Picked up my new camera today....a GF1

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Brian, as far as I know that's the case, the camera and bundled software automatically correct the distortion. I agree with you about viewing the camera, lens and software (either in camera or on pc) as a package.

Springsteenfan, welcome to the forum and the GF1 owners club! Great pictures.
 
Woof I said earlier that I thought we were singing from the same song sheet :)

Grahame,

I have also given up trying to focus Leica cameras, still ,50 years was perhaps long enough. As you say it's very difficult tojustify the cost of digital Leicas in real terms....Apart from the Digilux2 which must already be a classic.

I should very much like to here your views re the EVF, so far none seem to have appeared in Leeds. I am more than willing to be persuaded but the more I think of it the more I believe that dedicated lenses are the way to go. Using other lenses with adapters in great fun but rather Meccanoish. Ideally the system should be a small range of primes with matching viewfinders..........or how about a Tri Elmar 10-25-45mm with a variable viewfinder, and leave the clever little camera to focus itself?

But one thing for sure.......trhis little camera is like a breathe of fresh air,in photographic terms.

Brian.
 
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Brian,

So far, I have only played with the viewfinder. It seems okay and much better than those early evfs which I thought was a waste of time. But one thing I know I will like about it, is its ability to be used vertically which will be great on the tripod.

I am totally happy with the lenses which seem very sharp.

I am loving this camera. It is indeed a breath of fresh air.
 
springsteenfan said:
I am loving this camera. It is indeed a breath of fresh air.
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It certainly is. I moved from a D80 to the GF1 and have only missed the D80 a few times, but then again i would never carry the D80 around with me everywhere which i do with GF1, much to the wifes annoyance some times :razz:
 
i'm waiting for my viewfinder...a friend of mine who works in a panasonic dealership can get me one for £83 on his points scheme
 
This really does look like one hell of a neat piece of kit, what lens package would you recommend, to be honest I'm more excited about sticking my old russian glass on it but just the one auto lens would be handy, should I hunt out the 20mm?
 
The 20 is a lovely little thing and quality aside, it's worthwhile just on the size front.

The two other common choices, the 14-45 and the 45-200 are actually very good too. The 45-200 is possibly the most amazing given it's bargain bucket price tag.
 
has anyone tried the 14-140? Be interesting to know how it compares to the 14-45 at the wide end. It's only half a stop 'worse' though it's quite a bit heavier & larger.

but only taking 1 extra lens (as well as the 20) would be a bonus.
 
Chillimonster said:
The 20mm is a peach of a lens. Mine never leaves the front of the GF1.
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My 20mm stays on all the time, mainly due to the fact its the only lens i have.
7-14 is toooooo expensive at moment, fancy the 14-140 due to it being optimized for video. Might try and get a 14-45 next though.
 
I certainly go along with the 20mm, it's a cracker. At the moment my leanings are towards the Zuiko f2 wide angle zoom, the 7-14mm seems great but slow and at 7mm a little OTT. But for me the viewfinder problem must be resolved as a first priority, either seperate optical finders such as Voigtlander or the EVF. This viewfinder problem will sort out whether I go for dedicated lenses or not, if it is usable then I shall go for prime third party lenses ( 20mm excepted) but if not I shall go for seperate viewfinders with totally compatible lenses and let the camera take care of the technical bits.

Longer lenses than 45mm ( 90mm in FF terms) have no interest, never thought longer worked on an M so why change

In fact the kit zoom would be a great choice if only it were faster and I must admit " kit" turns me off............any owners like to comment?

Using seperate finders I would match the inscribed focal lengths denoted on the lens barrel to for instance four optical finders, in fact using the lens as a 4 focal length optic rather than one that is variable between two fixed points.

Incidentally in Leeds the sun is shining brightly so I tried the GF1 out in the garden and........................the LCD sucks.

Hence my concern with viewfinders.

Brian
 
so I tried the GF1 out in the garden and........................the LCD sucks.
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I prefer to think of it as electronic ground glass. ;)

The "kit" lens is really very good and I'm very fussy about lenses. It does suffer from not being faster, constant f2.8 would have been so much better but the only place you actually suffer in real use is never having a shallow DoF.
 
I think that for me the biggest down side would be lower shutter speeds in low light. At least with the 20mm f1.7 you can get away with ISO 400 in reasonably low light.
 
woof woof said:
I think that for me the biggest down side would be lower shutter speeds in low light. At least with the 20mm f1.7 you can get away with ISO 400 in reasonably low light.
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Absolutely, you can't beat fast glass as it works all the time but the OS will give you back those stops and possibly more if you're subject is static.

It's not ideal but it's an understandable compromise point for panasonic to have picked.
 
Here's a nice seasonal shot for you...taken today with my GF1 & 45-200mm lens
@51mm f/4 iso200 Raw & processed in photoshopCS4...focus point in centre of shot



4244011925_d40b000c4c_o.jpg

*
 
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The 20mm f1.7 is probably (IMHO) the best lens for this camera in regards to IQ. I have the 14-45 and have had it for 2 months but i have yet to use it!!!! The 20mm stays on most of the time except when i use the old manual lenses which a huge fun!
 
whats the best price for the 20mm in the uk?
 
Here's an interesting comparison...
the first shot of the yellow fruit tree is from my now ex Canon 5DMk2 & EF17-40L lens
the second shot of the berries is from my panasonic GF1 & 45-200 lens
These cameras are leagues apart in price & performance but the little GF1 holds it's own image wise in my opinion...what do you think?

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4244011925_d40b000c4c_o.jpg
 
It certainly does hold it's own. There are many many images on the web that prove that the GF1 is an amazing camera! Sadly none of those images are mine :D :D
 
chrisgeary said:
Has anyone successfully imported AVCHD-Lite movies into iMovie 8.0.5 from the GF1?
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I'm using iMovie 8.0.5 and import AVCHD-Lite movies from my GF1 without any problems, I use a card reader to import the films,

Julie
 
Snowbound. ( One hell of a p.......d off Brittany)

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Handheld f1.7@1/30th sec I thought I could only handhold a Leica at this sort of speed.

Brian.
 
You shoot JPEG's don't you Brian?

What do you think of the white balance? I'm very pleased with the various WB setting results under artificial light and it seems much better in this respect than my Canon 20D.
 
You shoot JPEG's don't you Brian?
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Sort of Woof, I use large jpegs and keep a raw file up my sleeve. You might remember I keep memory cards just as in the old days you would have kept film.

The white balance? I've never moved it from the Auto mode, seems fine to me. Although once I've stopped playing with the camera Dynamic B/W will be nailed permanantly................I dislike colour for most things. But of course as you will appreciate using files as I do there is always a colour backup.

Yes the WB also seems better than my D200/300.............and actually the WB isn't the only thing ;)

Brian.
 
I dont know if anyone else is finding this but I'm getting over-saturated reds out of the jpegs. I'm having to back it off a little to get things looking natural.

Pete
 
I found that with RAW files, but only at ISO1600.
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Then stop being :naughty:

I must admit to being another offender but why do must of us type raw in upper case...............it isn't as far as I know an acronym, whereas we use lower case for JPEG which I think is one, only heaven knows what it stands for.

Brian.
 
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BrianT said:
Then stop being :naughty:
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I've tried Brian, but I just can;t help myself.

I must admit to being another offender but why do must of us type raw in upper case...............it isn't as far as I know an acronym, whereas we use lower case for JPEG which I think is one, only heaven knows what it stands for.
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You're right of course. I don't know why, and there's no rhyme nor reason to whether people right raw, Raw or RAW. I think I may have picked it up from some early software which used the RAW version.
 
I'm thinking about getting an optical viewfinder but the voigtlander 40mm viewfinders I've seen at Robert Whites are about £150 and this is more than they cost from America in $.

Is there anywhere / anything else I can buy?
 
woof woof said:
I'm thinking about getting an optical viewfinder but the voigtlander 40mm viewfinders I've seen at Robert Whites are about £150 and this is more than they cost from America in $.

Is there anywhere / anything else I can buy?
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Robert White lists them at £130 here

CameraQuest have them for sale in the US for $128 (c£80) here

Unless you can find them cheaper on the continent then your only other option would be 2nd hand.
 
Thanks.

I'm not the best at Googling but these things seem hard to find. Robert White's prices look a little too much like Rip Off Britain to me so I think I'll have to carry on looking.
 
I could be wrong, but I think Robert White is the UK distributor for Voigtlander, so I doubt you'll get a much better price in the UK though a thread I found on DPReview from 2008 said that the 40mm viewfinder was c£85 whihc would certainly fit with the US pricing. Maybe R White is looking to chas in on the GF-1 effect?
 
I couldn't find any on ebay or anywhere else in the UK but I'll keep looking as the thought of paying more in £ than others pay in $ doesn't feel good.
 
I could be wrong,
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Don't be silly Barney...........wrong? Never.





Having owned every focal length of Voigtlander viewfinders in the past I would say that they are excellent. However at R.W.'s prices they do seem very expensive. In fact from memory up to a couple of years ago they were all around the £90 mark and indeed for several focal lengths the viewfinder was included with the lens.

But £130 is making the Panasonic EVF seem cheap, no, I realise that it won't be as good as the optical finders but covering all the lenses with a coupled display plus the very desirable " swing" facility is becoming a very tempting alternative. Plus of course the dedicated finder has been reported as having excellent eyesight correction.

Before I jump I shall track an EVF down to find out (no pun intended) just how good/bad it is. I only have experience with two EVF, Leica Digilux 2 and Sony DCR! ( Wonderful very underated camera, digital Hasselblad) and they were both pants, in fact unusable.
Brian.
 
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