PHOTOS: Panasonic Lumix GF1 digital camera

IFA 2009: Hands-on with the new Micro Four Thirds model

3 September 2009 11:10 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Launched earlier in the week, Pansonic's Lumix GF1 will go up against the retro looking Olympus E-P1 and offer a micro four thirds camera in a compact casing.

The new model will feature a 20mm pancake lens, come with Live view and unlike the Olympus model, a built in flash.

Coming in three body colours: true black, active red, and sleek silver, the thin neo-classic body design (read retro) significantly reduces the size of the company's first micro four thirds offering, the G1, by 35% and its weight by 26%.

Key features include built in flash, 3-inch LCD screen and Live View functionality (it ditches the optical viewfinder).

Sporting a 4/3-type 12.1-megapixel Live MOS sensor, Panasonic will also be battling head on with Olympus with the introduction of a number of "Art Effects". You'll get "My Colour" mode with a total of seven preset effects – Expressive, Retro, Pure, Elegant, Monochrome, Dynamic Art, and Silhouette, while Custom mode lets users manually set the colour, brightness and saturation levels.

The camera was solid in hand and quick to respond in a brief hands on play.