Review: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1
January 20, 2012 6 Comments
A short, sharp review of the GX1, Panasonic’s mirrorless system camera for the discerning enthusiast. Tested alongside the Sony NEX-5N to see which one comes out on top. View at 1080p to see sample shots at 1:1 pixel ratio.
Visit Expert Reviews for a longer review of the GX1.
Visit Panasonic for full specs.
Short Sharp Reviews 
I wish every review was as Short and Sharp as yours, thank you! The GX1 looks like a great camera with it’s compact zoom. One of those and the Lumix 20mm f/1.7 makes a pretty excellent kit without breaking the bank or your back.
Hi, thanks for the excelent reviews. Still cant decide between the GX1 and NEX-5N.
GX1 – more lenses, better control and ergonomy (from my point of view), better autofocus, built-in flash, slim zoom lens
NEX-5N – better quality of video and photos,lower noise level, tilting display with higher resolution.
Help me out, please…!! 🙂
That’s a good summary, and I would struggle to choose between them.
My advice is, if video is important and you want to get creative with video capture, go for the Sony. Otherwise go for the Panasonic. The Sony has less noise in low light but it’s slower to focus, so those two cancel each other out.
Thank you. In the end I got myself NEX.
And I dont regret. Nevertheless, I believe I wouldnt even I got GX1 though :-).
Pictures and video quality is superb, also I like sound of video recorded very much.
Ergonomy of camera is not the best but its ok, I wouldnt recommend it to the people with bigger hands though. Menu settings can be confusing sometimes, but I guess its just a matter of time when you get use to it.
Bye and thanks.
How much can help Lumix 20mm f/1.7 to GX1 in low light? Perhaps potential matches?
Thank you!
The 20mm f/1.7 is a great lens (I use it on a Panasonic GH1 to make these videos) – and yes, it makes a big difference in low light. f/1.7 is roughly four times brighter than f/3.5, so you can drop the ISO speed from, say, 3200 to 800 and still shoot at the same shutter speed. However, this lens doesn’t have stabilisation so that removes some of the advantage. It’s also quite noisy when focusing – I always use manual focus for video recording to avoid spoiling the soundtrack.