Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3 review: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3

Photos and image samples:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3 is the first of what I hope are the Goldilocks generation of interchangeable-lens cameras (ILCs): small and fast with good-to-great photo quality that finally merits attention from point-and-shoot users looking for a compelling upgrade. (Sony has consistently delivered small bodies, but the E-mount zoom lenses are too big and heavy and there's only one pancake prime currently available.)

7.7

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3

$380 at Amazon

The Good

Relatively compact for its class, the <b>Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3</b> delivers excellent performance and good-to-great photo quality.

The Bad

It's missing features like a tilting LCD, EVF option, and stereo audio capability that some competitors offer.

The Bottom Line

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3 offers the type of performance and photo quality in a relatively small design many point-and-shoot graduates will like.

The GF3 uses the same 12-megapixel Live MOS sensor and Venus Engine FHD processor as the GF2, but incorporates some of the enhancements from the G3, including the Light Speed autofocus system and focusing options like pinpoint and a picture-in-picture navigator for manual focus. The result is very good photo quality that borders just enough on excellent to push the rating over to that side.

Like the rest of Panasonic's current generation of G-series cameras, the GF3's noise profile and JPEG processing is much better than before and it does a nice job on midrange ISO sensitivities (ISO 400-ISO 800). That said, the JPEGs aren't uniformly great; in our testing, even shots at ISO 160 had some noise in shadow areas, and Panasonic's postprocessing makes out-of-focus areas look a bit mushy rather than naturally blurred. However, that should only affect you if you plan to retouch the images--in that case you should shoot raw and you'll get better results under all circumstances. When printed as-is up to 16x12, you don't see any of the artifacts. (Because of the lack of a codec for Adobe Camera Raw, I was unable to make any raw quality comparisons or judgments.)

The GF3 has a little trouble accurately reproducing intense colors in bright light, especially purples and reds. But the colors are pleasing overall, the tonal reproduction looks good--save some clipping in bright highlights--and you can always shoot raw (or try the Neutral Photo Style) for better accuracy. In general, the default standard Photo Style works well: it pushes saturation and contrast just a touch. Vivid pushes so much color detail clips, and Natural and Scenery are very close to each other, which is nice.

The video quality is suitable for consumer clips, the autoexposure and AF work well, and there aren't a lot of artifacts. But given the lack of exposure controls, mono sound with no mic support, and low bit rate, it's not a camera to buy for cheap video experimentation.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3 photo samples

The 14mm Panasonic kit lens (28mm equivalent) isn't one of my favorite Micro Four Thirds offerings, but it's a competent starter lens. (Panasonic plans to release the kit with the 14-42mm lens in August.) Panasonic performs in-camera distortion control, and in my shots with the 14mm it seems like Panasonic has nailed the algorithm--there's still a slight bit of barrel distortion, enough so that lines don't look artificially straight. It delivers solid center sharpness and the GF3's JPEG algorithm doesn't oversharpen, so you get a nice naturally sharp feel to the images.

The GF3 is really fast for its price and size class; in fact, for nonburst shooting it's faster than the its larger, more expensive sibling the G3, effectively as fast or faster than the larger Sony Alpha SLT-A35, and just plain faster than almost all the nondSLR cameras we've seen in a couple years. And while it can't outburst the A35, it does outdo the comparably priced dSLRs like the Canon EOS Rebel T3 and Nikon D3100. It powers on and shoots in just under 0.6 second, which isn't spectacular, but fine for its class. Shot lag in good light--the time it takes to focus and shoot--runs 0.3 second. That increases to 0.6 second in lower-contrast light. Time to shoot two sequential photos is 0.6 second regardless of format. Flash recycling time bumps that to 1.6 seconds, which is still comparatively good. At a 3.9fps continuous shooting rate, you won't catch any really fast sports action, but the AF system and throughput will certainly get you a lot more than you could have with a comparably sized point-and-shoot or similarly priced dSLR.

Compared with larger cameras, though, battery life isn't great. And the lack of a viewfinder--or even the option for one--makes life a little difficult. The touch-screen LCD gets hard to view in direct sunlight.

Like the GF2, the GF3 has a combination touch screen and traditional button interface, but Panasonic has replaced the discrete four-way nav buttons and jog dial with a more point-and-shoot-like combination button/dial. To prevent accidentally scrolling your way into bizarre settings, the wheel ignores the first couple of turns before activation. I'm torn about the implementation. I think it's necessary to accident-proof the scroll wheel--heaven knows I have enough of them--but when you're trying to adjust shutter speed or aperture, that lag can get disorienting and make you overshoot.

Some people may find the GF3 a little too small, but it felt reasonably comfortable to me, thanks to the relatively thick body and small grip. You should definitely try before you buy, though, to make sure you like it.

The camera feels solid and well-built, even a bit heavy, though it's the lightest in its class thus far. It's substantially smaller than the GF2, and Panasonic achieved that primarily by dropping the hot shoe and EVF connector, and moving the pop-up flash to sit directly over the lens. The flash is cleverly designed; you can tilt it back (and hold it) to bounce or simply as a quick way to reduce the intensity.

Also on the top of the camera is the iA (intelligent auto) button, which provides a quick way to jump in and out of auto mode. You have to switch between that and the slightly more advanced iA+ mode, which gives you a few beyond-basic controls over exposure and depth of field, via the virtual mode dial. If you're upgrading from a point-and-shoot, Panasonic's iA+ mode will serve you well. But as with all autofocus systems, its completely automatic AF (23-area) makes poor guesses about the subject of the photo.

A small movie record button sits to the right of the shutter; it's a little too small and difficult to feel, but if you shoot a lot of video you can get used to it.

The back has a defined indentation for your thumb that could use a bit more grippiness--it and the grip feel a little too slippery. A thumbwheel controls scrolling and shooting settings like aperture and shutter speed, while the four-way navigation buttons it circumscribes offer direct access to exposure compensation, white balance, drive mode, and autofocus mode (face detection, tracking, 23-area, 1-area, and pinpoint). The Pinpoint focus basically allows you autofocus with pixel-level accuracy. But I tend to use it as a general AF mode because it pops up a magnified area as a visual aid, just like in manual focus. The center button brings up the menus. Buttons on the back include a too-flat-to-feel and hard-to-see playback and Quick Menu.

As with its contemporary Panasonic models, the GF3 has a well-designed interface that can function via the touch screen or using the navigational controls. I especially like how you can customize which options appear on the Quick Menu, either in advance or on the fly. The camera also supports three sets of custom settings, though Panasonic uses it to save operational settings plus exposure mode (for example, aperture-priority) rather than shooting settings, which I find a lot less useful.

Shooting modes include the usual PASM, plus two full and semiautomatic, scene modes, and Creative Control, Panasonic's special effects modes. There's a complete set of useful manual features for shooting stills, though nothing particularly noteworthy or unique. The video controls are limited. Instead of standard control over shutter speed you have to choose among a few options--1/50 sec, 1/60 sec, 1/100 sec, or 1/120 sec--which live under Flicker Reduction settings.

Conclusion
I really like the GF3 as a step-up model; longtime dSLR users will probably find it too small and constraining without an EVF, but for point-and-shoot graduates the size should feel comfortable and you'll gain the speed and quality boost you're looking for. Though it gets bigger with the zoom kit lens, it's still a lighter and ultimately smaller combination than Sony's NEX models. However, the NEX and forthcoming Olympus E-PL3's tilting LCDs may make those options compelling alternatives.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

0.6

0.6

0.6

0.6

0.3

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3

0.9

0.7

0.6

0.7

0.4

Olympus PEN E-PL2

0.8

1.4

1.3

0.7

0.4

Sony Alpha NEX-C3

0.7

0.8

0.8

0.8

0.4

Sony Alpha NEX-5

0.4

0.9

0.9

0.8

0.4

Samsung NX100

1.1

1.5

1.4

0.8

0.4