Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3 review (with 14mm lens, Black)

Some people may find the GF3 a little too small, but it felt reasonably comfortable to me, thanks to the relatively thick body and small grip. You should definitely try before you buy, though, to make sure you like it.

The camera feels solid and well-built, even a bit heavy, though it's the lightest in its class thus far. It's substantially smaller than the GF2, and Panasonic achieved that primarily by dropping the hot shoe and EVF connector, and moving the pop-up flash to sit directly over the lens. The flash is cleverly designed; you can tilt it back (and hold it) to bounce or simply as a quick way to reduce the intensity.

Also on the top of the camera is the iA (intelligent auto) button, which provides a quick way to jump in and out of auto mode. You have to switch between that and the slightly more advanced iA+ mode, which gives you a few beyond-basic controls over exposure and depth of field, via the virtual mode dial. If you're upgrading from a point-and-shoot, Panasonic's iA+ mode will serve you well. But as with all autofocus systems, its completely automatic AF (23-area) makes poor guesses about the subject of the photo.

A small movie record button sits to the right of the shutter; it's a little too small and difficult to feel, but if you shoot a lot of video you can get used to it.

The back has a defined indentation for your thumb that could use a bit more grippiness--it and the grip feel a little too slippery. A thumbwheel controls scrolling and shooting settings like aperture and shutter speed, while the four-way navigation buttons it circumscribes offer direct access to exposure compensation, white balance, drive mode, and autofocus mode (face detection, tracking, 23-area, 1-area, and pinpoint). The Pinpoint focus basically allows you autofocus with pixel-level accuracy. But I tend to use it as a general AF mode because it pops up a magnified area as a visual aid, just like in manual focus. The center button brings up the menus. Buttons on the back include a too-flat-to-feel and hard-to-see playback and Quick Menu.

As with its contemporary Panasonic models, the GF3 has a well-designed interface that can function via the touch screen or using the navigational controls. I especially like how you can customize which options appear on the Quick Menu, either in advance or on the fly. The camera also supports three sets of custom settings, though Panasonic uses it to save operational settings plus exposure mode (for example, aperture-priority) rather than shooting settings, which I find a lot less useful.

Shooting modes include the usual PASM, plus two full and semiautomatic, scene modes, and Creative Control, Panasonic's special effects modes. There's a complete set of useful manual features for shooting stills, though nothing particularly noteworthy or unique. The video controls are limited. Instead of standard control over shutter speed you have to choose among a few options--1/50 sec, 1/60 sec, 1/100 sec, or 1/120 sec--which live under Flicker Reduction settings.

Conclusion
I really like the GF3 as a step-up model; longtime dSLR users will probably find it too small and constraining without an EVF, but for point-and-shoot graduates the size should feel comfortable and you'll gain the speed and quality boost you're looking for. Though it gets bigger with the zoom kit lens, it's still a lighter and ultimately smaller combination than Sony's NEX models. However, the NEX and forthcoming Olympus E-PL3's tilting LCDs may make those options compelling alternatives.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Raw shot-to-shot time

Typical shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3

0.6 

0.6 

0.6 

0.6 

0.3 

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3

0.9 

0.7 

0.6 

0.7 

0.4 

Olympus PEN E-PL2

0.8 

1.4 

1.3 

0.7 

0.4 

Sony Alpha NEX-C3

0.7 

0.8 

0.8 

0.8 

0.4 

Sony Alpha NEX-5

0.4 

0.9 

0.9 

0.8 

0.4 

Samsung NX100

1.1 

1.5 

1.4 

0.8 

0.4