Product ReviewsPanasonic LUMIX DMC-GH1 12.1MP Digital Camera - Black (Body Only)

The GH1

Great camera for getting into video work. That what I researched and turned out to be true. I love this little camera for walking around just shooting stills for fun as well. It's a smaller camera than I'm use to, lugging around the canon 5D for my professional shoots. I got my first gig shoot video for a press conference and this is what I used. It was a very nice experience really. I got me a few accessories like a stabilizing handle and an off camera mic and I was up and running!Read full review...

Lumix GH1: Movie Monster

This little camera has a lot to offer. It has the video capabilities of the big dogs out in the market, but besides being cheaper, it is way lighter which is both good and bad. Bad because when there is less mas, there is a lot of shaking (this can be fixed with a home-made steady-cam). Good because you wont get tired that easily.

The design is easy on the hands but it is very different because is a smaller camera. When I first held it in my hands, I couldn't believe it was that much smaller than the smallest Canon DSLR out there (The XS which I used to own).

But what about the functionality? Well, off the bag this little monster comes with a wide variety of creative modes in photography mode: from aspect ratios to color modes where you can grade the pictures on the fly. The Aspect ratios include 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 and the classic 1:1.

Video mode is superb, and you can also mod this camera with the proper firmware to make the video look even better. Frame rate constant and nice, image is jaw dropping, but beware... you must get yourself a nice SD card class 10 if you want to do a lot of HD video, trust me on this one.

A lot of example videos can be found at VIMEO dot COM.

thanks for reading.

Carlos Servin

PD Did I mention it has an awesome swiveling screen?Read full review...

GH13- stoked!

I love everything about this camera but never would have bought it if not for Tester 13's wonderful work with the video hack. I'm a video guy and need it for shooting b roll which it's excellent for. People actually don't take it seriously until they see the results, which is perfect for documentary work.

Worth Consideration:
Auto focus is a knob and not a button.
Audio is not good enough for pro work/requires separate recorder and slate
Kit lens is amazing but it's F4 so doesn't work so well in the dark
Lens adapters for Nikon primes are cheap but no image stabilization so it really needs tripod
Rolling shutter so flashes will split the frame and straight lines will lean when panning
More res than 5d or 7d but nowhere near as good in low light
Can max out the bit rate at 80 but not stable beyond 44
Hack it to use 3rd party batteries, but beware they are not all made the same and can cause problems

I'm very stoked on the Japanese version I got. It's red and ugly and I love it because people think I'm using a crappy tourist camera so they don't pay attention which is perfect. Very stealth. Would definitely buy from that guy again, cause even though the shipping got messed up he fixed it right away. Hope that Tester13 can crack the GH2 because I would love to tap focus with the touch screen. In the meant time get this one while you can for the video and you won't be sorry.Read full review...

EVF, full tilt screen, mic jack, popup flash in solid package

The Panasonic GH1 has electronic viewfinder, popup flash, fully articulated LCD screen that can do selfies, very good video features ffor a 12-year-old camera, quality switches on top. The 2.5mm mic jack needs an adapter like the JJC model 2535 for a TRS 3.5mm battery powered external mic. With a small prime lens like the Panasonic 20mmf1.7, it fits in a coat pocket. Good value if you don't need 4k.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: dstech01

Bold Step in the Right Direction

I bought this camera to be my urban walk around and family snap shooter. It is relatively small, has the articulated screen that allows you to shoot more candidly, has the 4/3rd's sensor, fairly low noise up to 1200 ISO and shoots RAW. The reason I purchased the GH1 instead of the G1 is simply to get the 14-120mm lens (which will soon be available by itself). I don't shoot a lot of video--in fact haven't even tried it yet on the GH1.

Overall, I like the ergonomics and build quality of this camera, but I noticed that a number of settings are easily bumped and changed when using a wrist strap--maybe I just need to be more careful. The screen is bright, focus snaps to faster than anticipated, and the 14-120mm lens is competent at all focal lengths. What really shines is image stabilization: it's in the camera body and allowed me to shoot sharply at 1/15! Image files are typically pleasing, though you've got to be careful with blown highlights (auto exposure is on the + side of the scale) and auto WB in RAW usually needs a little warming. Files converted to B&W are in my opinion the real strength of this camera.

The camera's biggest negative is the way My Menu is handled: rather than letting you choose what menu items to keep in My Menu, it automatically keeps the last 5 or so that you used. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you are shooting against time reloading a card and the format option has disappeared from My Menu, it is really irritating to go find it in the main menus.

The on camera flash--which I'm not usually a fan of--works better than I anticipated for fill.

This is a fun camera to work with and is capable of taking everything from snaps to shots that might end up on my website.Read full review...

Great little camera, video works great with old lenses (with adapters).

A great little camera. An excellent starting point for someone interested in DSLR/DIY film-making. Once hacked the sensor gives an amazing image. With the use of adapters for using older lenses, you can kit up a very diverse visual capture device. Add rigging and proper sound and you've got a great setup!

The only drawback I've had with the camera is the files it creates. The AVCHD codec(.MTS file extension) can cause some problems if you're not cautious and adjust your post-production workflow accordingly. I suggest using ClipWrap for transcoding/re-wrapping... beware of giant file sizes (especially if they're 44mbps... :) ).

Happy Panasonic Shooting!Read full review...

A true bargain after the hack

This review is being written after the hack had been applied. I bought this camera for its post hack video capabilities and have not been disappointed. This camera is a great deal if you are using it for video, especially when you consider that after the hack you get similar if not better results than the canon 5D and 7D costing almost three times as much. The results are all over youtube. When I posted my first video on youtube, I couldn’t believe how clear, sharp, and vibrant the colors were. And this camera’s continues focus functions while in video mode while the Canons costing thousands more don’t. One thing to keep in mind if you are buying the camera for video is, it is not like a “prosumer” video-cam. You have to zoom by turning the ring on the lens. It’s very hard to do this smoothly. There are no zebra stripes, touch screen focus or touch screen exposure functions, and the image stabilizer is not nearly as good as my Sony video-cams, but when set on a tripod the image quality is actually better for half the price. Sound from the onboard mic is acceptable but any serious videographer would buy and external mic. Another huge plus is there are adapters that allow the use of a huge variety of lenses, so you can really achieve that movie like depth of field. Yes, I love this camera.

As for the camera function; it’s not bad but not as good as the Canons. The included 14-140 kit lens is sharp and when in the 70MM range is super sharp. It shoots in raw and JPEG.

I would definitely recommend this camera.Read full review...

A great feeling camera with excellent performance

Positives:
+ Ergonimics are very nice if your hands aren't too huge
+ Electronic viewfinder is perfect for manual focus lenses since you can zoom in the viewfinder
+ Good resolution
+ Great video
+ Useable high iso for less critical applications
+ can use all m4/3 lenses
+ huge selection of adaptable lenses
+ swiveling lcd very useful and well executed
+ the 14-140 has great image stabilization and fast auto focus, so I'd wager that other panasonic lenses perform well too

Negatives:
- High iso not as good as larger sensors
- AF lens selection might be relatively limited compared to more established formats (but it's not too bad)
- 1080 "sucks" without the hack, but I haven't used 1080 myself, so I can't say much more about it)

Overall:
I love this camera and I don't have many bad things to say about it, but I also love having a camera with better iso performance, so this camera goes perfectly with a nikon D90 or D5000 or a pentax k-x (or similar). But for video and well lit situations, it's hard to beat this camera for manual focus and being able to see a good image preview straight from the viewfinder.
The only camera I would consider replacing the combo of this and my D90 with is the nikon D7000 since its video feature isn't cripled like the D90's and it has great high iso performance.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDRead full review...

Video is amazing

My main interest was for the excellent film quality video recording ability. The fact that it is micro43 allows me to use many different kind of lenses with an inexpnsive adapter. Nikon, Konica, C-mount etc lenses can be used. If you like B&W the built in Dynamic B&W setting gives amazing pictures. And what you see is what you get because you see that style in the viewfinder or 3" screen. After using the smaller GH-1 compared to aconventional DX body camera like a Nikon, you will REALLY appreciate ther size and weight. There is no going back to those big bulky cameras, when the quality and Panasonic's excellent Engineering. The new GH-2 is out. As well as a new GF-2 in February. There are a lot of choices, but I would definitely recommend the GH-1 as well as Panasonics other Micro 43 cameras. The sensor is smaller than a DX or Full frame, but with technology it doesn't really matter any more. Conventional cameras with Mirrors and Optical view finders are a thing of the past. Adds unnecesaary weight and bulk. And you don't get a true preview of what the sensor sees. Mirrorless is the future. The GH-1 is mirrorless and has two very useful LCD displays for composition.Read full review...

The Perfect Camera

I have had this camera for only about a week, but I absolutely love it. I bought it to replace a Canon PowerShot G2 (About 8 years old). The GH1 had all the features I wanted in a camera; dSLR quality and speed, interchangeable lenses, HD video recording, articulating screen, etc. But not only does it have all those features, it excels in every one of them. So far I haven't found anything I don't like about the camera, and I think this one could easily last me another 8 years, if it had to.Read full review...