Panasonic Lumix G95 First Impressions: Compact Mirrorless Camera With Some Serious Capabilities

Name: Panasonic Lumix G95 First Impressions: Compact Mirrorless Camera With Some Serious Capabilities
Item: Panasonic Lumix G95 First Impressions: Compact Mirrorless Camera With Some Serious Capabilities
Rating: 3.0
Author: Rohit Arora

By Rohit Arora

| Updated: Tuesday, July 30, 2019, 11:58 [IST]

The camera industry as a whole is going through a rough patch. Due to ever-growing smartphone sales, the digital camera market fell 22 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year. The sales figures in the Q1 2019 across the globe continue to decline.

Panasonic Lumix G95 Mirrorless Camera First Impressions

As new form-factors have started to appeal shutterbugs, mirrorless camera market still shows some level of positive growth. The Indian market now offers a variety of mirrorless cameras from leading camera manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, Fujifilm, etc.

Today marks another day for Panasonic's mirrorless camera line-up in India as the company has announced the launch of Lumix G95. First unveiled in April 2019, the camera has now been officially unveiled in India at a starting price of Rs. along with the kit lens. The body only price of Panasonic Lumix G95 is Rs.

The Lumix G95 is Panasonic's second mirrorless camera for the Indian market. The company had previously launched Lumix G7 and G6 in April, 2018. The all-new Lumix G95 is very compact and brings some noteworthy features. We were present at the launch event of Panasonic event to have a first-hand experience of the new mirrorless camera.

Does it manage to impress us? Let's find out in the following first impressions of Panasonic Lumix G95.

Compact And Rugged Body That Offers Good Grip

One of the first things that you will notice about the Lumix G95 is its compact DSLR- styled body. The camera has a magnesium alloy front frame and it managed to fit really well in hands even with the kit-lens strapped on the Lumix G95 also maintains high level of durability. The camera's body is dust/splash resistant. All important ports, dials and joints are weather sealed to enable shooting under extreme conditions.

3” Free-Angle Touch LCD, OLED Viewfinder

The Lumix G95 features a flip out screen that tilts up and down by approximately 250-degree. The display is bright and very touch responsive. There's an electronic viewfinder with a resolution of 2.36 million dots. The resolution may not be class-leading but the OLED technology makes everything look sharp and crisp. The EVF offers 100% coverage and offers a decent 0.74x magnification.

20.3MP MOS Sensor, Fast Autofocus System

The Lumix G95 works on a newly designed 20.3MP Digital Live MOS sensor with ISO 25600 max sensitivity. It's a big step up from the previous G80's 16MP sensor; however there are bigger and better sensors available in the market, for instance- 24MP sensors offered by the rivals- Canon EOS M50, Sony A6400 and Fujifilm X-T30. As the newly designed 20MP sensor essentially comes in a ‘Micro Four Thirds' sensor format, the supported lenses are also smaller in size. The bundled 12-60mm kit-lens does not add any unwanted bulk to the camera even though it has a respectable 24-120mm effective zoom range.

Lumix G95 offers fast-focus mechanism with auto focus speeds of 0.07 seconds, even though the camera does not feature hybrid- phase detection autofocus. Instead, it works on contrast based DFD autofocus system, which seemed extremely snappy and effective on G95. The sensor was real quick to focus and delivered some impressive shots in our brief testing.

5-Axis Dual Image Stablization, Hybrid And Lens-Based Stabilization

Panasonic Lumix G95 is quite ahead of its rivals, thanks to the hybrid and lens-based stabilization mechanism. The image and video data on Lumix G95 is analyzed by both Gyro sensor accelerometer and the image sensor. Both have been optimized for shake correction and you also get image stabilization lock. With 5-stop correction power up to the tele-end, this camera can shoot some really stable video footages and sharp images even in low-light.

It is worth mentioning that the similarly priced Canon EOS RP does not feature in-body stabilization. Even Fujifilm X-T30 and another Canon's widely popular shooter- the EOS M50 does not offer in-body stabilization.

4K Video, 120 fps Slow-motion, Timelapse, Vlog

Panasonic has also thrown in all sorts of high-end features in Lumix G95. The camera can record 4K video (4K UHD at 30p, 25p, 24p) in addition to the full-HD videos with practical full-time AF. Besides, it also enables 4K live cropping in video recording. You can capture 4x slow motion 120 fps videos, unlimited 30fps burst shooting, Hyperlapse 4k and in HDR. What make G95 an absolute bliss for content creators is the Panasonic's pro-level V-Log L mode for 12-stop dynamic range. You get some serious flexibility and ease of use during post-production tasks.

Battery And Connectivity

As far as connectivity is concerned, the Lumix G95 offers Bluetooth 4.2 (Low Energy). It can be enabled for shutter release, and video record start/stop via a smartphone or tablet using the Panasonic Image App for Android/iOS for easier social media sharing via Wi-Fi. Besides, you get a 3.5mm headphone jack, 3.5 mm mic socket and extremely handy USB power charging. I really wish Panasonic had provided two card slots. The Lumix G95 features one SD (UHS II compatible) slot.

Verdict

The Lumix G95 seems like a versatile DSLR-style compact mirrorless camera for photography enthusiasts. With in-body stabilization, 4K video recording, pre-installed Vlog and an extremely snappy autofocus system, Lumix G95 makes for a very good camera for shutterbugs who want to step up their photography game. It has almost everything that you would want from a modern camera to capture crisp stills and stabilized video footage. We will spend some more time with Panasonic Lumix G95 for a detailed analysis of its features and photo/video quality.

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