"Panasonic G series" Owners Thread

vrapan said:
Checked SRS? They seem to be following mathers pricing... You can always buy a gx1 withe the x zoom kit and sell the body.
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They're £20 more and also not in stock.
I am tempted to get a G3 though, as I want a big zoom, and think it will look wrong on the GF3. The biggest problem is finding the money for it!!
 
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For all G3 owners.

Do you use the EVF more than the LCD or the other way round or 50/50?
 
intel86 said:
For all G3 owners.

Do you use the EVF more than the LCD or the other way round or 50/50?
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I use the LCD mostly, due to the creative flexibility it offers with the adjustable screen. Going to try using the EVF more in the future.
 
Well that's another one for the "club", had a good business review with my boss so treated myself to a Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GX1 with 14-42mm Lens.
The build quality is far better than I was led to believe and can't wait to get my 20mm lens later this week :clap:
 
As good as the GX1 is, for me, using a camera without a viewfinder is so alien.
 
I know where you are coming from, once or twice now I have forgotten about the lack of viewfinder but hope I will adapt, if not then I'll sell a lens from my canon and get the LVF, well, as long as it comes down in price a little (y)

Looking forward to trying it out now at the weekend..hope the weather holds :)
 
woof woof said:
Ey up....

http://www.43rumors.com/

G3 and GH2 possibly soon to be no more? Something up and coming from Panasonic, possibly?
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Interesting, with the new Olympus OM-D that's due soon, together with fuji x pro 1 and Sony nex-7 Panasonic need a pro m4/3 body, and so do I

Glad I didn't cave in and buy gx1 now
 
sound_system said:
One of a few snaps from London. :cool:

Also took a few nighttime test shots around Camden and I'm really impressed with the low iso performance (not so much the high ones).
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Nice. What lens did you use for that shot?
 
ShrubMonkey said:
Interesting, with the new Olympus OM-D that's due soon, together with fuji x pro 1 and Sony nex-7 Panasonic need a pro m4/3 body, and so do I

Glad I didn't cave in and buy gx1 now
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Well, it might not be true but it might be worth waiting a month to see if they do announce anything.
 
intel86 said:
For all G3 owners.

Do you use the EVF more than the LCD or the other way round or 50/50?
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I've only just bought mine, but it'll be the EVF for me ... that's why i bought the G3 rather than the GX1. The screen will be used when I cannot get to the EVF.
 
sypix said:
Is the 14-42mm X available in the UK yet? I'm thinking of getting one for my GF3 (even though I have not used it yet!!) to go on holiday with, keeping the camera compact. All the retailers I've looked at don't seem to be carrying any stock. I think MAthers is the cheapest, pluse there £60 cashback on it until 22nd Jan. I've sent them a mail last night asking when they expect stock, but have yet to receive a reply.
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I spoke to Clifton Cameras yesterday and as they didn't have stock, they looked on their link to Panasonic and told me that Panasonic are now showing the lens as 'available'. So, I was told, they could order it and it should be in their next delivery which is due next week (Tuesday, or pehaps, Thursday, I was told). It might be worth giving them a call yourself.
 
Well I've only had my G3 for a few days but am already tending to use the EVF in most situations. Apart from being comfortable to use it does help with the battery life, which for me is one of the biggest disappointments on the G3.

G3 with 100-300

6727459631_0312cff8f2_b.jpg
 
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I originally posted this in 'Talk Equipment' but it seems the moderators have moved it to 'Forum Discussion'. That's quite appropriate and not a problem, except that, as best as I can recall, I have never visited that forum. As a new Panasonic MFT owner who visits TalkP very frequently I thought it might be useful to have a link to it in this thread.

Interestingly, in the move my post grew links to eBay and John Lewis! Mentioned just in case you think it was my idea ...
 
I quite liked the little personal explanation here...

http://www.43rumors.com/

The guy uses MFT because the system fits in with what he does. Not that gear choice needs justification but I think it's nice to see someone spotting the advantages and embracing the system :D
 
woof woof said:
I quite liked the little personal explanation here...

http://www.43rumors.com/

The guy uses MFT because the system fits in with what he does. Not that gear choice needs justification but I think it's nice to see someone spotting the advantages and embracing the system :D
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I liked reading about that guy. He seems to sum up the advantages of M4/3 well.
It reminds me a bit of an piece I read by I think it was David DuChemin. He was basically saying that for all but the very specialist situations then pretty much any camera you can buy now (above point and shoot) is of a good enough quality to capture pretty much anything and provide pleasing results. His main point though was that it's not the camera that counts, it's the opportunities to take great pictures and have great experiences that counts more. He said don't spend £5000 on a great pro system, but instead spend maybe £1000 and use the other £4000 to go off and have a adventure or two, see the world and come back with some amazing shots. If you spend the whole £5000 on a pro setup then all you have is a great camera but no money to go and get some great photos.
I think this applies very much to M4/3. These days the likes of the G3/GH2 etc plus some lenses make a pretty reasonably prices setup and provide great IQ for pretty much all situations and are very portable. It's exactly these things that are making me ditch my £5000 setup.
 
I have been thinking about ditching my Canon DSLR's and lenses but at the moment I'm not completely happy with the MFT lens choice, ignoring adapters and manual lenses.

I do agree that the quality of many cameras is good enough although I personally feel that my LX5 is pretty much straining at the baseline for me if only because of a couple of issues at the wider end of the zoom range and the higher ISO performance. I don't like the image quality I get from my Canon Ixus. I'm mostly happy with the IQ from MFT and although noise is visible at the highest ISO's I still think it's mostly acceptable especially in full images and prints.

The biggest problem for me is finding the time for photography and after that it's conditions and light quality. I was quite amazed recently when viewing the images from my last visit to Kazakhstan a few weeks ago, the lighting was just so much better than I've had locally and the shots were better than anything I've shot back home for months. For example today as I look out the lighting is just flat and horrible and there's no sky at all, just a white/grey nothingness :thumbsdown:
 
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PickleB said:
I spoke to Clifton Cameras yesterday and as they didn't have stock, they looked on their link to Panasonic and told me that Panasonic are now showing the lens as 'available'. So, I was told, they could order it and it should be in their next delivery which is due next week (Tuesday, or pehaps, Thursday, I was told). It might be worth giving them a call yourself.
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UK Digital had stock as of yesterday, and a bit cheaper than Clifton. I ordered last night, and it has been dispatched today, special delivery. May get it tomorrow, if the postie is being nice. If not I will ahve to go to the PO next week to pick it up, as there won't be anyone in to accept delivery on Monday. Should be able to get £60 cashback from Panny too :)

http://www.ukdigital.co.uk/panasonic-lumix-g-x-pz-14-42mm-lens-black.html
 
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woof woof said:
The biggest problem for me is finding the time for photography and after that it's conditions and light quality. I was quite amazed recently when viewing the images from my last visit to Kazakhstan a few weeks ago, the lighting was just so much better than I've had locally and the shots were better than anything I've shot back home for months. For example today as I look out the lighting is just flat and horrible and there's no sky at all, just a white/grey nothingness :thumbsdown:
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I think that was the point of the article I referred to. When I was in Iceland two years ago the light was fantastic and pretty much every photo I took came out well (not trying to blow my own trumpet though ;)). I know some people just can't afford the time or costs to do trips so I do consider myself very fortunate to be able to do it.
 
The reason I get the trips to Kazakhstan is my GF is working there :D Interesting place though.
 
The EVF on the G3 takes some getting used to after using an optical viewfinder! Must admit though that it is very clear compared to say the G2!!
 
intel86 said:
The EVF on the G3 takes some getting used to after using an optical viewfinder! Must admit though that it is very clear compared to say the G2!!
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And it is a big improvement on the add-on EVF for the GF1 !
 
As I shoot mostly with a manual lens I have a problem when stopping down in low light as obvioulsy what I'm seeing goes from a f0.95 aperture to f4 or whatever I'm using and this affects and degrades the quality of what I'm seeing through the EVF. An AF lens will probably meter wide open and then stop down to take the shot and whilst I can do that with my manual lens it all takes time.
 
Has anyone had hands on experience of the new 14-42 X, I know it dictates the size but the one thing that may bother me is the power zoom not being as user friendly as a normal twist zoom, bit like a P&S zoom! so the choice to me would depend on whether or not advantage of the size outweighs the disadvantage of the power zoom.
 
Galaxy66 said:
Has anyone had hands on experience of the new 14-42 X, I know it dictates the size but the one thing that may bother me is the power zoom not being as user friendly as a normal twist zoom, bit like a P&S zoom! so the choice to me would depend on whether or not advantage of the size outweighs the disadvantage of the power zoom.
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I played about with it for a very short time. I think it is not as bad as some P&S but it definitely lacks the absolute precision of a zoom ring. Given that if I was to buy that lens and a MFT body - now waiting for what Olympus is announcing - it would be just a replacement for my LX3 it wouldn't bother me at all. Especially with the GX1 16MP sensor I can crop plenty and play about with the picture that a few mms off here and there on the zoom wouldn't bother me.

If I was to take the system to become my main system - doubtful as my K-5 is just sublime - I would definitely want a zoom ring and a rather large aperture normal zoom or stick to a few high quality primes. 14, 20/25 and 45 seem to be doing the trick for most and if I was feeling spendy the 7-14...
 
Galaxy66 said:
Has anyone had hands on experience of the new 14-42 X ...
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Not as yet, but there's been some feedback about it in my newbies thread (link) on another forum. I almost wish I hadn't joined that forum as I'm now looking at getting a 14-45 mm zoom (metal mount, zoom ring and better sharpness ... they say). On the other hand, it's always good to get advice from others; there are several other UK members and, overall, I'm enjoying the forum.
 
I have just taken delivery of my 14-42X this morning. Not had a serious play with it, but the zoom lever being on the lens (unlike on a p&s) seems a bit alien to me, and will take some getting used to. On the other hand, it is very diddy. Only just bigger than my 14mm pancake, which is the main reason I bought it.
 
Galaxy66 said:
Has anyone had hands on experience of the new 14-42 X, I know it dictates the size but the one thing that may bother me is the power zoom not being as user friendly as a normal twist zoom, bit like a P&S zoom! so the choice to me would depend on whether or not advantage of the size outweighs the disadvantage of the power zoom.
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I bought one on release and very pleased with as it it makes the GF camera pocketable while still having the flexibility of a zoom (the 20mm easily fits in another pocket for low light) and as it's stabilised it makes for a handy pocket video solution when I'm using the D700.

The zoom controls are awkward and I wish Panasonic had thought ahead a little, given the GF3 is a perfect pairing for the 14-42mm X I wish they'd put a compact camera style zoom ring round the shutter release so you could shoot the camera one handed and zoom. In practice I find it more of an annoyance than a deal breaker though.

John
 
Re 14-42X..

Thanks for posting your impressions of the lens, I think I need to try one out first before I can make a decision.
 
Just a bit of fun...

After reading a comment on the forum yesterday about how noisy Panny sensors are I shot off a few test shots in a dark room with my G1+25mm f0.95 and 5D+50mm f1.4 and as I said, just for fun...

I set both cameras to ISO 3200 and their max apertures. The 5D+50mm couldn't achieve focus and I couldn't even focus manually as it was so dark. I did notice that there was a very slight difference between what I saw by eye and what I saw when looking through the 5D+50mm @f1.4, the camera view being very slightly darker. I therefore had to just focus by distance and even this was a guess. Things were much easier with the G1 for two reasons, firstly I was @f0.95 and also because the display gain allowed me to actually see much more detail than I could see by eye.

Here are the results...

5D whole image.
5Dc1.jpg


5D 100% crop, I was trying to focus on the penguins eye.
5Dc2.jpg


G1 whole image.
G1c1.jpg


G1 100% crop, again the eye was the target.
G1c2.jpg


These were done in CS5, both had the same slight boost to contrast and saturation and as both cameras produced images that were too bright both have had the darks backed off until it looks a bit more natural although these are still really too bright and show more detail than I could see by eye. NR is just what CS5 set as default.

These aren't real world images as I don't normally shoot in the dark but I thought it'd be fun to do as I keep reading how noisy MFT images are :D

I did have a few problems myself when I first got my GF1 with this shot in particular...

GF1, handheld @ISO 1600.
GF1c.jpg


But once I realised that the image was way too bright and backed the darks off to give a more natural look it looks fine to me. Again NR is just what CS5 does and I've done no more.

Just in case these could be said to be less noisy bacause they're taken in almost total darkness here's a handheld GF1 ISO 1600 in street conditions, again, just default NR.
GF1-bel.jpg


I don't think that MFT is as bad as some say :D
 
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