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As Panasonic declared the DMC-G1 in Sep 2008, the industry saw its first actual innovation for a while: an electronic view finder interchangeable lens digital camera with a large imaging sensor. Panasonic had managed to overcome a whole list of technical hurdles to produce the camera and the G1 featured an electronic view finder that got pretty close to a fine mirror and prism, plus a contrast-detect autofocus that in terms of speed and accuracy could rival ‘traditional’ phase-detect systems of DSLRs.

Nevertheless, the G1 was lacking one feature that had been a standard on digital compact cameras for a long time and had just found its way onto digital SLRs as well: video recording. There are no obvious technical barriers to the execution of a video feature on mirrorless cameras such as the G1 (in fact it should be much easier than on a DSLR) and therefore it did not come as a big surprise to anyone when, only a few months after the G1 launch, in March 2009 Panasonic rectified this ‘issue’ with the announcement of the DMC GH1. The fresh model is, despite afresh sensor design, essentially a G1 with an added film mode.

However, the Panasonic Lumix GH1‘s HD film mode is more than just another accessory feature. In combination with the recently developed 14-140mm F4.0-5.8 kit lens that has, in terms of aperture control and focusing, been optimized for shooting video, it transforms the GH1 into a true stills/video hybrid that can record HD video while at the same time producing high quality stills images. And whilst doing all that it is still in line with Panasonic’s original reasons for introducing the Micro Four Thirds system; to produce smaller cameras that act more like compact DSCs whilst offering the quality and versatility of a DSLR.

The GH1 is, similar to the G1 and the recently declared Olympus E-P1, a Micro Four Thirds camera. Olympus and Panasonic declared the new, mirrorless format / lens mount based on (and compatible with) Four Thirds in August 2008.

The Micro Four Thirds system uses the same sensor size (18 x 13.5 mm) but lets slimmer cameras by removing the mirror box and optical viewfinder. The new format has three key technical differences: (1) roughly half the flange back distance (distance from mount to the sensor), (2) a smaller diameter lens mount (6 mm smaller) and (3) 2 additional contact points for lens-to-body communication (now 11 points). Removing the mirror mechanism allows this shorter flange back distance, meaning lenses for the new mount can be considerably smaller than current Four Thirds designs. The format will require framing to be carried out using Live View on either the LCD monitor or an EVF. Existing Four Thirds lenses can be used on Micro Four Thirds cameras using an adaptor.