justgo99
Forum Enthusiast
So a couple of weeks ago I took the opportunity to get a GF7 with the free 25mm f/1.7 rebate. It would be replacing the Nikon P340 as my pocket point and shoot camera and although it isn't as pocketable as the Nikon, it's a whole lot better.
Design and ergonomics:
The design of the GF7 is; pleasant. Despite being the cheaper brother of the GM5, it still features a nice tactile faux-leather front grip and high quality plastics on the top and bottom. It's not overly-showy or terribly bland (EOS M), just pleasant. It's also a lot smaller than it looks in the pictures. Here it is compared to a Canon EOS 6D and a AA battery:
Compared to a Canon EOS 6D
And again compared to some AA batteries.
So there you go; very small indeed. This doesn't mean however that it's hard to grip or hold. In fact it's pretty easy. The small black portion on the back gives your thumb somewhere to rest and all the buttons and dials are responsive and easily to access as well. There's only one control dial at the back, which may be a worry to some, but for me I just leave it in A mode and let the top function button be my ISO button. There's no dedicated video mode on the mode dial but that isn't really an issue.
The screen is a treat. It's surprisingly easy to see outdoors which is a good thing since there's no viewfinder. It's really very crisp and detailed and tilts all the way up 180 degrees to do selfies. The touch panel is also one of the better implementations I've used.
Performance:
Performance is real good, especially coming from the Nikon P340 with its horribly laggy menus. In fact anyone coming from a fixed lens point and shoot will notice an immediate improvement in performance. The menus load briskly, there's no lag when pressing any of the buttons or adjusting the rear dial, it all just works without issue. The touch response for the screen also works swiftly when zooming in to photos or scrolling through the menu. While the burst mode isn't fantastic, I must note that the mechanical shutter is super quiet, almost silent. Compared to the one on my GH4 it's quite surreal. However it does limit the max shutter speed to 1/800s, not a real problem though since there's an e-shutter as well on here.
Autofocusing performance is also very solid. No fancy 49 point DFD system here, just the 23 point regular contrast-detect system that plain works. It's still very fast and focuses well with all my M4/3 lenses. Nothing really to complain here. Lastly the flash performance is surprisingly good, which is a good thing since there's no hot-shoe at all.
Image quality:
Well here's what's in my opinion the best part about the GF7; it takes really good photos for its size. For anyone using a 1/1.7" sensor or smaller, it blows it out of the water with way more dynamic range and much, much better high ISO performance. For anyone using 1" sensors, it still beats it out with its much larger 4/3" sensor that is still more detailed and performs better in low light. If you think about larger cameras such as the GH4, E-M1 and E-M5II, you're getting very comparable image quality with this tiny pocket camera. For stills, clean shots are good for up to ISO 1600 and even 3200 still holds up well. That's at least a stop better than any smaller sensor cameras. Also as the shutter mechanism is much quieter and uses an electronic front curtain so there's no shutter shock or blur to worry about. A really good package for portraits, landscapes and everything in between for the size.
Video Quality:
Video quality is solid, although if you want 4K it's not here. Instead it takes AVCHD 1080p up to 60 fps. The outright image quality of the video is very good; detailed and crisp as you'd expect for a Panasonic. However there are a few caveats that will sway many potential buyers towards cameras like the RX100 IV. First of all, AVCHD is still what it is. 24mbps isn't much today and there are still compression artefacts littered around if you look hard enough. Also, there's no dedicated video mode, no mic jack or headphone jack. The kit lens also doesn't have a manual focusing ring and perhaps most of all there's no actually 'manual' movie mode where you can fully adjust the exposure of the video manually. But for home videos and casual videos it really isn't bad, and for vlogs it's excellent, especially with that 180 degree rotating screen. Video AF is adequately responsive.
12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 lens review:
Since you can only get the camera with this lens, I'll include it in the review. There's not much to say about it really apart from the fact that it's actually very good. It's very compact, yet they've managed to fit some solid optics into there. Kudos to Panasonic for keeping the zooming mechanical, not electronic like so many others do. I've had horrible experiences with Sony power zooms and not so great ones with others' power zooms, so this is a great relief. The build quality is solid, and while not fast, the lens at least performs well optically, outdoing most other collapsible zooms for sharpness. However you do completely sacrifice any manual focusing capabilities with this lens. It's not an issue for me, since you can touch anywhere on the screen to focus on it, but it might matter for some. And that's it really.
Conclusion:
So should you buy one instead of, say an RX100 IV or LX100. Well, unless 4K video or a viewfinder is a must, definitely yes. An RX100 IV costs around $1000 compared to the $450 of the GF7. You could get the GF7 plus another lens or two for that money. And compared to a GM5? Well, you're paying $200 more for the latter; you're getting a touchscreen and an extra dial, but you're losing the tilting screen. Your call. What constantly amazes me though is that under that tiny body is a Micro 4/3 sensor that's capable of capturing some amazing shots with shallow depth of field and lovely colours, and for the price it's a no-brainer.
--
If you got any photography questions, give me a shout and I'll be able to help
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/124551460@N07/
500px: https://500px.com/justin7y
Design and ergonomics:
The design of the GF7 is; pleasant. Despite being the cheaper brother of the GM5, it still features a nice tactile faux-leather front grip and high quality plastics on the top and bottom. It's not overly-showy or terribly bland (EOS M), just pleasant. It's also a lot smaller than it looks in the pictures. Here it is compared to a Canon EOS 6D and a AA battery:
Compared to a Canon EOS 6D
And again compared to some AA batteries.
So there you go; very small indeed. This doesn't mean however that it's hard to grip or hold. In fact it's pretty easy. The small black portion on the back gives your thumb somewhere to rest and all the buttons and dials are responsive and easily to access as well. There's only one control dial at the back, which may be a worry to some, but for me I just leave it in A mode and let the top function button be my ISO button. There's no dedicated video mode on the mode dial but that isn't really an issue.
The screen is a treat. It's surprisingly easy to see outdoors which is a good thing since there's no viewfinder. It's really very crisp and detailed and tilts all the way up 180 degrees to do selfies. The touch panel is also one of the better implementations I've used.
Performance:
Performance is real good, especially coming from the Nikon P340 with its horribly laggy menus. In fact anyone coming from a fixed lens point and shoot will notice an immediate improvement in performance. The menus load briskly, there's no lag when pressing any of the buttons or adjusting the rear dial, it all just works without issue. The touch response for the screen also works swiftly when zooming in to photos or scrolling through the menu. While the burst mode isn't fantastic, I must note that the mechanical shutter is super quiet, almost silent. Compared to the one on my GH4 it's quite surreal. However it does limit the max shutter speed to 1/800s, not a real problem though since there's an e-shutter as well on here.
Autofocusing performance is also very solid. No fancy 49 point DFD system here, just the 23 point regular contrast-detect system that plain works. It's still very fast and focuses well with all my M4/3 lenses. Nothing really to complain here. Lastly the flash performance is surprisingly good, which is a good thing since there's no hot-shoe at all.
Image quality:
Well here's what's in my opinion the best part about the GF7; it takes really good photos for its size. For anyone using a 1/1.7" sensor or smaller, it blows it out of the water with way more dynamic range and much, much better high ISO performance. For anyone using 1" sensors, it still beats it out with its much larger 4/3" sensor that is still more detailed and performs better in low light. If you think about larger cameras such as the GH4, E-M1 and E-M5II, you're getting very comparable image quality with this tiny pocket camera. For stills, clean shots are good for up to ISO 1600 and even 3200 still holds up well. That's at least a stop better than any smaller sensor cameras. Also as the shutter mechanism is much quieter and uses an electronic front curtain so there's no shutter shock or blur to worry about. A really good package for portraits, landscapes and everything in between for the size.
Video Quality:
Video quality is solid, although if you want 4K it's not here. Instead it takes AVCHD 1080p up to 60 fps. The outright image quality of the video is very good; detailed and crisp as you'd expect for a Panasonic. However there are a few caveats that will sway many potential buyers towards cameras like the RX100 IV. First of all, AVCHD is still what it is. 24mbps isn't much today and there are still compression artefacts littered around if you look hard enough. Also, there's no dedicated video mode, no mic jack or headphone jack. The kit lens also doesn't have a manual focusing ring and perhaps most of all there's no actually 'manual' movie mode where you can fully adjust the exposure of the video manually. But for home videos and casual videos it really isn't bad, and for vlogs it's excellent, especially with that 180 degree rotating screen. Video AF is adequately responsive.
12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 lens review:
Since you can only get the camera with this lens, I'll include it in the review. There's not much to say about it really apart from the fact that it's actually very good. It's very compact, yet they've managed to fit some solid optics into there. Kudos to Panasonic for keeping the zooming mechanical, not electronic like so many others do. I've had horrible experiences with Sony power zooms and not so great ones with others' power zooms, so this is a great relief. The build quality is solid, and while not fast, the lens at least performs well optically, outdoing most other collapsible zooms for sharpness. However you do completely sacrifice any manual focusing capabilities with this lens. It's not an issue for me, since you can touch anywhere on the screen to focus on it, but it might matter for some. And that's it really.
Conclusion:
So should you buy one instead of, say an RX100 IV or LX100. Well, unless 4K video or a viewfinder is a must, definitely yes. An RX100 IV costs around $1000 compared to the $450 of the GF7. You could get the GF7 plus another lens or two for that money. And compared to a GM5? Well, you're paying $200 more for the latter; you're getting a touchscreen and an extra dial, but you're losing the tilting screen. Your call. What constantly amazes me though is that under that tiny body is a Micro 4/3 sensor that's capable of capturing some amazing shots with shallow depth of field and lovely colours, and for the price it's a no-brainer.
--
If you got any photography questions, give me a shout and I'll be able to help
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/124551460@N07/
500px: https://500px.com/justin7y
