In fact, the electronic viewfinder is a bit of a plus when it comes to using the HD video function as it means you can view the video you are shooting either by the moveable three-inch LCD screen or the eyepiece.
In our tests both worked well. Using the 14-140 Lumix HD lens, the camera filmed movie footage well. Instinctively, it's a bit odd to shoot any sort of video on a DSLR body but what we shot was decent.
POINT OF VIEW: The electronic viewfinder is great for shooting video
For some reason the autofocus did rack in and out on occasion and no manner of different modes managed to stop this quirk. It wasn't enough to ruin the footage, however.
We would definitely recommend purchasing a video camera tripod to use the camera on, as this will stop any slight movement in the shots ruining focus.
Be warned, as well, there's only a small selection of lenses currently compatible with the movie mode – the Lumix lens we used being one of them.
Once you have shot your movie, there's a mini HDMI connection on the left-hand side of the camera to plug and play the footage straight to a HDTV.
DIGITAL DETAIL: Both images and video were sharp and well-detailed
There are a number of movie modes available for shooting video, and the inclusion of a 60fps mode, which means you can slow down footage by half in the edit suite with ease. And as Philip Bloom pointed out in his glowing speech for the technology: "everything looks good in slow motion".
Unless you have a high-capacity SD card, however, you will soon find space to be a premium, with the AVCHD files eating memory. Also, when we used the video option, the battery seemed to drain much quicker than if you were just shooting stills.
