Photokina: Panasonic Lumix G1 is revolutionary

Panasonic announced the Lumix G1 at Photokina. I had the opportunity to have a look and it looks very promising.

What Panasonic has done, is redesigned an SLR and removed the Prism, the image falls directly on the sensor, like a point and shoot.

Some key advantages:

Reduces the complexity and therefore should give better results.
This is like an SLR, which means you can change Lenses.
Its much smaller in size and also reduces the weight.
The LCD and the Electronic view finder are very good.
Face detection.
12 Megapixel. Not very important, but if you are still in the Megapixel race 🙂 it helps.
The LCD can swirl out, so you can more flexibility when taking pictures from difficult angles.
This has also introduced a new standard called the Micro 4/3 Mount. This is smaller than the 4/3rd Mount but you can use existing 4/3rd lenses using an adapter. The important bit is that it confirms to a standard and if successful, expect to see more lenses. Olympus has already announced a few lenses for this.
The continuous auto focus works well, I did try this out and was impressed.
Built in Image stabilisation.
Choice of Colors: Black, Blue, Red. Better than the boring blacks.
23 Focal points.

Disadvantages:

Limited lenses for now, but you can use the adapter to increase your options.

No video yet, although Panasonic is going to launch something that supports HD in 2009.