• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Panasonic Lumix G1 at last - what a gem for digiscoping (2 Viewers)

Neil

Well-known member
As it is my birthday soon I was able to get hold of the much anticipated Lumix G1 yesterday for the grand price of US770 with the kit lens and an 8 gig card. I went out this morning very early without having a chance to read the manual so will update with all the features later.
The good news for digiscoping is that the kit zoom (14 - 45 ) lens is internally focusing and has a 52 mm thread. My DCA adapter screwed straight in and as the camera/lens combo is light I was able to use it unsupported. Vignetting was only slight on the Swarovski 30x eyepiece ( 20 mm of ER ) and disappeared with one zoom click at 18 mm (42 mm in the old money or 1260 mm ) . Auto focus seemed to work well using the Electronic Viewfinder as well as the LCD screen as you would expect. I took this image at iso 400 as light levels were low when I started but there is still no apparent noise. I took photos down to iso 100 and all steps in-between, but I didn't try higher today. The shrike was at iso 160, flycatcher at iso 400 and the wagtail at iso 100 .
A nice feature is that when you move your eye up to the viewfinder the lcd screen cuts off automatically.
I shot some RAW images as well but haven't processed them yet. The camera does slow down when shooting RAW but you can get a short series of shots first before it needs to process which takes some time.
I got the maroon colored one which makes a change from boring black.
I was interested in the Olympus 50/2.0 Macro lens for this but no-one had stock and they didn't have the adapter either but I'm quite impressed with the kit zoom.
The old 8400 has a worthy successor.
Neil

Panasonci Lumix G1 plus Swarovski STS80HD scope and SW 30x eyepiece and DCA adapter

Lamma Island,
Hong Kong,
China.
February 2009
 

Attachments

  • long tailed shrike G1 iso160 14mm P1000543.jpg
    long tailed shrike G1 iso160 14mm P1000543.jpg
    126.1 KB · Views: 3,374
  • red-throated flycatcher G1 iso400 18mm adjP1000329 .jpg
    red-throated flycatcher G1 iso400 18mm adjP1000329 .jpg
    126.1 KB · Views: 2,970
  • white wagtail G1 iso100 14mm usm P1000458 .jpg
    white wagtail G1 iso100 14mm usm P1000458 .jpg
    120.2 KB · Views: 2,824
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1+Kowa 883?

Hi Neil

Thanks for a great initial review. I am about to take the plunge and order a P6000 and would be interested to hear if you have any thoughts or comparisons between the two cameras.

If I understand your review correctly you simply pushed the camera/lens/DCA over the eyepiece to take the images? At 580g with lens it's almost twice as heavy as the P6000, was stability an issue?

Reviews suggest it has a much faster shot to shot time than the P6000 (1 sec vs almost 6 secs in RAW) . This is v-e-r-y s-l-o-w and the main drwaback to the P6000 as far as I am concerned. maybe I should consider the G1 :h?:

Of course I don't yet know if anyone has tried the G1 with the Kowa 883 yet?

all insights gratefully recieved!

Dave
 
Nice one Neil, I look forward to more reports.

Prices are coming down in the UK (£450 with lens) so the camera is tempting but the prices of micro 4/3 adapters are too high for me to seriously consider it at the moment.

Paul.
 
Hi Neil

Thanks for a great initial review. I am about to take the plunge and order a P6000 and would be interested to hear if you have any thoughts or comparisons between the two cameras.

If I understand your review correctly you simply pushed the camera/lens/DCA over the eyepiece to take the images? At 580g with lens it's almost twice as heavy as the P6000, was stability an issue?

Reviews suggest it has a much faster shot to shot time than the P6000 (1 sec vs almost 6 secs in RAW) . This is v-e-r-y s-l-o-w and the main drwaback to the P6000 as far as I am concerned. maybe I should consider the G1 :h?:

Of course I don't yet know if anyone has tried the G1 with the Kowa 883 yet?

all insights gratefully recieved!

Dave

Dave,
The kit zoom lens on the G1 will work with most eyepieces, even some zooms . Any eyepiece adapter with a 52 mm thread will just screw into the front of the lens and the connection is strong enough so you don't need a camera support. There's no adapter on the camera. The DA Kowa adapter would be the go. I just shoot in Continuous Mode so stability wasn't much of an issue.
It's very fast compared to the P6000 and the noise handling is much better. The screen is excellent too. But it's not cheap.
Neil.
 
Last edited:
Very nice pictures Neil - extremely sharp ! Congrads on your purchase.

It looks like a serious contender for the Nikon P&S series. It will be most welcomed since those Nikons are not very well rated except for digiscoping.

The G1 is generating a lot of interest with good reason. The second generation will surely be most interesting with video added and hopefully longer lenses. Panasonic is coming along strong and may very well give Canon and Nikon a run for their money in the coming years.
 
How do you find the electronic viewfinder Neil? I read on some forums that the image freezes in the viewfinder while it writes to the card and the lag gets progressively worse on multiple shots as the buffer fills up. This could make it poor for anything but static shots.

I see Olympus are making an even smaller micro 4/3 camera, looks just like a point and shoot in the prototype version with no viewfinder.

Paul.
 
Last edited:
Neil
Thanks for the report looking forward to more. This Camera is very tempting considering the results you are getting. The kit lens is internal focus, does the front element rotate?

I have the 8400 and now looking for an upgrade. I tried digiscoping with DSLR with poor results to date. The match up with my 30x Nikon eyepiece and the sigma 30mm is poor.

I wonder what alternative lens are available to suit digiscoping.

Again, thanks Neil
Tom
 
Neil
Thanks for the report looking forward to more. This Camera is very tempting considering the results you are getting. The kit lens is internal focus, does the front element rotate?

I have the 8400 and now looking for an upgrade. I tried digiscoping with DSLR with poor results to date. The match up with my 30x Nikon eyepiece and the sigma 30mm is poor.

I wonder what alternative lens are available to suit digiscoping.

Again, thanks Neil
Tom

The camera is compatible with Olympus Zuiko Digital 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6. Autofocus it works with this lens (I found this information on a romanian site). It is also compatible (with autofocus working) with Olympus Zuiko Digital 40-150 mm 4.0 - 5.6.
 
I'm still getting to grips with the way the camera works and will give more details tomorrow. I've been out all day with the camera and tried lots of things today at much longer distances than my first images. Here are a few more. The flying ducks were taken into the sun at 250 metres at iso 640 and 1/4000 second. The AF seemed to work ok.
Neil
 

Attachments

  • ducks flight_1030318.jpg
    ducks flight_1030318.jpg
    121.3 KB · Views: 1,927
  • chinese pond heron G1 iso100 14mm_1010915.jpg
    chinese pond heron G1 iso100 14mm_1010915.jpg
    123.7 KB · Views: 1,980
  • great crested grebe G1 iso 400 28mm_1010588.jpg
    great crested grebe G1 iso 400 28mm_1010588.jpg
    102.1 KB · Views: 2,134
  • pied avocets flight G1_1030259.jpg
    pied avocets flight G1_1030259.jpg
    151.4 KB · Views: 2,016
  • bf spoonbill  G1 iso400 14mm_1010264.jpg
    bf spoonbill G1 iso400 14mm_1010264.jpg
    99.4 KB · Views: 1,482
Neil,

Finally! This may close the book on the interminable thread on the P5100.

I think you've stage a real coup here, being the first to post such impressive results with the G1. I'm inspired by all your posted photos, and especially by your two photos showing birds on the wing. I assume your Swarovski 80HD is too heavy to use as a hand-held telephoto, but your results have me thinking about this as a possibility with a lighter scope, such as my Pentax PF65.
 
Good work again Neil. Would like to know what you think about the mechanics of the camera, the evf lag on multiple exposures, how noisy the efv is in low light and what the evf refresh rate is like in low light. These are the main things I've read about from users reviews. No denying the image quality, looks pretty good.

Paul.
 
Good work again Neil. Would like to know what you think about the mechanics of the camera, the evf lag on multiple exposures, how noisy the efv is in low light and what the evf refresh rate is like in low light. These are the main things I've read about from users reviews. No denying the image quality, looks pretty good.

Paul.

Paul,
I've now shot about 20 gigs with it and am enjoying it. You can take 7 frames in RAW/Jpeg and then there is a longish wait for downloading to the card. In Jpeg (fine ) you can get about 20 frames at 3/fps and then it slows to 1 fps until the card is full. This is not too bad and enabled me to get some nice action shots today which I'll post soon. The EVF is better than the 8400 and I've noticed no problem with it but I haven't tried it in low light yet ( the battery runs out about 3.00 pm ). It's nice to see the histogram right there. The AF is very fast in both modes which I like.
The kit lens does a reasonable job up close and personal (less than 30 metres) but suffers a bit on the longer distances, particularly if light is not optimum. I would recommend a decent prime, like a 35 mm or 50 mm.
Neil.
 
One of the features I like about the G1 is the much faster frame rate compared to normal digicams ( 7 frames in RAW and unlimited in Jpeg (20 at 3fps and then 1fps ) ).
I was able to get a sequence of the pond heron capturing a mudskipper today . I had taken about 200 frames before I got the strike sequence.
Neil

Panasonic Lumix G1 plus Swarovski STS80Hdscope and Sw 30x eyepiece and DCA adapter

Mai Po Nature Reserve,
Hong Kong,
China.
February 2009
 

Attachments

  • chinese pond heron  G1 iso100 14mm_1040943.jpg
    chinese pond heron G1 iso100 14mm_1040943.jpg
    111.9 KB · Views: 1,323
  • chinese pond heron feed G1 iso100 14mm_1040947.jpg
    chinese pond heron feed G1 iso100 14mm_1040947.jpg
    132.3 KB · Views: 1,099
  • chinese pond heron  G1 iso100 14mm_1040950.jpg
    chinese pond heron G1 iso100 14mm_1040950.jpg
    116.5 KB · Views: 1,470
The detail from the kit zoom is quite impressive at close distance. This series was taken at about 7 metres under camouflage in a hide. Neil.
ps details as before.
 

Attachments

  • little egret G1 iso100 19mm adj_1040244.jpg
    little egret G1 iso100 19mm adj_1040244.jpg
    138.3 KB · Views: 1,358
  • great egret G1 iso200 24mm_1040002.jpg
    great egret G1 iso200 24mm_1040002.jpg
    85.4 KB · Views: 1,535
I've not yet taken the plunge and got a G1, but, for future reference, is there an SLR adapter compatible with a Leica 62mm scope?
 
The detail from the kit zoom is quite impressive at close distance. This series was taken at about 7 metres under camouflage in a hide. Neil.
ps details as before.
Hi Neil,
Very impressed with your shots using the G1! can you tell me if it has a remote socket or IR remote?
Cheers
Brian
 
Neil.

Do you use manual mode or Apeture Priority mode?
Also is a support bracket nec to take stress of the Eyepiece?


One other thing in the past it was said with DSLR and Digiscoping the Auto-Focus was to much for the Scope Cmera connection, so Manual focus was the way to go does that apply with the G1.


Kevin Bolton
 
Very interesting Neil. Does the G1 have a mounting screw hole. At the moment in Warehouse express the camera is nearly £500 so seems a mite expensive for digiscoping if one wants to keep a DSLR and long lens. Not clear on what other lense are available, any info at your end.
 
I took the G1 down to our local park to digiscope the flamingos which make nice test subjects. They were bathing and grooming near the fence in overhead shade at a distance of about 10 - 20 metres.
The AF seems to work better than any other digicam I have tested and being able to use iso 400 with no noise is a big advantage. The big , bright screen makes it easy to get the focus right with the scope too.
Neil.
 

Attachments

  • flamingo G1 iso4000 18mm_1080321.jpg
    flamingo G1 iso4000 18mm_1080321.jpg
    110.5 KB · Views: 724
  • flamingo G1 iso400 30mm_1080711.jpg
    flamingo G1 iso400 30mm_1080711.jpg
    118.7 KB · Views: 576
  • flamingo G1 iso400 30mm_1080703.jpg
    flamingo G1 iso400 30mm_1080703.jpg
    120.3 KB · Views: 916
  • flamingo G1 iso400 14mm_1080509.jpg
    flamingo G1 iso400 14mm_1080509.jpg
    113.9 KB · Views: 574
  • flamingo G1 iso400 14mm adj_1080448.jpg
    flamingo G1 iso400 14mm adj_1080448.jpg
    124.4 KB · Views: 745
Warning! This thread is more than 8 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top