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The Panasonic GF6 is a great compact camera for those looking to get into the Micro 4/3 system or those upgrading from an earlier GF series camera. The camera is packed full of features and with the redesign has many new updates from earlier GF series cameras. The black and silver body with its curved top gives it a classy, stylish look. It's arrangement of buttons is user friendly. It has enough buttons for those who want to take control of the camera but not too many that it is overwhelming for those moving up from a point and shoot. Overall, I find the configuration very clean looking. Because of its very small size the GF6 is ideal for those, like myself, who shoot DSLR's but are tired of carrying around the much larger equipment but don't want to compromise image quality. Because of its very small size it also ideal those who want to step up in quality from a point and shoot but still want a compact package.
I will first list what I love about the GF6, then areas of improvement, and finally features I wish it had. For those wanting more info I will then go into more depth of the features I love and those which need improved upon. I also have the GF5 and G5 so I will draw some comparisons along the way to those models.
What I Love:
Design Stylish, clean layout, feels good in the hand.
Size Small enough to fit in a jacket pocket.
Customizable function buttons 2 on back of camera and 2 on screen.
Q.Menu Customizable menu with icons of your favorite items for fast setting changes.
Picture mode dial Quick changing of picture modes. Wasn't on GF5.
Tiltable screen Great for self portraits, shooting from the ground or above your head.
Touch screen sensitivity More like that of a smart phone compared to G5 and GF5.
Screen resolution and contrast Improved from G5 and GF5.
AF Fast and silent. Doesn't have backfocusing issue I had with GF5.
Touch screen paired with spot AF is a fast, powerful tool.
Wifi Transfer images to smartphone for easy sharing.
16MP CCD compared to 12MP CCD with GF5.
New 14-42mm kit lens it tiny and has better build and smoother zoom than predecessor.
Areas Of Improvement: The good thing is almost everything can be remedied with software updates.
Wifi menu and Panasonic Image App needs some retooling.
Wifi Direct only available for Android.
Poor results from panoramic mode.
Image quality of new 14-42mm kit lens on par with old 14-42mm lens.
Features I Wish GF6 Had:
1080p video at 60fps It isn't surprising that the GF6 only shoots at 30fps. However, many less expensive P&S have 1080p video at 60fps.
Electronic shutter Prevents shutter shock. It is a very nice feature of the G5.
Size:
For a interchangeable lens camera the GF6 is tiny. I can throw the Panasonic GF6 kit in a bag with a couple of additional lenses and it takes up less space and weighs less than my DSLR with a standard zoom lens. The GF6 with a lens is light enough that my neck never gets sore, even if the camera is around my neck the whole day. With the new, smaller 14-42mm kit lens the GF6/kit lens combo is compact enough to fit in a jacket pocket.
Dials, Buttons, and Customization:
Panasonic added a picture mode dial to the GF6 which really helps one speedily change modes. Coming from DSLR's it is a feature I found to be lacking with the GF5. Panasonic also added a second function button on the back which is primarily used for wifi connection but is programmable for those who'd like to use it for something else. The 2 function buttons on the screen I find the most useful to customize to items I want to quickly access. The Q.Menu button is one of my favorite features of the GF6 and other Panasonic cameras. It stands for quick menu and is also customizable. In the menu I can select icons to place there for fast setting changes when photographing. Coming from a DSLR I'm used to several tabs with each tab having several options to choose from and scroll through. The Q.Menu paired with the touch screen make camera adjustments very fast and fluid. Even with the customization available the GF6 has a surprisingly clean look. It's a great compromise for those who want to take control of the camera and those who would prefer the camera just do its thing.
Touch Screen:
A tiltable screen is a feature added to the GF6 which the GF5 didn't have. The screen is tiltable to 180 degrees for self portraits. It can be positioned parallel to the ground facing up which is nice if you are shooting at a very low angle. If shooting above your head the screen also angles down. I do like swivel screens better but a swivel screen would have added extra size to the camera so I'm happy with what it has.
The GF6's touch screen at 1040k dots has slightly better resolution than the GF5 and G5's touch screen. The screen does look slightly crisper plus it has better contrast. The increased contrast makes the GF6's screen easier to see outside on a sunny day than that of the G5 or GF5.
Auto-Focus:
The GF6's autofocus is fast and silent. I'd put it up against any prosumer DSLR cameras and some professional DSLR's. When shooting in the 23 -Area AF mode, I haven't noticed any backfocusing issues like I've had with the GF5. I typically shoot in the 1-Area (spot AF) mode. The spot AF paired with the touch screen create a very powerful tool for those who like to control their focus point. I can touch anywhere on the screen I want to focus on and it focuses on the spot quickly. No hitting buttons and pushing pads to scroll to the square like on DSLR's. A person moves from the right to the left of the frame, I touch their face, and hit the shutter button...that quick and simple...the way it should be.
Wi-Fi:
Panasonic added wifi capability to the GF6 allowing you to wirelessly transfer image to your smartphone and computer. You can even set it up to automatically transfer new image to either. It also has a "Direct" feature allowing you to connect directly to a smart phone without going through a network. Sadly that feature is only available for Android phones.
I've found the wifi capabilities only useful if transferring select JPEGs to a smart phone. I shoot RAW with JPEGs. Each image therefore takes up about 20MB of space. I've found wireless N to be too slow to transfer of all my images from an SD card. When I go out and take a few dozen pictures, which probably isn't uncommon for people, it may take 10+ minutes to transfer the images wirelessly to my computer. If you shoot even more images than that it will take even longer. The whole time the camera is transferring images, the juice is getting sucked out the camera battery. Because most computers have SD slots built into them, I find it much easier to pull the SD card out of the camera, put in the computer, and get it done in a minute or two. When wireless AC starts showing up on cameras it should significantly reduce the transfer time and make it much more useful.
To transfer images to a smart phone you have to download Panasonic's Image App. It's an awesome feature but the set up process isn't the most user friendly experience. The wifi menu and process needs some retooling. It's the first generation of this feature and something Panasonic can easily improve upon with software updates. Here is an example of one of my complaints: the GF6 labels all iPhones which you connect to as iPhone and all iPads as iPad. Obviously if you have more than one iPhone or iPad in the household this is a problem when looking in the connection history area to find which device you want to quickly transfer images to. You don't have an option to label a smart phone or tablet when you initially connect to it nor does it recognize the name you've given to your phone or tablet. If you select a device as a favorite you can give it a name but annoyingly it doesn't change that device's name in the history tab, it still calls it iPhone or iPad.
Panoramic Mode:
Panasonic also added a panoramic shooting mode to the GF6. In panoramic mode the camera takes multiple frames as the camera is either panned horizontally or tilted vertically (if you tilt the camera 90 degrees). When shooting in panoramic mode, the camera will prompt you when to start. Once you start, you slowly pan or tilt the camera. Once you stop moving the camera, the camera stops shooting and then stitches the images together. If you pan or tilt too fast the camera will "error out" and you'll have to start over. If you go too slow the camera will think you are done and stop the sequential shooting. It took several attempt until I had the right speed down. It's a great sounding feature but has rarely yielded good results. Often the side I started the sequence on is sharp than becomes soft with a ghosting look for the remainder of the frame. It seems like the software has trouble aligning the frames. I also commonly have large striped patterns in the sky. Hopefully Panasonic can improve upon the stitching software with an update otherwise it is useless unless you have no concern with the image quality.
Noise:
The GF6 has Panasonic's new Venus Engine image processor. One of its features is to reduce noise especially at higher ISO's. JPEG images are usable up to 3200 ISO. With ISOs higher than 3200 the images look splotchy from over processing to reduce noise. I honestly don't see any improvement in noise with the GF6 when compared to the noise from the G5 which is also 16MP. That's not a knock on the GF6 since I'm satisfied with the ISO performance from the G5.
New 14-42mm Kit Lens:
The new kit lens for the GF6 is a welcome change from the previous 14-42mm kit lens. The new lens has a better build quality, has a much smoother zoom which is necessary for videos, and is substantially smaller. At 1.9" long it is 0.6" shorter than the older kit lens and at 2.2" wide it is 0.2" narrower, making it downright tiny for a zoom lens. The new kit lens looks and feels like a much better match to the compact GF cameras. On the downside, the new 14-42mm still has a plastic lens mount and the image quality is on par with the previous kit lens. At the wider angle focal lengths the image quality looks the same between the 2 lenses, sharp center and very soft edges and corners. At 35mm, the new kit lens looks a touch sharper. At 42mm, the new kit lens looks a touch softer. I would liked to have seen an improvement in image quality with the new kit lens but I'm happy with the smaller size, smoother zoom, and better build.
Summary:
The GF6 is a great little camera. It remedies all of the issues I had with the GF5 but with the introduction of wifi and panoramic mode it's created a couple new issues to be remedied. The GF6 should satisfy those looking to step from a point and shoot who don't want a clunkier DSLR and DSLR shooters desiring a compact solution without giving up image quality. It is an excellent camera for those looking to get into the M/43 system and with the addition of many new features it gives a reason to upgrade from an earlier GF camera.
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