Panasonic GM5 First Shots: The ‘refined’ GM1 adds features, but is its image quality still as impressive?

posted Thursday, October 9, 2014 at 4:19 PM EDT

Hot on the heels of the LX100's first visit to our test lab, the diminuative yet powerful new Panasonic GM5 has hit our testing grounds. The Panasonic GM1, the first truly micro Micro Four Thirds camera, was a huge hit here at IR -- small, sturdy and maintained the impressive image quality that comes with so many of the Micro Four Thirds cameras. However, being such a small camera, Panasonic had to tone it down on features and amenities.

With the new GM5, they've managed to fit in many of the big ticket items that many photographers yearned for with the "original" version -- namely, an EVF and 1080/60p video. They also added a hot shoe in lieu of a pop-up flash. It might be a bit bigger than it's earlier cousin, but it's still definitely one of the most pocketable ILCs out there.

Now, in terms of performance, the "guts" of the camera do not differ a whole lot compared to the GM1. The GM5 keeps the same 16MP Live MOS Four Thirds sensor and Venus Engine image processor, and with that the image quality from this tiny ILC should be quite impressive and similar to the GM1.

To see for yourself, head over to our Panasonic GM5 First Shots lab sample images and take a look. Not only can you view full resolution test images, but can also pit the GM5 against the competing models, such as the Sony RX100 III, Samsung NX Mini, Panasonic LX100 or any other camera we've ever tested in our Comparometer across the available ISO spectrum.