Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2
- Category: Digital Cameras
March 10, 2011
Editor's Rating
- Comfortable to hold
- Excellent video quality
- Speedy performance
- Tilting fold-out touchscreen
- Interchangeable lenses
- No optical viewfinder
- No image stabilization
- Only average image quality
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 is a 16-megapixel entry-level DSLR digital camera that has interchangeable lenses and a tilt-out 3-inch touchscreen LCD. It takes excellent HD videos and good images too, but the video quality is definitely one of the best we've ever seen.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 measures 4.9 x 3.5 x 3-inches (whd) and weighs just short of 14-ounces, which is a little more compact than other comparable DSLRs, but it's definitely not a pocket-camera. The camera's design makes it very comfortable to use and hold for any size hands. The camera's weight is very balanced and the ergonomic handgrip makes it extremely easy to hold.
Panasonic includes a 3-inch touchscreen that flips out and tilts for easier viewing and and a unique experience. The screen is very sensitive and responds well to the average touch. In addition to the hardware controls, users can touch the screen while framing their shot to focus on the subject. The backside also has many buttons, including a navigation pad and several menu/feature buttons. The top of the camera is rather intimidating, but it isn't too bad once you've figured it out. There is a mode dial, dedicated video record button, zoom toggle and an accessory hot shoe.
Unfortunately, there is no optical viewfinder, which causes you to have to use the LCD display to frame your shots. This might turn some people off, but for most, it won't.
On the left side, there are two doors, one that covers a port for a remote shutter control or external microphone and the other covers the HDMI-out and A/V-out ports. On the other side of the camera, there is another door for the SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card slot and the bottom houses the battery and tripod mount.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 is full of really advanced features for an entry-level DSLR camera. There are plenty of manual controls, including aperture and shutter priority modes, a very wide ISO range (160-12800), a wide range of focus areas and RAW/JPEG image shooting. There is also a large set of scene modes and a fully automatic mode for the casual photographers that want a more "professional" camera. There is no in-body image stabilization, which does result in some issues with moving shots.
Some of the camera's specifications include a 16.1-megapixel Live MOS sensor, a 3x optical zoom with a aperture range of f/3.5-5.6 and a focal length of 14-42mm. You can use interchangeable lenses with this camera, which provides even more of a professional touch.
Focusing by using the touchscreen works quite well and is very fast too. What's also fast is the start up to first shot and between shot times. From power on to first shot took only about 1 second and between shot times were very quick too. Speed is definitely a big pro of this camera.
Image quality of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 is quite good, but nothing magnificent. In subjective testing, the quality earned a good to very good rating. While using the automatic mode (which was used for testing), some images had some dull colors. However when using the manual settings, image quality improved.
Videos can be shot at a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080-pixels at 60 frames per second, which is 1080p high-definition resolution. This camera delivered perhaps the best video that we've seen from a camera in this category. The quality was excellent in subjective testing for both low and well-lit environments. All of the zooming, focusing and other manual controls are available for use while shooting video. The camera also allows you to edit videos and add some basic effects to them too.
