out-dated 16MP m43 sensor, it's a big step up for me from the 12MP sensor of the GF3. The difference in low-light performance is also huge. The current generation sensors have been around for a couple of years and they all have basically the same performance in this area, but my GF3 was way behind. Take this ISO 3200 shot that I took Sunday evening after I bought the camera:

Straight OOC JPEG

This image would have been a complete muddy mess with the GF3. ISO 3200 was my emergency mode. With the G7 I have no problems using ISO 3200, and 6400 is fine in a pinch. Overall, I wouldn't be surprised to have picked up almost two stops of performance going from the GF3 to the G7.

Focus Performance

For single AF the GF3 was honestly pretty good. It was one of the first generations of m43 cameras that started to compete favorably with DSLRs for single AF. That doesn't mean the G7 isn't an improvement, it is. Where it really shines, however, is in continuous AF. Although I haven't had a chance to do extensive tests of my own, my first impressions mirror what DPReview says, which is that the G7 is now on par with mid-range DSLRs for continuous auto-focus performance. As someone who is an avid photographer of birds, animals, and other moving subjects, I hope to put this feature to good use.

Ergonomics and Use

Here's where I'm seeing a radical difference from the GF3, as you might expect as these are two very difference cameras. The GF3 was the camera I chose when I was move from a point and shoot camera. It's interface is easy to learn, and it's small size allow me to stick it in a coat pocket if necessary. What I've learned over the past four years is that a simple interface isn't necessarily the most effective one, and that I never put my camera in my coat pocket.

With that experience in mind, I opted for the G7 because it will allow me to quickly access almost every function I will need on a day to day basis. It did take me about half an hour to get everything set up the way I want, and I'm sure I'll make adjustments as I use it more, but unlike the GF3, I'll never have to go diving into the menu system to access a function while the action is happening in front of me.

I won't go through every button and option, but some highlights that I am very much going to value:

• The dual dials. I actually don't like their default setup, but I switched the rear dial to always control exposure compensation, and the front dials will control aperture/shutter as necessary. I never use full manual mode, so no worries there. Shooting in Aperture priority, my standard mode, is now a dream.
• The focus switch is incredibly useful, which I never would have thought shooting with my GF3, but I use it constantly now to move between the three focus modes, all of which I've used.
• Although it may cause some people to gasp, as someone who like to photograph birds, reach is paramount, which means I sometimes use digital zoom. Thankfully, one of the things that has improved a lot over the past four years is digital zoom performance, and I have that function mapped to the FN1 button for easy access. My walk around lens is the 45-200, and when that isn't enough I can double it easily with the press of a button.

The Bad

Of course, no camera is perfect, here are some items I wish were better:

• The strap, as expected is not great. When I used the GF3, which is much lighter, I lived with it, but for the G7 I've decided to invest in a sling. I've ordered one  and will let people know how it turns out.
• Wi-Fi has been a disaster. It's not intuitive at all, I set it up and got it going, but then disconnected and couldn't get connected again. Even when it was connected the app is an interface disaster. This is a major fail on Panasonic's part.
• The button in the center of the back dial is very difficult for me to reach. By default it's supposed to let you switch your dials to control ISO and WB. In practice, I found it much easier to use the dedicated buttons on the back to access those functions rather than try to twist and press that button. Perhaps people with bigger hands and longer fingers will do better. In the meantime I've reassigned that button to bracketing, which I will want to access every once in a while, but not all the time.
• I turned off the on-screen tabs, between the buttons and the Q-menu, which I customized, I can get to almost everything without them, and I prefer not to clutter up my display any more than it already is.

Conclusion

Overall I'm very pleased with the G7, as you may have gathered. It's not the perfect camera, but it's a big improvement for me and it addresses many of the things I wanted to improve from the GF3. I haven't even talked about 4k and 4k photo, which are both features that I look forward to exploring. I've also started to use a viewfinder for the first time as a photographer, and have found it to be very helpful in certain circumstances. This will likely be my main camera for the next four to five years, and I feel like I picked a model that will serve me well during that time.

Now, just need to pick up a couple more lenses...

Thanks!

Thanks for the good review.  I too bought a G7 and am very happy with it.  All the physical controls was my main reason for buying it, as I despise having to menu dive while working with a camera.  The 2nd control wheel, plus focus peaking, zebras and electronic shutter, combined with the excellent sensor, much better EVF, and improved AF make the G7 an outstanding value.  This degree of control was previously only available on the more expensive GH cameras, which are also bigger and heavier.

Clayton

I agree! Having the photo quality of the GH4 in an affordable body is such a value! I was sorely tempted by many cameras over the past year or two, but I wanted to wait until Panasonic's higher end features were finally available in more affordable bodies, which is exactly what the G7 is.

Also had GF3 (which is now my back up). When I bought GX1, I already felt the material upgrade from IQ to better ergonomics etc. Recently upgraded to GX7, the improvement is still very significant not only in IQ, but also a lot of features added in last 2 years as well as small improvement here and there.

Happy to know you has a good camera and enjoy it.

The Bad

Of course, no camera is perfect, here are some items I wish were better:

• The strap, as expected is not great. When I used the GF3, which is much lighter, I lived with it, but for the G7 I've decided to invest in a sling. I've ordered one and will let people know how it turns out.
• Wi-Fi has been a disaster. It's not intuitive at all, I set it up and got it going, but then disconnected and couldn't get connected again. Even when it was connected the app is an interface disaster. This is a major fail on Panasonic's part.

Regarding wifi, I wonder had you connected G7 to your Phone/tablet. It should be easy and strict forward. Just following the in-camera instruction I could connect GX7 to my Android Phone without trouble (most general control like zoom action of PZ lenses, parameters setting, AF mode, Metering mode, burst/timer etc etc could all be controlled by phone/tablet, as well as file transfer). Its also easy to connect GX7 to Windows Phone (just limited to Jepg transfer). The wifi connection generally were quite reliable.

When connected to PC, although I managed to set up the wifi connection, I couldn't transfer images to my Windows 7 PC (failure a few times) and as GX7 requires me to input password every time for connection (very trouble to do so), I eventually gave up.

Not sure your experience on which part of wifi connection?

• The button in the center of the back dial is very difficult for me to reach. By default it's supposed to let you switch your dials to control ISO and WB. In practice, I found it much easier to use the dedicated buttons on the back to access those functions rather than try to twist and press that button. Perhaps people with bigger hands and longer fingers will do better. In the meantime I've reassigned that button to bracketing, which I will want to access every once in a while, but not all the time.
• I turned off the on-screen tabs, between the buttons and the Q-menu, which I customized, I can get to almost everything without them, and I prefer not to clutter up my display any more than it already is.

Conclusion

Overall I'm very pleased with the G7, as you may have gathered. It's not the perfect camera, but it's a big improvement for me and it addresses many of the things I wanted to improve from the GF3. I haven't even talked about 4k and 4k photo, which are both features that I look forward to exploring. I've also started to use a viewfinder for the first time as a photographer, and have found it to be very helpful in certain circumstances. This will likely be my main camera for the next four to five years, and I feel like I picked a model that will serve me well during that time.

Now, just need to pick up a couple more lenses...

Thanks for your information.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions about Wi-Fi. I must admit it was late on a Sunday night when I tried to set it up with my iPhone, so perhaps I wasn't as alert as I could have been. I'll give it another shot.

Mebpenguin wrote:

I agree! Having the photo quality of the GH4 in an affordable body is such a value! I was sorely tempted by many cameras over the past year or two, but I wanted to wait until Panasonic's higher end features were finally available in more affordable bodies, which is exactly what the G7 is.

As a second body to use with the larger Panny MFT lenses, the G7 is a "no brainer" choice for someone that doesn't already own a GH4.