RSO – Panasonic Lumix GF1
Last year in the spring I bought the Panasonic Lumix GF1 (which is now replaced by the GF2). I’ve been wanting to blog about it ever since I got it, but I’ve been way to busy having fun with it. The other reason why I haven’t blogged about it is that I wanted to keep it all to myself and didn’t want anyone else to shoot with this fantastic little camera.
The pics in this blog post were all taken in 15 minutes behind the scenes of a shoot I did last week with Fotofolio to learn from each other how we use the new Pocketwizards (more to come about that this week).
Why Did I Buy the GF1?
Just like many photographers I got frustrated with the bulk of a DSLR sometimes. Like when I’m with my kids, when traveling, … And I got equally frustrated by the lack of speed, image quality, low light performance and too much DOF of a compact camera. I even seriously considered getting myself a film rangefinder. When I borrowed a friend’s old Leica last year, I loved the size, the manual controls and the image quality. I love shooting film, but to be honest all the developing and scanning is a pain in the ass. Certainly for a camera that I want to use very often since I want to have it with me all the time. Digital rangefinders are simply to expensive to justify for what I would use it.
But the last few years there have been some interesting experiments going on putting a bigger sensor in a compact body. When Olympus and Panasonic announced the Micro 4/3 system, they got my interest. I kept following their progress and when Olympus announced the PEN E-P1, I was ready to buy. But when I read the reviews, I decided to hold off a bit longer. It seemed like an almost-but-not-quite-there-yet thing. But then I read about the Panasonic GF1 and it seemed that this was the camera for me. It took me a while to finally decide to get one, but I haven’t regretted it for a second. I got it with the 20mm 1.7 pancake lens (40mm because of the 2x crop factor).
The Down Sides
It’s rather pricey, no automatic image rotation, limited dedicated micro 4/3 prime lenses available and I’m not too crazy about the colors. But that’s it what I’m concerned
Why I love the GF1
Technically the GF1′s qualities certainly beat the average compact camera. But even without any lab tests, I can tell it’s also considerably below my DSLR’s. But this is RSO, Review-sort-of, my way to write what I personally think about something. A review that should be taken with a grain of salt just like any technical review. And I just happen to like this little camera a lot. It’s also important to be realistic and see it like what it is. This isn’t a sports or wildlife camera, nor is it a camera that I would use for high end commercial jobs. To me it’s mainly a black & white reportage/documentary camera. (The in-camera “Dynamic Black & White” setting is pretty damned good by the way.)
It handles surprisingly well. In fact, it far exceeded my expectations. It feels sturdy and stable used with one or two hands. The LCD screen is great, even in lots of light. It’s almost as responsive as my high end DSLRs. All the automatic stuff like autofocus, auto exposure, … works great. When I put it in auto mode, even my 3yo daughter Noa makes great pictures with it. And with a couple of presses on the well laid out buttons, it’s daddy’s perfect manual machine. The menus and operations are intuitive and sometimes almost revolutionary. I can even fire speedlites remotely by putting a Pocketwizard on the hotshoe.
At the same time it looks like an average (slightly large) compact camera. I feel the size and look of the camera let me get closer to people and make more intimate shots. You might give up some image quality but that’s a price I’m willing to pay to get better stories.
What About the Image Quality?
Like I said, it’s not on par with my DSLRs … technically that is. I’m not a big fan of the colors most of the time. From iso800 on the images become pretty noisy. But in black and white, it shines. The noise actually becomes pleasingly close to the authentic, organic feel of film grain. The GF1 shoots RAW and these files seem to hold surprisingly much detail in the highlights and shadows. I love playing around with the Graduated Filter in Lightroom on the GF1 files to make the sky more dramatic and dodge and burn area’s to lead the eye to the subject.
Do You Have Any Bold Statements?
Yes I do: If I was a Magnum photographer, I’d travel the world with a couple of GF1′s.
And that was not bold, just to bold. I got some ideas for personal documentary projects floating around in my restless brain. I want to do one of these projects this year and I will probably shoot it mainly with the GF1.
I love your site and photograph works. I have been reading your blog especially and seeing your videos on youtube. I recently purchased and use GF1 too with my manual lens (since I got many old school lens from my father in law), and I am very surprised with what this little camera can do especially with manual lens (I am not a pro, just an enthusiast). I really agree with what u think of this little camera, and the color is not that bad, not as vivid and strong as DSLR, but that’s a good thing. Sometimes DSLR gives more colors when I want a more natural look
)
Love the GF1. If I would have some money to spare I’d definitely go for that one (it’s a bit like a poor man’s leica
)
hi,
What lens do you use or recommend (apart from the pancake)? I bought the camera with the pancake for the same reason as you, however lack something longer. Bought some manual focus lens, but not really happy with the result, although I’ve done lots of manual focusing on medium format cameras…kids move, you know
Cheers,
Georgi
Hi Bert,
I’m pleased to read you more often. I’m happy to know a bit more about this camera that produced lots of great pictures during your hollidays (from ardennes to the coast) and the pictures you took last week
PS : can you (and do you) use a flash like a 580ex with the GF1?
The GF1 is already added to my wishlist although I started to hesitate when Fuji announced the X100 (nice retro design and larger sensor). I’m not sure which one I’ll buy. It’s certain that the X100 will be much more expensive than the GF1.
Hi Bert,
Thx 4 the review. You have convinced me…. This is what I will buy with my first paycheck….
Magnum photographer Alex Majoli used a far more primative digital camera than the GF1 it seems like these little cameras are made for him
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-6468-7844
Hey ;]
) Well nex won in one very important thing for me. flipping LCD. I love street photography and this is most of my works. Fliping LCD allows me to be more “invisible” and it’s awesome 
Especially with nocton 35/1.4 or noctilux 50mm/1.2 ;]
I’m reading your review and well, i have some my own mind :]
Last month i boought sony NEX with 16mm 2.8 and it’s great camera ;]
Just like you i had dilemma about choosing olympus e-pl1 or nex, but nex convinced me with better sensor (size APS-C not megapixels
Second. If you wanted to buy rangefinder why You didn’t buy Leica M9? I know it’s very expensive but its really great piece of camera
Hi Bert, good review. do you know by any chance of the GF2 would be a better choice if one should buy a GF-series nowadays?
The Sony NEX-5 looks pretty darn impressive…they built a DSLR sensor into it.
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-NEX5A-Digital-Camera-Interchangeable/dp/B003MPN97Q/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1294708757&sr=8-3
Hi, fellow GF1 owner! First off: nice shots!
Your review is spot-on with what I think of the camera as well. I’m using mine for color shots and quite often instead of my Canon 5D mkII (as it’s so much easier to take around and so much fun to use… also, it’s much less intimidating to others). I still love the black-and-white JPEGs it produces also, so I made a Lightroom preset that pretty accurately applies the GF1 black and white magic to raw files. Also, I made a profile for my camera (yours may be a little different — not sure), so the colors are more accurate.
I’ve uploaded the files to a git repository on github:
https://github.com/garrett/camera-stuff
(You can download individual files if you want, or just check out the whole repo.)
Also, I should note: As a bonus, you can apply the GF1 BW profile to any raw file from *any* camera, and it will look like you shot it with the GF1 in black-and-white mode.
@DGV and it is impressive
It’s great piece of camera 
I have cheaper version the nex 3 but its almost the same thing (excluding full HD recording)
Well lenses are VERY average, but i hope there will be bunch of good optics from zeiss
Thx all for your comments
@Beta: I’m thinking about getting an adapter for my 50mm Canon FD lens
@Frederic: I agree
@Georgi: I only have the 20mm, the new 14mm pancakes is also tempting. I hear the 45mm macro 2.8 is a great portrait lens
@Georgi: Haven’t put a flash on the GF1 yet, but I guess it should be possible with the flash in manual. The GF1 works with the Panasonic flash range. I used it a couple of times with a pocketwizard and an off-camera flash.
@Serge: Fuji looks nice indeed but I’m afraid it’s going to be too expensive. It looks like a real photographer’s camera that everyone would love to own, just like a Leica. But from a productivity/realistic perspective I think it’s probably better to travel with a couple of GF1′s and lenses in your bag.
@Ilse: you won’t be disappointed
@Paulo: Thx for the link. I’ve read an article about Majoli and his point-and-shoots a couple of years back and still remember it because it was so inspiring
@Mike: The NEX is the same kind of camera. Haven’t used it, so can’t comment on it. The 20mm 1.7 lens was the main reason why I got the GF1 over the Sony but that’s a personal choice.
@Jef: I’m not convinced that the GF2 is better than the GF1. It’s basically the same camera when it comes to still images. But I think I prefer buttons instead of a touchscreen
@Garrett: Thx a lot man. I have my own B&W preset that resembles the in-camera dynamic B&W but I’m certainly going to check out yours too.
@bert Well yea ad I wrote NEX lenses suck at this time
I hope zeiss show something 
And well 20/1.7 its great lens, no doubt :]
Hi.
I know my comment arrive a bit late, but just for the record, there’s no automatic image rotation because the 20 mm isn’t O.I.S (stabilized). It’s active with the 14-45 and the 45-200 (this one is quite impressive for the price…). By the way, the 20 mm is by far THE best lens for the m4/3 format…yet.
Thx Lionel, didn’t know that
[...] lots of research I decided to get myself the Olympus E-PL1 (a camera pretty similar to my trusted Panasonic GF1) and the Olympus PT-EP01 underwater housing. I’ll review this combination later, after I have [...]
I love my GF1… would love to hear your comparison to the GF2
Went to a KD Lang Concert last night… was amazed with what I walked away with… the 20mm is amazing in low/no light…
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=110669&id=1452852130
I found an old photo of me in Alto Pass, Illinois, from 1973. I have a letter from a Mike Baranowski, who took the photo and then sent it to me with a letter. I was just wondering if it could possibly be the same Mike Baranowski commenting on this site. If so, please contact me on Facebook. I would love to show you the picture and chat. Thanks for your time, Debbie Gee Adams
On the 8th day God created the Lumix GF1…
For me this piece of technology has changed my behavior on the street. I’m a street photographer who got very close to people taking candid portraits. Now with the GF1 my style has changed and I take more full scenes, backlight photos and so on. I even shoot from the hip with a cable trigger. It’s so versatile, so discrete, so sharp, …
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasleuthard/5589821372
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasleuthard/5725478270
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasleuthard/5696004915
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasleuthard/5729046293
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasleuthard/5581930231
any many more…
Thanks for this great blog entry…
[...] to see what I’m taking and why. In the previous post I talked about my holiday workhorse, the Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the 20mm 1.7 pancake lens. The second camera I took was my good old trusty Canon Ixus 860IS [...]
[...] the handling couldn’t convince me. It lacks the tactile and direct controls of my GF1 and the pictures on the LCD didn’t look half as good. Off-course this was only a very short [...]
[...] result as the GF1′s Black and White setting by Garrett LeSage. He commented on an excellent blog article on the GF1 by Bert Stefani Things I Would Like To See [...]