WDC review of GF1

[Barney]

Can be found here.

I'm pretty much sold on it now, the only thing is that I have to bide my time until November.

[nspur]

I bought the Oly E-P1 which is still irritatingly slow to focus even after the recent firmware update which improved the speed quite a lot. There's a lot to like about the E-P1, the in body IS in particular, the fact that it's really quite hard to do a better job converting raw to jpeg than the camera does and the noise management that produces really rather pleasant noise at ISO 3200. If I had had the choice of the GF1 and the E-P1 and (without thinking of the money) had to choose one it would be the GF1. But I would need the EVF (which I have with my Ricoh GX100) and if you add the cost of the EVF to the 20mm lens kit it gets to just a fiver short of a thousand - which I think is too much.

[nspur]

I just found an excellent review of the GF1 here

[Barney]

I just found an excellent review of the GF1 here

Thanks for that. Jacobs in Leeds called me today to tell me that they've got a GF1 in stock. It will be one with the zoom lens, but I may well work form Leesd some time this week just so that I can pop in and have a look at first hand.

[nspur]

Jacobs in Leeds called me today to tell me that they've got a GF1 in stock. It will be one with the zoom lens, but I may well work form Leeds some time this week just so that I can pop in and have a look at first hand.

Best Cameras in St Helens have had body only in and new stock is arriving on 7 Oct. The body only is £479.99 and they throw in a 4gb Class 6 SD, a pocket tripod and a Hama case and free shipping. I know because my black one arrived an hour ago

[Barney]

Thanks for the link. I'm pretty certain that I'll be getting one in the Staes when I'm over there, unless the 20mm kit isn't released there before I fly over there. Most of the sites seem to show that it's not arriving until the end of October so if there's a delay I might be cutting it a bit fine.

[nspur]

Good luck in the US. If you intend to use the GF1 with manual focus lenses (as I do using the "shoot without lens" option) note that I've found no way of getting a zoomed focusing screen/EVF because its not possible to set the camera to manual focus if a non-m4/3 lens is mounted - because the camera believes that there is no lens mounted - and thus the zoom focusing aid doesn't work. And this is a camera touted by its mfr as suitable for use with Leica lenses for which its adapter (same as my Chinese copy one) costs a penny under £200. My E-P1 does the zoomed screen perfectly for no matter what lens is attached (even my 400mm Minolta) but then it doesn't have a viewfinder which I why I have bought the GF1. I can't say I'm that chuffed; it may be going back or to eBay.

[Barney]

Is that an issue with the camera or the adaptor? Would an original adaptor give you it?

As it happens, I don't think it will affect me, I'll be quite happy with the 20mm f:1.7 lens, and maybe later the 45mm Leica for portraits. I'm not wanting to buy another system, just a discreet compact camera with high image quality for street work. I don't even think I'll get the EVF, I'm fine shooting with the screen, or if I use anything I think it might be the little spirit level WDC gave away a year or so ago to aid keeping things straight when shooting from the hip.

[nspur]

Is that an issue with the camera or the adaptor? Would an original adaptor give you it?

It must be the camera. The expensive Panasonic adapter transmits no information to the camera and therefore the camera thinks that no lens is attached. My Pixco adapter is identical (and I bought it from a guy that was using his Leica lenses on the E-P1.

[Barney]

Is that an issue with the camera or the adaptor? Would an original adaptor give you it?

It must be the camera. The expensive Panasonic adapter transmits no information to the camera and therefore the camera thinks that no lens is attached. My Pixco adapter is identical (and I bought it from a guy that was using his Leica lenses on the E-P1.

Interesting. I can't say that it will affect me (unless I win the M9 in the AP comp ) as I'm not intending to use any manual lenses on it, but I must say that Panasonic seem to have cocked up there is the E-P1 manages it.

[Barney]

Is that an issue with the camera or the adaptor? Would an original adaptor give you it?

It must be the camera. The expensive Panasonic adapter transmits no information to the camera and therefore the camera thinks that no lens is attached. My Pixco adapter is identical (and I bought it from a guy that was using his Leica lenses on the E-P1.

I popped in to Jacobs in Leeds today (how nice to have decent camera shop there now! ) and grabbed a look at the GF1 and I'm sold on it.

Some concerns were that with no finger grip the small body felt a wee bit like a bar of soap ready to pop out of my hand, but that could be said for any compact.

It's shame that there's no distance scale on the 20mm f:1.7 nor could we figure out how to set focus to say 2m through the menu system. The AF was nice and quick and I found manual focusing on the bright screen quite easy.

The manager was pretty sure though that you can set tell the camera that there is a manual ocus lens mounted so the above issues may not be issues, just something needs to be set differently perhaps.

Comparing side by side with the EP-1 I was surprised at how much I still liked the look of the GF1 - I had expected for the E-P1 to totally outshine it.

Now all I have to do is get round to sorting out what kit I'm going to flog to fund it and then stick it all up for sale and wait for the pennies to roll in.

[nspur]

The manager was pretty sure though that you can set tell the camera that there is a manual focus lens mounted so the above issues may not be issues, just something needs to be set differently perhaps.

You're right. I hadn't RTFM properly. It works as the E-P1 does.

[Barney]

The manager was pretty sure though that you can set tell the camera that there is a manual focus lens mounted so the above issues may not be issues, just something needs to be set differently perhaps.

You're right. I hadn't RTFM properly. It works as the E-P1 does.

Okay, 100 lines, "I must RTFM"