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

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I did and found absolutely no difference to anything?!?!?!?!?
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Mine did. It went from Firmware 1 to Firmware 1.1:clap:

Can anyone point me to a proper review of the 14-45mm kit lens? I have searched around but I cannot come up with any alternative. The only problem I have is that it is very slow and I always suspect a kit/budget lens The focal length range of this lens is ideal, yes 10mm at the wide end would be nice but being a R/F user the 90mm equivalent is fine at the long end.

There just doesn't seem to be anything else, is there? Must be totally compatable as I like using the camera in full auto everything, manual stuff is for wet Sunday mornings.

I think a great problem buying into a new system is frustration for those of us who suffer that well know problem, impatience.


Tip of the day: Best accessory for the GF1? A Panasonic Viera TV.

I am totally sold on the "idiot " mode, invented for me I think but I can't get it to work in B/W.

Yes Graham I think the Op/Tec is the one.. All it needs is a simple leather strap with clips at either end. That cover kit thing looks interesting, where does it come from? I really do find the GF1 is like handling a wet fish. I suppose the answer might be the Panasonic case, very nice but it still uses that dreadful ribbon/ strap thing.

Brian.
 
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woof woof said:
I haven't updated my firmware, I don't know if I should bother or not. :thinking:
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The sole reason for me upgrading my firmware was the shortcut for zooming the screen when manually focusing, it makes life so much easier.

the new firmware is also supposed to improve AF when using video.

So, if you don't shoot in manual focus and don't use video there may not be a reason to upgrade.
 
Alan thanks for the link,very good review.

I think the lens is very good value for money but not for me, it is too slow.

I suppose the alternative would be the F2.8 Leica 14-45mm but the man in Mathers told me it wasn't fully GF1 compatable, and even with this lens the f3.5 at the long end doesn't excite me. Incidentally if somebody is thinking IS no, it's not shutter speeds it's depth of field that is the issue.

Of course there is the F2 Olympus zoom but again not fully compatable and I reeckon £1600 ish is a lot of dosh to invest in a speculative new format.

I note in other forums turning the LCD off is gaining popularity, but the advice seems to be to strangle the annoying focus confirmation bleep at the same time. can I find out how to do it? Can I hell. We'll make a poor man's autofocus M8 out of this camera one way or another.

Brian.
 
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Diego Garcia said:
I saw and played with the new Olympus PEN 2 Wednesday. Much the same as before. Viewfinder is better, better than the PEN 1 and the Panny, but for me, the camera is much the same as before. Even the screen has kept its low res status. I cannot believe Olympus did not put more dots on the rear LCD. The fact is that rear screens sell cameras, despite what everyone says. The body is black, designed to mimic the GF1 but Panasonic will not be troubled by it.

That said, Sanyo make cameras for Olympus so what can you say about that...?

Furthermore, it has been confirmed that both Canon and Nikon are expressly interested in micro 4/3rds and cameras are well into the 'R and D' stage....
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I'd heard that it's not vastly different too, so looks as though that's confirmed by your hands-on. I like the fact that you get the decent viewfinder bundled with it, but it doesn't sound as though that'll be enough to make it shift to the extent the GF-1 is.

I guess it might be a while before Canon or Nikon bring anything similar out as wouldn't it mean a change of lens mount, and therefore a new set of lenses? - suppose it depends on how agile they are, and how much of a threat or rapidly expanding market they see it as.

Do you see Panny introducing any more m4/3 lenses this year over and above the ones they'd already announced last year (the pancake, mega-zoom etc)?
 
Out in the fog today with mine. This with the 14-45

uvvtbz
 
Obviously I don't know, but I would be very surprised if the two giants bother with Micro 4/3.

Re the lenses, I hate to be a pessimist but I wouldn't advise holding one's breah..

Mind you these opinions are from someone who last read a photographic magaze when it cost 1/3d.

Brian.
 
BrianT said:
Yes Graham I think the Op/Tec is the one.. All it needs is a simple leather strap with clips at either end. That cover kit thing looks interesting, where does it come from? I really do find the GF1 is like handling a wet fish. I suppose the answer might be the Panasonic case, very nice but it still uses that dreadful ribbon/ strap thing.

Brian.
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I must admit I'd prefer a nice leather strap for mine, however I had the op/tech one left over from my G9/G10 so....:shrug:

The covering comes from Aki Asahi $19 delivered.

The GF-1 does Strobist....

Not exactly the ideal camera for it as you can't use the EVF (obviously) which means you're stuck with using the LCD to compose :bang: making shots like this almost impossible

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It was a very dull day today but I wanted to see this before it goes.

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I'm sorry that you're not impressed with the lens but I hope that you like the 20mm.

I'm not a big fan of Silkypix myself but there's a free package called Rawtherapee (Google and you'll see it) that seems to work with GF1 RAW files but it doesn't incorporate the auto fixes that the Silkypix does.
 
If anyone is still thinking can the GF1 hack it, I just thought I'd share that I took mine as back up camera for a local job, rather than cart another DSLR along.

Towards the end of the shoot my 5d packed up in the pouring rain.

So plan B. GF1 with 20mm lens taken out of the bag, skyport flash trigger fitted, and I continued shooting.

I sent the 2 best pics to the magazine editor, one taken with the 5d, the other taken with the GF1 at iso 400. The editor preferred the one taken with the GF1, and it will be gracing the front cover of their magazine.

:)
 
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I got the GF1 last week with the 14-45 & I'm not impressed.
For me the lens is a waist of time, it's just far to slow.
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Exacly the conclusion I have reached. This lack of lenses is beginning to annoy.....big time. It doesn't help looking at the road map. Why can't Panasonic see that there is a market for a fast standard zoom. Instead of that for 2010 there is a 35mm equivalent to a 200-600mm zoom...........that should be fun using the LCD, an 8mm fisheye.........that'll sell like hot cakes, I don't think and a 14mm F2.8 which should have been a 10/12mm F!.7/ F2.

And thanks I have ordered the leatherette type cover.

I don't use raw but can anyone tell me why Silkypix is grey on black? Bl....y design over practicality I suspect.

Brian.
 
I use RAW but I'm beginning to wonder if I need to as the GF1 JPEG's look pretty good to me and I find that basically all I'm doing is opening the RAW files and saving them as JPEG's.

I can understand people's frustration with the lens choice but the limited choice hasn't bothered me yet as the only zooms I've ever had have been on SLR's and my digital cameras. I've never had a compact film camera with a zoom and as I see the GF1 as a replacement for those I'm still happy with just the 20mm f1.7.
 
I use RAW but I'm beginning to wonder if I need to as the GF1 JPEG's look pretty good to me and I find that basically all I'm doing is opening the RAW files and saving them as JPEG's.
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I agree.

Fair enough what you say re the lenses but a large number of GF1 users have bought it as a replacement for bulky overweight DSLRs

Brian.
 
Went away to the Lakes this weekend and took it with but forgot to take a memory card. :(

So here's a couple of quick pics just messing around in the house with fairly poor light. V pleased so far though.

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Scratbag - aka Scrattus Rattus Maximus :)

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The gf being an unwilling model

Richpips can we see the mag shot? Is this for Singletrack?
 
Took my GF1 out today to a local farmer's market and then the park afterwards. I've just got back and processed several RAW images in Lightroom. I'll try to post some of them up here when I get a chance. Seems that up to ISO400 is fairly clean, noise wise, then ISO800 needs some work, depending on how big you want to print.

Well.......basically.......... I LOVE IT ! The quality really is superb, I'm struggling to believe that such a small and convenient device can produce such nice, sharp, contrasty images with very faithful colours, and a pretty good dynamic range. It won't threaten my 5D Mark II, but it will certainly get far more trips out with me. I'll be using the 5D II for the really serious stuff, and the GF1 for pretty much everything else. I think my Panny TZ7 will be up for sale....

We're off to Disneyland Paris next month for the first time, I'm not sure if many people on here have been there but I'm planning to just take the GF1, 20mm, 14-45mm and my Canon HD camcorder. Figured that those two lenses should cover it - 20mm 1.7 for indoor/low light/shallow DOF shots, and the 'walkaround' 14-45 for pretty much everything else. They're both very sharp lenses. So it makes for a pretty tidy, compact package.

Only a week ago I was planning to take the 5D II and 3 or 4 lenses......now I'll be able to concentrate on the fun factor, and take proper photos as well without looking overly obsessed with photography :D:D:D

So basically I'm VERY impressed so far - I'm used to the quality of my 5DII but this is definitely a compromise worth making.
 
The big problem, and the reason I'm holding back, is this...

Take a GF1 £500, then add a proper well made M adapter £150, then the external VF [which isn't quite as good the G1's, or the EP2] £200... and you're up at £850. By the time I add the 20mm/1.7 [because it's a no-brainer on u4/3..]£200, I'm up at £1000 plus. And that's before I add the Nokton I'm interested in..

Now, that's a corking setup, but many of us are interested in this because it becomes the 'poor man's M8'. Except that there are any number of mint M8's available for about £750 more. And here's the rub... I want the GF1 because it offers me the M experience, but I've just always wanted an M. I'm just wondering whether that £750 difference is cheap for what it takes for me to live out my M lust... I may not get this close for quite a while...

I wonder if I might buy cheaper, buy twice.
 
danbroad said:
The big problem, and the reason I'm holding back, is this...

Take a GF1 £500, then add a proper well made M adapter £150, then the external VF [which isn't quite as good the G1's, or the EP2] £200... and you're up at £850. By the time I add the 20mm/1.7 [because it's a no-brainer on u4/3..]£200, I'm up at £1000 plus. And that's before I add the Nokton I'm interested in..

Now, that's a corking setup, but many of us are interested in this because it becomes the 'poor man's M8'. Except that there are any number of mint M8's available for about £750 more. And here's the rub... I want the GF1 because it offers me the M experience, but I've just always wanted an M. I'm just wondering whether that £750 difference is cheap for what it takes for me to live out my M lust... I may not get this close for quite a while...

I wonder if I might buy cheaper, buy twice.
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It is what it is.

It's no poor mans anything, and as you say can it deliver? The answer is yes.

I've had to adapt to using the lcd screen for composing, and I think that the key with this camera for "downsizers" is being adaptive.

No it's not an M8 a Nikon D3X Canon, a 1ds MkIV but it does slip in a large pocket,so there's no excuse that you don't have a camera with you, and it does take good to excellent pictures in the right light.
 
I have no doubt it delivers. I've seen pictures so good I want to steal them, print them and frame them for myself. But, for me the attraction of the GF1 is being able to use the M glass [both CV and Leica.] I know the GF1 is a sharp tool - and I'm interested - but I wonder if I'm just delaying an inevitability.
 
danbroad said:
I have no doubt it delivers. I've seen pictures so good I want to steal them, print them and frame them for myself. But, for me the attraction of the GF1 is being able to use the M glass [both CV and Leica.] I know the GF1 is a sharp tool - and I'm interested - but I wonder if I'm just delaying an inevitability.
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I've not used the M8 so I couldn't comment on one vs the other. I've not used Leicas since back in the day.

I'm certainly not a fanboy of every aspect of the GF1, yeah for sure there are wants, but a camera that offers reasonable proprietary lenses and the option to use exotic ones with decent £50 adaptors..........
 
Except that there are any number of mint M8's available for about £750 more.
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And have you ever wondered why? The M8 only lasted for a year, the M8.2 little more and here we are talking about a company not in the habit of bringing out new models every other Friday.


Brian
 
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Before I got my GF1 I used an M8 a bit as I was thinking of getting one. To be honest, it was an awful camera. The glass you put in front is lovely, but the M8 itself was just monstrous. I think the M9 is the camera the M8 really should have been. The difference in price between those two made my mind up for me however.
 
Ok to a novice people are complaining about the 14-45mm lens being too slow. I take it they are talking about the aperture i.e f-stops and not slow as in focusing etc???
 
Nadeem said:
Ok to a novice people are complaining about the 14-45mm lens being too slow. I take it they are talking about the aperture i.e f-stops and not slow as in focusing etc???
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Yes. Although to be fair it's not that slow for a kit lens, it's just not as fast as most of use would like.
 
Nadeem said:
Ok to a novice people are complaining about the 14-45mm lens being too slow. I take it they are talking about the aperture i.e f-stops and not slow as in focusing etc???
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It's actually a very fast little lens to grab focus and it's the aperture that people would like to be faster, as you say.

With the OS system and fairly decent ISO performance, it's not really a big problem for getting enough light for shots but it is a hinderance when it comes to wanting a shallow depth of field.

All camera systems are a compromise of course and this one will fall short for as many people as it works for. Just like all the others. :)
 
Yes. Although to be fair it's not that slow for a kit lens, it's just not as fast as most of use would like.
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And the crunch is............there ain't an alternative. Who on earth would buy a 28mm . f3.5, a 50mm f4.5 , or a 90mm f5.6..........I've had faster large format lenses.

As for the case and it being expensive. In all fairness it's very nice. Only thing is I don't know if the flap part is available seperately because there are " Pancake" and " kit" lens cases.





Brian.
 
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Hilary Briss said:
I got the GF1 last week with the 14-45 & I'm not impressed.
For me the lens is a waist of time, it's just far to slow. Going to get the 20mm next week & hope that improves things. The RAW software is so bad as well, it just displays the images so crap.
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I see the 14-45mm as a tripod/landscape lens as it is a bit slow as said. I did a bit of a IQ test between that and the 20mm f1.7 and at f5.6 there was not much difference to my eyes. I was goingt to sell the 14-45 but now i'm going to keep it for landscapes.

Lightroom is perfect for the GF1 Raw Files and Photoshop elements is good too but i'm sure there are a few free Raw converters for the GF1.

The Gimp Raw converter is really really bad!!!
 
If I could pick what the next lens would be I think I'd go for another prime, maybe something like a 14mm f2 or faster.

I think that a line up of 14, 20 and maybe 30mm would do me espacially if they were all quite compact, that'd be ideal.
 
I have found that old Manual Focus Rangefinder lenses are good quality and small which suit the GF1 more. I have a 80-200mm lens that looks HUGE on my camera!!
 
OK, then; a few questions for GF1 owners to help out with...

how useful is the external viewfinder for critical focusing of manual lenses, especially short telephotos [50mm and up]?

do any of you use an adapted long prime [for example, the older MF 180/2.8 Zuiko, 300/4.5 Nikkor AI-s] - and how easy do you find manual focusing with this? Regardless of Leica lust, the ability to adapt the longer primes coupled with the 2x 'reach' afforded by m4/3rds is a definite advantage.
 
Question for those in the know - there are some nice looking Voigtlander lenses in M-mount. Particularly interested in the 40mm f/1.4 Nokton. Can anyone confirm that it is actually possible to use this lens on a GF1, and that it would require the Leica-M to m4/3 adaptor? Better yet, anyone have the combo that can post pictures/experiences?
 
py6km said:
Question for those in the know - there are some nice looking Voigtlander lenses in M-mount. Particularly interested in the 40mm f/1.4 Nokton. Can anyone confirm that it is actually possible to use this lens on a GF1, and that it would require the Leica-M to m4/3 adaptor? Better yet, anyone have the combo that can post pictures/experiences?
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I was going to get this very same lens as it looked perfect, small, light and superb image and build quality. They fit fine on the GF1 with Leica M adapter.

Here is a pic of one nailed to an EP1. He did have up plumbed into his GF1:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattjaycraven84/4072646925/in/photostream/

Check out the guy's photostream. There is a pic of a dog lying on the floor which shows how good this lens is!!

I can't afford one so i plumbed for a Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f1.7 which although not quite as fast, still has superb image quality and a decent focal length for the GF1. Can't wait to use it!! I'll prob use it at f2 and have f1.7 in reserve!!

Get one and enjoy. If the Ultron is as good as i think it's going to be then i'll be back for more! :D
 
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Cracking shot Grum!!!!
 
Just for others information. Upto today, I was using Capture one to import the GF1 raw files. Today I downloaded the Lightroom 30day trial and the difference in the images is unbelievable. I am even more impressed with the GF1 now!
 
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