Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 Digital SLR Camera Review
By Melissa Robotti
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
Published on September 07, 2007
The 7.5-megapixel Lumix DMC-L1, Panasonic’s first digital SLR, was announced in early 2006. It was the first non-Olympus SLR built around the Four Thirds System. It came a little more than a year after the manufacturer announced it would work with Olympus to develop technology using the Four Thirds standard, which allows owners to use several brands of lenses. Initial Olympus and Panasonic SLRs are therefore similar. The L1 comes with a Leica-branded 14-50mm f/2.8-3.5 lens and features a 2.5-inch live view LCD and dust reduction system. Its introductory price was $1,999.
The Panasonic looks and to some extent performs like the Olympus E-330. Some of the camera’s innards, including the LiveMOS sensor, are the same. The cameras differ in their image processors; the L1 has a Venus Engine III image processing LSI, while the E-330 has Olympus’s TruePic TURBO processor. The image processor filters all information off the sensor and has a strong impact on color reproduction and speed, among other things.
Panasonic markets the L1 as a prosumer model, pricing the camera to compete with Canon’s EOS 30D and 40D, Nikon’s D200 and D300, and Sony’s recently announced Alpha A700. This price tag puts it far above Olympus DSLRs, which don’t venture above a thousand dollars.
Photographers often consider a camera’s color reproduction, ability to keep noise low, and how finely it can discern details as the prime factors in producing a quality image. The L1 turned out an impressive performance in our color tests. Saturation is near perfect, and though reds, blues, and greens stray a little from their ideal hues, it performed better than the Nikon D80 and Sony A100 and similarly to the Olympus E-330, Canon 30D, and Nikon D200.
The reverse is true in our resolution test. The Panasonic was bested by the Nikons, Sony, Canon, and Olympus. The L1 sharpens images to an extreme, which can cause unattractive artifacts in images and limits how much can be done to an image in post-processing.
To keep noise to a minimum the L1, like other digital cameras, uses a noise reduction system. The L1’s system is quite effective, and it performed better than our most of our comparison cameras and on par with the Canon 30D. Though noise is well controlled, the L1’s ISO increases in full steps. Prosumer models by other manufacturers give the user more control with 1/3-step increments. For this reason the L1’s full steps are unacceptable for its intended market.
Another important factor in a DSLR’s performance is its speed. Though not as slow to start up as a compact camera, the L1 takes more than a second to ready itself – most SLRs power up in a few tenths of a second or less. This is not a camera for shooting fast action, such as sports or even kids running around. The delay between shots is a little more than desirable. The L1 has two Burst modes: one fires off 3 frames per second (fps), and the other at 2 fps. The camera’s speed is about the same as the Olympus E-330, Sony A100, and Nikon D80, but the pricier Canon 30D and Nikon D200 snap away at 5 fps. The more recent Nikon D300 advertises a 6 and 8 fps burst (8 fps with an optional battery pack) and the Canon 40D a 6.5 fps rate.
The Panasonic Lumix L1 comes with a star of a lens: the Leica D Vario-Elmarit 14-50mm f/2.8-3.5 lens with Mega Optical Image Stabilization. It’s wide, fast, and sharp, and carries the historic Leica name, which will woo some photographers. It has an aperture ring that allows photographers to make adjustments in 1/3 increments all the way down to f/22. It’s the L1’s strongest component.
The 2.5-inch, 207,000-pixel LCD was nice at the time the camera was released, but is mediocre when compared to LCDs on newer SLRs. The prosumer Canon 40D, for instance, has a 3-inch live view monitor and the Sony A700 and Nikon D300 have more than 900,000 pixels. The current average resolution is about 230,000 pixels. The live view was still somewhat unique when the L1 was released, but is becoming more common in DSLRs. The LCD provides 100 percent coverage of a scene while the viewfinder covers 95 percent and, like other Four Thirds format cameras, is small and dark. While the LCD is more accurate, autofocus isn’t at its best when used with the live view. While the live view is a cool feature, it doesn’t replace the viewfinder.
The flash is tiny, but it can bounce. It leans back 45 degrees to project light up to the ceiling. This is a great feature because when the flash is pointed directly at subjects it creates shadows and, by harshly illuminating flaws in the skin, can make people look their worst. However, the L1’s on-camera unit doesn’t offer any commander flash capabilities, as Nikon’s prosumer systems carry.
Autofocus is an area where the L1 and many other Four Thirds format cameras fail. The L1 has only three focus points bunched up in the middle of the frame. Their position will cause photographers to focus and re-compose shots. With the exception of the Olympus E-330, the L1’s competitors are far ahead. The new Canon 40D has 9 cross-type points, the Sony A100 also has 9, the Nikon D80 has 11, and the Nikon D300 has an impressive 51 points. The poor autofocus is unacceptable for the intended prosumer market. With the L1, users risk missing a shot, as the autofocus struggles in most lighting conditions. Autofocus control is one of the reasons people step up from a point-and-shoot to an SLR, and in this regard, the L1 is way behind the competition.
Panasonic markets the L1 as a prosumer camera, perhaps the reason why the camera lacks Scene modes and a full Auto mode. The Program mode is the closest to automatic shooting, but it only sets shutter speed and aperture and lets the user select the appropriate white balance and ISO. Both of these shooting parameters have their own auto settings; however, they need to be set separately. Other prosumer DSLRs such as the Nikon D80, Canon 30D, and Sony A100 have Scene modes and a fully Automatic setting.
The lens is no doubt responsible for the L1’s high initial price tag. Its wide aperture, decent focal range, and image stabilization are all very impressive, but a lens alone doesn’t make the camera or an image. The L1’s dire autofocus system will be enough to send photographers to other cameras that aren’t as limiting. Features like the live-view LCD made the L1 worthy of a look at the time of its announcement, but these features have since been far surpassed by other models. In some of our tests the L1’s image quality is comparible to older prosumer models by Canon and Nikon, but its limited ISO control and speed, unacceptable autofocus system, and comparably poor build and design take it out of the running.For a more in-depth review, visit the Panasonic DMC-L1 Review at our partner DigitalCameraInfo.com
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