Base / Tripod Mount

The G1 has a metal tripod mount, which should reduce concerns about stripping its thread. It's perfectly lined up with the lens but the camera is so small that you can give up on the idea of changing batteries with most tripod plates attached.

Pop-up Flash

The G1's rather small flash has a Guide Number of just 10.5, rather than the 12 or 13 we're used to seeing on entry-level DSLRs. The G1's tiny kit lens means that, even though the flash doesn't pop up very far, there's little risk of it casting shadows into your photos unless you use the lens hood at the same time.

AF Assist

The G1 has a small orange lamp on its left shoulder, meaning you don't have to flip the flash to gain focus in low light. It's not the most discreet solution but it's less disturbing than having a strobing flash pointed at you.

Flash Hot-shoe

The G1 includes a hot shoe that will work with the DMW- FL360, DMW-FL500 and new DMW-FL220 flash unit.

Lens Mount

The G1 is the first camera to make use of the new, miniaturized Micro Four Thirds mount. Remove the lens and you'll be confronted with an exposed sensor - it's of the familiar Four Thirds size but rather disconcerting to see it in the nude. The focal plane shutter stays open until the point an exposure is made.

The sensor is of conventional Four Thirds size but is left exposed when the lens is removed. Panasonic appears to have concluded that the low-pass filter assembly in front of the sensor is more resilient than the shutter mechanism. It'll be interesting to see if this practice continues or other designs introduce some kind of Safety Curtain that activates when the lens is removed (though it could be that we're worrying too much).

Shutter Release Sound

In some of our digital SLR reviews we now provide a sound recording of a continuous burst of shots. Below you can see waveforms of a recording made of the Panasonic G1 shooting continuously JPEG Normal for 30 seconds. The storage card used was a 8 GB SanDisk Extreme III SD card.

JPEG continuous, 30 seconds

Panasonic DMC-G1 JPEG continuous 30 seconds; MP3 304 KB

Supplied In the Box

The G1 will initially be available as a kit with the Lumix G Vario 14 - 45 mm F3.5 - F5.6 ASPH.Mega O.I.S lens. The G1K kit, shown here, is the black version. The camera is also available in red or blue.

The DMC G1 kit is supplied as:

  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 body
  • Lumix G Vario 14 - 45 mm F3.5 - F5.6 ASPH.Mega OIS lens
  • BLB13PP Lithium-Ion battery pack
  • DE-A49B battery charger
  • AC cable
  • Video cable
  • USB connection cable
  • Software CD
  • Strap
  • Lens hood
  • Lens cap
  • Lens rear cap
  • Lens storage bag
  • Body cap
  • Manuals