"Panasonic G series" Owners Thread

I'd like more feedback on the G3 too....

I was watching news coverage of the riots in London and spotted a news photographer using what looked like a Panny G series camera :)
 
I've spotted the price drop in Jessops- priced at £489.00 now :)
 
Anyone had any joy fitting an Olympus VF1 viewfinder to a Panny G1 body?

I assumed that the Oly viewfinder would fit the Panny hotshoe - and found out I was badly wrong.

Does anyone please know of any mods or work arounds?

I'm getting to the stage of thinking about shaving a millimetre or so from the width as that seems to be the sticking point - the Oly enters the hot shoe then jams solid and won't slide in at all.

Any tips or suggestions would be much appreciated - thanks :)
 
G1 goes to the seaside.

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rhody said:
Anyone had any joy fitting an Olympus VF1 viewfinder to a Panny G1 body?

I assumed that the Oly viewfinder would fit the Panny hotshoe - and found out I was badly wrong.

Does anyone please know of any mods or work arounds?

I'm getting to the stage of thinking about shaving a millimetre or so from the width as that seems to be the sticking point - the Oly enters the hot shoe then jams solid and won't slide in at all.

Any tips or suggestions would be much appreciated - thanks :)
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I would give up now and return/sell the viewfinder. It's not going to work.
 
woof woof said:
The G1 has a viewfinder so do you mean GF1?
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Thanks woof - I was trying to fit the Oly optical viewfinder in the G1 hotshoe to see how the combo worked. I was more than a little surprised to find it didn't fit the hotshoe.
 
The postman brought me a nice present today from my hubby for our wedding anniversary. It was a G2. Now I know that I said I wouldn't upgrade because I loved the G1 and didn't like touch screens, but after playing around with it for an hour or two I must say that I'm impressed. Minor niggle though is that the SD card is in with the battery at the bottom rather than the side but apart from that I am really pleased with it. I did have the offer of a G3 instead but somehow this doesn't appeal to me, as it's more like a compact than a serious camera and the grip just isn't big enough.
I'm looking forward now to taking some photos with it - other than of my computer room. There was also a special offer with it of Lightroom 3. This was something I have been meaning to buy for a while but the £200 price tag put me off, so I just managed with Lightroom 1. I understand that Lightroom 3 will let you work tethered, so maybe the inability to remove card when on a tripod wont be too bad after all.
To make matters even better Amazon also had an offer of a £30 free voucher to spend on anything on Amazon. I've put this towards a new Manfrotto 496RC2 ball head.:love::plusone:
 
rhody said:
Thanks woof - I was trying to fit the Oly optical viewfinder in the G1 hotshoe to see how the combo worked. I was more than a little surprised to find it didn't fit the hotshoe.
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Hmmm.

I'd have thought that it was a standard fitting. How annoying.
 
hillwalkinggirl said:
The postman brought me a nice present today from my hubby for our wedding anniversary.
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What a nice prezzie.

I'm still geiing used to my G1+25mm f0.95 really. I keep thinking about getting a G3 but I wonder if one will improve my photography? Plus I've just bought the 25mm f0.95, a Siggy 85mm f1.4 and a used 5D so maybe should rest my wallet for a minute or two.

I tried Lightroom but thought that it looked complicated and confusing so I went for the simpler looking (to me...) CS5.

Why are so few people posting pictures these days?

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chrism_scotland said:
Does anyone have both the 14mm and 20mm..... borrowed a 20mm for a wedding and loved it and looking to buy my own but also tempted by the 14mm
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I've got them both, but quite honestly I don't use it that much. It's very small and light so I do use it when I'm feeling very week, but I think I much prefer my landscapes taken with the 20mm. It's useful though for getting wide shots in small places.

This is an example of one I took with the 14mm lens.

Boats in Saundersfoot Harbour by hillwalkinggirl, on Flickr
 
Musicman said:
I bought one of these from ciecio7 on eBay, who makes them.

Very happy with it.

Further reading

http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2010/07/ciecio7-fd-g1-adaptor.html

http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2009/04/fd-lens-adapter-on-panasonic-g1.html

http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-fd-lens-adapter-for-g1.html
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Well got my adapter from ciecio7, delivery only took 3 or 4 days and now have a Canon FD 50mm 1.4 so hopefully try it tomorrow, thats if it ever stops raining here in sunny North Wales.

Love the size of the G3, not sure about the menu layout, will get used to it I guess.

Only panny lens I have ATM is the 14-42, most posts I read say the 14-45 is a better lens - is it worth me looking out for a 14-45 and ebaying the 14-42?. Thanks
 
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Oh I like the gear too but there comes a time when you have to point it at something and press that funny little button.

Must admit that I rarely comment on pictures but I do like to see them.

Boats at the seaside...

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They use tractors to handle the boats and I found a few parked up a side street...

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I spotted this house, love it...

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Might also like the top apartment here with access to the tower and panoramic view...

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hillwalkinggirl said:
I've got them both, but quite honestly I don't use it that much. It's very small and light so I do use it when I'm feeling very week, but I think I much prefer my landscapes taken with the 20mm. It's useful though for getting wide shots in small places.

This is an example of one I took with the 14mm lens.

Boats in Saundersfoot Harbour by hillwalkinggirl, on Flickr
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Thanks very much! I loved using the 20mm I'd borrowed at the weekend and the shots looked lovely, although one thing I would say is the fabled Olympus JPEG's looked awful! Was glad I shot in RAW & JPEG or the whole lot of shots would have been binned!

I agree with what Glenn's said though there is much more talk of gear in most threads not just this one sadly,
 
Glenn Surtees said:
Nice house, where is it?
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The white house is in Marske in Cleveland. It's on a bank and towers over its neighbours.

The appartment building with the observation tower used to be a hotel and it's in Saltburn, Cleveland.
 
woof woof said:
Why are so few people posting pictures these days?
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Glenn Surtees said:
Perhaps because no one comments on them, everyone is totally fixated with gear these days
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Because it's supposed to be a discussion thread not an image thread?

We know the cameras can take a good pictures, do we really need to see hundreds of bandwidth sucking random images.

Look, an image forum.
 
Danny_Two said:
Because it's supposed to be a discussion thread not an image thread?

We know the cameras can take a good pictures, do we really need to see hundreds of bandwidth sucking random images.

Look, an image forum.
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Killjoy. :D

I think that images move the discussion on, you see what shots other people are taking and get an appreciation of what the various kit can do and then you can... discuss it... and maybe it'll influence what kit you buy and use and even what and how you shoot.

For example, I doubt I'd have bought a manual lens without reading this thread and seeing the results that others are getting.
 
Danny_Two said:
Because it's supposed to be a discussion thread not an image thread?
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You seem to have overlooked the fact that the equipment under discussion is used to produce images. When someone asks what the 100-300mm lens is like, as mid_gen did in post 1754, it's much better to post some example images, as I did, than to try and explain how the lens performs.
 
A very nice chap in Jessops York let me play with a G3 today. Here are some of the pics that I took using my SD card. The very unwilling model is my daughter Evie. I must say that I was extremely impressed with the picture quality, especially when the image was cropped on the camera. It was very clear and without noise, something that has been annoying me about the G1. The build wasn't as good as the G1, felt a little plasticy (I thought) in comparison. The G1 feels a bit nicer to hold, especially in the grip area which has been seriously downsized on the G3. A lot of the options are now on the touch screen, leading to more sleek design. But most importantly, it is blooming small! I thought the G1 was small but this is far more compact in size - CRAZY. So I would say (in my very non-expert opinion and after a very small beer) that the image quality on the G3 is fantastic, a nice upgrade. Needs further investigation I think! Here are four images taken with the G3 in Jessops, images taken using Auto Intelligence mode.

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Janice said:
Looks nice and comfortable Barbara. You have a wrist strap too, don't you? WHich do you prefer?
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I'm using both on my G2. I carry the camera over my shoulder using the long strap, but I have also attached the wrist strap to the LH side (looking front on). When I'm walking along I slip my hand through the wrist strap, this is for protection against theft (tourists are all around at the moment), but mainly so it can't fall off my shoulder. When I stop to take photos the wrist strap is really handy to secure the camera while setting up on the tripod.

I did try using the wrist strap on it's own, but I found it a nuisance needing to hold the camera in my hand all the time.

If I only had one it would be the long neoprene strap, but the wrist strap is very useful as a secondary strap.

Did you get your G2 Janice? I must say that I have changed my mind as to it's comparison with the G1 and GF1. The picture quality seems to be even better, and there is far less noise. I've even found the touch screen to be useful.

Concerning the changed position of the SD card, I still think this is worse, I just don't know why they did that, and even repeated it on the G3.

I just need my copy of Lightroom 3 now as I am getting fed up with my old Lightroom 1.
 
I'm going to be ordering a GH2 in the next few days, I'm torn between body only and a Panasonic 100-300, or to just go with the 14-140 kit.

I have the 20mm 1.7, an Olympus 45mm 1.8 on order and will add the 9-18 in the near future, so I will have pretty good coverage in the wider areas...but as I'm hoping to shoot a fair bit of video as well the 14-140 does look like a great piece of kit. Any thoughts?
 
Whilst looking for G1 v G3 reviews I found this guy...

http://pindelski.org/Photography/category/photography/hardware/panasonic-g1/

His rant aver the 20mm f1.7 is interesting and unusual given other reviews and my own experience however I couldn't really take him seriously after reading this bit...

"The variables not at issue here are the camera body, the technique or the subject matter. All are the same. I took the lens for a spin on the G1, on which I now have over 10,000 exposures. I used the same settings as usual, though mostly I snapped at ISO100 rather than ISO320 to allow the use of a wider aperture in my preferred aperture-priority mode. The lens is f/1.7 fully open and I want to see how that works. I mostly used f/1.7 to f/2.8 and even at ISO100 I was over-exposing in the bright sun that favored my street excursion to San Francisco. That's frustrating but hardly the fault of the lens."

To give him some credit he does realise and state that it's not the lens that's at fault but really....

I'm not impressed by his pictures either :o)
 
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Well, I'm still using my trusty GF1 and 20mm f/1.7. The B&W conversions I can make from the raws is fantastic.

4
 
Question is would you recommend it Fidsey ?! The images look very sharp, and well focused with background blur noticeable. I'm considering the trip to Jessops this week :)
 
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I normally carry around a 7d so it would be a godsend to me!! You have convinced me to go have a play with one :)
 
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