Neither fish nor flesh, not my cup of tea

As a major Panasonic TZ10 compact camera fan and while followers of SLR, I was hot, finally try a Panasonic camera Micro Four Thirds system. I was very happy about the development of spiegelosen systems in recent years. I was transfixed on who manages to combine the benefits of digital photography with those of the good old SLR. And who makes the drawbacks left out, and who at the same time happy to photographers with innovative improvements that are made possible by these new systems? Well, the Panasonic DMC-G5 combines both worlds basically very good, but to be honest, the G5 is still for me not: Too big for me are the deficits in housing, with the image quality and in the feature set.

That struck me positively:

++ Extremely light. The camera is a true featherweight, you can wear them through the area without getting back tension.
++ Very small for a camera with interchangeable lens. Because even more lenses fit into the pocket. Together with the low weight, the camera is perfect for marches.
++ Despite the small size and feather weight, the G5 is very good in my (rather large) man's hand.
++ Super Quiet and fast autofocus. This is remarkable, because Four Thirds cameras like the DMC-G5 measure in principle by contrast autofocus on the image sensor, which is generally regarded as slow. This is usually one of the biggest drawbacks of Four Thirds cameras. Not here. Panasonic has actually managed to make it really fast. That must be pure processor compute power.
++ The G5 triggers logically from fix!
+ A sun hood is the standard lens
+ The mode dial and the buttons act cleaned up; the housing is not cluttered with ads and buttons.
+ The tripod socket is located at the optical center
+ Optical Image Stabilizer available
+ Auto Exposure Bracketing, up to 7 shots and sufficiently variable aperture spacing
+ There is an extremely fast continuous shooting (up to 20 JPGs / 9 RAW; I have not counted, but it really is the most rapid what I experienced). But at this speed only 4 megapixel large images are saved, also AWB and my impression is also the AF are not adjusted on the subsequent screens. But with full 16 megapixels there are still 6 frames per second (not verified by me).
+ The viewfinder I find very good for an electronic viewfinder. He also, after all, about 1.4 million pixels. He goes on automatically when the eye approaches the viewfinder, and it also helps in the dark.
+ The mode dial has two Custom modes, you can assign a scene mode of their choice (eg sports shooting), what I like to use.
+ The most important image settings with buttons, wheels and sliders to reach and change. Occupancy and display are cleverly solved. Like.

Rather neutral I see:

o Set the Scene mode I find fundamentally practical. 23 scene modes are included, including several tlw. Portraitmodi exaggerated and more for moving subjects (without I realize what the differences are). The Panasonic Lumix TZ10 I use scene modes from time to time, they deliver but often very good settings for the scene (sometimes but they also shoot over the top). But: The control via a photo carousel I find mega confusing. I just need to, until I have found the desired scene mode. Here was apparently trying to cramp, porting operating concepts of smartphones. That's for my taste too much of a good thing. One uses the carousel via the touchscreen, I find it especially annoying because the controller does not run smoothly, easily and sensitive enough goes out of hand.
o The addition of Intelligent Auto (iA) to a Plus version (iA +), in which you can still change the exposure and the color and defocusing can I find puzzling and quite unnecessary. Is somehow an intermediate stage between IA and P. A color correction when shooting I will hardly make (rather then in the post). And for an aperture correction, it is sufficient to resort to the Program AE P, for defocusing are accessed otherwise the automatic Aperture priority or selects an appropriate scene mode. So come meet the iA + probably the layman who is traveling with more compact cameras else. Annoying I think also that you can switch between iA and iA + only via the menu. Ever: What is the extra button for IA? Normally would iA and iA + repealed but fine in the mode dial.
o The photos are 16 megapixel size. This can be good or bad, see, much or little. My Sony SLT-A65 has 24 megapixels on an APS-C sensor, ok, I can still choose beautiful detailed image sections. But actually would hand me 10 MP completely and save space when it noise and image quality are top. The Panasonic G5 with her little FourThirds sensor would be - so my impression - have been less is more, because of details and noise I find improvable.
o An HDR function is available that automatically composed an HDR image. But only 3 fixed images, being able to choose without aperture spacing, and only via the menu on or switched off.
o Video recording in Full HD format 50p are possible (AVCHD and MP4), I have not tested, and I use even rarely (and for me is therefore not very relevant).
o The G5 can store pictures in RAW format, as JPG or both.

That I do not like:

- The buttons are made of "plastic", they have a bad pressure point, and also the mode dial seems cheap and hakelig on me. The 4-way rocker is the sad climax, because it is not just cheap plastic and a bad pressure point has, but because their labeling is hard to read. I would like, if I'm willing to pay so much money for a camera, do not have. So the camera is not my friend, though the service is not fun. Nobody looks at the Panasonic in the development of?
- The lens is also pure plastic. The zooming ring is set sluggish and imprecise. Since you already almost ashamed, so to show a camera in public.
- The DMC-G5 has no panorama function. Neither a support to overlapping to shoot multiple images with identical settings to even assemble at Stitcher, nor a function that itself automatically done or even a hands-free panorama shooting the. Nix. Nope. Who or similar hands-free Panorama automation of the Sony Alpha 65 knows, this is love. I'm doing it anyway.
- The range of focal lengths (14-42 corresponds to 28-84 KB) of the kit lens is not the Burner, I come so anyway in everyday use neither downwards nor upwards with out.
- Though the camera has a nice display 920,000 pixels (3 inches) with touch screen function. It is large and provides a good image. I found it hard to grip and hakelig when it is closed. Is it opened sideways, you can rotate it around its axis. Attractive I find the innovative ability to select the Basic Zone, to be focused on, such as a face. But in practice it is so unwieldy that I have not used it or that the person is unnerved lapse of waiting in Rigid ... Because the display is not capacitive like the current smartphones, but resistive, ie responds to pressure. I found it sluggish and imprecise. It's not far, what we know of smartphones ago. To press on a face, you have to handle already sent: You have to hold the camera so that the face is not in the image area, hold the camera so that it does not slip out of your hand when you press, and with the left hand face meet on the screen ... And otherwise I came with the buttons faster to the goal. Overall, it has been bugging me. That things can be different, eg Canon shows at its mid-size DSLR EOS 650D, there makes the smooth intuitive touch operation incl. Two-finger gestures fun.
- The G5 has no GPS receiver
- The menu I found to be confusing and poorly navigable

Picture impressions:

I have the image quality does not extensively tested, because the camera is with me already flunked in handling and the other deficits. For me it was already clear that I do not want to work with the DMC-G5, no matter how good or bad the photos. Completely subjective to me but noticed when trying out:

* The camera takes good photos in principle, I had brought no real dropouts.
* The Green Garden in recordings mE is sometimes fed and artificially
* Skin tones look natural
* For available light I get good, sharp images
* Actual resolution falls short of my personal reference model, the Sony Alpha 65, significantly.
* High-speed continuous shooting: It is recorded with a lower resolution (4 MP). In my test series noise is clearly recognizable. White balance and AF seem determined fixed by the 1st image.
* In case of bad light / flash: noticeable noise in the dark areas, ausgefranzte lines, not exactly in focus
* When a still life Recording: yellow / orange I found a bit dull. The motive was not very sharp.
* The depth of field is good, but not quite as good as with the A65
* The wide-angle end at 28 in small picture format. I have often found that it is a decisive win when you can go up to 24/25.

Classification of the camera type:

The Panasonic DMC-G5 is a Micro Four Thirds system camera.
It thus has a Four Thirds Live MOS sensor, which is much smaller than the small picture format (half inch) and is also smaller than APS-C sensors, as they are type-safe as otherwise installed in entry-level SLR digital cameras and removable lens system cameras , This is usually at the expense of image quality (depending on how many megapixels are squeezed onto the sensor and how the processing capabilities are).
The camera is unwitnessed, there are no doors, the Live View runs consistently.
The viewfinder shows the true picture as Live View, on the image sensor so that electronic and non-optical.
There comes a contrast AF is used, which is usually accurate, but slow, but here, amazingly, is extremely quick.
The Crop factor is. 2
The depth of field is thus correspondingly longer (compared to cameras with a smaller crop factor); working with depth of field so that a little more difficult.

Equipment features:

* Body
* Kit lens 1: 3.5-5.6 / 14-42 (equivalent to 28-84 KB), diameter 52 mm, smallest aperture 22
* Battery
* Charger
* Sun Lens Hood
* USB cable, only 2.0
* Software
* Belt
* Printed quick-guide, enough to get you started if you know your way around. The full manual is available on CD.

Selected other features that have not yet mentioned:

* HDMI
* Memory Card Format: SDXC I to 64GB, Class 4 min.
* Has a dedicated flash and a hot shoe
* Shutter speed up to 1 / 4000s
* Available recording formats: 4: 3, 3: 2, 16: 9, 1: 1

Conclusion:

I will not warm with the G5: It looks cheap, the service does not convince me, the performance is not good enough for me (HDR, lack of Panorama, the quality at twilight and respect color, sharpness and details). A slight exaggeration: Somehow, the G5 is a TZ10 compact camera, only worse, but with additional useful wheels and buttons and with an interchangeable lens. The G5 is useful if you need to keep weight and size small and simultaneously wants to change lenses. Otherwise, I guess other system cameras, especially the Sony Alpha series to watch times, or to take up a real DSLR with sacrificing the digital features.