The Editors of Popular Photography named the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 the 2008 Camera of the Year.
The reason? In a contest where the criterion is “the camera that best refined or redefined photography,” the debut of the G1 represents a re-defining moment.
In simplest terms, it’s an electronic viewfinder (EVF) camera with interchangeable lenses. Yet in historical terms, this small camera could be the forerunner of The Next Big Thing.
It is, after all, a new format — Micro Four-Thirds. It couples a DSLR-sized sensor from a Four Thirds System camera (such as an Olympus or Panasonic) with a new breed of lenses that are about half the size of a conventional DSLR’s. At the same time, instead of a prism viewfinder and mirror-box mechanism, there is an EVF. Grainy, shaky, slow to respond? That was yesterday’s EVF. The viewfinder and camera-back LCD on the G1 are amazingly crisp and accurate. And the EVF even lets you do things you can’t with an optical viewfinder. For instance, you can set it to zoom in on your subject while you focus manually.
