Panasonic G3 Review

Overview

Panasonic G3 Review

by Shawn Barnett, Dave Etchells, Zig Weidelich, and Mike Tomkins
Preview: 05/12/2011
Review: 09/07/2011

Anticipating more competition in the Compact System Camera space, Panasonic has revamped its G-series camera line, making a much smaller and lighter body that still integrates highly valued features, like an electronic viewfinder, a tilt-swivel LCD, and touchscreen control. Incorporating a new 16-megapixel sensor, Panasonic's Lumix G3 also has significantly improved image quality, now rivaling larger SLRs with larger sensors, an impressive achievement.

Incorporating a faster Venus Engine FHD processor, the Panasonic G3 has blazing fast autofocus, another impressive feature that makes using the G3 feel just like an SLR. Indeed, the Panasonic G3 feels more like an SLR than most any other compact system camera, only a very small one.

In addition to 15.8-megapixel stills of impressive quality, the Panasonic G3 can capture 1,920 x 1080 Full HD video at 30fps in AVCHD mode, and can also record Motion JPEG movies at 720p.

New features include Pinpoint AF, a touchscreen-enabled focus mode that automatically zooms in on a point to make focus point selection and confirmation easier and more precise.

Compatible with a growing selection of Micro Four Thirds lenses, the Panasonic G3 is just as adaptable to most shooting situations as an SLR. The company's 11 lenses include macro, wide-angle, telephoto zooms, and even a 3D lens. Many other lenses are available from other manufacturers.

The Panasonic G3 includes dust reduction technology, Intelligent Automatic exposure, the full complement of automatic, semi-auto, and manual exposure modes, and its kit lens includes optical image stabilization.

Expected to ship in June 2011, the Panasonic G3 will be available with the 14-42mm kit lens for a suggested retail price of US$699. The Panasonic G3's aluminum body comes in four colors: black, red, white, and brown.

There's a lot more to the Panasonic G3 than its small body reveals at a glance. Check out our hands-on preview and shooter's report below!

Panasonic G3
Hands-on Preview

Smaller, lighter, and faster: all three made the list of what we wanted from the next Panasonic G-series compact system camera, and the Panasonic G3 delivers. With the exception of the GF series, all Panasonic G models were too large to stand out from entry-level SLRs. The Panasonic G3, on the other hand, rivals the Olympus E-PL2 in size, yet it still includes an electronic viewfinder (EVF). That's exciting news for mirrorless camera lovers.

More exciting, the Panasonic G3 delivers something else: excellent image quality that rivals its APS-C competition.

Sporting a new 16-megapixel sensor, a 3-inch articulating LCD, and the same processor as the high-powered GH2, the Panasonic G3 is quite capable, yet it's about 6% lighter than the G2, and its body displaces about 25% less volume than its predecessor. While the G2 was 400 cubic centimeters, the G3 occupies only about 300cc. For those of us still using US weights, the 100cc difference equals 6.1 cubic inches of reduction. Not bad at all. Measurements are 4.5 x 3.3 x 1.8 inches (115 x 84 x 47mm), and weight is 20.6 ounces (583g), while the G2 was 4.9 x 3.3 x 2.9 inches (124 x 84 x 74mm) and 21.8 ounces (618g) (all weights include battery and kit lens).

The front end shows how dramatically the grip has been reduced, as well as the overall width. It's more of a finger grip now, with a nice inward curve and soft rubber texture that caresses the fingers. An AF-assist lamp appears in the upper right corner, a handy feature missing on many digital SLRs.

The Panasonic G3 is noticeably slimmer front to back as well, even with the articulating LCD, showing some impressive engineering here. Lens styling has changed a little for this model, to an all black design with a new chrome band around the middle, rather than the silver-gray rear bezel that shipped with the G2. Like the G2, the lens-side bayonet is plastic, though the camera's mount remains metal. The kit lens also comes with a lens hood, something omitted on most SLR kit lenses.

Most of the dials and switches are removed from the top deck, and the Mode dial is smaller with fewer settings, eight instead of 13. The hot shoe on the Panasonic G3 is also moved back quite a bit, now overhanging the LCD to make room for the stereo mics, which are absent on the G2 (it has a mono mic on the left top deck), and rather awkwardly mounted on the pop-up flash on the GH2. While the shutter button was perched out on the grip on past models, it's retreated to the confines of the top deck, leaving little room for a Record button, so that migrates once again to the rear of the Panasonic G3 (Panasonic recently moved the Record button to the top on most of its cameras, and now it's moving again). The Intelligent Auto button lights up blue when pressed, and unfortunately it's too often pressed by accident. The Power switch is well-positioned for easy activation.

On the back is the very tightly integrated tilt/swivel LCD, with a much smaller hinge and outer bezel, leaving just enough room on the upper right for a small thumbgrip that's just big enough for the center of the thumb to hold without activating the Rear dial (if you're careful). The LCD moves 180 degrees to the side and swivels 270 degress up and down, allowing it to face forward for easy self portraits.

The DISP./Fn1 button is also flush with the body, reducing the chance of accidental activation. Gone is the AF/AE Lock button, something many will miss. You can set the Fn1 button to activate AF/AE Lock, Depth-of-field Preview, or 15 other features, so it's not a total loss.

Pressing the Rear dial switches between Program shift (in Program mode) and EV compensation. In Manual exposure mode, pressing the dial switches between shutter speed and aperture settings.

The Record button on the back requires a good firm press to activate, which is somewhat annoying, since recording is slow to both start and stop. The Playback button is also hard to activate because it's so close to the protruding electronic viewfinder housing.

The Electronic viewfinder is the same gorgeous, gridless 800 x 600 design (1.44 million dots), but Panasonic has improved the design to minimize the color ghosts we've seen in the past. It's hard to notice a difference between the Panasonic G3 and the GH2 we also have in-house, with the GH2 actually looking a little better.

The Panasonic G3's LCD is the same 460,000-dot display of its predecessor, and is a touchscreen design. The Panasonic G3 leans on the touchscreen for many controls, but most menu navigation and setting selections can also be done with the four-way navigator as well. In our prerelease model, the Panasonic G3's touchscreen was a little finicky, not always obeying common gestures like swipe in Playback mode, often not registering direct touches on onscreen buttons.

More on this and other handling discussion in the Field Test below.

Panasonic G3 Technical Features

Sensor. At the heart of the Panasonic G3 is a newly developed, 4:3 aspect ratio Live MOS image sensor that yields 15.8 megapixel images, from a 16.0 effective megapixel sensor. Compared to the 12 megapixel chip from the G2, the new imager not only has slightly higher resolution, but also appears to yield improved noise performance. Panasonic says they've achieved this through noise reduction at the pixel level, and through improvements to the signal amplifiers. Panasonic claims an improvement of 6dB noise at ISO 3,200, and 9dB at ISO 6,400. This would be an impressive accomplishment: 6dB translates into two full stops of noise improvement.

In addition to the full 15.8 megapixel resolution, the Panasonic G3 also allows shooting at two reduced resolutions of approximately eight and four megapixels, respectively. The camera also offers aspect ratio options of 3:2, 16:9, and 1:1, in addition to the sensor's native 4:3 ratio.

Processor. The Panasonic Lumix G3 uses the same powerful image processor that debuted in last year's GH2 model. With three processor cores, the Panasonic Venus Engine VI FHD CPU provides improved performance over earlier generations of Venus processors. In particular, the Panasonic G3 offers a significant step forward from the previous G2 model in terms of autofocus speed. As with the GH2, the company claims that the G3 will be able to lock focus with the 14-140mm lens in an impressive 0.1 second. Of course, that's due in part to the lens itself, but the lenses offered in the two-lens kit version are also fairly fast. The 14-42mm lens should yield a focus lock in 0.18 second, and the 45-200mm lens in about 0.25 second. We measured slightly slower times in our lab tests, but we were all very pleasantly surprised by how responsive the G3 was in actual use out in the field: It easily felt the equal of any consumer-level SLR we've used in the past; an impressive accomplishment for a camera with contrast-detect autofocus.

ISO sensitivity. The Panasonic G3's ISO sensitivity range of 160 to 6,400 equivalents is unchanged from that of the G2 at the top end, but slightly contracted from the G2's lower limit of ISO 100. This is likely due to an increase in the image sensor's base sensitivity. Although the maximum sensitivity is unchanged, the higher sensitivity modes appear to be more usable, thanks to the improvement in noise performance. As with the earlier Venus Engine HD II processor in the G2, the G3's Venus FHD chip processes chroma and luminance noise separately, and is said to improve noise reduction while still retaining fine subject detail.

Burst shooting. The increased speed of the Venus Engine FHD processor also shows up in the Panasonic G3's burst performance, which is significantly improved from that of its predecessor. According to Panasonic's specifications, the G3 is capable of full-resolution burst shooting at four frames per second, fully 25% faster than the 3.2 fps claimed for the G2. (Our tests showed 3.4 frames/second, perhaps due to the late-beta status of our test sample.) If resolution is reduced to the lowest four megapixel mode, the G3 is capable of a whopping twenty frames per second, using an electronic shutter.

Focusing. As noted above, the Panasonic Lumix G3 has inherited a significant step forward in its contrast-detection autofocus speed, as seen previously in the GH2. The improvement isn't just related to the new image processor, but also hails from a doubling of the sensor drive speed from 60 to 120 frames per second. (Lens control sync is still performed at 60 frames per second, but the camera's autofocus system can check the current state of focus 120 times/second for improved responsiveness.) As with other cameras using contrast detection autofocus systems--including all Micro Four Thirds models--the G3 performs autofocus by determining the contrast level at the focus point, then making a focus adjustment, and rechecking contrast levels to see if they've increased (moved towards focus), or decreased (moved away from focus). The Panasonic G3's dwell time--the time taken to check contrast in between focus operations--is said to be halved, with respect to that of the G2. This results not only in faster autofocusing, but also in smoother AF operation, which is a major benefit for autofocus during movie capture. Of course, the lens type in use also comes into play here.

As with the G2, the Panasonic G3 has a 23-area autofocus system which also offers a Single-area mode with adjustable point size, there's also a Pinpoint mode that uses a much smaller focus point area. When Pinpoint AF is selected, the G3 automatically zooms the display by 6x around the focus point, and the focus point position can be quickly adjusted while zoomed in. This struck us as particularly useful, as it would for let you select your subject's eye and then precisely focus on this point. Another change from earlier models is that the Single-area mode now allows the focus point to be placed anywhere within the image frame, including the extreme edges. (In the G2, the AF area couldn't extend to the edges of the frame.) The Panasonic G3 also provides for focus tracking, which allows it to automatically follow your subject around the frame making focus adjustments as necessary, while a tracking lock is active.

Of course, if you prefer to focus manually, the G3 allows for this as well. To aid with precise manual adjustment of focus, the G3 provides an MF Assist zoom feature that magnifies a portion of the image frame by either 3x, 5x, or 10x. At 3x magnification, the G3 provides a new picture-in-picture MF Assist mode, which allows you to adjust focus while still keeping the overall image framing in the right area. At higher magnifications, accessed by turning the Rear dial to the right, the MF Assist view occupies the full screen, and makes it considerably easier to judge in and out-of-focus areas.

Face recognition. The Panasonic G3 also offers face-detection autofocusing, a pretty common feature these days on compact system cameras, as well as the vast majority of compact cameras, and in the live view modes of many DSLRs. The implementation on the Panasonic G3 allows it to detect as many as 15 faces in a scene simultaneously, and their locations are taken into account when determining focus and exposure variables. Panasonic goes a step further than most, though, also providing face recognition capability. When enabled, the camera attempts to locate the faces of up to six individuals whenever they appear within the image frame, and they're then prioritized over any other detected faces in the scene. You can also specify a priority order for the six faces, ensuring that your closest friends and family members are given the highest priority. Up to three recognition images can be recorded for each person, helping the camera to recognize each individual in a range of conditions. Images can also be tagged with the name and age of each person, when they're recognized in the scene--handy for quickly locating images featuring your friends in Playback mode, or with compatible software on your computer.

LCD. Like the G2 before it, the Panasonic Lumix G3 features an articulated LCD display with a side-mounted tilt / swivel mechanism. It can swivel 180 degrees and tilt 270 degrees. The LCD itself has a 3.0-inch diagonal, and a resolution of some 460,000 dots. That equates to somewhere in the region of 153,600 pixels, commonly known as HVGA (Half-size VGA), with each pixel comprising adjacent red, green, and blue-colored dots. The panel has a 3:2 aspect ratio, approximately 100% coverage, and a wide viewing angle (although Panasonic doesn't specify the actual horizontal / vertical viewing range).

Touch panel. The Panasonic G3 retains the touch panel interface that was introduced on the G2. This allows for control of a wide range of the camera's features by pressing on the live preview image, or on soft buttons shown on the display. It's possible not only to make settings changes through the touch panel, but also to indicate the desired subject from which the camera should determine focus or exposure, or begin focus tracking. The touch panel can also be used to control the new pinpoint focus mode, with a flick of the finger panning around the enlarged display (this was hard to do in our prerelease model; it may improve in the shipping version). You can even capture an image by pressing the touch panel, courtesy of a Touch Shutter function. The touch user interface also extends to Playback mode, where the panel can be used to switch between images with a flick, and to control the playback zoom / pan function. Of course, for those who don't like touch screens, all this can also be achieved using the camera's physical controls as well. Overall, the Panasonic G3's touch interface is one of the most natural and intuitive we've seen to date.

Viewfinder. The Panasonic G3 also retains a similar electronic viewfinder design to that of the G2, but with one significant difference: the viewfinder's resolution is still 800 x 600 pixels, with a time-multiplexed design that means each pixel illuminates sequentially in red, green, and blue, providing the perception of full color at every pixel location. (Most electronic viewfinders use more traditional LCD displays, which have separate red, green, and blue dots for each pixel.) In the G3, though, the switching speed of the electronic viewfinder has been increased significantly, giving it a greater resistance to color breakup--the rainbow effect seen with time-multiplexed displays when you blink or suddenly move your eye. While we could still make it happen if we moved our eyes very rapidly, we did find the G3's display less subject to color breakup than similar EVFs we've seen in the past. The improved EVF performance is doubtless another benefit of the G3's faster sensor readout and image processing.

As with the G2's EVF, the G3's viewfinder provides the equivalent of a 0.7x magnification on a 35mm camera (with a 50mm lens at infinity, and -1.0m^-1), and offers an unusually wide -4.0 to +4.0 diopter correction. Eyepoint is 17.5mm from the eyepiece lens, just about right to see the entire image area with glasses just touching the rubber eyepiece.

Flash. The Panasonic G3 includes a built-in, popup flash strobe with a guide number of 34.5 feet (10.5 meters) at ISO 160 equivalent. Flash sync is possible at up to 1/160 second, and seven flash exposure modes are available, including Auto, Forced, and Slow-sync, all with or without red-eye reduction. Both first- and second-curtain sync modes are available, and 2.0 EV of flash exposure compensation is available in 1/3 EV steps. In addition to the built-in flash, the Panasonic G3 provides for the optional DMW-FL220, FL360 or FL500 flash strobes, courtesy of a dedicated hot shoe.

Video. The Panasonic G3's video functionality is significantly upgraded from its predecessor, and in one area even bests the GH2, although there are still some important points of differentiation where the GH2 holds an edge. The G3 now defaults to recording high-definition movies using the full AVCHD standard, rather than the more limited AVCHD Lite of the G2. It also newly allows shooting at 1,080i (aka Full HD; 1,920 x 1080 pixels), as well as the 720p (1,280 x 720 pixels) mode offered in the earlier camera. There are also VGA (640 x 480) and QVGA (320 x 240) standard-definition resolutions available, both recorded using Motion JPEG compression. The Motion JPEG compression type is also optionally available for 720p high-def capture.

In all cases, videos are recorded using 30 frames-per-second output from the image sensor. (By contrast, the Lumix GH2's sensor is read out at a full 60 frames per second.) For Motion JPEG video, the output frame rate is fixed at 30 fps, where the GH2 offers an adjustable 24 / 30 frames per second rate. 720p movies are recorded at 60 progressive-scan frames per second, and 1080i movies have 60 interlaced frames per second, although as noted above, these 60 fps modes are based on 30 fps data from the sensor. Where the G3 betters the GH2, though, is in video-mode autofocus. Unlike the earlier camera, the Panasonic G3 allows for full-time tracking autofocus during video capture.

Intelligent Auto. Panasonic has split the Intelligent Auto (iA) mode seen in earlier cameras into two distinct modes for the G3. The existing iA mode allows the user to adjust only depth-of field, with all other exposure variables remaining under automatic control. The new iA+ mode additionally allows the user to tweak exposure compensation and white balance variables, thus giving the user more creative flexibility, while still keeping most decisions in the camera's hands.

Custom modes. Where the G2 offered only one Custom position on its Mode dial, the Panasonic G3 now provides two Custom mode positions, marked as C1 and C2. Both positions allow for a variety of settings to be recalled for later use. The C1 position provides direct access to one specific Custom mode, while the C2 position allows access to a further three Custom modes, with the active set selected on-screen.

White balance. The Panasonic Lumix G3 offers a wide range of white balance control, with a healthy selection of nine scene modes including Auto, five presets, two custom positions, and a direct Kelvin white balance input. This last allows direct input of color temperatures from 2,500 to 10,000 Kelvin in 100K steps, either by clicking on an on-screen adjustment bar, using the on-screen up and down arrow buttons, or the up and down arrows on the four-way controller.

In addition, white balance can be adjusted on either a blue/amber or magenta/green axis, courtesy of a white balance adjust function. This white balance tweak can be applied either by indicating the desired position on a 2D graph using the touch screen, or using the cursor buttons. Finally, the G3 offers three-shot white balance bracketing, with all three captured images saved from a single exposure. Bracketing is possible either on the Blue / Amber axis, or the Magenta / Green axis.

Metering. The Panasonic G3 employs a 144-zone multi-pattern metering system, capable of operating in Intelligent Multiple, Center-weighted, or Spot metering modes. The metering system is capable of functioning over a range of EV 0-18, using an F/2.0 lens at ISO 100 equivalent, and the G3 provides for a wide-ranging +/-5.0 EV of exposure compensation, set in 1/3 EV steps.

An AE Lock function configured by two Custom menu settings allows the calculated exposure to be locked, either while the Function button is held in, or the lock toggled with subsequent presses of the button. Finally, the G3 allows exposure bracketing within a 3, 5, or 7 frame range, with a step size between frames of +/-3EV, in 1/3, 2/3, or 1 EV steps.

Creative controls. Panasonic has retained its two main creative control function groups from the earlier G2 model in the G3, but with new names for each.

The earlier My Color mode is now known as Creative Control, and provides access to five effects: Expressive (pop-art style), Retro (soft, tarnished effect), High Key (brighter image), Sepia, and High Dynamic (localized color and contrast enhancement).

The Film Mode function has also been renamed to Photo Style. This offers a selection of six presets, plus a custom mode, each of which can be tweaked in terms of contrast, sharpness, saturation (except in Monochrome mode, where it is replaced with a color tone adjustment), and noise reduction. Presets include Standard, Vivid, Natural, Monochrome, Scenery, and Portrait. There are also 17 Scene modes that help amateurs get the results they're looking for without the need to understand shutter speeds, apertures and the like.

Storage. The Panasonic G3 stores its data on Secure Digital cards, including the latest generation SDHC and SDXC types. As well as storing still images in JPEG compressed format, the G3 can also write RAW files, either alone or alongside a JPEG copy of each image. When using Panasonic's unusual 3D lens, the G3 saves images in MPO (Multi Picture Object) format, with each MPO file containing two JPEG images with differing perspective. Movies can be stored with either AVCHD or Motion JPEG compression, depending on the resolution.

Power. The Panasonic G3 draws power from a proprietary 7.2V, 1010mAh battery pack rated as good for 270 shots on a charge when using the 14-42mm lens, based on CIPA testing standards. With the 45-200mm lens, this falls just slightly, to 250 images. As with all recent Panasonic cameras, the G3 incorporates ID-Security technology that prevents use of counterfeit or third-party batteries.

Connectivity. The Panasonic Lumix G3 offers up an array of connectors for input and output. These include a USB 2.0 High Speed data connection, high definition Type-C Mini HDMI video output with Viera Link remote control compatibility, standard definition composite NTSC / PAL audio video output (or NTSC-only for North American models), and a 2.5mm mini jack for use with the optional DMW-RSL1 tethered remote control unit.

Shooting with the Panasonic G3

by Shawn Barnett

It wasn't until Panasonic came out with the small GF1 that I got excited about the Lumix Micro Four Thirds cameras, and I gravitated instead to the Olympus Pen cameras for their simpler body design, smaller size, and better JPEG image quality. Note that I said JPEG image quality, because Panasonic's RAWs were just fine, but something was going wrong in the camera's JPEG processing and compression engine that was making the yellows green and the oranges brown, gradually worsening as ISO increased. Panasonic's faster autofocus and slightly better optics made even the GF1 a frustrating proposition because of that JPEG image quality problem. The G1, G2, GH1 and GH2 were just too big to catch my interest, their bodies not much smaller than a Rebel. Sure, the lenses are smaller, but the body had to be smaller too. The EVF was very nice, but that wasn't sufficient to overcome the large size and JPEG green shift.

Enter the Panasonic G3, sweeping all that ambivalence away. It's smaller, it's faster, it's lighter, and its image quality is really good, with only a hint of the green shift, so little that it's hardly noticeable. Printed image quality rivals the strongest contenders in both CSCs and SLRs. It makes me look on the compact system camera category very differently. A few quick comparisons will show why:

Though both of these cameras, the G3 and the Canon T3i, have a high-resolution sensor and an articulating screen, the G3 body weighs 13.6 ounces (386g) a fraction of the T3i's 20.1 ounces (570g), both with battery and card, and most of the lenses for the Micro Four Thirds system are quite a bit smaller and lighter than even Canon's EF-S line.

The G3 is also lighter and smaller than the GH2 (whose body is about the same size as the G2), which lets it fit into smaller spaces. Body weight again is 13.6 ounces (386g) vs. 16 ounces (453g), and the body's quite a bit slimmer.

Finally, the G3 feels about the same in the hand as the Olympus E-PL2, its protruding hump seems larger here, but in the hand I can hardly tell a difference. That's likely due to the similar weight, with the E-PL2 coming in at a slightly lighter 13 ounces (369g). But the G3 has an articulating screen and a built-in electronic viewfinder, two advantages for some users (I don't much miss these two things, and I'm a fan of the E-PL2, but the differences are worthy of note). The G3, though, doesn't have a collapsible lens, and its EVF housing protrudes quite a bit out the back, making it less compact overall compared to the E-PL2, so there are still tradeoffs. The point is that the new G3 competes well with all these cameras, offering a lot in a very small space.

Ergonomics. The latest truly easy to hold CSC was the Olympus E-PL2, whose grip is nicely sculpted front and back. The Panasonic G3 bests it by just a little, fitting in my hand just right, its tapered grip design meeting my skin and hand shape just about right, and the smooth, yet grippy rubber is warm to the touch. The thumbgrip on the back isn't quite as robust as the E-PL2, but my thumb finds a comfortable spot just left of the Rear dial. Those with longer fingers have found comfort curling their fingers around the grip, something that doesn't quite work for me, but no one so far has decried the grip as too small.

There are no sharp edges on the Panasonic G3, so it's also comfortable to hold with your left hand. Wide strap lugs also replace the noisy D-rings found on the larger G-series cameras, a welcome trend that we hope continues. There's less to jut into your hand, and the D-rings won't make noise that gets picked up in videos.

Speed. Speaking of SLRs, their chief advantages besides interchangeable lenses are an optical viewfinder, a larger sensor, and greater autofocus speed. See below for the former two, but the latter item is addressed by the Panasonic G3's surprisingly fast autofocus system. SLRs are fast because they use phase-detect autofocus, but in their new live view modes, they really lag behind even most point-and-shoot cameras. But the Panasonic G3 uses contrast-detect only and still manages to focus like an SLR. It's so fast that I often find myself refocusing just for the fun of it. Our testing shows it to be a little slower than the GH2, which is even faster in low light, but it's still remarkable to behold a live view camera focusing so quickly.

Even in low light situations, where I'd find the Canon T3i seeking for several seconds in Live View to settle on a focus position, the G3 finds focus quickly; a little slower than in normal room light, but considerably faster than any SLR in contrast-detect live view. And when the light gets really low, the Panasonic G3 has another advantage over the T3i: a bright orange AF-assist lamp. You have to be careful not to block it while holding this very small body, but it makes the G3 acquire focus faster, and you don't have to pop up the flash (the T3i pulses its flash for AF assist).

Lenses. It used to be that all Panasonic Micro Four Thirds lenses were superb, but we've found the kit lens we received a little less than stellar, with the upper right corner in particular being softer than it should be. It's not a deal breaker, by any means, but we recommend checking your copy both focused near and focused far (ours is worse when focusing far than when focusing near) before your option to return or exchange the lens expires. One thing in its favor is that it's light, and it focuses pretty fast, as we've already covered.

We have the 14-140mm lens (28-280mm equivalent) as well, which does pretty well at middle focal lengths, and we enjoyed shooting with it again. But we also had some more modern Olympus lenses, including the slim and light 14-150mm M.Zuiko lens (28-300mm equivalent), just a little longer than the Panasonic lens. We liked the image quality, and the lens focused quickly and silently, and even worked with videos quite well, as it's designed to do. The Panasonic G3 also looks and feels less overburdened by the size and weight of the 14-150mm M.Zuiko than by the 14-140mm Lumix lens.

9-18mm. The G3 works quite well with the 9-18mm M.Zuiko lens, focusing fast and shooting wide.

I also had a little fun with the 9-18mm M.Zuiko (18-36mm equivalent), which is also fast and quiet. Olympus's optical and build quality has reached the point where lenses can be swapped freely between platforms, which is good for everyone. The only disadvantage to using Olympus lenses on the Panasonic G3 is the lack of built-in image stabilization, because Olympus uses sensor-shift stabilization in their bodies, while the G3's IS is built into the lenses.

Interface. Though there are a few good reasons for the Panasonic G3's touchscreen, I prefer navigating with the buttons more than the screen. I also find the touchscreen too often gets in the way. Little educational screens delay my entry into Playback mode, for example, telling me to "Touch screen to enlarge image," yet again. Thank you.

Setting AF points, which is as easy as touching the screen, is a very good use of touchscreen technology, of course, but I still find myself frustrated with it. Scrolling around in the Pinpoint AF mode is more difficult than it should be, and the onscreen buttons are too often in the way of the view, so that I can't see if I'm getting all that I want in the frame. Getting them out of the way is impossible, unless of course you disable certain parts of the touchscreen interface. You can enable or disable the Q.Menu, the Defocus Control, Touch Shutter, Touch Display button, and Touch Autofocus. Leaving Defocus Control and Touch AF on eliminated nearly all of my irritation with the touch interface.

There's no EV Compensation button on the Panasonic G3, but I remembered to press the Rear dial down and there it was: the dial's function changed from controlling Program shift to the EV adjustment. While making either adjustment, a handy sliding scale comes up showing available shutter speed and aperture settings.

EVF. Switching from the LCD to the EVF is now only possible by pressing the EVF/LCD button left of the viewfinder; the infrared proximity sensor was removed to save space. I'm not one who requires an EVF on a small camera like this, but I did use it now and then. I found it was quite good, and it's hard to get used to the lack of the usual "grid" one sees when looking at most LCDs: This display is just a smooth image, edge to edge. While I did find the EVF handy in bright light, sometimes that ambient light was so bright that I found the EVF image seemed washed out, or else insufficiently bright to overcome the light already meeting my eyes from my surroundings.

The articulating LCD is excellent, my favorite kind for just about all purposes. It worked well enough for me in bright sunlight and was handy for shooting from a wide variety of unique angles.

Menus. While from the outside it seems like a fairly simple camera, the Panasonic G3 has a lot of options, and as such it also has a lot of menus. Moving through menus is a tedious process, requiring that you scroll through multiple screens, reading sometimes odd descriptions. It's often hard to remember under which tab a given menu item is located. It's a common problem with side-tab menu designs, one that also plagues Nikon and Olympus cameras. The Panasonic G3's menus aren't quite as deep as that, but it's a little too much all the same.

Small buttons. I didn't have much trouble with them, but I should note just how small the buttons are, as I know it'll drive some folks crazy. Also, if you're using the Panasonic G3 with gloves, you're going to have a tough time unless you take them off. Such is the burden of a small camera. One small button in particular did drive me crazy: the iA or Intelligent Auto button. Though I say it's very well designed and comfortable to use, the Panasonic G3 is very small, with very little unused surface area, so I kept pressing the iA button while shifting the G3 from hand to hand or even just bringing it up to get a shot. I'm seldom sure exactly when it happened, but I could tell when the camera started showing little icons in the upper left corner (and a little too much color overall), that I'd accidentally pressed the little button, which glows blue when active. In the Custom menu, you can change its mode of activation from Single Press to Press and Hold, which reduced my tendency to activate the Intelligent Auto mode.

Battery life. It's a little disappointing that the G3's battery is smaller. It results in fewer captured shots and fewer videos per charge. I typically shoot for about an hour at a time when photographing the kids at play, and in that time, the battery drops from three bars to two. That's way too quick. For any day long outing, you're going to need a second battery, no question.

Dynamic range. The lab found somewhat limited dynamic range, despite some excellent image quality, and I saw the same thing in a few of my shots. Skies very frequently overwhelmed the foreground, leaving it darker than I'm used to for most cameras, and mids seemed darker in bright sunlight, likely to save the highlights. We'll have to look into this a little more before we finish the review.

JPEG	RAW

Artifacts at low ISO. We ran into some of the same artifacts we've seen in other Lumix G-series cameras, which we attributed to demosaicing errors. The artifacts are blue/gray, and appear in our indoor incandescent lighting test images at ISO 160 and 200. The artifacts disappear at ISO 400 and above, and only appear in JPEGs; images processed from RAW do not show the artifacts. So far we've only seen the artifacts in our INB shot, which includes a mannequin with reddish hair, captured under incandescent light. Roll over the RAW and JPEG links at right to compare the images.

Full HD movie. 1920x1080i AVCHD format. (Click image to download 20.3MB .MTS file. Click here for a 26.6MB 1280x720p version.)

Video. As noted, the Panasonic G3 also shoots 1080i video, but only in AVCHD mode, which looks pretty good in good light. We've shot some low light video as well, which we'll be looking at soon in more detail when we post our Video page. A full set of sample videos will be posted soon, but in the meantime, click on the image and link at left for a couple of video samples.

Shooting with the Panasonic G3 was an excellent experience, and while I would hesitate to recommend a larger GH or G series Panasonic to most who asked me without asking a few more questions, I will not hesitate to recommend the Panasonic G3. It's not just a lot of fun, it's capable and reliable, and satisfies the need for SLR power and quality in a very small package, finally setting itself apart from the pack.

Panasonic G3 Image Quality

Most digital SLRs will produce a reasonable ISO 100 shot, so we like to push them and see what they can do at ISO 1,600, at their default noise reduction settings. Recent advances in sensor technology have made ISO 1,600 look a lot more like ISO 100, but there are still cameras whose quality starts to fall apart at this setting. We also choose 1,600 because we like to be able to shoot at or above this level when indoors and at night. We also explore ISO 3,200, and look at the high-contrast detail of ISO 100 vs 3,200 and 6,400. Be sure to look at our Optics and Exposure pages, and our Thumbnail and Gallery pages too, to see the breadth of test shots and analysis available for your perusal; you can even download images--both JPEG and RAW--and examine them for yourself!

Panasonic G3 versus Canon T3i at ISO 1,600

Panasonic G3 at ISO 1,600	Canon T3i at ISO 1,600
The Panasonic G3 comes out swinging against the Canon T3i, a camera with an 18-megapixel, APS-C sensor, and really does a great job without as much sharpening around high contrast areas, and considerably better noise control in the shadows. Detail in the mosaic graphic isn't as distinct, but the G3 is looking a lot better than the GH2 or G2. Neither does well at the red leaf swatch, with the G3 darkening the cloth, and the T3i brightening the red and creating an imaginary impressionist view of the leaves.

Panasonic G3 versus Nikon D5100 at ISO 1,600

Panasonic G3 at ISO 1,600	Nikon D5100 at ISO 1,600
It's a pretty close match between the G3 and the Nikon D5100, with both turning out a fairly realistic looking image. The exception is the red leaf swatch, where Nikons almost always do better. This time, though, I give the shadow behind the olive oil bottle to Panasonic, it's smooth with only hints of luminance noise if you really squint at it, while the Nikon has both luminance noise and chroma blotches.

Panasonic G3 versus G2 at ISO 1,600

Panasonic G3 at ISO 1,600	Panasonic G2 at ISO 1,600
Here's an indication of why we're so excited about the G3's image quality. The crops speak volumes. The G3 is smooth, with more accurate color, while the G2 is noisy and green, with relatively dirty shadows.

Panasonic G3 versus GH2 at ISO 1,600

Panasonic G3 at ISO 1,600	Panasonic GH2 at ISO 1,600
Again, up against the GH2, it's clear that Panasonic finally heard our cries about the greenish cast their JPEGs produced.

Panasonic G3 versus Sony A560 at ISO 1,600

Panasonic G3 at ISO 1,600	Sony A560 at ISO 1,600
Going up against the 14-megapixel A560, the G3's 16-megapixel sensor does very well, with comparable detail, and less noticeable noise suppression than the Sony's treatment. The G3 has some advantage, though, due to the different framing of 4:3 vs 3:2, which makes the elements appear larger in the G3's images.

Today's ISO 3,200 is yesterday's ISO 1,600 (well, almost), so below are the same crops at ISO 3,200.

Panasonic G3 versus Canon T3i at ISO 3,200

Panasonic G3 at ISO 3,200	Canon T3i at ISO 3,200
At ISO 3,200 a lot changes for the Panasonic G3: it's images are darker, and noise suppression and sharpening start to get a bit more creative, just as we'll see in the Sony A560 image. Still, it does well against the T3i, with a little more apparent detail and still decent color. We won't even talk about the red leaf swatch at this point, but notice where the pink below has turned into more of a dark purple, where the T3i still renders a more correct pink.

Panasonic G3 versus Nikon D5100 at ISO 3,200

Panasonic G3 at ISO 3,200	Nikon D5100 at ISO 3,200
Nikon's more pointillist approach probably wins at the printer, again showing that Nikon evenness across the range of image elements. But the G3 does pretty well--until you get to the red leaf swatch, and you can see what I'm talking about with evenness.

Panasonic G3 versus G2 at ISO 3,200

Panasonic G3 at ISO 3,200	Panasonic G2 at ISO 3,200
Wow! Now you can see even more clearly why we're impressed. No other comments needed, as the G2's images tell their own sad, darkening tale.

Panasonic G3 versus GH2 at ISO 3,200

Panasonic G3 at ISO 3,200	Panasonic GH2 at ISO 3,200
And the G3 also bests its better, more costly brother in the high-ISO still contest, with more detail in both of the bottles, though the red leaf swatch does have a hint more detail.

Panasonic G3 versus Sony A560 at ISO 3,200

Panasonic G3 at ISO 3,200	Sony A560 at ISO 3,200
The Panasonic G3 does better than the A560, except in the red leaf swatch, where the A560 finds a little more detail than the G3.

Detail: Panasonic G3 vs. Canon T3i, Nikon D5100, Panasonic G2, Panasonic GH2, and Sony A560

Panasonic G3 ISO 160 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Canon T3i ISO 100 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Nikon D5100 ISO 100 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Panasonic G2 ISO 100 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Panasonic GH2 ISO 160 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Sony A560 ISO 100 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400
Detail comparison. High-contrast details are often sharper as ISO rises, so they're worth a look as well. Note the nice, distinct lines inside the big letters at ISO 160, 3,200, and even 6,400. Even the T3i doesn't get this done. Even the GH2, which has the same 4:3 ratio advantage. The G3 is clearly a step in the right direction for Panasonic. All of the Panasonics were shot with the very sharp Olympus 50mm f/2.5 Four Thirds Macro lens, but the others were shot with the very sharp Sigma 70mm f/2.8, so each has a fair shake.

The Panasonic G3 does incredibly well, raising the bar for Micro Four Thirds cameras, and overcoming the limitations of the smaller sensor size. This is exactly what we've been hoping for generation after generation from Panasonic's Lumix G-series, and they've finally done it. Print Quality results below tell the rest of the story.

Panasonic G3 Print Quality

ISO 160 shots look great at 20 x 30 inches, with good color and excellent detail. One issue does emerge at this ISO, though, captured in our INB indoor incandescent shot, where our model's red hair shows some demosaicing errors, which appear as blue/gray artifacts, and don't become negligible until the image is printed at 11 x 14 inches. Processing RAW images on a computer does not exhibit the error, by the way.

ISO 200 shots are also great at 20 x 30, with excellent color and detail. The demosaicing error is still present, but less noticeable.

ISO 400 shots, too, look surprisingly good at 20 x 30 inches. There's the slightest softening, but you have to get close and squint to see it. The demosaicing error is eliminated by the noise suppression system.

ISO 800 shots finally start to show a little more softening, but we'd still call it usable at 20 x 30 inches. There is some very slight luminance noise in the shadows, but very little. All of this returns to impressive crispness when printed at 16 x 20 inches.

ISO 1,600 images are usable at 16 x 20, though low-contrast detail in reds has begun to disappear more noticeably, and there's more noise in darker areas. Prints at 13 x 19 look great.

ISO 3,200 images usable for wall display at 13 x 19, and fine for close viewing at 11 x 14. Luminance noise in the shadows continues to increase, but it's not bad at all. Color also dims more noticeably at this setting, with a slight green cast coming into yellows, but not nearly as bad as it has on past Panasonic cameras, including the GH2.

ISO 6,400 shots are usable at 8 x 10 and good at 5 x 7. That green shift in the yellows continues, but is still better controlled than any previous high-end Panasonic camera.

Overall, the Panasonic G3's JPEG images print amazingly well, and challenging any concern that Micro Four Thirds sensors would continue to lag in image quality behind their APS-C competition. While upcoming SLRs may do better, it's clear that Panasonic has met the challenge in the meantime. Very impressive!

Panasonic G3 Conclusion

With the compact system camera market heating up, Panasonic's G3 shows that the drive is toward smaller and smaller designs, as was seen in the Sony NEX-5. While Panasonic has produced a smaller camera, the G3 marks several firsts, maintaining major big-camera features while reducing the camera's size, increasing its novelty and portability. Improving speed while maintaining the simplicity of contrast-detect autofocus is a major achievement in such an inexpensive camera, one the SLR makers have yet to match. And while shoehorning the excellent EVF and the articulating display into such a small body was a notable engineering achievement, it's the Panasonic G3's dramatic improvement in image quality that truly impresses us. Micro Four Thirds sensors have long been discounted because of their smaller overall sensor area when compared to APS-C cameras, but the quality we see in the Panasonic G3 turns that criticism on its head.

It is true that we found a flaw here and there in this prototype camera, but we can't be sure whether they'll appear in the shipping model. We're more blown away by the dramatic improvement in image quality that really vaults the $700 Panasonic G3 to the top of our favorites list.

There's more to this review! Don't forget to look at our Optics and Exposure pages, our Performance page, and our Thumbnail and Gallery pages too, to see all the shots we've taken with the camera, uploading them unmodified so you can download images--both JPEG and RAW--and examine them for yourself!

Design

Panasonic G3 Design

(Illustration courtesy Panasonic USA)

The Panasonic G3's body has been completely redesigned since the G2, shaving an impressive one quarter off its volume in the process, and that's necessitated some significant changes. Looking at the front panel, the hand grip is much less prominent, and now tapers away towards the top. It's inset with a smooth, hard rubber pad that provides a little more grip than the plastic panels used elsewhere. Beyond the new handgrip, though, the front panel is actually quite similar to that of the G2 in terms of layout, placing the lens release button and self-timer / AF assist lamp in much the same locations as previously.

(Illustration courtesy Panasonic USA)

Seen from the rear, the G3 has changed a bit more significantly. Although there's only one less physical control here than in the G2, several controls have moved around or their functionality has been changed. The dedicated AF / AE lock button from the G2 is the most significant casualty, and the Depth-of-field Preview button has also been removed, with its secondary delete function reassigned to the Quick Menu button. Both the Display and Quick Menu buttons can be configured through the Custom menu to serve instead as function buttons, if preferred, and available functions for either button include both AF / AE lock and depth-of-field preview. If either control is configured to operate as a function button, its primary function is disabled, although if the LCD panel is active, display switching and quick menu access can instead be controlled through "soft" buttons on the panel itself.

The secondary functions of two buttons in the Four-way Controller cluster have also been changed since the G2. The Left arrow button, previously given over to film mode selection in record mode, now calls up the AF mode menu. The Down arrow button, meanwhile, now serves as a drive mode button, rather than a function button. In both cases, the features now controlled by these buttons were previously accessed via dedicated controls on the G2's top panel. In place of the dedicated AF/AE lock button, the G3 now includes a Motion Picture button on its rear panel, relocated from the top panel in the G2.

Two further notable changes are a significant reduction in size of the LCD articulation mechanism, and the removal of the infra-red sensors adjacent to the electronic viewfinder, which allowed the G2 to switch between LCD and viewfinder display automatically. In the G3, the photographer must switch between display types manually. The dominant feature of the G3's rear--its articulated LCD panel-- is unchanged in terms of size, resolution, and aspect ratio, and still includes a touch screen overlay which allows it to serve double-duty as a control device.

(Illustration courtesy Panasonic USA)

The G3's right-hand panel--previously featureless in the earlier G2 model--now includes a small rubber compartment door imprinted with an HDMI logo. Behind this can be found not only the high-definition video output connector, but also a terminal for the cabled remote control, and a shared port for standard-definition video output and USB 2.0 High Speed data connectivity. The small cutout at the bottom of the G2's right panel which provided access to the battery compartment for the optional AC adapter's dummy battery cable has been moved to the bottom of the camera, instead. The left-hand end of the G3, which isn't pictured here, is essentially featureless; in the G2 it was home to two separate compartment covers for all the same connections now hosted on the G3's right-hand side. Unlike the G2, though, the G3's remote connector doesn't serve double-duty as an external mic connector; there's no support for external microphones in this camera.

(Illustration courtesy Panasonic USA)

Without question, the G3's top panel is home to the most significant changes since the earlier camera. The Panasonic G3 no longer features an auto focus mode dial or drive mode lever, and as noted previously, these options are now accessed as secondary functions on the Four-way controller. The Motion Picture button from the G2's top panel is also absent, having moved to the G3's rear panel. The Mode dial has been totally redesigned, and is now significantly smaller, with fewer modes. The dedicated Mode dial positions for Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Macro, and Night Portrait shooting have all been removed, and so has the Motion Picture P position. In there place, there are now two Custom positions on the Mode dial, up from just one in the G2.

Another upgrade is the G3's new stereo microphone, found at the center of the popup flash, in front of the hot shoe. It's perhaps not an ideal location for providing good stereo separation, but should still be better than the single-port monaural microphone on the G2. The upgrade was a must, though, as the G2 provided support for an external microphone, whereas the G3 no longer includes external mic connectivity, as previously noted. One final change is the addition of a small seven-hole grille adjacent to the flash popup switch, which is home to the G3's monaural speaker. Although the G2 also included a speaker, its location wasn't obvious, as it was concealed beneath the body panels, with no visible grille.

(Illustration courtesy Panasonic USA)

Seen from below, the only change between the Panasonic G3 and its predecessor is the relocation of the small rubber flap that provides access for the optional AC adapter kit's dummy battery cable, now located in the card compartment door itself. The door is still lockable and spring-loaded to open when unlocked, and the tripod mount is still metallic.

Optics

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 Optics

Panasonic LUMIX G Lenses

The Panasonic G3 is compatible with any Micro Four Thirds lens, with Panasonic, Olympus, and third parties together offering approximately thirty lens models at the time of writing (September 2011). Panasonic has dubbed the bulk of their Micro Four Thirds lenses "LUMIX G," and the company has released (or is on the verge of releasing) 14 models to date. Eight of these are zooms, as identified by their Vario branding, while six are primes -- among these, one macro and one 3D lens. Of the Panasonic lenses on offer, two are available in a kit along with the G3. Both with-lens kits include the 14-42 mm zoom, and one adds the 45-200mm zoom.

The Panasonic Lumix G 14 mm / f/2.5 Asph. is the company's smallest Micro Four Thirds lens. Despite featuring a metal mount, it's also the lightest by some margin -- at least, with the sole exception of the unusual 3D lens -- weighing just under two ounces. With a maximum aperture of f/2.5, it's among the brightest, bettered in Panasonic's own lineup only by the 25mm f/1.4 and 20mm f/1.7 primes. (These three lenses would complement each other nicely, with 35mm-equivalent focal lengths of 28mm, 40mm, and 50mm respectively.)

The Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Asph. Power O.I.S, meanwhile, is the lightest zoom lens in the line, and offers equivalent focal lengths from 28-84mm. It's one of the first two Power Zoom lens models in Panasonic's lineup, and so can provide relatively smooth, shake-free zooming and manual focusing during video capture. That's because there's no need to adjust your grip to turn a zoom or focus ring, with both instead controlled by fly-by-wire rocker switches. It also features a collapsing design that makes it significantly smaller and lighter than the earlier Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Asph. Mega O.I.S, and includes an updated stabilization system that provides a greater degree of correction during video capture than is available for stills. To save weight and cost, both 14-42mm lenses forgo an IS switch, with stabilization instead being enabled or disabled through the camera's menu system. The older G Vario lens further uses a plastic lens mount to reduce cost, instead of featuring a metal one. As you'd expect, it's significantly cheaper than the power zoom version, and it will also be preferable to photographers wanting a mechanical zoom ring or a focus ring (albeit still fly-by-wire).

The Lumix G Vario 7-14mm f/4.0 Asph. offers the widest field of view among Panasonic's Micro Four Thirds zooms, and is also unique as the company's only zoom to offer a constant maximum aperture -- but no stabilization. The Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 Asph. Mega O.I.S. is just a fraction smaller and has ever so slightly more reach than the 14-42mm, with an equivalent range of 28-90mm, but weighs almost 20% more.

The Lumix G Vario HD 14-140mm f/4.0-5.8 Asph. Mega O.I.S. has by far the most reach of Panasonic's Micro Four Thirds lenses, with 35mm-equivalent focal lengths ranging from 28-280mm, for a 10x zoom range. It's the only non-power zoom lens carrying the "HD" badge, which indicates that it's designed for movie recording. This comes thanks to two specific features -- a nearly silent inner focus direct-drive linear motor for continuous auto focusing, and a seamless aperture adjustment.

The other power zoom model is the Lumix G X Vario PZ 45-175mm f/4.0-5.6 Asph. Power O.I.S., which has rocker-controlled fly-by-wire zoom and focus control, like the 14-42mm PZ, but doesn't feature a collapsing design. 35mm-equivalent focal lengths range from 90-350mm, for a 3.9x zoom. The Lumix G Vario 45-200mm f/4.0-5.6 Mega O.I.S., has a slightly greater 4.4x zoom range, and reaches out to a stronger 400mm-equivalent telephoto. The Lumix G Vario 100-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Mega O.I.S. offers the strongest telephoto of all, though, at 600mm equivalent. It's also the heaviest of Panasonic's offerings, at a little over 1.1 pounds, not to mention the largest, at just under five inches in length when retracted, with a maximum diameter of 2.9 inches.

Finally, the Lumix G Fisheye 8mm f/3.5 offers the widest field of view, while the Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 Asph. and Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f/2.8 Asph. Mega O.I.S. have the tightest fields of view among the primes. The latter pair are also the only models not carrying Lumix G branding. The 45mm is the only prime in the group to offer image stabilization. The Lumix G 12.5mm f/12 is pretty much unique, not only within Panasonic's line, but for Micro Four Thirds as a whole, allowing simultaneous recording of two low-resolution images (1.9-2.9 megapixels on the G3, depending on the aspect ratio) with slightly differing field of view, which are combined to create a single 3D image for viewing on compatible displays.

Overall, we've found generally Panasonic's lenses to be of very good quality. Helped in part by in-camera processing which reduces both geometric distortion and chromatic aberration, they've consistently delivered excellent optical results in our testing and use. Lens quality is an important part of the decision whether or not to adopt a new camera system, and on that score, the Panasonic G-series does very well.

Quite a range of other options are available from Olympus, Panasonic's partner in the Micro Four Thirds format, or are on the horizon from a variety of companies. Olympus currently offers eight Micro Four Thirds-mount lenses (or nine if you count the two 14-42mm variants), of which three are primes, and the remainder are zooms. In February 2011, third party lens maker Sigma Corp. announced that it intends to market lenses for the Micro Four Thirds format, although it had yet to announce specifics as of September 2011. Fans of manual focus will also find interesting the fact that several famous names have thrown their hat in the Micro Four Thirds ring, including Carl Zeiss, Cosina, Komamura, and Schneider Kreuznach, although of these only Cosina has yet to reach market with a 25mm f/0.95 prime. Korean optics manufacturer Samyang is expected to begin shipping a 7.5mm f/3.5 fisheye from September 2011. A new startup company called Noktor has also shipped a completely manual 50mm (100mm equivalent) F0.95 prime lens, manufactured by Goyo Optical, which appears to be based on a design intended for CCTV security cameras. Finally, several low-cost, lomo-type and even pinhole lenses are available from lesser-known companies such as SLR Magic and Wanderlust.

The Micro Four Thirds mount has an unusually small flange to sensor distance, which means there's plenty of room to insert mount adapters between the camera body and lens flange. As a result, a vast selection of adapters make it possible to mount all sorts of current and historic glass on a Micro Four Thirds camera. Lenses that can be adapted include certain standard Four Thirds, Olympus OM, Canon FD, Nikon F, Pentax K, Sony / Minolta Alpha, Contax / Yashica, M42, T2, Leica M / R, Voigtlander VM / Ai-S / PK-A/R / KA, and Carl Zeiss ZM / ZF / ZK types. These adapters generally have some limitations as to compatibility and available features, which will depend on the specific model being used, but photographers on the Micro Four Thirds platform can rest assured they won't be left wanting in terms of compatibility with other lens mounts.

Because the company's lenses largely feature optical stabilization, the Panasonic G3 doesn't itself incorporate in-body image stabilization. This means that while third party lenses can be used with the camera, only Panasonic's lenses offer stabilization on the G3 (at least, for the time being -- it's certainly possible that a third party could offer its own stabilized Micro Four Thirds lens in the future).

Panasonic G3 Autofocus

The Panasonic G3 has a 23-area contrast-detect autofocus system, using the main imaging sensor to determine focus, similar to how most point & shoot cameras work. There are five AF Area options, selected by pressing the Left arrow key on the four-way controller, which doubles as an AF Mode button. These options include Face Detection, AF Tracking, 23-area Focusing, 1-area Focusing, and Pinpoint. In addition, there are three focus servo modes, selected with the Focus Mode option on page two of the Record menu. These are Single AF (AFS), Continuous AF (AFC), and Manual.

Touch AF. The autofocus point can be set anywhere within the frame (except the extreme edges) by touching the LCD display, and four different point sizes are available. We found this one of the camera's most compelling features. (Picture shows Panasonic G2, which operates similarly to the G3).

A built-in AF Assist lamp illuminates the center of the image frame in difficult lighting conditions, to assist in achieving a focus lock. Its effective range varies depending on the lens in use, and it can be disabled altogether for situations when it might prove a distraction to your subject, or otherwise objectionable. Lenses with larger diameters may partially or completely block the assist lamp from illuminating your subject.

When the AF Mode is set to Face Detection, the camera automatically detects up to 15 faces in a scene, and can be programmed to recognize six specific individuals whenever they appear in the frame, allowing them to be prioritized over other faces when recognized. (In other words, you can train the camera to distinguish six specific people from others, and base exposure and focus on just their faces, rather than others in the frame.) The G3 will focus on an individual selected by the face recognition function if possible, or on the dominant face if no individuals are recognized. When a photo contains more than one recognized face, the camera selects on which face to focus based on the priority selected when programming the faces to be recognized. There's also a three-step control over the facial recognition sensitivity, allowing higher recognition accuracy (but with an increased likelihood that one of the designated faces won't be recognized), or vice versa.

The face selected for focusing is indicated by a yellow frame until focus lock is achieved, at which point the frame color changes to green; other faces get a white frame to indicate their location. Once detected, faces are tracked around the screen automatically. A manual AF point can be set in face detection mode by simply touching the desired point on the screen, and one of four point sizes selected by dragging a slider that appears at the right-hand side. The point position can also be set or adjusted with the arrow buttons on the back of the camera, and the size adjusted by rolling the rear dial. If a manual point is set, all detected faces are still indicated with white frames, but not used for AF calculation.

The AF Tracking mode is great for shooting sports, kids, and pets, as it automatically tracks any moving subject -- not just faces -- around the frame, based on the subject's tone and color. The subject can be selected by touching it on the screen. Alternatively, it can be selected by aiming the camera so as to place the AF point over the subject, then half-pressing the shutter button. The tracking function will relocate a subject if it briefly leaves the frame, even if it doesn't reenter from the same direction. When tracking, the subject is indicated with a yellow frame. Face recognition is disabled when the camera is set to AF tracking mode. The tracking mode also doesn't function when the Panasonic G3 is set to the Monochrome photo style, or when the Creative Control mode is set to Sepia.

In 23-Area Focusing mode, the G3 defaults to automatically selecting between all twenty three focusing points. By touching the screen, one of nine groups of AF points can be selected, and the camera will automatically choose only from the points in the selected group. Each group consists of five points, apart from in the extreme corners of the frame, where the groups only contain four points. The selected group is indicated by a cross mark in the center of the cluster of AF points.

The 1-Area Focusing mode provides a single autofocus point which can be moved anywhere within the frame except the extreme edges, again either by touching the display or by using the arrow buttons. As with the face detection mode, the AF frame size can be changed to Spot, Normal, Large or Extra Large, either by dragging an on-screen slider, or by rolling the rear dial. The pinpoint mode operates in a similar manner, except with an even smaller, fixed point size.

In Single AF servo mode, the camera will attempt to determine the point of focus when the shutter button is half-pressed, and then lock focus at this distance for as long as the shutter button remains pressed. Through the Custom menu, you can assign either the Disp./Fn1 or Q.Menu/Fn2 buttons (or both) to serve as either an autofocus lock button, an autoexposure lock button, or a combined AF/AE lock button, with a second press releasing the lock. A further Custom setting instructs the camera to operate in AF+MF mode, allowing the point of focus to be fine-tuned manually after the autofocus operation is complete.

In Continuous AF servo mode, the camera will attempt to predict subject motion and keep the area under the AF point in focus, for as long as the shutter button remains half-pressed. Because contrast-detect AF systems have to perturb the focus in order to tell whether the image is actually in focus or not, the DMC-G3's Continuous-AF mode's operation can be seen in the live view feed, at least if you're watching closely: The image will continuously shift very slightly in and out of focus when C-AF is active, as the camera constantly re-checks its focus setting.

A Focus Priority setting in the Custom menu allows the Panasonic G3 to be set to require a focus lock before the shutter can be triggered, or alternatively to allow the shutter to fire regardless of whether a lock has been achieved. When shooting in burst mode with continuous AF, enabling Focus Priority can reduce the burst speed, because a focus lock must be obtained before each shot in the burst. With Focus Priority disabled, the G3 simply focuses at the predicted distance for each subsequent image in the burst, without actually confirming a focus lock has been achieved. (For bursts in Single AF mode, focus is locked from the first shot, so the only effect enabling Focus Priority has in this situation is that it delays firing of the first frame in the burst, until a focus lock has been achieved.)

Through a Record menu setting, the Panasonic G3 can be configured to begin seeking a focus lock as soon as the camera is held relatively steady, before the shutter button is half-pressed. When this Quick AF setting is enabled, the time to obtain an AF lock should be reduced, but at the expense of battery life.

Of course, the Panasonic DMC-G3 also offers a Manual Focus mode. In MF mode, a Custom setting called MF Assist optionally causes the camera to magnify the preview image by 5x, whenever the focus ring is adjusted, to help determine critical focus. The MF assist preview can be panned around the image frame by dragging your finger across the surface of the display, and the zoom level increased to 10x (and reverted to 5x) by pressing an on-screen magnifying glass icon. After 10 seconds of manual focus inactivity, the Panasonic G3 reverts to showing the full image frame. Alternatively, a small window showing a 4x zoomed view can be shown at the center of the screen, while the remaining area shows the live view feed, helping you keep your framing unchanged during manual focus operation.

For use with old manual-focus lenses (which lack the communication that would tell the body when the focus ring was being adjusted), or perhaps to simply check the focus that the AF system has achieved, it's also possible to call up the MF assist function without first adjusting focus, by pressing the Left-arrow button when in MF mode. An MF Guide function displays an on-screen gauge with a visual indication of the current relative focus distance, making it easy to see whether you're focusing closer or further away when the focus ring is turned. (It doesn't display the actual focus distance, just a relative range from close-up to infinity.)

While the LCD on the Panasonic G3 has a reasonably high-resolution design, with some ~153,000 pixels (460,000 dots), the electronic viewfinder offers 480,000 pixel resolution, and so presents the best choice for manual focus operation, or confirmation of precise autofocus.

Touch-AF Interface

In the above discussion, we mentioned several times how the Panasonic G3's touch screen can be used to set the AF point, identify the desired subject, or call up the focus-assist display in Manual Focus mode. We've often said that we're no particular fans of touch-screen interfaces, but the touch interface on the previous Panasonic G2 model really made believers of us, and the G3 retains that heritage. Shawn and Dave first heard about the original G2's touch interface in the non-disclosure briefing, and shared much the same initial opinion: "eh - another gimmicky touch-screen interface." Once they had a chance to shoot with the camera, they found their opinion changing pretty radically. The touch interface on the G2 and G3 is really done exactly right, and using it to set focus or select a subject for tracking is an incredibly natural way of doing so. Perhaps the best measure of how much we all like it is how often we find ourselves wanting to select an AF point on other cameras we're testing by poking their screens.

Shawn made a video showing how the Panasonic G2's touch interface works for our review of that camera, and with the touch interface being a similarly integral part of the G3 experience, we think it's worth re-linking here. Check it out, it's really a very intuitive way of relating to your camera!

AF in Movie mode

In Movie mode, you have the same focusing options available as when shooting stills, and it is possible to adjust focus not only before movie recording starts, but also during recording. There are a couple of differences from their still image counterparts though -- the most obvious being the absence of the beep that serves to confirm AF lock. Also, when set to AF-C servo mode, the Panasonic G3 looks to a setting in the Motion Picture menu to determine whether to allow Continuous AF. If the option is disabled, the G3 will operate in Single AF mode, regardless of the Focus Mode being set to AF-C, performing an AF operation only until a lock is achieved. If the option is enabled, Continuous AF becomes available during movie recording as well as for still images. Since focus operation is picked up by the camera's internal microphone, you may want to choose either S-AF or MF modes to minimize the presence of AF drive noise. It's also important to note that even when in MF mode, focus operation can result in motor noise being picked up on the audio track, since most Micro Four Thirds lenses use a fly-by-wire system for manual focusing, rather than a direct mechanical linkage. The extent to which AF noise is recorded on the audio track will vary depending on the specific lens used, and Panasonic's own HD-branded lenses offer much quieter AF operation than is typical.

Panasonic DMC-G3 Sensor Cleaning

The Panasonic DMC-G3 features an ultrasonic dust-reduction system, especially important since the DMC-G3's shutter is normally open for full-time Live View. The system automatically runs at power-up, and might as a result slow camera startup slightly. We measured the G3's delay from power-on to first shot at about 1.4 seconds. Not only is that slower than some competing SLR models, but it's also around 0.4 seconds slower than the previous Panasonic G2 model. That said, the G3 still starts up quickly enough that we didn't feel it would be likely to cause us to miss a shot.

We have found, however, that in-camera dust-removal systems are less than perfectly effective. You're still going to need to use a sensor-cleaning kit fairly often, so the advantage of in-body dust removal is perhaps less than it might seem. If you've got dust specks on your sensor (and sooner or later you will), you're going to need to clean it. There are a lot of products out there intended to address this need, but a distressing number of them work poorly (if at all), and many are grossly overpriced. Advertising hype is rampant, with bogus pseudo-scientific jargon and absurd product claims. And prices -- Did I mention prices? How about $100 for a simple synthetic-bristle brush?

So how do you know what product to use?

We don't pretend to have used everything currently on the market, but we can tell you about one solution that worked very well for us. The "Copper Hill" cleaning method is straightforward and safe, and in our routine usage here at Imaging Resource, highly effective. Better yet, the products sold by Copper Hill Imaging are very reasonably priced. Best of all, Nicholas R (proprietor of Copper Hill) has put together an amazingly detailed tutorial on sensor cleaning, free for all.

Sensor cleaning is one of the last things people think about when buying a d-SLR, but it's vital to capturing the best possible images. Take our advice and order a cleaning kit from Copper Hill right along with your d-SLR, so you'll have it close at hand when you need it: You'll be glad you did!

(While they've advertised on our sister site SLRgear.com from time to time, we receive no promotional consideration from Copper Hill for this note. We just think their sensor cleaning products are among the best on the market, and like their way of doing business. -- We think you will too. Click here to check them out.)

Kit Lens Test Results

Zoom
Fair to good performance with the 14-42mm O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilized) kit lens.

The Panasonic G3 is available bundled with a Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 MEGA O.I.S. Micro Four Thirds lens. This kit lens possesses a typical optical zoom ratio of 3x, and has a 35mm equivalent focal range of about 28-82mm, because of the G3's 2x "crop factor". Results were pretty good at 14mm and f/8, with only minor softness in the extreme corners and fairly strong detail throughout the rest of the frame. Coma distortion in the trees in the corners was low to moderate, and chromatic aberration very low with much of it processed out. Performance at 25mm (50mm eq.) and f/8 was also good, though corners were still slightly soft, with the top-left softer than the others. Chromatic aberration was negligible. Sharpness was good across much of the frame at 42mm at f/8, though the top-left corner was quite soft, with some slight blurring and coma distortion in the other corners. Again very little chromatic aberration was visible. Overall, a fair to good performance for an inexpensive kit lens, and the optical image stabilization should help handheld shots in poor light.

Macro
A larger-than-average area, with good but slightly soft detail. Flash throttles down well.

As with zoom performance, the Panasonic G3's macro performance will depend entirely on the lens in use. However, with the 14-42mm kit lens set to 42mm, the Panasonic G3 captured a larger-than-average minimum area measuring 3.92 x 2.94 inches (100 x 75 millimeters).  Detail was quite good but a bit soft, with a touch of additional softening in the extreme corners. (Most lenses have some softening in the corners at macro distances, the Panasonic G3's kit lens has less than most.) Some minor light fall-off ("vignetting") is also noticeable in extreme corners. The Panasonic G3's flash did a good job throttling down at this distance, and there was no detectable shadow from the lens barrel, which resulted in a good exposure with the flash.

Geometric Distortion
Low geometric distortion with the 14-42mm kit lens in JPEGs; high barrel distortion at wide-angle in uncorrected RAW files.

In-Camera JPEG: Barrel distortion at 14mm is about 0.3 percent

In-Camera JPEG: Pincushion distortion at 42mm is 0.3 percent

Uncorrected RAW: Barrel distortion at 14mm is 2.0 percent

Uncorrected RAW: Pincushion distortion at 42mm is 0.3 percent

When shooting JPEGs, the Panasonic G3's 14-42mm kit lens produced about 0.3 percent barrel distortion at wide-angle, which is much less than that produced by most kit lenses we've tested, and hardly noticeable in images. At the telephoto end, there was about 0.3 percent of pincushion distortion which is a little higher than average, but also not very noticeable. This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel -- usually at wide-angle) or inward (like a pincushion -- usually at telephoto).

Like previous Panasonic Micro Four-thirds (and compact) models, the G3 corrects for lens distortion in JPEGs (a good thing for JPEG shooters), so we converted RAW files with dcraw which does not correct for distortion. SilkyPix (and presumably other raw converters that support the G3's RW2 files) applies distortion correction automatically, so results are very similar to in-camera JPEGs. As you can see, at wide-angle barrel distortion is very high at about 2.0 percent, however pincushion distortion at telephoto remained roughly the same as the in-camera JPEGs, at 0.3%. (The high barrel distortion at wide-angle is not unusual for a Micro Four Thirds lens, but the extent of distortion correction required may explain some of the softness we saw in the corners at short focal lengths.)

Chromatic Aberration and Corner Sharpness
Very low to moderate chromatic aberration when shooting JPEGs with the 14-42mm O.I.S. kit lens. Brighter CA in uncorrected RAW files. Some soft corners at both wide-angle and telephoto when shooting wide-open.

In-Camera JPEGs
Wide, f/3.5: Upper left C.A.: Moderate but dull Softness: Moderately soft	Wide, f/3.5: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp
Tele, f/5.6: Upper left C.A.: Low Softness: Moderately soft	Tele, f/5.6: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Slightly soft

Chromatic Aberration. When shooting JPEGs, chromatic aberration in the corners with the Panasonic G3's 14-42mm kit lens was very low to moderate at the 14mm setting, with fairly dull mostly purple/blue fringing in the corners. At 42mm telephoto, this distortion was lower and even less noticeable. (This distortion is visible as a slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)

Corner Softness. The Panasonic G3's 14-42mm kit lens produced some soft corners. At full wide-angle, three corners were moderately soft with the upper-left arguably the softest, while the bottom right was sharper. Blurring extended quite a ways into the frame, though the center was very sharp. At full telephoto, corner sharpness was similar with the same three corners moderately soft and the bottom right reasonably sharp, but the center was also slightly soft, and suffers from lower contrast than at full wide-angle. Some light fall-off in the corners ("vignetting") was also noticeable at the wide-angle end.

Keep in mind that these shots were taken with the lens wide open, and that corner sharpness and vignetting typically improve when stopping down to a smaller aperture.

Chromatic Aberration Correction. We weren't surprised to find the G3 reduces chromatic aberration during JPEG processing (good for JPEG shooters), as most Panasonic point & shoot and G-series models do. Above are crops comparing camera JPEGs to uncorrected RAW files converted with dcraw. Chromatic aberration is more obvious and slightly different at wide-angle (green and purple) and telephoto (cyan and red) than in the corrected JPEGs, though it's still fairly well controlled. (As mentioned above, SilkyPix performs similar corrections to those performed by the camera, so you'll only see CA and distortion like that shown above when using a RAW converter that doesn't apply such corrections.)

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Panasonic G3 Exposure Options

The Panasonic G3 offers all the exposure options you'd expect in an SLR-class camera, plus a few Panasonic-specific options. Available exposure modes include Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual modes, with shutter speeds from 1/4,000 to 60 seconds, as well as a Bulb setting for longer exposures up to two minutes. The x-sync speed for flash photography is 1/160 second. A fully automatic mode called Intelligent Auto (iA) enables Scene Detection, Backlight Compensation, Face Detection, Auto White Balance, Intelligent ISO Sensitivity Control, Quick Autofocus, Red-eye Removal, Intelligent Resolution, Intelligent Dynamic Range Control, Long-Shutter Noise Reduction, Shading Compensation, Focus Priority, and the Autofocus Assist lamp to try to deliver optimum results under a wide range of conditions. (In our experience playing with the camera, iA did a surprisingly good job, under a wide range of lighting conditions.) The Panasonic G3 also offers a number of Scene modes, a Creative Control Mode, and two Custom modes that together allow up to four sets of shooting modes and settings can be stored and recalled. See the Modes and Menus page for more details.

While in Program AE mode, you can rotate the rear control dial to select different combinations of aperture and shutter speed settings than those normally chosen by the autoexposure system. This is often called Program Shift. If the automatic program would have chosen 1/125 second and f/5.6, you could instead direct the camera to use 1/60 at f/8 or 1/30 at f/11, to get greater depth of field. It's a very nice touch that's common on a lot of SLRs these days, and is a handy option for those times when you need some measure of increased control, but still want the camera to do most of the work for you.

Another feature that's also pretty common, but still very welcome is the electronic analog exposure display visible in the viewfinder data readout as well as on the rear-panel shooting display when the camera is in Manual exposure mode. This shows the amount the camera thinks an image will be over- or underexposed, based on the settings you have selected, and helps you find the best exposure for the subject.

Panasonic G3 Face Recognition
Like many of the company's recent cameras, the Panasonic G3 includes Face Recognition. (The image at right is from our GH1 review, but the feature is largely similar.) Face recognition isn't to be confused with face detection, a function offered by many cameras these days. The Panasonic G3 goes a step further by trying to recognize specific individuals. Up to six faces can be registered, with up to three training shots per individual face for increased accuracy.

Even more unusually, the G3 can be configured to automatically recognize when a particular unregistered face has appeared in more than three photos (excluding burst or bracketed exposures), and suggest that it be registered using the Face Recognition function. If you choose to register the face, you're prompted to confirm whether it is a new person, or an additional image of an individual you've already registered (unless there are no faces registered, in which case you're immediately prompted to enter the new individual's details.)

Like the GF1, the Panasonic G3 allows the user to select the sensitivity of the face recognition system. When set to Low, the camera is less likely to incorrectly identify a face, but more likely to fail to recognize a face at all. When set to high, the converse applies -- faces should be more likely to be recognized, but with an increased likelihood of incorrect identification being made.

The camera will display and write into the EXIF headers up to three people's names when it recognizes their faces. In addition to just the name, a birthday can be registered, as well as focus priority. If you program in a birthday for a person, whenever the camera recognizes that person's face in an image in playback mode, it will display their age as of the date of the photo in an overlay over the image on the camera's screen, and write the information into the JPEG file's EXIF header. Focus priority allows the camera to optimize focus and exposure for the highest priority face it finds in a scene with multiple faces.

The included PHOTOfunSTUDIO software package can be used to search for images containing specific people on your PC, and can also show their age in photos where they're recognized. Although we haven't played with it in our lab, PHOTOfunSTUDIO can further be used to improve on the camera's face recognition, by training the software on a larger number of images -- a feature demonstrated to us by Panasonic staff using an early iteration of the software. Unfortunately for Mac users, PHOTOfunSTUDIO is still available only for Windows PCs.

Panasonic G3 ISO Range
ISO sensitivity ranges from 160 to 6,400, adjustable by pressing the ISO button (up arrow) on the back of the camera and then pressing the desired sensitivity on the touch-panel display, or using the up/down or left/right arrow directions of the Multi-Selector to select values from those shown. It can also be adjusted through the Quick menu. The ISO number can be selected in one-stop (default) or 1/3-stop increments, depending on the ISO increment setting selected in page four of the Record Menu.

An Auto ISO mode is available, and you can set the upper limit to ISO 200, 400, 800, 1,600, or 3,200 in Record Menu 3. (The "Off" setting defaults to a limit of ISO 800.) Intelligent ISO mode detects subject movement, and will boost ISO to increase the shutter speed as needed, in an attempt to freeze subject motion. The maximum sensitivity selected by Intelligent ISO is ISO 800.

Panasonic G3 Noise Reduction
The Panasonic G3 gives you five choices for noise reduction, set through the Photo Style function in page one of the Record menu. The G3's noise reduction function ranges from -2 to +2 arbitrary units, with 0 being the default in all Photo Style presets.

A separate Long Shutter noise reduction On/Off setting is available for dark frame subtraction for long exposures. If enabled, this approximately doubles the exposure time for each shot, allowing the second dark frame exposure to be captured with the shutter closed.

Panasonic G3 White Balance Options
White balance modes on the Panasonic G3 include Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Incandescent, and Flash. No Fluorescent preset is provided. Kelvin temperature settings are also available, ranging from 2,500K to 10,000K in 100K steps. There are also two Custom white balance settings, for setting white balance from a white or grey card. The effect of changes in white balance settings is shown in real-time, on the LCD monitor or EVF.

In all white balance modes, you can fine-tune the color by pressing the down arrow, or the on-screen "adjust" button. You're then presented with a x/y axis graph with which you can adjust within a +/-9 step range on both Amber / Blue and Green / Magenta axes, either by using the four arrow buttons, or touching the appropriate area on the graph display.

In Kelvin white balance mode, the up/down directions on the Multi Selector or the touch screen can be used to adjust the color temperature. A numerical readout at the top left of the display shows the exact Kelvin temperature, and arrow buttons above and below can be used to increment or decrement the value. A scale at screen right shows the color temperature relative to existing presets, and also allows direct adjustment by touching the appropriate point on the scale.

Custom white balance is set by selecting one of the two Custom White Balance settings, pointing the camera at a neutral white or grey card under the lighting you'll be shooting in, filling a frame in the center of the display with the reference target, and then pressing the on-screen Set button.

You can also bracket white balance exposures, although it's a little hidden. White balance bracketing is accessed through the Adjust option in the White Balance menu. The bracket setting is performed by rolling the Control dial to the left to increase the bracketing spread on a Green / Magenta axis, or to the right for an Amber / Blue axis. When WB bracketing is active, three images are taken when the shutter button is pressed once.

Panasonic G3 Metering Options
The Panasonic G3 offers three metering modes, selected via the Metering Mode option in the Quick Menu or Record Menu 1: Multi-pattern, Center-Weighted, and Spot. The default Multi-segment metering mode takes readings throughout the image to determine exposure, using an array of 144 zones covering the bulk of the frame. Center-Weighted gives precedence to the center of the image while reading the whole frame. Spot metering is useful for high-contrast subjects. Unless using Face Detection or Tracking AF modes, it bases the exposure reading on the very center of the image, letting you set the exposure based on a small portion of your subject. With Face Detection or Tracking AF enabled, the Spot meter area is locked to the AF target, rather than being fixed at the center of the frame. There's not a dedicated AF / AE Lock button on the G3, but you optionally can configure either the Display or Quick Menu buttons to lock exposure or focus when pressed. Halfway pressing the Shutter button also locks exposure (and focus in AFS mode).

Panasonic G3 Exposure Compensation & Bracketing
The Panasonic G3's Exposure Compensation adjustment increases or reduces the overall exposure from -3 to +3 exposure values (EV) in one-third stop increments, and like White Balance, the effect of Exposure Compensation is simulated on the preview. An Auto Bracketing feature captures multiple shots with different exposures. See the Drive Mode section on Auto Bracketing below for more details.

Panasonic G3 I. Dynamic
The Panasonic G3 offers three levels of what the company calls "I. Dynamic" or Intelligent Dynamic Range Control: Low, Standard, and High, as well as an Off setting. I. Dynamic attempts to automatically adjust contrast and exposure to improve apparent dynamic range in difficult lighting situations.

Panasonic G3 I. Resolution
The Panasonic G3 offers four levels of what the company calls "I. Resolution" or Intelligent Resolution: Low, Standard, High, and Extended, as well as an Off setting. Intelligent Resolution is a form of localized sharpening, which applies different levels of sharpening to outlines, texture and gradation within a single image.

Panasonic G3 Drive Modes
The Panasonic G3 offers a variety of shooting modes via the Drive Mode / Down Arrow button on the camera's rear panel. Drive options include Single Shot, Burst, Auto Bracket, and Self-timer. The Burst Mode has rate options for "SH" (20 frames per second), "H" (4 frames per second), "M" (3 frames per second), or "L" (2 frames per second), with all figures being manufacturer-supplied values. (We don't test the lower-speed rates, but in our in-house testing found the SH mode's 20 fps rating accurate, although the H mode actually averaged around 3.4 fps.) The SH mode allows only JPEG capture, and locks focus from the first frame. Both SH and H modes also lock exposure and white balance from the first frame, and neither provides a live-view feed during burst capture.

Auto Bracket lets you take a sequence of 3, 5, or 7 shots with either 1/3 EV, 2/3 EV, or 1 EV exposure variation steps. The sequence can be selected from "0/-/+" (default/underexposed/overexposed) or " -/0/+" (underexposed/default/overexposed). The Self-timer mode offers 10 seconds, 10 seconds with 3 pictures taken at 2 second intervals, or 2 seconds.

Panasonic G3 Photo Styles

The Panasonic G3 doesn't have a dedicated Photo Style button, although this can be user-assigned as an alternate function of either the Display or Quick Menu buttons. Otherwise, it's set through the first page of the Record menu. The Photo Style function lets you choose from six preset "Phoot Styles," which have different characteristics such as contrast, saturation, sharpness, and noise reduction. You can also define one of your own, or adjust the contrast, sharpness, saturation, and noise reduction level in +/- two arbitrary steps for any existing preset.

Here's how Panasonic describes the available Photo Styles (the descriptive verbiage below is theirs):

Of course, the Panasonic G3 also offers sRGB and Adobe RGB settings, in a separate Color Space menu.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Imaging

Panasonic G3 Image Quality

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Good color and saturation levels over most of the spectrum, with improved hue accuracy over prior models.

In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located toward the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. Click for a larger image.

Saturation. The Panasonic G3 produced fairly accurate saturation levels at default settings. The camera pushes reds, dark greens and purples very slightly, dark blues a fair bit, while slightly undersaturating yellow, aqua, cyan and light purple. Average saturation is 106.5% (6.5% oversaturated), which is fairly typical, though some people may feel default colors are slightly muted, especially yellow. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. Here, the Panasonic G3 struggled a bit, producing Caucasian skin tones that were pinkish with patches that contained too much yellow or orange, even when manual white balanced was used. This was especially evident in our indoor shots. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. The Panasonic G3 pushed cyan toward blue slightly (but much less so than most cameras), red toward orange, orange toward yellow and yellow toward green. Some greens were also pushed toward yellow. In the orange through yellow range, shifts weren't as pronounced as previous Panasonic CSCs, and with an average "delta-C" color error of 5.53, overall hue accuracy was pretty good. Even better, the orange-yellow shifts are significantly mitigated by working with RAW files and using a good-quality RAW converter. Adobe Camera Raw does not support the G3's RAW files yet, but SilkyPix was able to do a better job with color accuracy than the camera. Delta-C color error using SilkyPix defaults improved to 4.53, which is very good. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Photo Style Modes
The Panasonic G3 offers six preset Picture Style modes. You can adjust contrast, saturation, sharpness and noise reduction for any of the modes, and then save your settings as one custom option.

Picture Style Modes
Standard (default)	Natural	Portrait
Scenery	Monochrome	Vivid

Mouse over the links above to see the effect of the presets on our Still Life target. You can click on a link to load the full resolution image.

Saturation Adjustment
The Panasonic G3 lets you adjust the image saturation, contrast, and sharpness in five steps each. As can be seen below, the saturation adjustment was very subtle. We usually argue in favor of more subtle adjustments for saturation on the cameras we test, but like previous Panasonics, the G3 goes a bit too far in that direction; we'd like to see a wider range here (more steps), but still with the fine steps the G3 currently offers.

Saturation Adjustment Examples
-2	0	+2

The table above shows results with the default as well as the two "extreme" saturation settings. Click on any thumbnail above, then click again to see the full-sized image.

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Slightly warm cast with Auto, very warm with Incandescent, but good color balance with the Manual and 2,600 Kelvin white balance settings. Slightly higher than average positive exposure compensation required.

Indoors, under normal incandescent lighting, color balance was just slightly warm with the Auto white balance setting, though the Panasonic G3 did much better than most digital SLRs in this regard. (While slightly warm, results with the Auto setting were quite acceptable, and many users in fact prefer a slightly warm look in situations like this, to better represent the mood of the original lighting.) Results with the Incandescent setting were much warmer; the Incandescent setting looks like it might be adjusted to match professional studio lighting, a little odd for a consumer camera model. The Manual and 2,600 Kelvin settings produced very similar results with the most accurate white balance and very neutral grays, though some colors like the mannequin's hair and skintones were pushed toward yellow/orange. The Panasonic G3 required +0.7 EV exposure compensation here, which is a bit higher than the average of +0.3 EV for this shot among the cameras we've tested. Exposure is a little bright at +0.7 EV, but we found +0.3 EV a bit dark. +0.5 EV might have been ideal. (Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.)

Outdoors, daylight
Somewhat warm colors overall, with a tendency toward high contrast under harsh lighting. About average exposure accuracy.

Outdoors, the Panasonic G3 performed fairly well with good exposures though colors were a touch warm. Facial skintones had too much orange/yellow with Auto White Balance, but Manual White Balance performed better. The Panasonic Lumix G3 required an average amount of positive exposure compensation (+0.7 EV) to keep facial tones reasonably bright in our "Sunlit" Portrait test, which led to some blown highlights in her shirt and flowers. Default contrast is on the high side, but fortunately, there's are contrast and dynamic range adjustments to help compensate. Overall, fair results here, especially when the contrast setting is turned down (see Extremes section below).

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
Very high resolution, 2,100 ~ 2,200 lines of strong detail.

In camera JPEGs our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 2,200 lines per picture height horizontally, and about 2,100 lines in the vertical direction. Extinction of the pattern didn't occur until about 3,000 lines horizontally and vertically. Adobe Camera Raw, our "reference" converter does not yet support the G3's .RW2 files so we can't tell if RAW files contain significantly more resolution, but we suspect the camera is doing a pretty good job at extracting most of the available detail. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Very good sharpness overall, though edge-enhancement artifacts are visible on high-contrast subjects. Very good detail, but moderate noise suppression visible at even the base ISO.

Sharpness. The Panasonic G3 captures sharp, detailed images overall, though with some edge enhancement artifacts visible on high-contrast subjects such as the branches in the crop above left. Finer detail with lower contrast such as the pine needles show fewer sharpening artifacts. Very good results here. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

JPEG	RAW

Detail. The crop above right shows some moderate noise suppression artifacts in the model's hair even at ISO 160, smudging individual strands together, though quite a few strands are visible. Overall detail is very good, but like previous Panasonic models, there are some odd color blotches (see the JPEG crop at right) that we believe may be the result of insufficient anti-aliasing filtering, and the aliasing/demosaicing problems that it produces. (We also saw these with previous G-series cameras and it's something that we've seen with a number of other cameras in the past, including several SLRs.) The blue/gray blotches are not present in SilkyPix converted files and we'd expect the same for Adobe Camera Raw. (However, ACR does not support the G3 yet so we can't show you an ACR conversion.) Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

Intelligent Resolution
The Panasonic G3 offers four levels of "Intelligent Resolution", which essentially sharpens fine detail while leaving areas with little or no detail (such as a cloudless sky) untouched to keep visible noise to a minimum. To see how well it works, compare the crops below at each setting.

Off	Low	Standard	High	Extended

In the table above, mousing over a link at the bottom will load the corresponding crop in the area above, and clicking on the link will load the full resolution image.

As you can see, fine detail has progressively stronger sharpening applied as the setting is increased, while the noise in the sky is not affected. The increased sharpening and noise reduction does tend to coarsen and blur fine detail at higher settings, though. The pine needles in the trees behind the house are a good illustration of this effect. Still, we think most users will be pleased with the extra "pop" in apparent detail Intelligent Resolution provides to JPEGs, at least for natural subjects.

RAW vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above, the Panasonic G3 produces sharp, detailed in-camera JPEGs. As is almost always the case, though, quite a bit more detail can often be obtained from carefully processing RAW files than can be seen in the in-camera JPEGs.

Camera JPEG (Fine)	RAW via SilkyPix (NR=default)	RAW via SilkyPix (NR=0)

In the table above, mousing over a link at the bottom will load the corresponding crop in the area above, and clicking on the link will load the full resolution image.

SilkyPix 3.1 SE (the RAW converter Panasonic bundles with their RAW-capable cameras) is pretty sophisticated in the controls it provides for tweaking your photos. In the SilkyPix crops above, we turned the in-application sharpening control down to zero and used only its output unsharp masking, which we set to 350%, a radius of 0.3 pixels, and a threshold of 0. File output is actually a logical place to apply unsharp masking, as you'll want to use different sharpening settings for printing at different sizes.

We found fine detail to be a little smudged from SilkyPix, so we did a second conversion with noise reduction turned all the way down to see if that made a difference. As you can see, the SilkyPix conversions have higher default contrast and colors are rendered somewhat differently than the camera. Both conversions show more noise than the JPEG, yet they don't show the significant increase in fine detail we expected. We think we'll be able to extract more detail using a good third-party converter such as Adobe Camera Raw. We'll try to add an Adobe Camera Raw conversion, once ACR supports the G3's RAW files.

ISO & Noise Performance
Low to moderate noise up to ISO 800 with very good detail. Some noise reduction already evident at base ISO, though detail vs noise is much better than the G2.

Default Noise Reduction
ISO 160	ISO 200	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 1,600	ISO 3,200
	ISO 6,400

The Panasonic G3's images look fairly clean through ISO 400, though fine detail is already impacted by default noise reduction at ISO 160. Some chroma noise is also visible in the shadows and darker strands of hair at low ISOs. Skintones and hair also suffer from too much yellow/orange push in these shots, despite the neutral color balance seen in the WhiBal card. As mentioned previously, demosaicing errors in the hair cause what looks like blue/gray chroma noise as well at low ISOs, something we've seen in previous Panasonics as well as some other brands. They disappear at ISO 800 and above, a result of stronger chroma noise reduction. ISO 800 shows a jump in luminance noise, but it's fine-grained, leaving a surprising amount of detail intact. ISO 1,600 is noticeably softer due to stronger noise reduction, but detail is still pretty good. ISO 3,200 is softer still, with shadows picking up a purple tint along with hints of horizontal banding. High contrast detail is still very good, though. Fine detail at ISO 6,400 is soft and mushy, though some individual strands of hair can still be made out, and there's quite a bit of luminance noise to be seen in flat areas, but this is to be expected at such a high ISO. Overall, a very good balance between noise and detail, and a big improvement over the G2 despite the G3's smaller photosites. The G3's JPEG noise performance is slightly better than the more expensive GH2, and even rivals some APS-C models.

We're of course pixel-peeping to an extraordinary extent here, since 1:1 images on screen have little to do with how those same images will appear when printed. See the Print Quality section below for our evaluation of maximum print sizes at each ISO setting.

A note about focus for the indoor portrait shot: We shoot this image at f/4, usually using one of three very sharp reference lenses (70mm Sigma f/2.8 macro for most cameras, 60mm f/2.8 Nikkor macro for Nikon bodies without a drive motor, and Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/2.0 for Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds bodies). To insure that the hair detail we use for making critical judgements about camera noise processing and detail rendering is in sharp focus at the relatively wide aperture we're shooting at, the focus target at the center of the scene is on a movable stand. This lets us compensate for front- or back-focus by different camera bodies, even those that lack micro-focus adjustments. This does mean, though, that the focus target itself may appear soft or slightly out of focus for bodies that front- or back-focused with the reference lens. We know this; if you click to view the full-size image for one of these shots and notice that the focus target is fuzzy, you don't need to email and tell us. :-) The focus target position will have been adjusted to insure that the rest of the scene is focused properly.

Extremes: Sunlit and low light tests
High resolution with good overall detail, but somewhat high default contrast and limited dynamic range. Good low-light performance.

Sunlight. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 struggled a bit with the deliberately harsh lighting of this test, as contrast was a little high at its default setting, and the dynamic range somewhat limited. Although skin tones in the face are a bit dark at +0.7 EV with the default contrast, we preferred it to +1.0 EV exposure overall, because there were fewer clipped highlights. Depending on the photographer, you could lean one way or the other. Pros and advanced users will want to shoot darker, to hold highlight detail. For those Panasonic G3 owners that are going to want to just print an image with little or no tweaking, the +1.0 EV image would probably produce a better-looking uncorrected in this situation. The bottom line though, is that the Panasonic G3 had difficulty with the wide dynamic range of this shot, at least with its default contrast settings.

Imatest dynamic range analysis (see graph at right, and click on the image for a larger version) for an in-camera JPEG file with a nominally-exposed density step target (Stouffer 4110), at default settings and base ISO shows 10 f-stops of total dynamic range, with about 7.0 f-stops at the "High" quality level. Compared to the Panasonic G2, the G3 scored slightly higher at the "High" quality level (7.02 vs 6.68 f-stops), but lower in total dynamic range (10 vs 10.8 f-stops).

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

Contrast Adjustment
As mentioned previously, the camera's limited contrast adjustment was at least some help in handling the harsh lighting.

Minimum Contrast
Contrast set to lowest, +0.7 EV	Contrast set to lowest, Auto Exposure

At its lowest contrast setting, the Panasonic G3 did a slightly better job of preserving highlight detail while maintaining reasonable skin tones, though it helped more with bringing out the shadows and darker midtones. Overall, the camera's limited dynamic range makes it perform a bit below average in this situation.

Contrast Adjustment Examples
-2	0	+2

The table above shows results with the default as well as the two "extreme" contrast settings. Click on any thumbnail above, then click again to see the full-sized image. Unlike the Saturation adjustment, the control for Contrast is not quite as subtle in its effect. It seems to basically leave the strongest highlights alone, and then apply a proportional boost to tones as it moves down the tone curve. To make the most of it in a shot like this, you'd want to drop the exposure to hold the highlights and then apply a good amount of contrast reduction (probably the maximum, as the steps are pretty small).

The Panasonic G3's contrast adjustment helps with the strong highlights and deep shadows here, but we'd really like to see more steps of this size, covering a slightly greater range. And even with the lowest contrast setting, the dynamic range isn't terribly impressive.

Outdoor Portrait Intelligent Dynamic Range
	iDynamic Setting: Off (Default) Low Standard High

Panasonic's "Intelligent Dynamic Range"
The above shots are examples of Panasonic's Intelligent Dynamic Range (or iDynamic) at work, with +0.7 EV exposure compensation. iDynamic appears to be a more advanced version of iExposure, and is said to be capable of reducing both blocked shadows and clipped highlights. It's currently only found on the G3, GH2 and GF2 system cameras. iExposure, which worked by raising sensitivity in dark areas to bring out more detail is no longer offered. There are three levels of iDynamic available on the G3: Low, Standard and High, plus Off. iDynamic is automatically invoked in iAuto mode and manually selectable in PASM modes. All shots above used the base ISO of 160 equivalent with an exposure compensation of +0.7 EV. (We found the images were too dark at default exposure.)

For our Outdoor Portrait shots above, all three settings were an improvement over the Off setting, pulling detail out of the shadows and delivering a progressively brighter exposure without clipping any additional highlights. Shadow noise is more visible, but that's to be expected when boosting shadows. As you can see from the histograms, there were some highlights blown to begin with at +0.7 EV exposure, and iDynamic did work to reduce highlight clipping slightly, but not as much as we'd like. Bottom line, though, iDynamic seems to provide a useful extension to the practical dynamic range of the Panasonic G3. (It's not likely increasing the technically defined dynamic range of the sensor any, but it can make for much more usable/printable images when working under tough lighting conditions.)

Far-field House Intelligent Dynamic Range
iDynamic Setting:	Off	Low	Standard	High

As you can see, iDynamic brightened the shadows in our Far-field House shot, though again it looks as though little attempt is made to reduce existing highlight clipping. (In fact, slightly more highlights were clipped in the bright white trim with iDynamic enabled versus off.) The Standard and High settings produced results very similar to the Low setting in this case.

Face Detection
Off at 0 EV	On at 0 EV	iAuto at 0 EV

Face Detection
Like most point & shoot cameras these days (and most DSLRs in Live View mode), the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3 has the ability to detect faces, and adjust exposure and focus accordingly. The G3 does it automatically in Intelligent Auto (iAuto) mode, when a Portrait scene mode is selected, or when Face Detection AF mode is selected. As you can see from the examples above, face detection along worked fairly well, as the image with it enabled (center) is much better exposed for the face than the default exposure (left). iAuto mode (right) selected Portrait mode which also enabled face detection according to EXIF metadata, however it ended up focusing behind the mannequin's face and slightly overexposing the face. Also note the strong yellow/orange skintones which we had hoped would be more natural looking in Portrait mode.

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16fc No NR
ISO 160	1.3 s f2.8	2.5 s f2.8	5 s f2.8	10 s f2.8	20 s f2.8	20 s f2.8
ISO 200	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	15 s f2.8	15 s f2.8
ISO 400	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	8 s f2.8
ISO 800	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	4 s f2.8
ISO 1600	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	2 s f2.8
ISO 3200	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	1 s f2.8
ISO 6400	1/30 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8

Low Light. The Panasonic DMC-G3 performed reasonably well in our low light test, capturing bright images down to the lowest light level we test at, at all ISO settings. This darkest level equates to about 1/16 the brightness of average city street lighting at night, so the Panasonic G3 should be able to take well-exposed photos in almost any environment in which you can see well enough to walk around in. As is often the case, the G3's auto exposure system struggled to produce a good exposure the lowest light levels, so we used manual mode for these shots.

Automatic white balance was very good (just slightly cool), something that's not a given at such low light levels. Using the default noise reduction setting, noise was pretty low up to ISO 1,600, though some chroma noise is visible in darker areas already at base ISO. Interestingly, with NR turned all the way down and Long Shutter NR turned off (right-most column), ISO 160 shots have a sprinkling of coarse luminance noise that almost have a flaky appearance, but at ISOs 200 and 400 the "flakes" appear a clusters of bright chroma noise. We wouldn't be surprised if revised firmware was released to address this, as these shots were taken with early firmware (Ver 0.2). At ISOs 3,200 and above, noise was higher but the G3's noise reduction processing does a very good job at holding on to detail while keeping noise in check. Hints of horizontal banding are visible at higher ISOs and lower light levels, but that's not unusual and it's not nearly as evident as some earlier G-series models. We did not notice any issues with hot pixels, though we spotted a few at lower ISOs and light-levels. Note that the G3 has a pixel mapping function (called "Pixel Refresh") to map out hot pixels, though we didn't try that feature.

The camera's autofocus system struggled a bit in low light, as it was only able to focus on our subject down to between 1/2 and 1/4 foot-candle unassisted with the kit lens at f/3.5, which is a bit disappointing even for a camera using contrast-detect autofocus. The Panasonic G3 does however have a focus-assist light option which allows it to autofocus in total darkness, as long as the subject is within range and has sufficient contrast.

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Thanks to their phase-detect AF systems, digital SLRs tend to do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects. The G3 uses contrast-detect autofocus, as is found in most point & shoot cameras, so its low-light focusing ability is less than that of some SLRs with phase-detect systems. That said, though, the larger, more sensitive pixels of the G3's sensor do better under dim lighting than do the tiny pixels of most point & shoots, (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)

Output Quality

Print Quality

Pretty impressive print quality, easily rivaling the Canon 60D.

ISO 160 shots look great at 20 x 30 inches, with good color and excellent detail. One issue does emerge at this ISO, though, captured in our INB indoor incandescent shot, where our model's red hair shows some demosaicing errors, which appear as blue/gray artifacts, and don't become negligible until the image is printed at 11 x 14 inches. Processing RAW images on a computer does not exhibit the error, by the way.

ISO 200 shots are also great at 20 x 30, with excellent color and detail. The demosaicing error is still present, but less noticeable.

ISO 400 shots, too, look surprisingly good at 20 x 30 inches. There's the slightest softening, but you have to get close and squint to see it. The demosaicing error is eliminated by the noise suppression system.

ISO 800 shots finally start to show a little more softening, but we'd still call it usable at 20 x 30 inches. There is some very slight luminance noise in the shadows, but very little. All of this returns to impressive crispness when printed at 16 x 20 inches.

ISO 1,600 images are usable at 16 x 20, though low-contrast detail in reds has begun to disappear more noticeably, and there's more noise in darker areas. Prints at 13 x 19 look great.

ISO 3,200 images usable for wall display at 13 x 19, and fine for close viewing at 11 x 14. Luminance noise in the shadows continues to increase, but it's not bad at all. Color also dims more noticeably at this setting, with a slight green cast coming into yellows, but not nearly as bad as it has on past Panasonic cameras, including the GH2.

ISO 6,400 shots are usable at 8 x 10 and good at 5 x 7. That green shift in the yellows continues, but is still better controlled than any previous high-end Panasonic camera.

Overall, the Panasonic G3's JPEG images print amazingly well, and challenging any concern that Micro Four Thirds sensors would continue to lag in image quality behind their APS-C competition. While upcoming SLRs may do better, it's clear that Panasonic has met the challenge in the meantime. Very impressive!

Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon Pro9000 Mark II studio printer, and on the Canon Pixma MP610 here in the office. (See the Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II review for details on that model.)