"Panasonic G series" Owners Thread

woof woof said:
I had a look at a G3 in Jessops today.

It looked much smaller than my G1 and I am tempted to see if I can sell both my GF1 and G1 and replece them both with just the one G3.
Click to expand...

There might be an ad for a gf1 in the wanted section. ;-)
 
I decided to leave my 1DmkIV at home when I went for a day out in London yesterday. I took the GF2 and 14mm pancake along to see how I got on with just that camera. All in all I think I didn't really miss the mkIV much in the end. I certainly took way more photos that I would have if I had only had the mkIV.

Sorry about the copyright, I forgot I had it set up to add it automatically in LR.

This one is a bit blurry as I didn't have anything to lean the camera on and it was pretty dark in there.

untitled shoot-020.jpg by Andy N Solaini, on Flickr

Some pretty bog standard British museum shots. It's hard to find an angle that hasn't been done to death by other people! :D


untitled shoot-021.jpg by Andy N Solaini, on Flickr


untitled shoot-023.jpg by Andy N Solaini, on Flickr


untitled shoot-024.jpg by Andy N Solaini, on Flickr


untitled shoot-027.jpg by Andy N Solaini, on Flickr

These were all taken at ISO400 and all hand-held. I'm not sure I could have pushed the ISO much more than that though. Can those that have the GH2 and newer G-Series camera tell me how much better they are than the GF2 as I hear the GF2 is considered not the best g-series?
 
EMA747 said:
These were all taken at ISO400 and all hand-held. I'm not sure I could have pushed the ISO much more than that though. Can those that have the GH2 and newer G-Series camera tell me how much better they are than the GF2 as I hear the GF2 is considered not the best g-series?
Click to expand...

I just leave my GF1 and G1 on auto ISO and set the aperture I want. When I'm faced with the dreaded 1/30 second that Panny love I might switch to manual but TBH I've got used to auto ISO now and doing it all myself seems so slow now.

Took this in the rain and crap light, ISO 1600, 1/20 sec. It's fine for a print or screen viewing IMVHO.

_1040066.jpg
 
TCR4x4 said:
There might be an ad for a gf1 in the wanted section. ;-)
Click to expand...

I want to keep the 20mm f1.7 but I might sell the GF1 and G1 and go for a G3, if I can find buyers as there doesn't seem to have been much interest in some nice 4/3 stuff in the classifieds here. I'm thinking off offloading my much loved 20D and a lens or two too but it's too near the holidays now and I'm going away soon so I'll have another look when I get back.
 
Difficult to remember which shots were 1600 but found another...

P1020297.jpg
 
Andy I think they look pretty damn good, fwiw I've been happy enough with test shots using the GF2/14mm at c. 1250 ISO, 1600 at a push, but haven't used it in anger at these settings.

I also seem to take more pics with the panny than when I have my DSLR's... But wouldn't want to be without a DSLR in my armoury. For now (y)
 
woof woof said:
I want to keep the 20mm f1.7 but I might sell the GF1 and G1 and go for a G3, if I can find buyers as there doesn't seem to have been much interest in some nice 4/3 stuff in the classifieds here. I'm thinking off offloading my much loved 20D and a lens or two too but it's too near the holidays now and I'm going away soon so I'll have another look when I get back.
Click to expand...

I have one now, got the one listed here earlier in the week after scouring the web trying to find the 20mm kit and failing.
 
EMA747 said:
I decided to leave my 1DmkIV at home when I went for a day out in London yesterday. I took the GF2 and 14mm pancake along to see how I got on with just that camera. All in all I think I didn't really miss the mkIV much in the end. I certainly took way more photos that I would have if I had only had the mkIV.

Sorry about the copyright, I forgot I had it set up to add it automatically in LR.

This one is a bit blurry as I didn't have anything to lean the camera on and it was pretty dark in there.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysolaini/6544398953/
untitled shoot-020.jpg by Andy N Solaini, on Flickr

Some pretty bog standard British museum shots. It's hard to find an angle that hasn't been done to death by other people! :D

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysolaini/6544399967/
untitled shoot-021.jpg by Andy N Solaini, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysolaini/6544401779/
untitled shoot-023.jpg by Andy N Solaini, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysolaini/6544402893/
untitled shoot-024.jpg by Andy N Solaini, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysolaini/6544404499/
untitled shoot-027.jpg by Andy N Solaini, on Flickr

These were all taken at ISO400 and all hand-held. I'm not sure I could have pushed the ISO much more than that though. Can those that have the GH2 and newer G-Series camera tell me how much better they are than the GF2 as I hear the GF2 is considered not the best g-series?
Click to expand...

Nice shots there Andy, very crisp, great colours too
 
Wow, who would have thought at 20mm could take a squirrel, they always run before I see them I figured I'd need a telephoto to capture one!
 
I've decided on a small project for tomorrow. I am going to take some very none scientific comparison shots of some things around the house and see what difference you can see between the GF2 and the 1DmkIV. I said it's very none scientific so all I am going to do is take a shot of something with one and then take the same with the other leaving the aperture the same. So no charts, formulas or any of that stuff, just a little fun test.
 
EMA747 said:
I've decided on a small project for tomorrow. I am going to take some very none scientific comparison shots of some things around the house and see what difference you can see between the GF2 and the 1DmkIV. I said it's very none scientific so all I am going to do is take a shot of something with one and then take the same with the other leaving the aperture the same. So no charts, formulas or any of that stuff, just a little fun test.
Click to expand...

Looking forward to seeing the results
 
First shot done. As I said these are in no way scientific but I think they might represent something because I took them how I would use each camera in the real world.

No editing 100% crops at ISO1600.

GF2
GF21001600.jpg


mkIV
mkIV1001600.jpg


Of note here are two things. The mkIV does have way lower noise at a pixel peeping level. It's up to the individual to assess if this of major concern.
More importantly for real world shooting I was trying to not limit the DOF too much and with the mkIV and it's 1.3x crop sensor this meant shooting at f8 and with the GF2 at f3.2 with it's 2x crop. These values are based of the DOF calculator program based on getting around 4 feet of focus in each case.
The important part though is that with the mkIV despite it's high ISO capabilities when doing this test at ISO1600 the resulting shutter speed asn't as high as I would have liked. This produces a slightly blurred shot, whereas the GF2 was able to produce a much sharper one as the shutter speed was way higher. Of course I could have racked the ISO up on the mkIV but it wouldn't have been a like for like test then.

These two I HAVE edited. I have deliberately not treated these images the same because I don't do that in the real world. I have edited them exactly as I would have done if I was just shooting the subject normally and wanted to upload them. Of course I don't usually take shots of shaving cream though. :D

GF2
GF2edcrop.jpg


mkIV
mkIVedcrop.jpg


They came out actually quite similar when cropped to 1000px on the long side. This is what I would crop to for web display. How it would look when printed I don't know. If someone with a printer wants the files to test I would be interested in the results.
The biggest difference I can see is that the out of focus parts of the GF2 image show a lot more noise than those of the mkIV image. If you look at the two images you will see that the DOF is not really the same despite what the DOF software calculated. I think the GF2 image would be more like for like if it's aperture was upped a bit. Make of that what you will be I think you can imaging/guestimate what the differences might be if the DOF was more similar.


I am going to do more around the house later on. What do you all think? It's better to get someone else's opinion who hasn't edited them as I always think when you spend some time editing your own images you become much more critical of them having seen all the "behind the scenes" stuff.
 
I also should state that there WILL be differences in the two cameras images because one is a 16mp sensor and the other is 12mp. I can't be bothered to work out how to crop them so they are more identical with the resolution difference taken into account, sorry. :p
 
Job to say which pic I prefer......and never tried the shaving cream so cannot comment Davek
 
I'm happy to carry less weight and be able to take photos that increase the noise levels to that amount, thanks for the test.

Remember, the GF2 is also using the 12mp sensor that's a few years old, be interesting to see how the GH2, G3 or GX1 compares. No doubt it'd be closer, with less noise.
 
anthonys said:
I'm happy to carry less weight and be able to take photos that increase the noise levels to that amount, thanks for the test.

Remember, the GF2 is also using the 12mp sensor that's a few years old, be interesting to see how the GH2, G3 or GX1 compares. No doubt it'd be closer, with less noise.
Click to expand...
I would be very interested too. Sadly I only have the GF2. IF I do decide to ditch the DSLR gear I would probably move to something like a GX1 because like you said the GF2 is good but it could be a bit better, which from what I can gather the GX1 ticks that box.
 
EMA747 said:
I would be very interested too. Sadly I only have the GF2. IF I do decide to ditch the DSLR gear I would probably move to something like a GX1 because like you said the GF2 is good but it could be a bit better, which from what I can gather the GX1 ticks that box.
Click to expand...

There's a thread over on the mu43 forums where someone has posted high ISO shots from his GF1 and GX1 if you want to see the difference.

Looks like it's a step up but I don't know if I'd bother since you've already got a mk IV. I guess you would take that out for any low light shots if you wanted cleaner images?

I was thinking of looking at a larger DSLR for improved high ISO photography but really doubting I need it lately after comparing shots.
 
anthonys said:
There's a thread over on the mu43 forums where someone has posted high ISO shots from his GF1 and GX1 if you want to see the difference.

Looks like it's a step up but I don't know if I'd bother since you've already got a mk IV. I guess you would take that out for any low light shots if you wanted cleaner images?

I was thinking of looking at a larger DSLR for improved high ISO photography but really doubting I need it lately after comparing shots.
Click to expand...
GX1 at ISO1600 and above looks really nice and I'm sure it would clean up well with a bit of NR.

The thing is I am trying to work out if I really need the mkIV and associated L lenses at all as my whole take on photography is becoming more for fun and less a search for absolute perfection. If I sold off all my DSLR gear I could put about £4500-5000 in the pocket. Might be worth it for slightly worse IQ and a few situations where the M4/3 camera wouldn't cope. :shrug:
 
I did similar tests a while ago and decided that apart from noise at the very highest ISO's and when pixel peeping there's no real significant difference between my 20D, 5D and MFT kit. There are slight colour and contrast differences but I don't see these as being in any way significant as I shoot RAW and can get such things to taste. One advantage that my MFT kit has is that I can shoot at f0.95 whereas with my DSLR's the widest aperture I have is f1.4.

I too have given thought to ditching my DSLR's but for me the MFT lens selection just isn't right and to be honest I doubt that it ever will be so I think I'll be keeping one DSLR at the least.

Actually being honest, I think that at some point in time MFT will be a dead end and will be replaced by full frame sensors in more compact bodies and more importantly smaller full frame lenses, just like they used to be, if they can solve the technical issues and stop having to make the lenses so big.
 
I did another test on a very similar subject to the shaving cream and got the same results. I won't post the shots because they are boring and don't show anything that the shaving cream ones don't. Tomorrow I will try and get some outdoor ones if the weather is nicer than it has been today.

Basically the conclusion I have so far is this:

If you are shooting at up to ISO1600 and displaying the shots at around 1000px sort of size (ie web size) there is actually very little difference once they have had some processing and tweaking done in LR/PS. The GF2 files take a bit more tweaking.

GF2 files show more obvious noise in out of focus parts of the image when using low DOF. This could probably be further reduced by selective noise reduction in PS if you wanted to.

Due to the difference in crop sensors and the fact that the GF2 can get more in focus for a given aperture taking low light shots in real world shooting seems to be easier with the GF2 to get a sharp image without blur from low shutter speeds. In reality this is a big plus imo and one that I wasn't really aware of until comparing them.

For sports and things that move fast and need a good constant shutter burst there would be no comparison. The mkIV would be a very very clear winner.

For video I haven't actually edited any full pieces but I have messed around with the files in Premiere Pro and to my non-technical eye they both look pretty much the same. The mkIV has more options for frame rates etc so it depends if this is of concern to you or if you.

No question which is the best for portability. The GF2 is so small and light, especially with the pancake lens on that I had it in my pocket when I was in London and in all honesty the map I had in the other pocket was more noticeable than the camera.
Another plus for the GF2 in this section would be that it is discreet and at worst you just look like any old tourist. I was taking a few photos on the tube and nobody even looked at me. If I had whipped out the 1DmkIV and 24-70 I'm sure it would at the very least have got a few comments and maybe worse....

That's all I can think of now but I think you should be able to get the general idea. Quite a few of the technical issues might well be a LOT closer with the new G-series cameras like the GX1. I am certainly going to go and have a look at them when they become available in the likes of Jessops and Jacobs where you can have a good play with them.

The interesting point is maybe that they are so close given that the mkIV and 24-70 would be around £4500 at new prices and the GF2 and 14mm pancake around £500.
 
Really interesting Andy, thank for sharing

I can't quite bring myself to part with my 5D2 and L glass, but you hit the nail on the head when wanting photography to be fun and the situation on the tube, such a no no with a big DSLR like a 1D, but the MFT system, nobody would bat an eye.

In your comparison shots, you can clearly see the extra noise from the GF2 (especially on the tiles at the bottom in the shaving cream shot), but given the price difference it's not really an issue.

As cameras like the NEX-7 push the limits of CSC systems I find it hard to see where big expensive DSLR's go, other than pro only solutions. The 1DX (or Nikon D4) when it arrives in March will be launched at a price of £5200 it will surely be a niche product, even more than previous 1 series bodies.
 
intel86 said:
Is the G1 worth considering 2nd hand?
Click to expand...

Yes. If you just want a still image camera and don't mind the lack of video.

I got one from the classifides here some time ago and I'm pleased with it easpecially as they seem to be a bargain.

A G1 shot from Monday :D

_1040234.jpg
 
woof woof said:
Yes. If you just want a still image camera and don't mind the lack of video.

I got one from the classifides here some time ago and I'm pleased with it easpecially as they seem to be a bargain.

A G1 shot from Monday :D

_1040234.jpg
Click to expand...

Looks like a nice camera you got there...;)

And a really nice shot. I'd forgotten just how good the G1 is

Allan
 
"Whats it like indoors, low light?"

Alright, IMVHO.

Some shots might not need NR. I have a manual f0.95 lens on my G1 and I don't hit ISO1600 too often :D so I did these test shots, just for you :D I find that my G1 tends to over expose a little so once the exposure is backed off a little in post capture processing noise is even less of an issue.

Anyway, ISO 1600 test shots, low light from energy saving bulbs, after mild processing...

_1040246.jpg


_1040249.jpg


_1040251.jpg
 
Last edited:
Can anyone recommend a good case for the GF1? I'm gonna be taking it out a lot so would like to protect it as much as possible for obvious reasons.

Thanks much.
 
I use a Lowepro Apex 100 AW for my GF1+20mm.

It's in no way even remotely pocketable but protects the camera in the car or in a sports bag or case.

IMG_4448c.jpg
IMG_4449c.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top