Upgreade from GF1?

[MikeHowarth]

Hi all

Its a long time I've been on here but as usual there seems to be some great advice.

A few years ago I took the m43rds route (GF1) after a few years of SLR ownership. For me the format works really well for the sort of human powered adventures I'm undertaking, its portable enough to take on multi month trips by bike and foot without fully sacrificing image quality.

I'm currently back in the UK after 3 months in the Himalayas where I've used the GF1 solely and feel like I've finally put it through its paces and captured some great images. There are some on my blog: www.mikehowarth.co.uk for anyone interested!

Unfortunately I feel to be also finding the limitations of the GF1 especially in low light conditions with noticeable iso noise at much over 800, and I'm now wondering whether it is time to think about upgrading and looking at the latest m43 releases.

Ive got to admit to not really following thijngs as closely over the past year so am a little out of touch. The obvious choice would be to look at the GF3 but it doesn't look much of an upgrade. Fuji X100s seems to be getting some love but the lack of interchangeable lens would be a problem for me.

I noticed that Fuji released the EX2 earlier in the month and whilst it looks a bit spendy at the moment it sort of feels like this may be my best choice at the moment.

Would love to hear peoples thought and first hand experience after such an upgrade.

All the best

Mike

 

[woof woof]

GX7?

 

[frank]

I went from DSLR to GF-1 then considered moving up the GF range, bit the bullet got rid of the all the M43 gear and bought a Sony RX100 (before the mkII came out) mainly cos I got fed up lugging lenses etc around and have not regretted it since. Low light shots are definitely better than the GF-1 quality of pics are really good, shoots Raw and it is easy to carry around, shirt pocket. It depends on what you want out of the camera, if your doing weddings/pro work then it might not suit you.

 

[MikeHowarth]

Thanks for the replies.

GX7 had completely passed me by! Oly EM5 looks pretty good as well probably leaves me with a little bit of money left over for some new glass!

 

[simonblue]

I have just got the Fuji XE-2 lovely camera,and it will outperform both the GX-7 and the EM5 at higher iso

 

[woof woof]

Thanks for the replies.
GX7 had completely passed me by! Oly EM5 looks pretty good as well probably leaves me with a little bit of money left over for some new glass!

If you have MFT lenses the GX7 would make sense as if you change systems you'll have to change lenses too.

Spotted this in your OP...

Unfortunately I feel to be also finding the limitations of the GF1 especially in low light conditions with noticeable iso noise at much over 800, and I'm now wondering whether it is time to think about upgrading and looking at the latest m43 releases.

Your GF1 should give pretty good results at ISO 1600 and 3200 should be usable with care and ISO 800 should certainly be usable. I had a GF1 which I replaced with a G1 (same image quality and the same ISO performance) and at first I did struggle with higher ISO's until...

1. I realised that Silkipix is crap and instead started to process my raw files in CS5.
2. I realised that my camera(s) were over exposing and effectively exposing to the right and that once I backed the exposure off in CS5 the noise reduced dramatically.

I'd now use my G1 at any ISO including 3200.

Here's some night shots I took with my GF1 at ISO 1600 in Belgium which was probably the last time I used the camera, they look ok to me and noise just isn't an issue.

 

[MikeHowarth]

Some valid points for me to consider.

Whilst I'm on the move I'm using Snapseed for most of my editing on a Google Nexus which as I believe doesn't have any noise reduction built in.

It might be worth importing some of the files I'm having problems with on to my desktop machine and looking at them in Lightroom.

That said I'm still considering upgrading the body as I've found the lack of viewfinder frustrating, and the GF1 body has taken a hell of a battering over the last year on the road and various other trips.

 

[woof woof]

That said I'm still considering upgrading the body as I've found the lack of viewfinder frustrating, and the GF1 body has taken a hell of a battering over the last year on the road and various other trips.

Yup. That's what did it for me and if the GF1 had a VF I'd still own it today. However, the G1 is just a little bigger and I've had a lot of use out of mine.

I've actually just bought a Sony R7 but I think I might pick up a GX7 at some point as I still want to run two systems and continue to use my MFT lenses, especially the 20mm f1.7 as a GX1+20mm f1.7 will make a great compact and light combination.