Panasonic G1

sagarmatha · Post by **sagarmatha** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:59 am

Does anyone here have a G1? I haven't bought any yet. My thinking:
G1+Canonadapter gives me the opportunity to buy MPE-65 !
G1+ 4/3-adapter gives me the opportunity to buy an Olympus bellow+Zuiko 50 mm macro.
It would be nice if you could share your experience with G1 in the macro field!

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:13 am

Personally I would say if you want to use Canon equipment buy a secondhand Canon DSLR, or film camera if you wish to use film. The same goes for Olympus. All adapters are a bit of a lash-up and you usually loose some or both the lenses and cameras functions.

Generally speaking if the system you are presently using does not have the lenses you want you are using the wrong system, so instead of buying yet another camera of that make and trying to use adapters, move to a system that provides the equipment you need.

If you cannot afford it new you can often pick up the equipment secondhand on EBAY for the price you will pay for something less satisfactory new.

And remember the model life of a DSLR is now only around 18 months before it is superceeded, so there are loads of "last years cameras" being sold by those who must have the latest, and they still work just as well as they ever did, particularly for macro work when you do not need all latest "the bells and whistles" of conventional photography.

There is a 33 page review of the G1 here:-

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicdmcg1/

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panason ... page33.asp

Note in conclusions in the link above:-

"In very low light the viewfinder image gets so noisy, jerky and dark that it's almost impossible to use. Of course the electronic viewfinder does have some benefits, allowing the G1 to display considerably more information than any optical finder ever could, and to preview the effects of exposure settings, white balance and other parameters, and to magnify the preview for more precise manual focusing."

One of the features of macro photography with extension is you are working with low light very dim viewfinder images, so the G1 does not seem ideal for this situation?

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panason ... page18.asp

DaveW

mgoodm3 · Post by **mgoodm3** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:20 am

The G1 is such a new camera, I'm not sure that you get a lot of feedback on using it yet.

One to watch out for with Canon lenses is that they don't have aperture rings (I know the MPE-65 doesn't). If you use the G1 with an adapter you best make sure that the adapter allows full aperture control from the body.

sagarmatha · Post by **sagarmatha** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:56 am

Well that's why I put this question. Do these equipments work flawless with G1?

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:14 am

To further quote from one of my links above:-

"The G1 is certainly not without problems. One of the biggest is the limited lens support: there are currently two dedicated zooms, neither of which is that fast (aperture wise) and an adaptor for standard four thirds lenses, most of which don't autofocus (and are ridiculously out of proportion to the tiny body). Another is price, though we don't consider the G1 to be overpriced - it's just relatively expensive when compared to the rest of the market. Less easy to forgive is the performance of the electronic viewfinder in low light - if you do a lot of low light shooting you'll be yearning for a return to simplicity and clarity of an optical viewfinder and a good old fashioned mirror."

By the way I am a Nikon user so have no preferences for any of the makes quoted and am simply going by the reviews. If you want a camera to use on extension with low light reaching the sensor, or through a Canon MPE-65 at higher magnifications then it would seem the G1's electronic viewfinder is not the way to go.

DaveW

sagarmatha · Post by **sagarmatha** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 11:28 am

Thanx DaveW I'll keep that in mind. But gosh have you looked in that viewfinder? Increadible bright and large.

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 1:10 pm

OK evidently for normal photography, which probably 98% of the purchasers want it for, but not for low light (night) or macro photography on extension or at larger magnifications if low light levels are reaching the sensor when needing to focus.

It does not matter how bright the viewfinder is for normal use, but how accurate you can focus with limited depth of field on extension in the dimmer light then reaching the sensor. "Horses for courses"!

DaveW