Last month, we took a first look at Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds (M4/3) GF1, a small camera with interchangeable lenses and a big sensor. That post, detailing the performance and features, got a lot of comments, so I thought it might be a good idea to relay my thoughts after using the camera rather a lot over the last few weeks. Here you’ll find out about its performance, as well as some of the hidden gems that make using it easier.
The (Missing) Viewfinder
As previously noted, the GF1’s rear screen is pretty good, its high resolution and fast (60fps) refresh making it very nice to use. I had thought I’d buy an add-on viewfinder for it, but now I’m not so sure. Composing pictures on this big screen is not only better than on other finderless compacts I have used, but actually more natural-feeling than a ‘finder. It’s almost like using the ground-glass screen of a view-camera.
The one problem is with long lenses, especially heavy Nikon lenses used with an adapter that require manual focus. The extra wobble and zoomed-in focusing would make a viewfinder very welcome here.
Wrong Lenses
Speaking of lenses, I have shot a fair amount with an M4/3 to Nikon adapter, which lets me use my old lenses on the camera. The results are good, and these lenses, which need to be focused completely manually, are surprisingly easy to use.
Pop one on (and set the camera so it will shoot without a lens — page 128 in the manual) and the camera defaults to manual focus. Press on the control dial so it clicks, and the display zooms in to allow accurate focusing. This is amazingly intuitive. You can also move the focus point around the frame.
Because this is all manual, if you set anything other than the widest aperture on your lens it will stop down and the image on the screen will darken. The camera still works great in aperture priority mode, though, so exposures are accurate. One further (unavoidable) niggle: No aperture value is recorded in the EXIF data.
Exposure
Speaking of exposure, the GF1 has a nice line in auto-ISO modes. You can pick two. While both seem to favor setting a wide aperture (I have been using the 20mm ƒ1.7 most of the time) before they ramp up the ISO, they work OK, and you can choose a maximum ISO in the preferences.
The i-ISO mode is the one you want to set. It detects when the camera (or subject) is moving and ups the ISO so you can use a faster shutter speed. This works by monitoring what is happening onscreen, as the GF1 has no accelerometer.
To test it, take the same shot with both Auto and i-ISO. They will be identical. But if you jiggle the camera as you shoot, the i-ISO will kick in. It’s simple, but it works very well. I leave it set pretty much all the time, along with aperture priority.
Video
Video quality is fine, not outstanding. The lack of an image stabilizer really shows up here, and things can get a little jerky. Lock the GF1 down on a tripod, and use it in good light and video shines, with the short depth-of-field from the large sensor and fast lenses lending a very filmlike quality.
But the best part is the dedicated video button on the top plate. Hit it and you start shooting, whatever mode the camera is in. Press again to stop. It uses auto-settings, but you’ll find yourself shooting little clips much more often. Better yet, you will never be left in video mode when you think you’re shooting a still.
The Flash
The vestigial pop-up unit is weak, in both output and construction. It pops out of the solid body and sits on a plastic scaffold high above the camera, waiting to be snapped off.
That said, having it so far off the lens axis means it doesn’t wash things out too much. And having a built-in flash adds another advantage: It can trigger off-camera flash. I set a Nikon SB900 speedlight to “slave” mode, turned the internal flash down as low as it could go and it triggered the Nikon every time, even without line of sight. Manual-shooting strobists will love it.
Other Niceties
The GF1 will store the faces of several people in memory and, if it spots them in a picture, give priority to focus and exposure to them. A gimmick, but a potentially useful one.
The Q-Menu, too, is handy. Press a dedicated button and you can navigate between the onscreen icons, changing settings as you go. It’s the virtual equivalent of having buttons in fixed places, so you can learn where they are.
Problems
I mentioned the tiny control wheel in the last post, and hoped I’d get used to it. I didn’t. The thumb wheel is used to set almost everything in the camera and it is tiny, slippery and hard to turn. Panasonic needs to fix this in any future GF2. Also in need of a fix is the “My Menu,” which lists the last five settings you have changed. You should be able to specify what you want in there.
The LCD screen has a crappy, thin plastic cover. It comes with a screen protector attached, but the hefty cover of my Canon G9 is way better.
The body, while solid, is hard to grip. When shooting it is fine, but try to carry it in one hand as you walk around and you’ll soon drop it. Buy a wrist strap.
There’s plenty more to the GF1, and nothing can beat a hands-on test before you buy one. But if you are worried about idiosyncrasies or showstopping problems, don’t. I have hardly touched my Nikon D700 since I got this camera (just once, for a flash-lit portrait shoot). That should tell you something.
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