One handed advise, Camera type & Lens

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meinthecorner

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Hi all,

First post! Bit of history, I lost my right arm in an accident a couple of years ago and my left arm has been left in a weakened state, it's hard to hold it out straight or lift heavyish things.

So I'm looking for a light weight camera for taking photos of buildings, mainly the front face, normally from the opposite side of a normal town road.

I'm currently using a Canon point and shoot, but with most camera's having the shutter button on the right a lot of my photo's are wonky!

My work colleague let me have a go of his DSLR camera with a remote shutter release. With the remote shutter my wonky problems were resolved, however my collegue wasn't to impressed with me operating his shutter release with my teeth :D

I did feel that his camera was a little heavy, so I've been looking around for a lighter camera that suits my needs.

I've done some research have come to think that the Panasonic GF1 would be ok. According to various reviews it does have a remote shutter port, unlike the new GF2.

I've also looked at lenses that the GF1 body comes supplied with and found one kit that has a 14-45 Lens. Now here's where I've got a little confused, never having had a camera that uses changeable lenses. With this lens attached, will the camera still autofocus? And would it be suitable for the type of photo's I'm trying to capture, again different articles I've read seem to suggest different lenses.

Any suggestions of different camera's or further advise are welcome!
 
Hi thanks for the reply, that's absolutely ideal, thank you. You wont believe how much searching I've done and not come across something like that. Ordered.

Any advise ref the lens types?
 
meinthecorner said:
Any advise ref the lens types?
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If it's the Panasonic 14-45 you're getting, it would seem to be a nice mid range (not wide-angle or telephoto) lens with autofocus (I would assume the zoom will me fully manual). It also has an anti-hand-shake system to cut down on camera wobble.

I'd say it should be OK for shooting buildings across a street, with enough zoom to pull in a medium amount of detail.
 
You could also consider a G2 with the viewfinder, pressing the camera against your eye/head is an additional major support point. Don't know if it will work with a neck tripod though.
 
The GF1 has full functioanlity with every panasonic m4/3 lens, and will autofocus with all Olympus m4/3 lenses too (but not constant autofocus, but that shouldn't be an issue)

Maybe look into a G1/G2/GH1/GH2 - I've just been playing with my GH1+14=45 and can very comfortably use it in the palm of my left hand with my thumb and forefinger twisting the zoom, and have my middle finger on the shutter. Used like that I can also use the viefinder normally. I do have pretty long fingers though, so obviously it may not be the case fo you.
 
Sounds daft, but would some kind of bridge with a motorised zoom help you? Give you a little more to play with in terms optical range.

I know that these are operated with the right hand, but can you turn the camera upside down?

I'm sure there must be one that takes a remote release.
 
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