Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

A fast, light and perfectly formed CSC

Panasonic Lumix GF5
Panasonic's 12MP compact system camera produces great images

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Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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Colours are well represented from the Panasonic GF5, with lots of vibrancy and pop without being overly saturated.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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Plenty of detail is captured by the Panasonic Lumix GF5's sensor, while edge-to-edge sharpness is really very good, especially when shooting at narrow apertures.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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Even when shooting in a bright backlit condition such as this, the Panasonic GF5's evaluative metering system seems to have done a good job of producing the correct exposure.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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Portraits are a good subject to tackle with the Panasonic GF5, thanks to its creative depth of field effects. Here, colours have been rendered very accurately.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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This image shows the overly warm tones the camera tends to favour when shooting under artificial light in Auto White Balance.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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In this image, the Incandescent White Balance setting has been selected, producing a much more accurate colour.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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Several different filters can be selected when shooting in Creative Control mode - this is an example of the Retro setting.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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The Expressive setting boosts contrast and saturation to produce a bold effect.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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The Cross Process setting can be customised in several different ways, including the colour it chooses to emphasise. This shot is taken with blue as the emphasis colour.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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Here the Cross Process emphasis has been given to green, and gives a more traditional cross processing feel. This can be directly compared with the Olympus Cross Process filter, which produces a stronger, less subtle effect.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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The Star effects picks up highlights in the image to add a fake starlight effect. It won't be to everyone's tastes, but can be quite fun when used in the right situation.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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Selective colour mode enables you to highlight just one colour in a scene, while the rest are converted to monochrome. You can alter the accuracy of the setting. Here only red has been chosen.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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The Toy Camera effect adds a vignette and saturates the colours to give the impression of a cheap toy camera.

Panasonic Lumix GF5 review

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Miniature mode attempts to recreate the effect of using a tilt-shift lens by blurring the top and bottom of a frame. You can move the in-focus area around, and it works best when shooting from a high angle.

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Amy Davies

Amy has been writing about cameras, photography and associated tech since 2009. Amy was once part of the photography testing team for Future Publishing working across TechRadar, Digital Camera, PhotoPlus, N Photo and Photography Week. For her photography, she has won awards and has been exhibited. She often partakes in unusual projects - including one intense year where she used a different camera every single day. Amy is currently the Features Editor at Amateur Photographer magazine, and in her increasingly little spare time works across a number of high-profile publications including Wired, Stuff, Digital Camera World, Expert Reviews, and just a little off-tangent, PetsRadar.