Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2 at a glance:
- 12.1 million pixel Four Thirds Live MOS Sensor
- 1280×720 pixel video resolution
- 3in articulated touchscreen
- Street Price £549 (body only)
According to Plato, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, a notion that is as true today as it was more than 2,000 years ago. However, some ideas and inventions do little to improve our experience on this planet, and instead merely offer an alternative solution to a problem.
Since the emergence of electrical products we have been quite content pushing buttons, moving dials and pressing switches, but the last few years have seen a change as we move to more tactile ways of operating electronic devices.
Whilst touchscreens have been around for years, until now they were largely preserved for vending tickets at train stations. As with all things electronic, improvements in technology mean that touchscreens are now small enough to put into devices like MP3 players, mobile phones and even cameras. Of course, Apple’s immensely successful iPhone has really popularised touchscreen technology.
Although a few compact cameras feature touchscreens, the 12.1-million-pixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2 is the first interchangeable-lens camera to include such technology. Alongside this, the G2 also features video capture capability, a function that was not present in its predecessor, the G1. So, with the body of the G2 being largely the same as that of the G1, I was interested to see how a touchscreen control could alter the handling of the camera.
