DMC-GF1, First Light

[Grant]

This week has been a very busy week for me. With my classes, and the BPS I had very little time. But byy Wednesday I had time to myself and while I did take a number of images I spent most of the time with my head in camera equipment research.

Yesterday I went down to a camera shop with the excuse of buying a new clip for my LowePro Camera Bag. I have a Stealth Reporter 300 and have been very pleased with it even if there is now some plastic fatigue on the clips. Turns out they don’t sell replacement clips. Instead Lowe have over the counter exchanges on defective components. So as fast as you can say, “Bob is your Uncle” I had a new bag, free of charge. You got to love dealing with reputable companies.

While in the store I decided to look at the two cameras I have been reading about. The big news is I now have a new camera, a small walk around camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 with the 20 mm F/1.7 lens. This is one of those new Micro Four Thirds System cameras. Small enough to fit in my wind breakers pocket with a sensor that is close to the size of my D300. This image is taken in Aperture Priority at f1.7. It was taken as a test shot and when I got back the results I was amazed at the clarity. While I did expect good quality I didn’t expect it to be this good.

There is noting done to this image other than resizing and returning the sharpness of the original.

I shot most of my first images at the default camera settings. My only overrides are that I did choose Aperture Priority and RAW + high quality JPEG. The strange thing about this camera is the Raw and JPEG looked exactly the same, although there is much more latitude for tweaking in RAW. I find this strange as it makes the JPEGS look flat. Of course if you elected to shoot JPEG you could fiddle with the in camera settings. This doesn’t really bother me as I am a RAW shooter. I have a lot to learn (AKA play with) but I suspect the only thing real adjustment is with the lens. It is a stunning lens but it is 20 mm or roughly 40 mm 35 mm equivalent. This requires me to get a little closer than my confront zone when it comes to shooting strangers. I will post more as I learn more.

For me it is like returning to my roots a small simple camera with a great lens. Now I am zooming with my feet again.

[AntZ]

Nice image. Congrats on the new Camera. Its the kind of camera I would like next.

Great news too about the bag replacement. How old was the bag?

[Grant]

How old was the bag?

Boy, does my mind go back that far. I have had it possibly 10 years maybe a bit more. Not sure about now, but when I got that bag they had had a life time over the counter exchange and I had completely forgotten about that perk.