Panasonic has announced a collaboration with Ian Berry and Thomas Dworzak,  two members of Magnum Photos, to put the new Panasonic GX7 compact system camera to the test. "“The prospect of walking around with a camera like this and just a pocketful of lenses is just extraordinary," said Ian Berry, who used the new GX7 to capture images in Rome. "It has an incredible dynamic range. It holds up the highlights brilliantly when I assume they would have been lost but also holds up the shadows, so you can work with this extreme contrast." Another project saw Thomas Dworzak sent to Tbilisi, Georgia, where he was assigned to visually record its rich culture of people, movement and colour from new angles and found the GX7’s silent shutter function perfect for street photography. Ian and Thomas will be at Berlin’s IFA International show (6th-11th September) to officially reveal their images and give presentations about their experiences.

Panasonic Press Release

Panasonic Selects Two Photographers from Magnum Photos to Trial New Lumix GX7

Panasonic has today announced a collaboration with Ian Berry and Thomas Dworzak,  two members of one of the world’s most prestigious photographic agencies, Magnum Photos, to put the LUMIX DMC-GX7, to the test.

The two photographers, who represent an agency famed for housing an archive of images of major world events from the Spanish Civil War to the present day, were selected to associate the camera’s elegant design, which is evocative of the classical photographic age, with the quality and performance demanded by today’s serious photographers.  The camera’s compact body enabled the photographers to carry the camera all day with a wide range of Micro Four Third lenses.

“The prospect of walking around with a camera like this and just a pocketful of lenses is just extraordinary.  It really is a life-changer for me.  It has an incredible dynamic range. It holds up the highlights brilliantly when I assume they would have been lost but also holds up the shadows, so you can work with this extreme contrast,” said Ian Berry, who made his reputation working for the ‘Daily Mail’ and later ‘Drum’, and used the new LUMIX GX7 to capture images in Rome.

The GX7’s world first built-in 90-degree tilt-able Live View Finder (LVF) on a DSLM body As of 1st Aug 2013 also helped to change Ian’s photography.

“One of the really good things apart from the ability of the viewfinder to see better than I could with my naked eye, is that I can go to really high ISO ratings, the combination of which opens up possibilities which I’ve never had before.”

Another project saw Thomas Dworzak sent to Tbilisi, Georgia, where he was assigned to visually record its rich culture of people, movement and colour from new angles and found the LUMIX GX7’s silent shutter function perfect for street photography as he was able to take images without being noticed.

“One of the great joys of this camera is the absence of shutter sound.  It’s great, I love it.  I spent half of my life constantly coughing to create a noise to cover up the shutter sound,” said Thomas.

Thomas spent most of the 1990s photographing the wars and conflicts in the Caucasus. When asked about the opportunities Tbilisi presented as a photographic location and using the LUMIX GX7 Thomas said, “Having covered a lot of the wars in Chechnya and the Caucasus in the 90s, I came back to discover the modern Georgia. The challenge for me was to document how Georgia has changed in these years.”

“It was comfortable to have only one camera. With the LUMIX GX7 I don’t need anything else anymore.”

Both Ian and Thomas will be at Berlin’s IFA International show (6th-11th September) to officially reveal their images and give presentations about their experiences.

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