The time period “jack of all trades” is usually considered faint reward – in spite of everything, “grasp of none” often follows it – however there’s one thing interesting in regards to the all-rounder in the case of right now’s cameras, significantly for individuals who need to dip their toes in varied imaging waters.

The Panasonic Lumix G90 is one such digicam, claiming to cater for each video fiends and shutter bugs, in addition to anybody who considers themselves within the overlapping section of that individual Venn diagram. It guarantees 4K and slo-mo video for wannabe Fellinis, a front-flipping touchscreen for wannabe Zoellas, and a 20.3MP sensor with no low-pass filter for wannabe Ansel Adamses, all stuffed right into a compact and weatherproof physique.

It’s a mid-range mannequin priced at about £900 and not using a lens, £1,080 bundled with a 12-60mm zoom lens or £1,260 with a rangier 14-140mm zoom. Let’s discover out if it delivers on its Boris Johnson-esque “I’ll please everybody, trustworthy” guarantees.

Design and construct high quality: powerful cookie

Looking for a digicam you need to use outside it doesn’t matter what the British summertime throws at you?

The G90 is constructed for that: it’s weather-sealed (not totally waterproof, however usable in rain showers plus impervious to mud, sand and moisture) and has a magnesium alloy entrance body, each of which lend it a number of survivability for a digicam on this worth vary.

Neither of its closest rivals, the Sony A6400 and Fujifilm X-T30, can boast of being fairly as rugged. It is perhaps a sturdy beast, however the G90 is compact and light-weight too: simply 533g not counting no matter lens you’ve obtained on there. That, coupled with its rubber-textured grip, make it usable one-handed – one other main perk for vloggers. But whoever you might be, you’ll respect the sunshine weight in case you’re planning on carrying the digicam about all day – when it’s round your neck on its strap, you’ll barely really feel it.

The 3in flip-out display screen can whip spherical to the facet to face totally ahead, and comes with contact controls for rapidly setting autofocus factors or adjusting settings. It’s as clear and shiny as you could possibly count on on a mannequin on this vary, and backed up by a equally first rate OLED viewfinder that is available in significantly useful on sunnier days.

Features: Fast AF

The G90 comes with a much-lauded DFD (depth from defocus) autofocus system, which is usually extraordinarily quick and correct. You can rapidly decide from a bunch of various AF modes relying in your necessities, together with a really succesful monitoring mode for shifting topics and a face/eye detection mode that’ll please anybody taking pictures portraits (or selfies, with the assistance of the forward-facing display screen).

It’s principally spectacular, however at occasions does hunt slightly greater than we’d like, failing to take a shot as a result of the main target doesn’t appear fairly positive that it’s obtained it proper. It’s one thing you’ll get used to after some time, and it’s extra more likely to happen with some AF modes than with others, so not the tip of the world – however price contemplating in case you’re reliant on quick, responsive pictures.

There’s one side the place it’s definitely fast, although: burst taking pictures. It’ll rattle photographs off at as much as 9fps at regular decision, however in case you actually have a necessity for pace, decreasing the decision to 4K Photo (which is about 8MP) will provide you with an excellent 30fps. Brilliant for taking pictures shifting topics.

The digicam additionally comes with 5-axis picture stabilisation, combining in-body and in-lens sorts of IS to make handheld taking pictures much more forgiving, each for video and stills. It’s a setup that works nicely at decreasing digicam shake and supplying you with just a few extra stops of publicity in difficult situations, and feels well-suited to a digicam made for journey.

Panasonic claims battery life is round 300 nonetheless photographs per cost, and that appears about proper from our expertise with the digicam. If you’re taking pictures excessive pace or 4K video, energy will drain pretty rapidly, so travellers will most likely need to put money into a minimum of one spare battery. Charging is finished by way of USB solely and solely with the battery contained in the digicam, which may be handy or inconvenient relying in your state of affairs.

Image high quality: Sharp as a tack

With no low-pass filter on the 20.3MP sensor, it’s primed to ship a lot of fantastic element. While we wouldn’t name this a panorama photographer’s greatest good friend by any means, it does can help you get some superbly detailed, sharp photographs in good lighting.

JPEGs processed in-camera pop with a lot of distinction and wealthy color, as you’ll be able to see from our samples. All of those had been taken with the Panasonic 12-60mm equipment zoom lens, which is a reasonably inexpensive all-rounder, and never designed for something too fancy.

The small sensor measurement and lens’ small aperture meant low gentle pictures required bumping the ISO up pretty excessive (and consequently extra noise), however with a sooner lens bolted on you could possibly seemingly get cleaner, sharper outcomes.

A modern-day mirrorless digicam must do 4K video, and the G90 manages it at as much as 30fps (in addition to 1080p at 60fps, and 120fps 1080p with no audio or AF for buttery clean sluggish movement playback). Video high quality is sweet, too, definitely clear and detailed sufficient for enthusiastic amateurs proper out of the digicam, and there’s the flat V-Log L for anyone who desires to color grade their very own footage.

Panasonic G90 sample images

Panasonic Lumix G90 verdict

Is the G90 a jack of all trades? Yes! Is it a grasp of none? Sort of!

We can’t decide one factor right here that this digicam does higher than everyone else on the market, besides maybe in the best way it brings collectively all kinds of strengths – compactness, gentle weight, ruggedness, usability, pace, picture high quality – in a single product.

With the mid-range mirrorless market being in a robust place presently (the Sony A6400 and Fujifilm X-T30 are two wonderful cameras, and equally priced to the G90), we are able to’t name this your best option for each purchaser.

It is perhaps the best one for you although, significantly if (a) you’re keen on a selfie, (b) you prefer to vlog whereas on the transfer and (c) you need a digicam sufficiently small to take just about wherever.