Panasonic Lumix G1 (1 Viewer)

John,
I've started a thread in Digiscoping cameras on the G1 and I'm sure there will many more people getting this great little camera and it's successors . When I have some non-digiscoped images I'll post them here . Neil
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=1395409#post1395409

As a current digi-scoper and not an SLR user, please can someone explain where exactly this camera sits between the two options in terms of usage and cost.

For a digi-scoper what does it bring to the part over the Coolpix P5100?

For SLR where does it fall short?

Thanks.

Lawts said:

As a current digi-scoper and not an SLR user, please can someone explain where exactly this camera sits between the two options in terms of usage and cost.

For a digi-scoper what does it bring to the part over the Coolpix P5100?

For SLR where does it fall short?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

The main advantage of this "hybrid" SLR is the fact that with it's larger sensor you get much better noise handling and you are able to shoot up to 7 frames at 3 frames per second in RAW + Jpeg. The Electronic Viewfinder means that you get Auto Focus with a viewfinder so can find focus and shoot in bright sunlight without the problems of trying to focus on the lcd.
The price is a bit steep though and is hard to justify on performance alone.
Of course you also have the choice of choosing from a lot of lenses.
Neil.

Sample wildlife photos from the Panasonic G1

This post refers to taking photos with the Panasonic 45-200mm "kit lens". On the G1, this is equivalent to a 90-400mm f/5.6 lens on a film camera. I took this setup on a short vacation in Hawaii in January because it is so very light weight. Here is a link to a small gallery of the photos I got:

Gallery of G1 photos

All of the animals were wild, and none were at feeders. The G1 is not as good for photos as a Canon 40D w/ a 100-400 L lens, but it is several thousand dollars cheaper and almost 5 pounds lighter. Depending on one's standards, I think the results can be quite acceptable.

And, the G1 has the unique(?) capability of doubling both as a regular wildlife camera for close or moving animals with the 45-200mm lens, and also as a digiscoping camera with a quick change to the 14-45mm kit lens. The 45-200mm lens is so small and light, it easily fits into a jacket or vest pocket.

The intense debate on the Panasonic forums at dpreview.com is whether or not the G1 is as effective a camera for wildlife, as the now discontinued Panasonic DMC-FZ50, an ultra-zoom point & shoot. Folks are split on that one. Views may change if a quality, affordable 300mm with IS and AF becomes available for the G1.

Olympus 70-300

jimscarff said:

The intense debate on the Panasonic forums at dpreview.com is whether or not the G1 is as effective a camera for wildlife, as the now discontinued Panasonic DMC-FZ50, an ultra-zoom point & shoot. Folks are split on that one. Views may change if a quality, affordable 300mm with IS and AF becomes available for the G1.

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The Olympus Zuiko f4/70-300 can be used on the G1 (with adapter), and with AF, since Olympus has updated the firmware. IS lacks, but with 600mm max. tele (35mm equiv.) a tripod seems compulsory ...

Werner

Lawts said:

As a current digi-scoper and not an SLR user, please can someone explain where exactly this camera sits between the two options in terms of usage and cost.

For a digi-scoper what does it bring to the part over the Coolpix P5100?

For SLR where does it fall short?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Well, I don't own a G1 but I do own a superzoom and a fuji for digiscoping and spend a lot of time on the panasonic forum at Dpreview.

So I can say this:

Digiscoping is a lot more fiddly than using a superzoom (I own a panasonic FZ18) or the G1. You eliminate the need to manually focus, you'll find that both options are a lot more responsive and that you'll generally get more keepers than when digiscoping. Its a lot easier to track smaller birds that don't keep still.

The advantages of the FZ18 over the G1 are that, you have a fantastic lens with a wide zoom range, so its a lighter package and you can use it for Macro, tele and wide without changing lenses. Its really light and compact. You can buy third pary spare batteries. With a teleconverter and EZ modes you get almost the same reach as digiscoping with a 20x eyepiece. However, if you have time to set up a shot using a digiscoping rig, you can sometimes achieve a much better shot.

The downside is that with the smaller sensor, low light performance is not great and the camera is quite noisy in anything but good light. It is also very difficult to track and shoot flying birds, though not imposible.

The advantages of the G1 over the FZ18 are it should be easier to track flying birds, and some results I've seen look promising. It's also able to take more frames per secon. It has a larger sensor so low light performace should be better and it should be able to handle noise a lot better than the FZ18 (though the results I've seen have been quite variable). It has an articulating LCD which would be useful for low angle shots. it has interchangeable lenses. On the down side you'd need to get the 45-200 mm lens to get anything approaching the FZ18 range and even then it will fall short. The G1 also uses chipped batteries which means no cheap third pary spares.

Agains a standard DSLR like canon, the main advantages of the G1 are obviously the compact size and weight and the articulating screen. The dowside is I understand that the EVF freezes which makes it harder to track flying birds (but not as difficult as with a superzoom) and the lens seems to be a bit on the soft side. Plus there are not very may fully auotomatic lenses available yet. If weight is not a major issue, there are probably better and cheaper DSLR options out there.

jimscarff said:

This post refers to taking photos with the Panasonic 45-200mm "kit lens". On the G1, this is equivalent to a 90-400mm f/5.6 lens on a film camera. I took this setup on a short vacation in Hawaii in January because it is so very light weight. Here is a link to a small gallery of the photos I got:

Gallery of G1 photos

All of the animals were wild, and none were at feeders. The G1 is not as good for photos as a Canon 40D w/ a 100-400 L lens, but it is several thousand dollars cheaper and almost 5 pounds lighter. Depending on one's standards, I think the results can be quite acceptable.

And, the G1 has the unique(?) capability of doubling both as a regular wildlife camera for close or moving animals with the 45-200mm lens, and also as a digiscoping camera with a quick change to the 14-45mm kit lens. The 45-200mm lens is so small and light, it easily fits into a jacket or vest pocket.

The intense debate on the Panasonic forums at dpreview.com is whether or not the G1 is as effective a camera for wildlife, as the now discontinued Panasonic DMC-FZ50, an ultra-zoom point & shoot. Folks are split on that one. Views may change if a quality, affordable 300mm with IS and AF becomes available for the G1.

Click to expand...

Jim,
Nice series of photos. I will have to get a longer zoom lens for mine.
Neil.

Here are some photos with the G1 and the kit zoom. Neil

Hong Kong,
China.
May 2009

Kit zoom 45-200mm + Raynox 1.54 TCR

Just received Raynox DCR 1540 Pro which screws on to the front of the kit lenses. Here are some images.

Finally got my hands on a G1 today! and very impressed too! My wife's thinking of buying one but fancy one myself now. The build quality is excellent and I think they are onto a winner. judging by the shots i have seen on here they also take excellent pictures.

I went up to The Peak on Monday afternoon hoping for some good light to test some cameras (Nikon D3,Canon G10 and G1 ) for landscapes. I shot the G1 with the kit lens and the Nikon 20/2.8 D lens which I also used on the D3. They all produced good results.
Neil

1. Nikon D3 and Nikon 20/2.8D AF lens
2. Canon G10
3. Panasonic Lumix G1 plus kit zoom (14-45x)
4. Panasonic Lumix G1 plus Nikon 20/2.8 D lens (adapter)
5. Panasonic Lumix G1 plus Nikon 20/2.8 D lens (adapter)

Hong Kong,
China.
July 2009

I hope people are still interested in the G1 as a camera in it's own right. I recently bought the Olympus 50/2 Macro lens to use with. It's a great lens ( I can also use it on the E-420 ) although I have to use it with the Panasonic Micro Four Thirds adapter and for some reason I don't get AF. I used it a lot on my recent trip back to Sydney and even got some bird photos with it. Here are two of the images with this lens and two with the Nikon 70-200/2.8
Neil

Panasonic Lumix G1 plus Olympus 50/2.0 Macro with Panasonic adapter, also Nikon 70-200/2.8 lens with Nikon to Micro Four Thirds adapter

Sydney/Hong Kong,
October 2009

Supposedly in 2010 Panasonic will release for their micro four thirds cameras a 100-300 F4-F5.6 OIS lens. As that equates to 200-600 mm it should be a good birding lens.

http://43rumors.com/ft5-panasonic-lens-roadmap/

I hope they will - this will complement my digiscoping with Panasonic G1.

So, with the AF 45-200/4-5,6 Vario O.I.S Micro 4/3 you get a 400mm lens on the G-1 with a weight of 380 gram? Anyone tried it?

kristoffer said:

So, with the AF 45-200/4-5,6 Vario O.I.S Micro 4/3 you get a 400mm lens on the G-1 with a weight of 380 gram? Anyone tried it?

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yeah - I cracked and bought a G1 and the 45-200 just before Christmas, and so far I'm well impressed with it. The 45-200 is perhaps not as a sharp as the kit lens but when stopped down to f8 it performs very well. I've not used it for birds yet but here are a couple of shots from a trip to the zoo.

I am very interested in this combination. I like these photos, can you try to take some more? Perhaps some birds too? Id love to see the results.

postcardcv said:

yeah - I cracked and bought a G1 and the 45-200 just before Christmas, and so far I'm well impressed with it. The 45-200 is perhaps not as a sharp as the kit lens but when stopped down to f8 it performs very well. I've not used it for birds yet but here are a couple of shots from a trip to the zoo.

Click to expand...

kristoffer said:

I am very interested in this combination. I like these photos, can you try to take some more? Perhaps some birds too? Id love to see the results.

Click to expand...

I'll try and do so, unfortunately my birding trips have been few and far between latey... but my new years resolution is to get out more.

Well, I would be happy with other stuff too. Just interesting to see how it performs.

Edit: I especially want to see photos shot at 400mm (200mm)

postcardcv said:

I'll try and do so, unfortunately my birding trips have been few and far between latey... but my new years resolution is to get out more.

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Panasonic 45-200, but consider the Olympus 70-300

kristoffer said:

Well, I would be happy with other stuff too. Just interesting to see how it performs.

Edit: I especially want to see photos shot at 400mm (200mm)

Click to expand...

I got both the Panasonic 45-200 and the Olympus 70-300 four-thirds lenses as Christmas bonus presents. I also got the Panasonic four-thirds mount adapter to use with the 70-300 (and any other four-thirds lens I might acquire). The Olympus lens was actually less expensive than the Panasonic lens ($226US vs $283US). I originally thought that the 70-300 would only work in manual focus mode, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it is one of the few four-thirds lenses which will autofocus on the G1. Here is a chart from Panasonic's website which shows compatibilities between cameras and lenses:

http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/connect/g1.html

Unfortunately, I haven't really had much of a chance to play with either lens due to nasty weather here in Virginia and other priorities. When I do, I will post some pictures. However, here are a few thoughts on these lenses:

• The 45-200 is much smaller and lighter than the 70-300. (Relative to my Nikon D300 / Sigma 150-500, they are both small and light).
• The 45-200 autofocuses significantly faster than the 70-300.
• The 45-200 has Image Stabilization / the 70-300 doesn't. I would tend to use the 70-300 on a tripod or monopod whereas the 45-200 can usually be used handheld.
• In my opinion, the 45-200 just doesn't have enough reach for most bird photos. The effective focal length of 400mm is less than what I got using a 300mm lens on a Nikon DX camera (450mm equivalent) and I never found that to be adequate for birds. The 70-300 has an equivalent focal length of 600mm on the G1 - that focal length works for birds with my Nikon cameras.