Panasonic Lumix G6 Camera Review

 

Lumix G6 with Lumix 14-45mm lens. A versatile walk around combination. This scene with quite high subject brightness range required only a small amount of highlight and shadow adjustment in Adobe Camera Raw. I held the camera at waist level with the articulating monitor swung out for easy image preview.

More than a list of specifications

Stealth Marketing ?  Last year Canon  introduced it's first mirrorless interchangeable lens camera [MILC] the EOS M, with a high profile, all media campaign. Billboards on bus stops exhorted consumers to  ...Be a Play-Fessional!!....whatever that might have been, nobody seemed to know. The EOS M proved to be one of the most underwhelming new product releases in camera history. Those consumers demonstrated that they understand cameras better than Canon's product development people and avoided the EOS-M in large numbers.  Maybe not many of them were Play-Fessionals.  

Lumix G6 without lens. I don't know why the sensor glows ruby red like this in some lighting conditions.

With the Lumix G6, Panasonic appears to have adopted the opposite strategy. They built an excellent, well designed product, then introduced it into the market almost by stealth, with no apparent marketing at all [in Australia anyway]. I almost felt that I had to belong to some kind of informal quasi secret society to track down a G6 and persuade someone to sell it to me. It is difficult to find any Lumix M43 camera on the shelves of most camera shops I have visited.

It seems to me that if Canon and Panasonic keep up their respective strategies both will fail, one for lack of a MILC that anybody would want to buy, the other for lack of  effective marketing of a very nice camera.

G6 with 14-45mm lens

So, What is the Lumix G6 anyway ?  Panasonic currently targets it's Lumix G Micro MILC's  at four levels. At the top is the GH series of professional still/video high performance cameras. Next down is the enthusiast category, the sole occupant of which is the just released GX7. Then we have the mid range G5/G6 and last the entry level GF series.

Most reviewers and camera commentators have billed the G6 as a slightly spiced and reheated Lumix G5. Which it is, if you just look at the specifications list and general appearance. I have summarised the differences between the G5 and G6 here.

But a camera is more than a specifications and features list. The many upgrades built into the G6 make it a very appealing and functional photographic tool.

G6 with Lumix 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 lens (the new one) A very compact one lens travel/holiday kit which is a pleasure to use and makes excellent pictures. No DSLR can offer a kit with body plus 10x zoom this compact.

User Experience  The M43 system in general and the G6 in particular are large enough to provide good ergonomics yet small enough to make a light, compact kit. The G6 is unobtrusive. It doesn't shout "look at me". It doesn't have the most pixels or highest technical image quality scores in it's market sector. But it integrates picture quality, performance, user interface, ergonomics, stills and video, eye level view and monitor view in a coherent fashion which few other cameras can match.   The G6 works very well for the beginner or snapshooter, just press the [iA] button and you have a high quality point and shoot camera.

For the user who is or wants to become an expert the G6 has a much to offer. The user interface is highly configurable. This means many of the control modules (buttons, dials etc) can be tasked to user preference by selection from an extensive options list.

G6 Twin lens kit with 14-45mm and 45-150mm. Another compact kit with excellent performance. The new 14-42mm lens is even more compact than the 14-45mm shown here. 

Picture Quality  Several online test sites publish data about camera image quality. These include dpreview.comand dxo.com.  Tests are carried out in controlled conditions using specially designed test targets. This provides useful information which I call, for want of a better terminology, Technical Image Quality.  Real world picture quality is influenced by lens quality, user skill, camera shake and many other factors.

I recently completed a 3 way test comparing a Nikon D5200, Nikon V2 and Lumix G6, each with a 10x superzoom lens. If real world picture quality was determined by technical image quality, the D5200 should have easily bested the other two cameras. But it did not. In fact over hundreds of matched test photos in a variety of conditions the G6 most often came up with the most appealing photos.

So, the G6 consistently produces very good picture quality in a wide variety of conditions.

 

This is a test of the G6's ability to cope with extreme subject brightness range. Direct bright sun was falling on the newspaper. The lady's dark garments are in shade. The upper photo is the unmodified result. The lower one is the outcome after a few minutes in Adobe Camera Raw. The only penalty for this is increased grain in the dark tones.

 

Performance  Autofocus speed and accuracy are excellent in bright or poor light. Shot to shot times are so brief they hardly ever impede the image capture process. With a suitable lens the G6 is very effective at predictive AF on moving subjects. Manual focus is well implemented.

Holding  The G6 has a well shaped handle and thumb support making it easy to hold and carry.

The G6 is large enough to be held comfortably but small enough to be compact. The user can look straight ahead and view the subject with either eye

Viewing  The EVF and monitor both provide a good image preview/review. The monitor is of the very useful fully articulating type. Both EVF and monitor can be configured to display the same information in the same way for a seamless segue form one to the other.

Operating  All the adjustments which the expert user might want to make during capture phase of use can be made by feel with the eye to the EVF, without  disrupting the image capture flow.

Features  Many cameras these days come burdened by a heavy weight of multifarious features, the purpose of which, I have to confess, often eludes me.  But the G6 has several which are actually useful for the task of making pictures, still or moving type. To mention just a few, there is  focus peaking, silent operation, touch screen control, Wi-Fi connection, auto exposure bracketing, multi exposure, time lapse shot, quick AF, pinpoint AF, easily variable position and size of active focus area, manual focus simultaneous with auto focus, back button AF, Custom Modes, user set tasking for Fn buttons, many EVF/monitor displays (same for each) such as histogram, highlight warning, electronic level, and many more, the list goes on.

G6 with 14-45mm. The M43 system can readily deliver extensive depth of field if required

Negatives and Faults  The G6 is distinguished by having very few serious faults or deal breaking negatives. Some things could be improved however. The rear dial is a little stiff to operate. It does free up with use but the rear dial on the GH3 is easier to operate because it has sharper teeth and protrudes from the body about 1mm more. The Fn4 button is a bit too easy to activate, as is the Disp button. When I started using the G6 I frequently hit the Fn4 button by mistake but with practice this happens much less often. The Function Lever (behind the shutter button) is a bit too easy to move. In a subsequent model, I would like to see this converted to a front dial as on the GH3 and enabled for a wider range of tasks than the present options.

The only other thing I would mention is that with it's long list of user selectable options and user interface, the G6 presents quite a learning curve for the novice user who wants to move off the [iA] button and explore the camera's full range of capabilities. The Owner's manual (all 355 pages of it) is a genuinely helpful guide for navigating this journey.

Conclusion  The G6 is Panasonic's 16th Lumix G series M43 camera and the 11th with built in EVF. Early models like the G1 were unable to make a convincing case for DSLR buyers to change camps. But in the last two years Lumix cameras have gained much improved picture quality, performance and ergonomics. Panasonic is learning to make really good cameras which are a pleasure to use. Us consumers are the beneficiaries. The G6 is a more engaging and competent camera than it's specifications might suggest, due to well integrated picture quality, performance and ergonomics in a compact, moderately priced product. Access to a wide selection of excellent compact prime and zoom lenses for the M43 system adds greatly to this camera's appeal.

If the M43 system was as well known and promoted as CanoNikon DSLR's, the G6 and other recent Lumix G cameras from Panasonic, would sell like hotcakes.