Panasonic today unveiled the Lumix G1, the world's first camera to use the new Micro Four Thirds (µ4/3) system.

The new standard, announced last month by Olympus and Panasonic, brings the Four Thirds sensor and interchangeable lens of digital SLRs to bridge cameras for the first time, blurring the distinction between categories of digital cameras.

µ4/3: A New Standard

Based on the popular 4/3 system, µ4/3 is a step forwards as it allows smaller cameras to use interchangeable lenses by doing away with the complicated pentaprism system that allows for an optical viewfinder, replacing it with the digital viewfinder commonly found on bridges - and an incredibly powerful one at that.

This change has several effects: the sensor is closer to the lens and so the lens itself can be smaller, simpler and lighter, which is a particular for wide angle lenses.  The body of the whole camera itself also becomes thinner.

Most importantly, it also allows much smaller cameras to have a system of interchangeable lenses: by bringing the first µ4/3 camera to market, Panasonic is rewriting the historic rule which has held since digital cameras first became available that 'only SLRs have interchangeable lenses; bridges don't.'


The Panasonic G1


So, the Panasonic G1 is the world's first digital bridge with interchangeable lenses.  The first images of it that we've seen recall the FZ50, but it's much closer in size to the F228.

It builds on popular consumer features such as AutoFocus and face detection, but also allows photographers to set things up exactly how they want in manual mode.

The absence of an optical viewfinder is an advantage on this camera, as the image presented on the digital viewfinder gives a very good idea of what the finished photo will be like.  This is thanks to its 1 140 000 point display, some six times more detailed than the display in an average bridge today. 

Even though it measures a healthy 3'', the main screen is flexible and moves round to the side of the camera if you prefer. 

The sensor is brand new too.  Although it's the same size as those found on SLRs from both Olympus and Panasonic, it now boasts 12 megapixels.  Able to capture up to 60 images a second, it's likely to improve both manual and AutoFocus, which should now be twice as quick as on regular bridges, which base their calculations on a mere 30 images per second.

With this high frame rate, the biggest surprise is the absence of video.  The G1 does have a HDMI port, but as the 4/3 group announced when they first released this new µ4/3 standard, the first generation of cameras will only record still images.



New Lenses

No camera comes without a lens, so if you're going to design a new system of interchangeable lenses, then you had better offer up the lenses to go with it too.

That's exactly what Panasonic is doing with two lenses compatible with the new µ4/3 standard.

The first is a stabilized 14-45 mm zoom lens.  On paper, then, it's quite like the lenses that ship with Olympus SLRs … except it measures only 6 cm across by 6 cm long, rather than the 7 x 8.7 cm dimensions offered up by the equivalent Zuiko lens, which doesn't offer image stabilization either.  Thanks to its smaller size, this first µ4/3 lens is 30% lighter than the equivalent full 4/3 lens, too.

The second lens in the new range is a 45-200 mm zoom, for which there is no real comparison in the regular 4/3 collection.  It seems like a marvelous piece of miniaturization, though, measuring just 7 cm across and 10 cm long and only 380 g on the scale.