LUMIX GM5

Review and Photo example of the DMC-GM5 digital camera.

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The LUMIX GM5 was released in 2014, and I personally think it is a camera that has taken the compactness of the Micro Four Thirds philosophy to the extreme.

With an EVF in an extremely small body, it is a product that appeals to the camera generation that needs a viewfinder to take photos.

The LCD display stretches all the way to the back, and from the outside it feels like a return of the MINOLTA CLE.

However, sales of this camera were poor. Now that the best-selling digital camera style is to take photos while looking at a large monitor like a smartphone, the market popularity of compact cameras with EVFs has become very niche, revealing that the GM5 is the only compact camera with an EVF that has disappeared from the product line.

As of 2024, when I write this, it is a 10-year-old camera, but with a 16-megapixel sensor, I am not dissatisfied with it for everyday use, but it is not very compatible with old lenses, and sometimes you can see suspicious colors.

The original 12-32mm zoom is not a bad lens, but images taken in uncorrected Raw show the roughness of a compact zoom lens everywhere.
Other than that, most of the lenses for the Micro Four Thirds system are large and heavy, and there are few lenses that match the GM series. In terms of style, the Summilux 15mm F1.7 seems to be the best match.

Manual focus is fine, so I think you can enjoy the GM series even more if you have a very small lens with a focal length of about 8mm to 12mm, but of the lenses I have, the widest angle is the 17mm from Ms-optics (Miyazaki Optical), which is equivalent to a focal length of 34mm in 35mm format. I would like a lens with a focal length of about 24mm in 35mm format.

The camera’s controls are cramped, but easy to use, with as many buttons and dials as possible placed on the small body. The EVF is a little rough, but you can check the focus by enlarging it.

As of 2024, Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds camera lineup has been narrowed down, and it seems to be leaning towards video use, and there are almost no lenses released, so it’s unfortunate that it seems like they’re waiting for the right time to stop using Micro Four Thirds.

Olympus’ (now OM Digital Solutions Co., Ltd.) PEN-F barely feels like it belongs to this lineage, but compared to the GM5, the body size (width x height x depth 124.8 x 72.1 x 37.3 mm) is a size larger.

It may be a niche product and there may not be any demand, but I hope that a successor model will be released that maintains the body size, has 20 million pixels equivalent to the PEN-F, and an improved EVF of 2 million dots. The current situation is very disappointing, as products should only mature if they continue to be made.

When the 2024 L-Mount Alliance camera, LUMIX DC-S9, was announced, Panasonic Entertainment & Communications Executive Vice President and Imaging Solutions Division General Manager Toshiyuki Tsumura (that’s a long title) said, “It is people who are knowledgeable about cameras who will understand the advantages of Micro Four Thirds,” and continued, “For people with low camera literacy, Micro Four Thirds is difficult to understand.” (Source: BCN+R “The LUMIX S9 with its ‘cold shoes’ tells the story of camera manufacturers’ struggles and decisions”) This expression caused some anger, but it may not be desirable as an attempt to stir up controversy (in fact, it became a bit of a hot topic and was a success for the publication), but it is an accurate expression of the current situation.

Users who choose the Micro Four Thirds system are those who can select and purchase a system according to their own requirements, and from the manufacturer’s perspective, they would be “people with high camera literacy.”

As a successor to the GM series, which I also wrote about in my personal expectations, if the LUMIX DC-S9 is a model equipped with a Micro Four Thirds sensor, a high-performance EVF, and image stabilization, and the selling price is about 200,000 yen like the LUMIX DC-S9, I feel that it will be difficult to expect sales volume.

As for the desirable selling price to increase sales volume, considering peripheral factors such as rising material costs, it is difficult to realize, but if it is priced at about 80,000 yen including the lens, is there a possibility of selling?

I don’t know the trend of the market, but it seems that there is a pattern where the initial sales start is good but sales do not continue. In that case, it will be a repeat of the usual distribution at a premium price to some enthusiasts after the sales end, and there will be no profit for the manufacturer.

In any case, since Panasonic has had a failure experience with the GM series in the past, it will be difficult to pass the revival plan of the GM series as a product plan.

It will probably be clear from the fall of 2024 to the end of the year whether the LUMIX DC-S9 plan will show a certain degree of success.

This is a separate issue, but I think a world in which the manufacturers or producers of second-hand goods, whether they be books or works of art, receive no compensation no matter how much they are sold for is a tough environment for people who create things.

Specification

Items	GM5	GM / GM1 / GM1S	PEN-F
Camera effective pixel count	16 million pixels	←	20 million pixels
Lens mount	micro four thirds mount	←	←
Image sensor	4/3 type Live MOS sensor Total number of pixels: 16.84 million pixels	←	4/3 type Live MOS sensor Total number of pixels: approx. 21.77 million pixels
Image Stabilization	none	←	5 steps
EVF	Color LCD live view finder 0.2 type, equivalent to 1.16 million dots	none	Eye-level OLED viewfinder 2.36 million dots
Back LCD	3.0 inch electrostatic touch panel liquid crystal (approximately 920,000 dots)	3.0 inch electrostatic touch panel liquid crystal (approximately 1,040,000 dots)	3.0 inch 2-axis movable liquid crystal display
Internal flash	なし	あり	なし
Battery	DMW-BLH7	←	BLN-1
Size W x H x D (mm)	98.5 × 59.5 × 36.1	←	124.8 x 72.1 x 37.3
Weight(g)	211 (including main unit, battery, and memory card)	204g(only body)	427 (CIPA compliant, including attached rechargeable battery and memory card)
Body color	green, red, black	orange, white, black, silver	black, silver
Release date	2014.11	2013.10	2016.1
Price(Yen/No-tax/only body)	¥90,000-	¥70,000-	¥150,000-