Results tagged “GF1”

More sucky Lightroom 3 news:

For those who use lenses without profiles, Adobe Labs offers a separate app, Adobe Lens Profile Creator, which you can use to make your profiles. Unfortunately, if you’ve got one of the new Micro 4/3 cameras, like Panasonic’s slick GF1, you’re basically screwed, there is currently no way to create a profile for Micro 4/3 cameras.

Gah. The one case I’d have used the feature for.

This blog article is of a trip to the Himalayas with a Panasonic GF1 in tow. The photography is excellent, and the article itself is a great blend of a trip report and a review of the camera. I found the writing to be a bit choppy in places, but appreciate the magazine-like layout of the site. Worth a read.

Photo-John recently posted his list of the top five cameras for mountain biking on MTBR, and given how well that hits two of my favorite hobbies, I couldn’t help but re-post it here.

I haven’t used any of these cameras, but the choices and reasons for making them seem sound. In my case, I’ve opted for the GF1 in place of P-J’s #2, the GH-1. The GF1 gives ground to the GH1 in EVF quality and it shoots video at 720p instead of the GH1s 1080p, but is smaller in size and comes in a kit with the lovely 20mm f/1.7. I can see someone going either way.

His #1, the Canon 7D is also a good choice of DSLR based on reviews I’ve read (and being a former Canon 30D user). I use the Nikon D700 as my DSLR, which has the advantages of being full-frame, better in low light and better sealing (and, IMO, handling). It gives up ground on being much more expensive and doesn’t do video at all.

In any case, it’s a good list and worth checking out if you’re in the market.

Grab it here.

I’ve owned the GF1 for just under a month now, and have had the chance to use it enough to form some opinions on where it excels and where it could improve. In no particular order, here they are:

Auto ISO

The Auto ISO feature leaves a lot to be desired. It allows you to set a minimum shutter speed and it will adjust ISO up to keep the shutter speed above that value, up to a user-definable maximum ISO. Sadly, it doesn’t work in manual mode. I’d really like to be able to dial both shutter and aperture to a value and have the camera try and compensate with ISO to get the exposure right. Also, in Aperture-Priority mode, I’d like to be able to prioritize ISO ahead of shutter speed; right now the camera will push the shutter speed to barely hand-holdable levels while there are plenty of decent quality ISOs that could bring my shutter speed up and hold my dialed-in aperture.

P Mode

The P (Program) mode will stick at f/1.7 even when there’s plenty of shutter speed and ISO headroom to go for a smaller aperture. f/1.7 is really wide-open, with very shallow depth-of-field to be the go-to default. Yes, I can use program-shift to get an equivalent exposure with a smaller aperture, but I’d like it to start a bit smaller when appropriate. Likewise, the full auto mode also likes to shoot wide open even with plenty of available light, which is often not what someone like my wife would want in a point-and-shoot mode.

My Menu

I hate that “My Menu” isn’t customizable, but simply has my last used menu items. It sticks “format” as the top item when it’s the last thing you do, making it too easy to reformat your card accidentally.

Menus/Interface

I find the interface to be generally intuitive. A lot better than the mess Olympus made with the E-P1 menu system. The most common controls are pretty easy to get to.

Rear LCD/Optional Viewfinder

I generally want reviews and menus on the rear LCD and the current view and shooting info in the finder—it’s all EVF or all LCD right now. The LCD is beautiful. Upon review, it’s not quite as good as the D700’s but it’s close enough. It sure would be nice if the resolution and color rendition of the EVF were better. The refresh rate of the LCD is excellent. It’s not easy to make critical decisions with it in bright light/outdoors, but that’s to be expected. I wish there were better post-shot review options with the histograms.

Image Quality

Image quality is overall quite a bit better than the G9 it replaces in my stable. The noise gets pretty bad at ISO 1600, but it’s usable for most of my purposes. 3200 is only for use if it’s the only way to get some sort of shot, and there’ll be some real noise reduction post processing work necessary.

The Lens

Ooh, la, la. This is a sweet little lens! It’s fast, fast, fast, and has nice bokeh. On the down side, the manual focus ring gives no real feedback, and isn’t a pleasure to use, although it works better than most manual focusing on small cameras I’ve used. The lens cap sucks—it’s deep and pops off too easily.

Handling

The GF1 has proven to be a decent mountain biking camera, although it’s clearly not built for fast action. It works well when pre-focusing and shooting action; fast moving subjects coming at the camera are not handled super well by the AF. Shutter lag is minimal and power on time is good enough for me.

Conclusions and Comparisons

To date, this is by far the best compact camera I’ve used. Despite its drawbacks and high price, it has the best build, handling and image quality I’ve seen. The G9 was good in the build regard, not as close in image quality (although it was no slouch), but far off from a handling point-of-view. The menu system is much better than the E-P1 based on the brief time I handled one of those, and the EVF is a differentiator. I do wish the GF1 had the E-P1’s in-camera image stabilization—that would be killer for low-light pics like those I’ve been shooting on the bike. Overall, though, this camera wins.

The Canon G11 and S90 are now out and gaining a lot of buzz. It would take a very impressive camera to make me sell the GF1 at this point, and I can’t imagine that either of them will compel me to do so. Still, I’m interested to play with them and see what the state of the art from Canon is. The G9 has been a great camera, and I’m sure Canon isn’t out of this race.

Good article from TOP. From his conclusion:

Even though I have owned it for only a few weeks, I am serious when I say that as an all-around picture taker, this Panasonic GF1 may be my favorite digital camera ever.

That's high praise from TOP. Johnston coined the DMD term (Decisive Moment Digital), and says that this is pretty much it, which is what I was hoping when I ordered it. His list of wishes are nice, but my main wish is less noise at high-ISO. If we could improve the quality of the GF1 by one stop, up to the 1600 point, I'd be super happy.

As an aside, I shot a bit with the viewfinder yesterday, and while it has its drawbacks, I like it a lot. It was way too expensive for what it is, but it really enhances the feel of the camera for me, so it's a keeper. I had Ainsley asleep on my chest last night while I was watching some TV and she had a sweet look on her face, and the GF1 was on the end table near me. I got it, but she was so close to my face that I couldn't compose and see the LCD. I used the pivot of the EVF to get a 90 degree angle from it and could get it to my eye and shoot sideways and get her face. Hard to describe, but the pivot is already proving useful.

As another somewhat random observation about the GF1, the battery needed recharging last night, which means that it lasted a week of moderate use. That's pretty good, although nothing compared the G9's incredible constitution. The G9 often went so long between charges that I'd often lost track of its small battery charger in the meantime. A second battery might be wise for vacations and extended use, but at just over $50, I'll wait and find a 3rd party battery that's certified for use on the GF1 (I've read reports of some 3rd party batteries that work in other Panasonic cameras not working on the GF1).

It arrived about 30 minutes ago. First Impressions:

• It is smaller on the camera than I expected, and the size of the view in the finder is also smaller than I expected.
• The resolution, while kind of low as was widely reported, seems fine to me. The zooming in effect while manually focusing works well in this context—perhaps I even like it better in the finder than on the camera back.
• The diopter adjustment is great—dialed it in and the finder is tack sharp.
• Having all of the shooting info that’s normally on the back (histogram, exposure controls, etc.) in the finder is nice.
• The finder can tilt upwards up to 90 degrees, which is handy.
• I wish that I could set the finder to have no post-exposure review, but still have it sent to the rear LCD, like a DSLR does.

More soon.

DPReview.com has their review of the GF1 up, and it's as detailed as usual. It did well:

Overall though - and I guess you probably already know this - I really loved the GF1, and will find it very hard to return it when this review is finished, meaning that I may have to wipe the dust and cobwebs off my wallet and actually hand over my own hard earned cash for one. The Olympus E-P1 now has some very, very strong competition in the form of possibly the most engaging and enjoyable camera on the market today. A compromise, for sure, but a surprisingly happy one.

Nice.

I just got a surprise shipping confirmation that the DMW-LVF1 electronic viewfinder for the Panasonic GF1 has shipped from Amazon! I say “surprise” because they never even changed the page to reflect when they expected to ship it, and I never got an update via email.

I can’t wait to get it—I love the camera, and really am looking forward to being able to hold it up to my eye like a proper camera.

I've ridden with the camera twice now, and have also gotten to walk around with it a bit, so I've got some more impressions. Certainly, I'm still forming opinions and finding things as I work with the camera, so here are those thoughts that have occurred to me over the last few days using the GF1.

• It seems to tend to underexpose. Not in all circumstances, so I'm still trying to figure it out. When it does, it's noticeable--say 2/3-1 stop under. Exposure compensation is easy to use on this camera, so it's easy enough to dial out when it happens. One theory is that the camera is trying to protect the highlights from blowing. I'm shooting in raw, so I'm less concerned about being fanatical about that since I can recover a slight overexposure in Lightroom.
• It has fairly noisy shadows, starting at ISO 800. Combined with the first point, this means that if I don't get more data on the right of the histogram and rely on post to fix an underexposure, I'm going to have to be more heavy-handed on the noise reduction.
• The noise is uglier than the Canon G9's that I'm accustomed to. Don't get me wrong--the quality of the pics is generally higher than the G9's, but the noise I tended to see had a structure that I found more pleasing. The GF1 seems to have at least 1 stop more headroom before the noise gets objectionable though.
• It's nice to have more choice in aperture. The G9 maxed out at f/8 while the GF1 with the 20mm f/1.7 goes to f/16 in 1/3-stop increments, so there is more flexibility. I was shooting in some landscapes bright sun and it helped tame the bright light as well as the DOF benefits.
• The 20mm f/1.7 is a gem compared to the lens on the G9. Fast and sharp while shooting wide open.
• The camera in Program and Aperture Priority modes tends to favor opening very wide with this lens, sometimes even to the point of taking the shutter speed uncomfortably low. It's easy enough for me to shift the shutter speed up, but I expected a camera that's ostensibly a P&S to play it safer on the shutter speeds.
• The RAW files tend to need more work than I'm used to, but they have a lot of data, and really pop once you put that little bit into them.
• So far, I love the handling. It really feels solid in the hand, and the controls are easy enough to use, even with bike gloves on.
• AF performance is great. The G9 doesn't even come close.
• I got to shoot for a couple of minutes with a buddy's G10 at the same time I was using the GF1. I'd say the G10 wins points for having exposure compensation as a nice dial on the top deck and the live histogram on the LCD is nicer on that camera. The G10's controls were very intuitive, but coming from a G9, that makes sense. The GF1 felt as solid and more responsive in general. The LCD on the GF1 is way nicer.

That's it for now. My Flickr photostream has some pics from the GF1. More to come.

Just yesterday I was out riding with Shane after work, and it was the first time I took the new GF1 on a ride. I'd liked to have taken more pictures, but I haven't bought a new pouch to wear on my chest, as I normally do with the G9 (the GF1 is just barely too big). So that means that I had to take my whole CamelBak off and dig through it to get to the camera, which I find means I take a lot fewer pictures.

We were riding at Long Ridge and Saratoga Gap right near sundown, and it was unbelievably pretty out. I was happy to have brought the camera, but in tandem for wishing for better access to it, I also wished I had my SLR along.

This morning, Brian emailed me to share a link link to a company called Clik Elite that is making hydration packs and accessories for "adventure photographers". There are backpacks of various sizes, but also chest-mounted camera attachments that look great. The backpacks have camera compartments as well as camera storage, which is nice, although the integration with a chest-mounted camera is really attractive.

I have my GF1. Oddly enough, a local camera shop got it ahead of Amazon--well ahead, apparently, since Amazon isn't supposed to get the 20mm kit I pre-ordered for some time. Initial impressions, with ~50 shots of random crap:

• Build quality is excellent, but not over-done. It's a nice package. It's a little bigger than the Canon G9, but not so much so that I'd put it in another category. I have a case that I use to store the G9 on my CamelBak while riding--the GF1 fits in it without the 20mm lens on, but not quite with. Pretty close, though.
• The rear LCD is amazing. It updates very quickly. It think it might be even better than the one on my D700. I'll have to look at them back-to-back.
• The menu system is pretty good. In general, I like the G9 menu system better, but that could be because I'm used to it.
• The camera reacts very quickly. It's a much more agile handling camera than the G9.
• The focus modes are a nice surprise. It has a "lock, then follow" mode that works very well with the baby running around.
• The _f_1.7 lens is nice. Leads to a nice bright image on the LCD, even in low-light conditions. I haven't shot enough to tell how sharp it is, but that'll take some time.
• The shop I bought it from didn't get the optional EVF in stock, so I've still got my order placed with Amazon. This camera cries out for it; I keep feeling like I should put it up to my eye, even though I rarely did that with the G9.

More to come....

Not many people can take a picture of a GF1 with a GF1, but this guy did. I just want my one!

People state-side are starting to take delivery of their GF1s if they ordered them from Panasonic’s online store, which I find pretty amazing, really. Other than Apple, I can’t think of too many electronics companies who actually ship orders to customers directly faster than Amazon can—certainly no camera company I’ve ever dealt with has. This has the effect of Amazon customers chomping at the bit to get their cameras. My pre-order hasn’t even been updated with a shipping date, which doesn’t fill me with confidence that I’ll get mine soon, although I can always hope. In fact, Amazon has a shipping date of tomorrow for the GF1 kit with the zoom lens and no date for the 20mm f/1.7 I ordered, whereas the people who ordered the 20mm are the ones getting theirs now and the zoom lens customers there haven’t heard anything. Weird.

I’ve been spending some time reading the boards about peoples’ impressions with the camera, and they’ve all been really good so far. The low-light capabilities seem good up to 800 and the 1600 results haven’t been half-bad either. The 20mm lens really looks to be stellar for a kit lens, which is refreshing; it’s half the reason I’m attracted to this camera.

Speaking of what attracts me to the GF1, the main draw was its size. That’s still the main “feature” of the camera (in fact, it’s really a little bigger than I’d prefer, but I realize that it’s the best physical size-to-sensor size ratio I’m likely to get in a package that handles well (the Sigma cameras have been dinged in reviews for being fairly slow to work with). I realize that means that other features have to be cut out. But there’s one feature I really wish the GF1 had: GPS.

As I mentioned earlier, my primary interest in this camera is as a take-everywhere camera. And by “everywhere”, I’m including mountain bike riding. That’s why size and handling are important—I need it to not weigh me down and I need to be able to draw it and have it ready to shoot quickly. But since it’ll be used all over the place, and bike rides can cover quite some distance, it would be wonderful to have the camera recording GPS locations for the shots.

That said, I already carry a GPS on my bike and the GF1 doesn’t include GPS, so I’ll probably look into syncing up their clocks and using software to add location info to the EXIF data to the pictures.

Lovely!

I've mentioned the darned thing enough times that you might think my site is a link farm promoting the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1.

This is obviously not a link farm, but it's certainly true that I've had this camera in my head since it was announced. I have a great SLR with great lenses, but there's no getting around the fact that it's big. One of my main uses for a camera is that I want one to take mountain biking with me. To that end, I've owned most models in Canon's G-series. They're fine cameras, to be sure, and the recently announced G11 looks great. But the GF1 is only a little bigger (which I'm painfully aware can be a slippery slope), but has a significantly bigger sensor. That'll undoubtedly lead to higher quality RAW images, which is of critical importance to me. Of lesser, but still significant importance, are the benefits of interchangeable lenses and the optional viewfinder, which I've also pre-ordered.

A good camera for photographing on a mountain bike ride requires, in addition to the obvious benefit of small size, speed when taking pictures. The small size enables me to wear it on my chest (in a case that I clip to my CamelBak), so I can access it easily. But the action is usually fast and often takes place in dark, covered places. So the f/1.7 lens that accompanies the kit that I've pre-ordered is exactly the kind of thing I want. An even wider-angle, fast prime would be great, too. That challenging lighting environment should also highlight the superior sensor, given the dynamic range frequently involved.

As secondary motivation, I intend to use the GF1 as my "go-everywhere camera". I imagine I'll typically leave the viewfinder attached when using it this way (as opposed to leaving it off to minimize the size when biking). I can further imagine that the GF1 will find itself taking many images of my daughter while we're on the go and the SLR wasn't on the packing list. As they say, the best camera is the one you have with you, and I hope I'll do better at taking this one with me than I have in the past. I'll probably try and make a semi-formal project of taking the camera with me frequently, but that can be a post for another time.

As for the pre-ordering itself, it's the first time I've ever ordered a camera before I've held it. One thing that was holding me back was the lack of support of its RAW format in my image organizer/editor of choice, Adobe's Lightroom. Alas, they just announced support for it in Lightroom and Photoshop (via Camera RAW 5.5), handily removing that obstacle and further backing my choice to switch from Aperture to Lightroom (many revisions ago). Besides, I ordered it from Amazon, so I know that the return policy is good if the handling turns out to be abysmal. I'm hoping that the camera is everything it seems to be.

Check out this excellent hands-on preview of the GF-1, which has a direct comparison with the E-P1 and some extended discussion from a photographer who has spent some time shooting with each. The GF1 is sounding pretty awesome.

One thing I did get wrong in my earlier post about the GF1 is that I said that it has in-body IS, which it does not. That's an advantage to the E-P1, although I'd much rather have fast, accurate autofocus if I had to choose.

Engadget has a hands-on with the GF-1 I posted about previously, and it looks great to me. The EVF (shown near the end of the embedded video) looks great. The one on the E-P1 is there solely for framing, and has none of the data that's available in this one. I also thought the UI, despite being in Spanish and Japanese for the demos, looks much nicer than the Olympus'. The styling isn't as retro-cool as the E-P1, but still looks good as far as I'm concerned.

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one to play with.

Competition for the E-P1? Awesome. Let's hope other manufacturers start competing in this space too. The Four-Thirds group may have found a great niche and real advantage here.