The Panasonic GF1 – Falling in love again

I love action photography. Catching a moment like this gives me pleasure…

….but I need help from a fast-focusing, high speed camera and a looooong lens. This means weight, and bulk and a shitload of money,

But for all the other times, when I don’t need to stick a lens up the nose of a polo pony, what to use?

Until recently, the digital camera market was split into two segments. If you wanted a serious camera, you bought a DSLR which purportedly, for a price, gave you superior image quality, control over the shooting process and the ability to change lenses. If you just wanted to take snaps, then you bought a Point and Shoot (P&S) camera for a lot less money which gave you limited creative control and generally crap photographs in anything other than perfect conditions. The “advancements” in P&S technology have consisted of stuffing more and more pixels onto tiny sensors, accompanied by a misleading marketing ploy proclaiming that more megapixels means better photos; when often the opposite is true.

Only recently have “good camera in small body” options started to appear, and my personal choice was the Panasonic LX3. Search on “LX3″ on this site to see some of the stuff this little gem has produced in my rather amateur and slightly shaky hands. It’s particularly good for macro work and I was able to sell off my Canon macro lens and flash for more than the cost of the LX3; my sort of deal.

Even so, the LX3 sensor is on the small side and images become noisy if you are limited for light and have to raise the ISO (although it knocks out great black and white images in these conditions). How about a camera with a sensor that is almost as large as a DSLR, but still with a small body? How about the ability to change lenses and, with an adapter, stick on almost any lens from any manufacturer? How about calling the system Micro Four Thirds? How about I pick one up when I am Singapore? Oh,OK (I never argue with myself). So I did, and here it is; the GF1 (Well spotted “The Son”). Isn’t it beautiful?”

(Photo taken with my LX3)

The current Micro Four Thirds offerings are from Olympus and Panasonic. I went with the Panasonic for reasons I will not bore you with (you are no doubt sufficiently bored by this post already); but I will say that the stock F1.7 lens was part of the attraction.

It’s a little larger than the LX3…

…but unlike the LX3, the controls, interface and general handling exude quality. Stick an Leica badge on the front and you could sell it for double the price. And double the price is what you would have to pay for the lens that took the last two photos; the very average F4, 24-105mm lens from Canon which is painfully soft wide open. Makes me wonder why I bother with the big stuff.

And that last shot was taken with an iPhone; maybe I should just junk all the cameras.