Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2: Sample Images

With all the weather across the nation, the GF2 was a day late reaching me, and arrived after we'd experienced a dramatic sunset as a week-long storm finally moved past. I used the cats as subjects indoors with flash then did a walk around the block and shot a few houses with Christmas lights before getting out in daylight this morning for a quick shoot. I shot aperture priority mostly with a few scene modes worked in at the mission, but the camera was left in default settings otherwise (although in fumbling around in the dark, I apparently introduced a 0.3 exposure compensation setting without knowing).

The GF2 acquired focus quickly indoors and out, day and night, and shutter lag appears to be quick as well. Image quality looks very good right out of the box, with good color rendition and sharpness. Here're a couple of long exposures (25 and 20 seconds, respectively) around the neighborhood.

Night sky fans will immediately recognize the grouping of stars in the center-top of the second image, but for the astronomically-challenged, that's the constellation Orion. And it points out that the GF2 with the 14 mm kit lens has the hardware to be a pretty good night sky camera. It's an admittedly brief period of time, but the GF2 looks pretty good across the board so far, both still and video. Panasonic needs the camera back in short order so it's time to stop writing and start shooting. Our storm clouds haven't completely left the area yet, but rain or no rain, we'll have a complete review of the GF2 (including some night sky work if the weather cooperates) in the near future. But if first impressions prove accurate, GF2 owners could be forgiven for feeling they've hit the image quality jackpot.