Panasonic Lumix GF7 review

Panasonic's tiny GF7 interchangeable lens compact squeezes in a surprising number of features

Amateur Photography - The Lumix GF camera range was once the starting point for interchangeable lens compacts, but now that Panasonic has the tiny Lumix GM1 there were few reasons to step up to the almost two-year-old Lumix GF6. That changed in January when the company introduced the GF7, a successor with a smaller body and selfie-friendly flip-up touchscreen display.

The GF7 is available to buy now, but seeing as we hadn't actually put one through its paces yet, we made sure to take a look when visiting the Panasonic stand at this year's Photography Show in Birmingham, in order to get some first impressions.

Looking at the GF7 side-by-side with the GF6 shows just how far the range has come in a single generation. The GF7 borrows more styling from the GM1 and enthusiast-level Lumix GX7 than it does from GF models gone by, with retro-inspired looks, silver metal trim and a choice of colours. It's also a lot smaller; you'll still struggle to squeeze it into a pocket, even with the 12-32mm kit lens locked in its travel position, but it doesn't weigh very much and won't weigh down your camera bag.

The mixture of metals and plastics are a clear indicator that Panasonic has built this camera to meet a specific price, but it doesn't feel cheap. You still get a built-in flash, and the lack of buttons on the back of the body aren't really an issue on account of the wonderful 3in touchscreen display. It is clear, responsive and, of course, able to flip up 180-degrees for those all important selfies. You can't flip it down or to the side, however, which may limit your creativity when it comes to more extreme angles. Naturally there's no EVF, given the size of the camera.

Panasonic hasn't skimped in terms of connectivity, with both Wi-Fi and NFC for quickly pairing a smartphone. We've used Panasonic's Image Ap frequently in the past and it works just as well here, letting you download photos wirelessly to your phone or control the camera remotely. There's no GPS built into the camera, but you can geotag your photos using your phone instead.

A pop-out flash is a welcome addition for low light shooting, but there's no hot shoe for adding a more powerful flash at a later date.

Underneath all the connectivity and features, the GF7 is still a very competent CSC. A 16-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor, Venus image processor, 200-25600 ISO range and 23-AF points are essentially a match for the rest of Panasonic's Four Thirds cameras, so image quality should be on par with the likes of the GF6 and GM1 (depending on which lens you opt for).

Unsurprisingly there's a fully automatic mode on the mode dial, as Panasonic is aiming the GF7 at photographers making the leap from a fixed lens compact. There are several fun modes and effects too, but more advanced users will appreciate ASM modes and full control over ISO, shutter, aperture and other settings.

The Lumix GF7 is available to buy now for around £429, putting it in direct competition with the Samsung NX Mini, Olympus Pen E-PL7 and Sony's A5100. We'll have to wait until we give it the full review treatment to see how well it stacks up to its rivals, but based on a short play with it at the Photography Show it certainly has potential, particularly if you're after a very compact CSC that's designed with amateurs as well as enthusiasts in mind.

Nikon D7200 review

The D7200 upgrades Nikon's APS-C workhorse with NFC, Wi-Fi and improved low-light shooting

Amateur Photography - The D7100 has been Nikon's enthusiast-level camera of choice for the past few years, but it was beginning to show its age in terms of connectivity, even in a field where manufacturers prefer to focus on pixel counts and burst speeds than Wi-Fi. A successor, the D7200, was announced earlier this month and the Photography Show in Birmingham was our first chance to get our hands on one.

The D7200 isn't a major upgrade over the D7100, but rather a refinement; it adds Wi-Fi and NFC for quick pairing to a smartphone, 60p video recording and a 15% battery life improvement. Otherwise, the specifications should sound familiar to D7100 owners, with a 24.2-megapixel APS-C sensor with no optical low-pass filter, 51-point AF system and EXPEED 4 image processor, all wrapped up in a weather-sealed magnesium alloy body.

That sensor is capable of ISO 100-25,600 shooting at up to 6fps (7fps in 1.3x crop mode). Expanded ISO modes are limited to black and white photography only. Burst speeds remain unchanged from the D7100, but Nikon has expanded the camera's buffer over the outgoing model for longer continuous bursts, meaning 27 RAW exposures or 100 JPEGs. This should make it an ideal camera for shooting fast-moving subjects - especially when paired with a 1/8000s maximum shutter speed. The AF points are now sensitive down to -3EV, which should help low light shooting. The D7100 was limited to -2EV. Unfortunately we weren't able to give this a proper test on the Photography Show floor, so we'll have to wait for a full review to pass final judgment.

In terms of design, little has changed here from the D7100. There are still plenty of buttons and dials on the front, top, and rear of the body, with an LCD display on the top for quickly checking shooting settings. Most of the buttons are within easy reach of your right hand, although the playback button is still squeezed in on the left, making it difficult to reach. As we've come to expect from Nikon's dSLR range, the mode dial locks automatically to prevent accidental changes, but it's still tricky to adjust one-handed.

The 3.2in, 1.2m dot LCD display on the back of the camera is completely fixed, which is a little disappointing but arguably not a surprise; Canon's rival 7D Mk II has a fixed display as well. It looked sharp and was bright enough to see clearly indoors, although we'll have to take one outside to see how it copes with direct sunlight.

Build quality was easily on par with the D7100, and although we found it comfortable to hold others have complained that the grip is a little small given the size and weight of the camera. At 765g without a lens, it's certainly not lightweight but feels reassuringly hefty with a high-quality piece of glass attached.

Video performance has been improved over the D7100 with 1080p 60fps recording, although only when the camera is set to 1.3x crop mode. Two new picture modes, Flat and Clarity, can be used with live view, and ISO sensitivity can be set to automatic when shooting in manual mode. A Zebra stripe highlight display helps confirm exposure and the built-in stereo microphone is a welcome addition as well, although naturally the hot shoe mount means you can add an external mic if you need clearer audio.

The D7200 has a lot to live up to, as the outgoing model is arguably the most desirable Nikon dSLR before you make the leap to full-frame, but we walked away from our early hands-on impressed. Wi-Fi and NFC will be welcome additions for nature photographers and the improved low-light shooting is a major bonus too.

It will be going on sale later this month, with UK prices expected to start around £940 for a body-only camera or £1,120 with the optional 18-105mm VR kit lens. We're hoping to have a full review in the next few weeks, so be sure to check back if you're looking for a new digital SLR.

HTC One M9 Review: A Great Phone That Can't Keep Up

Amateur Photography - Everyone loves an underdog. They're new, exciting, and upset expectations. In 2013, the HTC One M7 brought that incredible disruptive energy to smartphones, and the following year's M8 ran neck and neck with the best you could buy. Now, with the M9, the One is no longer an underdog—but it's not exactly leading the Android pack, either.
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What Is It?

The One M9 is the latest 5-inch flagship smartphone from HTC, complete with Android Lollipop, amazing dual BoomSound speakers, and the latest processor from Qualcomm all wrapped in an aluminum chassis—your choice of silver/gold, gold, or gunmetal grey. Although the price hasn't been determined, you can probably expect to be parting with $650 for an unlocked model (or $200-$250 on contract) with all major U.S. carriers starting April 10th.

Note: Our review unit was an international version, so I was unable to test LTE connectivity and any additional effects on battery life and general performance.

Why Does It Matter?

HTC's One series has always been an indicator of what premium Android smartphones will look like in the future. In 2013 when the first One was introduced, most smartphone makers were still making plastic and faux-chrome smartphones—I'm looking at you, Samsung—and now almost all of them have embraced the fancy aluminum way of thinking. A vote for HTC is a vote that smartphones will continue to be fashion statements first and communication devices second.
Design

The HTC One M9 is one of the best-looking smartphones you can buy. It's one of those smartphones that feels almost criminal to enshrine in a plastic case and obscure its machined metal exterior. It's a smartphone for show, a fashion accessory, a 5-inch slab of metal that's practically jewelry. This smartphone be pretty.

What it isn't—design-wise—is new, exciting or meaningfully different.

The M7 that wowed us back in 2013 made a big splash in the Android smartphone pond, but last year's M8 was really just a ripple—slightly bigger, rounded edges, and to some, a design step in the wrong direction. The M9 is also a ripple, another small iteration on what's come before and strangely more akin to the original M7.

 I complained about this after my initial impressions earlier this month, but one of the M9's most distinguished design changes is also one of its most perplexing—a small lip that juts out a millimeter around the entire rim of the M9. Three weeks later, I'm still not quite sure why it's there. It makes holding the phone sort of awkward. Not necessarily bad, but you'll feel that hardware seam when you hold it.

Also, the M9 feels like an accident waiting to happen. Now, I'm not one to break phones. Unlike some of my colleagues, I've never cracked or water-logged a phone, and I don't plan on starting now. But I fear the M9's super-slippery finish might break my streak. Whether I'm pulling it out of my pocket or just it picking up from my desk, the phone slides around in my hand, creating that stomach-drop reaction of "oh shit oh shit oh shit." As of writing this sentence, I've dropped the M9—thankfully from short distances—three times already. The M9 is a curse for the clumsy.

Now, if it's pedestrian jealousy you're going for, the M9 does wonders. When walking about or standing idly on trains, the M9 pulls inquiring glances. But those glances could mean two separate things—great-looking or gaudy-looking. HTC describes the silver/gold finish on the M9 as "jewelry grade," which for me is part of the problem. I've been going back-and-forth on how I felt about my silver/gold companion, and I think I finally fell into the gaudy camp. But that's why more colors exist! Maybe gunmetal grey is more my speed.

Using It

Looks aren't everything. It's true browsing Tinder, and it's true for smartphones as well. What HTC has going on under that brushed metal exterior is just as important. And what M9 has going on is... good enough.

You won't find any complaints here about the One M9's performance, that's for sure. As you'd expect, this flagship has the latest and greatest Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and 3GB of RAM, which could handle absolutely everything I threw at it with ease. But that's table stakes these days.

(Though you may have heard that Snapdragon 810 runs so hot it can cook an egg, I'm happy to report differently. I personally didn't run crazy benchmarks to test that theory because that's not how people use smartphones, but I did actively try to make the smartphone heat up by playing graphics-intensive games. Sure, it got a little toasty, but it wasn't like holding a fistful of fire. Just business as usual.)

And the display—while great!—may not blow you away either. It's the same exact screen last year's One: a 5-inch, 1080p display (441 ppi) with Corning Gorilla Glass on top. Some people seem brainwashed that top-of-the-line smartphones need 2K screens, but this LCD panel is bright and vivid with great readability in daylight.

So what's the issue? Battery life. The HTC One M9 has the biggest battery of any One series smartphone yet and it's running a 1080p screen, meaning it doesn't need to push nearly as many pixels as say the G3, Nexus 6, or the upcoming Galaxy S6. All good news, right? On paper, yes, but not in reality. Some days I was able to eke out to about 2 or 3am, definitely not multi-day use but solid all-day battery life. But then other days, I'd be off the charger by 6am and dead by 4:30pm with just 20 minutes of turn-by-turn directions and an hour of recording audio (with the screen off). When we reviewed the M8, we were able to get stellar battery performance with full-day charge peace of mind. The M9 simply doesn't, and that's a shame.

What is not a shame are these BoomSound speakers. Damn. I can say, without exaggeration, that these are the absolute best speakers on any smartphone ever created. These speakers are so loud and crisp, I've basically stopped using my Mini Jambox completely. In fact, it's so much better than watching anything on my computer, I chose to whip out the M9 to watch Netflix than mess with my MacBook Pro's tinny audio nightmare. Even compared to the M8, the M9 outperforms in every way. And the Nexus 6? Forgetaboutit. Seriously.

Software

Another year, another new version of HTC Sense—the company's custom Android skin. Sense 7 is passable, which isn't the worst verdict you could give an Android skin, but it doesn't add anything substantial over stock Android. Even LG and TouchWiz have some cool tricks you'd conceivably use like multi-windowed apps. But with Sense, it's just gimmicks dressed up as convenience. Here are a couple examples:

Themes: Long press on the homescreen, and Sense 7 gives you a new "theme" option, a curated "store" where you can browse artistic themes ranging from subtle to absurd. To be clear, these are not backgrounds, these are themes that change everything about the look of the software—from the lockscreen, icon design, and menu colors. Unfortunately, some themes crop icons in weird ways or make using the phone even harder because you won't recognize the app icons anymore. If you don't mind skins or even like heavy themes on top of Android, this might be great news. But people who love clean interfaces will consider this new theme option an enemy.

Sense Home: This widget keeps track of your six most used apps at home and at work, using GPS to detect where you are, and offers suggestions for other apps you may find useful. That's all well and good—if it worked as advertised. But it's been a week now, and there are still apps Sense Home thinks I used that I've never even opened, and half the suggestions it gives me are already on my phone. I love the idea, but this first effort is lacking.

 Sense 7 also includes the latest Android Lollipop, of course, though some of my favorite features like the carousel of recent apps have been stripped out for less interesting alternatives like the windowed app switcher you see above. (I find it less easy to navigate.) But Sense 7 isn't terrible, and importantly, it doesn't slow down the One M9 one bit. It won't get in your way.
Camera

The camera has been a big problem for HTC on past smartphones. With the M7, HTC introduced the "4 Ultrapixel" camera, which was HTC's fancy way of saying "we have bigger pixels which means we can capture light better." But though the following M8 did decent in low light, it lagged far behind in normal lighting conditions. So with the M9, HTC actually switched the 4 UltraPixel camera to the front and stuck a more standard 20-megapixel shooter on the back, turning that front-facing lens into a great selfie cam.

What does that mean for your regular rear camera photos, though? Oh boy. When shooting in well-lit situations, the M9 camera is okay—maybe even good. But as soon as you're working in low-light, expect graininess and discoloration. This is where some optical image stabilization could have eased some imaging woes, as it does on many a top-tier smartphone today... but only digital stabilization is included here. The camera does have RAW support, but you'll weirdly need a third-party app to access it and you'll only be getting 1080p recordings out of this guy. Here are a few test shots:

Like

Despite a few design concerns, the new M9 still looks as great as the M8 that looks as great as the M7. Looking good is what this phone does. It's true that you could accuse of HTC of getting lax with dreaming up a new design—or when they do, they make something like the lip—but like I said, design isn't the One's problem. Why fix what isn't broken?

Navigating through Sense 7 is great and pretty fluid. Not once during my time with the M9 did I have any weird glitches, crashes, or unexpected reboots.

The BoomSound speakers are so good that I want to say they're the One's greatest asset aside from its posh exterior.

HTC offers a free UH OH Protection plan with the M9. If you do damage your new One (it is slippery after all), you can trade it in for a new one free of charge, and if you don't use your trade-in, you can get $100 off your next HTC One. It's a way to keep you locked into HTC, but if you're a devout One user anyways, it's a nifty little bonus.

 Still got the infrared port for controlling your home entertainment system.
Dislike

Objectively, I know the phone's lip isn't really going to be a big problem for many people. Subjectively, I hate it. Ugh ugh ugh.

The battery life here is really disappointing. Before driving the HTC One M9, I had LG's G Flex 2 in my pocket, which also has a Snapdragon 810 processor and an even bigger 1080p screen. I never had to worry about my phone dying on me in less than a day. I could even get midway through the next, no problem. With the M9 you'll be toggling on power saving modes (or "Extreme Power Saving Mode" if the situation is dire) to help combat battery woes. Once you start compromising performance just to get a day of battery life, I get annoyed. Oh, and I tested the international model without LTE, which means battery life might be even worse stateside.

Sense 7 is shrug worthy. I would pay more money just to have this thing run stock Android but HTC has no Google Play Edition plans this time around. Bummer.

The One M9 solves your selfie woes by flipping that fancy 4 UltraPixel camera around front, but the rear cam needs some work. Its low-light is pretty bad, and you'd probably be better served by a lot of other smartphone cameras out there.

Should You Buy It?

The One M9 is a pretty great update from the One M7. If you liked HTC's original flagship, and you don't mind a slightly bigger smartphone, then the One M9 is good! I think you'll be happy with it. And if you're a multimedia fiend—watching Netflix, streaming music, or whatever—the BoomSound speakers make everything better.

But if you're looking for the best smartphone bar none, the One isn't at the head of the pack. This probably isn't the One for you. HTC played it safe this year instead of pushing things further. Honestly, if you're willing to settle for the M9, you should also look at the M8 while you're at it. It lasts longer, it feels just as fast, and it costs less.

Click Here To Buy My One M9 Case Wishlist