Panasonic's Lumix G7 is a small camera with serious 4K chops
Panasonic has been a huge proponent of 4K-ready cameras, starting with the Lumix GH4 and LX100. A few days ago, the Lumix G7 joined that group. The recently introduced Micro Four Thirds camera features a 16-megapixel Digital Live MOS sensor, an ISO range of up to 25,600 and a quad-core CPU for speedy image processing. But here's the one thing it does best: 4K. More specifically, I'm talking about Panasonic's 4K Photo feature, which lets you extract high-resolution pictures from 4K, 30 fps videos and save them at an 8-megapixel equivalent. This is particularly useful when you shoot moving subjects, as you're able to record a 4K video (roughly up to 30 minutes), choose whatever frame you want from it and save that to the camera's SD card. Is it cheating? Perhaps, but it works perfectly.
Another aspect that stood out to me was how light the G7 is. To give you an idea, my Canon 70D felt like an oversized monster after using Panasonic's new shooter. (Yes, I know they're in different categories.) It's also made out of plastic, yet doesn't feel cheaply made -- and for a body that costs $800, I wouldn't expect any less. All in all, though, the Lumix G7 met my expectations for a solid mirrorless camera: It's compact, fast and takes great, ultra-high-res pictures and video. That's everything most people could ask from a camera of its kind.
To view full-resolution sample images shot with the Panasonic Lumix G7, click here.
