Panasonic makes a pocket friendly mirrorless with the GM5

Mirrorless cameras may well be on the way to replacing digital SLRs, but they’re not there yet. One area where compact systems have the ability to be better is that whole “compact” thing, and Panasonic’s upcoming GM5 looks to be there in a big— err, small way.

Announced at Photokina this week alongside a bunch of other camera announcements, the Lumix GM5 is a follow-up to Panasonic’s other small compact system camera, the GM1.

For the new model, Panasonic is bringing a 16 megapixel LiveMOS sensor with Panasonic’s Venus processing engine, and matching it with a small rangefinder styled body, electronic view finder at the top capable of showing 100 percent field of view sitting above a 3 inch touchscreen LCD, fast autofocus, artistic camera effects, and just enough manual control for enthusiasts to be happy without realising they’re holding a bulky box in between their digits.

Bucking the trend of the regular black and silver cameras, Panasonic will offer the GM5 in a few options, with the typical black, a less typical silver with green, and a red and black option. The camera also features a hot shoe mount, ideal if you want to add a flash on the go, an option that would increase the size of the compact camera.

Two lenses will be released alongside the GM5, with a 35-100mm 2/4.0-5.6 compact retractable lens compatible with 70-200mm on a 35mm camera, with a 14mm fixed lens f/2.5 equivalent to 28mm on the regular cameras.

Pricing for the GM5 comes without the 14mm fixed, but you’ll find it in stores in November with a single lens (12-32mm) coming for $1099, while a version with both the 12-32mm and 35-100 will be coming for $1399.