Just over a year ago, GX Garnerings tested the GF1. By courtesy of Panasonic Hong Kong, we have spent quite a while with the new girl on the block -- the Girl Friend no. 2. It looks pretty on the surface. Is it as good in the inside? Follow us through this field test report for the verdicts. First, let's look at the outside. 
The GF2 is substantially smaller and lighter in the hand. It feels marginally right for an average man's hand. For a lady's palm, the camera body may fit perfectly. To a male photographer, the GF1 is more preferable size-wise.As in the case of all mirror-less cameras available to date, the GF2 is not really pocketable, save for an overcoat. At first glance, its dimensions are similar to the GX200's. In fact, it is thicker and much heavier, with a protruded lens. But it is still considered lightweight compared to those in the same class. Carrying the GF2 around on a hand-strap or neck strap, advisably the former, is not what we can complain about.
However, lightweight as it is, the GF2 is not light enough for one-hand operation. After all, the downsized body compared to the GF1 somehow obliges the user to rely more heavily on the menu; so the user has to hold the camera with the other hand to do the tweaking. Luckily the touch-screen menus are well thought-out which mitigates this shortcoming. There are still other shortcomings in the body design though.
First, the mediocre grip on the right side of the body doesn't really do the job adequately. It is probably the worst we have ever tried among the mirror-less cameras. 
Second, since the dedicated movie recording button is situated next to the shutter release, the foregone conclusion is that the user will accidentally touch it at the wrong time. For the first few days during the field tests, the movie recording button was accidentally activated quite frequently. A similar design flaw was mentioned when we field tested the GF1. Panasonic has added an option in the menu to deactivate the dedicated movie button, which squarely inconveniences and defeats the purpose of a "dedicated" button.
Third, there is only one wheel for tweaking the functions. Unlike a bigger DSLR body whereby holding down this and that button while dialling the single wheel is bearable, such a one-wheel operation on the tiny GF2 body is not gratifying at all. The redeeming features are the push-and-scroll-for-selection design of the single wheel and the touch-screen menu. While field-testing the GF2, however, we as old-hand photographers have found that such operations are not intuitive for especially photographers with experience in cameras with a more definitive or traditional design for handling. For the iPhone generation, it cannot be ruled out that the touch-screen thingy is in fact more intuitive.The point that the camera body is solidly built should not require mentioning (Oops just mentioned it). What do you expect? It isn't charged cheaply. As far as the 14mm kit lens is concerned, the camera is well balanced in weight. With the zoom lens which was promised but not included among the loan items, the GF2, we gather, will tilt forward.
The last note is that we like the highly-raised position of the in-camera flash when activated. It can effectively reduce the chance of getting red eyes in the final image. During the testing, we had to slightly held down the flash when activating it since it seemed that the very powerful spring was determined to eject it to elsewhere.(to be continued)
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