Lumix lovers have another reason to start saving up their money, as Panasonic unveils the new GX1 and 3D1, two highly anticipated releases for those who have built an affinity with this powerful and compact line of cameras.
Panasonic is calling the GX1 the “ideal everyday camera”, featuring a 16.1-megapixel Live MOS sensor and is packing the Venus Engine that we’ve already seen embedded in other models in the Lumix series. It has a maximum ISO of 12800, but also comes with a built-in flash and a hotshoe. The GX1 has a 3-inch LCD touch screen and features Panasonic’s Pinpoint AF, which allows you to touch an area on the display and have it focus and take the shot instantly, and also allows you to manually change focus when shooting video. If the GX1 is used with one of the Lumix X Power Zoom lenses, users can zoom in by touch, which could be pretty handy.
Of course, AF is the Lumix’s strongest suit, and the GX1 has Light Speed AF at 0.09 seconds, along with a new AF Flexible (AFF) mode which locks a subject in focus when the shutter is pressed down halfway. It has a nice ergonomic grip on the side, which we earlier stated should’ve been put on the G3. Video recording is at 1920×1080/60i with sensor output of 30p, either in AVCHD or MP4. Oh and it also features the other familiar traits of the Lumix line, such as iA and iA+ modes.
Things get a little bit more interesting with the Lumix 3D1, which features a 3.5-inch Smart Touch screen and a unique “twin-lens” design, which allows for independent and simultaneous dual-shooting capabilities. It’s packing 25mm lenses with 4x optical zoom, which can shoot photo or video in different angles at the same time, thanks to its separate mechanisms for capturing. So essentially, you can shoot a group shot with one lens and focus in on a person with the other. Users can shoot in either 2D or 3D, and fortunately there’s a physical switch to interchange between modes. The 3D1 can shoot 8MP 3D photos and 1920×1080 60i 3D HD video via the “side-by-side” method. If you want to shoot 2D, it stacks a little higher at 12MP and records 1020x1080i full HD.