Panasonic 12 Megapixels Lumix DMC-G10 Camera Review by ePhotoZine

On March 7 2010, Panasonic announced the launch of two Micro Four Thirds cameras - the G2 and G10. The G10 claims to be the world's lightest digital interchangeable lens camera with a viewfinder, featuring the Micro Four Thirds format and comes with 12 Megapixels resolution sensor and a LUMIX G VARIO 14-42mm/F3.5-5.6 ASPH/MEGA O.I.S. lens  (35mm camera equivalent: 28-84mm). Other features include Panasonic's iA (Intelligent Auto) mode that automatically detects the best options for the shot at hand while, as rumoured, the G10 will sport 1280 x 720 HD video recording in Motion JPEG, QVGA, VGA and WVGA formats.

The Lumix DMC-G10 is priced at $599.95, while the Lumix DMC-G2 is priced at $799.95. Both cameras come outfitted with the new Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH/MEGA O.I.S. lens, which offers versatile zoom range of 14-42mm (35mm camera equivalent: 28-84mm) suitable for a wide variety of scenes, everything from dynamic landscape to portrait.  Here's the summary of a latest review by ePhotoZine:

"Panasonic have taken an interesting approach to the layout of the noise menu. When it's set up for 1/3 step increments, the increments are separated into a different section below the prime settings. It's unusual but I like it and I think it could be popular enough to catch on with other manufacturers. Low ISO settings start off remarkably well with lovely smooth results across the board and not an ounce of distortion coming through. The noise does start to creep in from around ISO400 although it's minimal and I can only see it when I magnify the images to 100% size in Photoshop. Coloured pixels break through at ISO800 with blue and green spots scattering the darker images. There's no high speed noise reduction on the G10 so the noise escalates from this point getting slowly worse until the image is pretty bad at the top end of ISO6400.

First impressions look promising. I still like the style of the camera, there are certain elements included on the G series that you simply don't see on a DSLR such as the continuous shooting having a switch instead of a button. That means I can quickly turn it off or on depending on my requirements. Colours look good and the images I've taken so far are sharp, so it gets my vote. I wasn't originally impressed with the specification, I didn't think that Panasonic had done enough to it, but the camera has performed well so far. I'll keep adding to this article so bookmark this page for the full test as it happens."