Panasonic Lumix L1 previewed

The new Panasonic L1 has been previewed by Reponses Photo (excellent French print magazine). As they say, on paper, a collaboration between the makers of the Lumix compacts, Leica and Olymous should be something special. But they're disappointed. Whilst they are quite enthusiastic about the general concept, the build quality, and the degree of control, there are a series of downsides.

• The "Live View" feature simply isn't as useful as the version on the Olympus E-330, mainly because the screen is fixed. However, unlike on the E-330, apparently you can use auto-focus without restrictions.
• The optical viewfinder is dark and cramped, and the physical design, which sticks out 1cm at the back, is simply asking to be damaged. They reckon that the eyecup will be lost within days.
• The handling is a bit clumsy, as balance, with the kit lens attached, is front heavy. Which exacerbates the viewfinder design issue.
• The "Leica" kit lens is interesting, but the aperture ring is awkward to use, it is very heavy, and whilst its performance is good, it does not meet the expectations associated with Leica.
• The camera is very expensive, twice the price of the E-330, which they consider to be a better camera on balance.
• Still stuck with that rather tired old Olympus AF module
• Did I mention too expensive ?

On the plus side:

• Panasonic provide Silkypix RAW software rather than reinvent the wheel (poorly), although arguably it would have been better to also use DNG format.
• The lens isn't all bad: as RP points out, this is the first stabilized zoom lens from any company with a decent maximum aperture.
• They describe the flash design as "genius": it has two positions, the first pointing 45 degrees upwards for bounce flash.
• The image quality is reported to be good up to 800 ISO.
• The camera also includes 3:2 and 16:9 ratio setiings, and this is where Panasonic's implementation of Live View adds an extra dimension. But of course these sacrifice resolution.

At half the price, well, maybe. But at 2000 Euros, though, it looks like Panasonic have screwed up this one. Pity.