This morning I took my one thousandth shot with my new camera (a Panasonic Lumix DMC G1) since I bought it November 11th.
I’m not going to offer a full review but overall I’m very happy with it. My initial concerns were with the lens: it’s a little slower than I’d like (f/3.5) but I’ve got a faster lens on order. However, the kit lens is quite satisfactory. The other issue relates to software support: lack of RAW support in Aperture. Indications are this will be resolved soon.
There are many things to like. With a maximum aperture of f/22 I’ve found a lot more control over depth of field as well more tolerance in my light painting. Colour rendering seems quite good and while I have not done a full set of tests, the camera seems to produce less noise at higher ISO settings. ISO 400 seems quite good.
While the images seem a little soft when zoomed to 100% this may have more to do with the software that comes bundled.
It is certainly more functional than my Leica, although that is to be expected as that camera is two years old. I’ve just tried the face detect and it seems to work well. As well it has a continuous focus making it easier to keep moving objects in focus. This came in handy when trying to capture my sister-in-law’s dog. Dogs move around a lot. The combination of a view finder and articulating LCD is very useful offering viewing options for a wide range of conditions and positions.
But best of all: it’s red!
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