Toby Keller - Night Photography Blog

Oct 18 2009

Panasonic GF1 - Initial Thoughts

The mother of all impulse buys

I just went to the camera store to look around, I promise! Instead, I walked out with a new camera. I don’t make a habit of buying cameras this way, but the Panasonic GF1 was just too much fun to pass up.

GF1, 20mm pancake at f/1.7, ISO 100

I’ve wanted a high quality compact camera to supplement my D300 for ages now (I know, I know, so has everyone). I bought a Panasonic LX3 last year, and though it is by far the best compact I’ve owned, it felt lacking somehow… something intangible was missing. The GF1 seems to come a lot closer to fulfilling that ideal.

GF1, 20mm pancake at f/1.7, ISO 800

Image quality-wise, the LX3 and the GF1 are pretty close. The GF1 is about a stop better at high ISOs - 1600 looks a lot like the LX3 at 800. The character of the noise and artefacts is very similar between the two.

GF1, 20mm pancake at f/1.7, ISO 800

So why do I prefer the GF1? A couple reasons, and oddly enough one of the major ones is purely tactile. The larger GF1 fits my hand better, and has a satisfying heft to it. To focus the lens manually, you use a ring around the lens like god intended, rather than clicking around on a set of buttons. The GF1 makes a nice mechanical “click” when you trigger the shutter. It’s not loud, certainly a lot quieter than my D300, but it’s there and it’s real. It feels like a camera should. Somehow the little electronic click from the LX3 didn’t feel right. Of course, a near-silent shutter can be a good thing in many situations, and many photographers prefer it, but not me. It’s illogical, but somehow important.

GF1, 20mm pancake at f/1.7, ISO 200

The other reason has to do with depth of field. Because of its wee sensor, the LX3 has an abundance of it - too much, in many situations. This is great for street photography - I will still grab the LX3 for candid street shooting. But for portraits and the kind of spontaneous snapshots I like to take, I prefer a nice shallow depth of field to lead the eye and accentuate the subject. The GF1s larger 4/3ds sensor, combined with the 20mm f/1.7 lens, creates a much shallower plane of focus when shooting wide open.

GF1, 20mm pancake at f/1.7, ISO 800

The GF1 is a very capable and very fun camera. I find it very hard to put down, and to Panasonic’s credit, about the only thing I would change if I could would be to put a full-frame 24x36 sensor in it! Of course, this would totally change both the form factor and the price, but really the only things I am left wanting are inherent in larger sensors - even shallower DOF and less high ISO noise. But these are really minor quibbles and have to do with the 4/3ds format, rather than the camera itself.