50under50

A while back I started searching for a camera to replace my Canon Powershot G9– a camera that had served me well for grabbing quick images for use in storyboards, documenting my life, etc… It was easy to use and produced good  looking images. It was compact, can shoot Raw images and was versatile. However, after a year of using it, I started to want more of an SLR experience– the ability to manually focus an image and have greater control over depth of field.

As a photography enthusiast, I was a little bit intimidated by using a full blown dSLRs. I own one but rarely use it. Better left in more capable hands. When I had heard about Olympus and Panasonic Lumix’s new line of micro four thirds cameras, I knew the time was right to buy a new camera. After a thorough research phase, I concluded that I value size, convenience and features over supreme image quality. My camera needed to be compact enough that I could take it with me everywhere, and it had to shoot high quality video. I’m a gadget freak, but I don’t want to carry extra purpose built gear if I don’t have to.

Though the feature set of the Lumix GH1 (1080p video) were very attractive, I ultimately decided to buy it’s little brother, the GF1 with the pancake kit lens. The GF1 is built on the micro four thirds standard and has interchangeable lenses. It doesn’t have a mirror box and viewfinder therefore it’s even smaller than the original four thirds cameras released by Olympus. It has a sharp and vibrant, live-view screen.

Since I’ve tried both the zoom and pancake lens, I definitely recommend starting with the pancake kit lens first. Even though it is a fixed lens and doesn’t have the image stabilization of the zoom lens, it’s dimunitive size and fast glass (f1.8), made it the clear winner for sheer fun and usability. It will take a little getting used to actually walking to and from your subject to frame the shot, but it will seem like second nature after a while.

I had my first chance to test it thoroughly on my trip to Taiwan. Keep in mind, I’m not the type that likes to read manuals. I”m more of a “figure it out as I go” kind of guy. I didn’t bring my camera case. Instead, it was either around my neck or in my backpack so that I can grab images whenever something caught my eye. After each day of shooting, I would download images into iPhoto for review. Unsurprisingly, I discovered some poor exposures and settings and corrected each mistake the following day. If you want to read a more in-depth review of the camera, check out DpReview.

Several accessories are available from Panasonic. I’d recommend picking up an extra battery and some decent sized memory cards. If you already own a four thirds camera, a simple adaptor will let you use the lenses you already own.

With this configuration, you can actually slip the camera into your coat pocket. I will upload some video samples soon. List price for the camera and lens is $899 but is currently back ordered causing the price to go up.

Buy Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 12.1MP with 20mm f/1.7 from Amazon

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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