Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM1 review – Viewfinder, live view, LCD and video
Almost all the camera’s rear is taken up by a large 3in TFT LCD screen. This features touchscreen functionality and boasts a resolution of 1.036 million dots. That is a decent resolution and is on a par with, or better than, most cameras recently released. The refresh rate of the screen is good and in use it is very responsive. In bright conditions reflections did not present a problem, and the viewing angle is as good as it can get.
The responsiveness of the touchscreen is faultless, registering every intentional touch without issue. Swipe and pinch gestures also work well. Using a pinch gesture to zoom or to enlarge a focus point, or a swipe gesture to scroll through pictures, is intuitive and makes the camera very usable.
Many of the screen’s settings can be changed and adjusted inside the menus, including brightness, contrast, saturation, and red/blue bias. However, the default settings are really good and I never felt the need to change them, although it is of course nice to have the option.
Video can be captured at a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels at either 50i, 25p or 24p, as well as a lower-resolution setting of 1280×720 pixels at 50p. The stereo sound can be adjusted to four different levels and there is an option to minimise the muffled audio caused by wind passing over the microphone. This setting can be set to auto, turned off, or varied in intensity.
