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| 1/40 F5.0 400 iso Panasonic 14mm lens |
How small do cameras need to be? There is a trend of moving away from DSLR's to mirrorless cameras as people become fed up lugging heavy kit when its possible to have an equivalent at a quarter of the size and weight. But the usual angst still applies; how good is my camera? I moved from a large and so heavy D700 to the Fuji X100, but after a few months even the Fuji felt too big for those times when you want a camera in your pocket just in case. By chance I came across a Panasonic GF2 for a crazy low price which fits the bill nicely. Its cheap, although some people will still charge you £400 for it, because it is apparently disappointing. Why, well for the consumer crowd it looks a bit traditional (too boxy) and for the would be street shooters it has a touch screen which obviously makes it unusable for real photography. Replaced a few months after its introduction by the curvier GF3, the GF2 is still there on the shelves.
This will ruin my credibility but I like the touch screen controls - if its good enough for your smartphone and iPad then what's the problem? Also, as some argue it has an ageing 12mp sensor which is a bit noisy. We should get a grip over these things, its a perfectly decent camera, the above photo was taken at 400 iso after the sun had gone down; good enough for casual photos I think
Note: I was looking for the Panasonic 14mm 2.5 lens. This was selling in the UK between £240 to £330. Some of the cheaper sellers didn't actually have any stock. They attract you in with the cheap price and then try and source one to send to you. If you want it the next day then you usually have to pay more. In checking this out I came across the GF2 + 14mm kit selling between £359 to £544 (the body only selling between £200 to £399). With a bit more effort I found and bought the camera + lens through an online offer for £299. In effect the lens for £240 plus the camera for £59.
Note 2: The main criticism of the m4/3 system is that the sensor size is noisy at high iso compared to APS and especially full frame cameras. This is of course true but is it a problem? How often do you actually need to shoot at a higher iso. After all Steve McCurry made a career from using Kodachrome 64. Let's accept though that the image quality of the 12mp m4/3 sensors starts to suffer after 800 iso. One of my favourite personal photos was taken of people night dancing in Shanghai lit only by normal street lights. As I remember it the picture was taken on a D700 at 1/30 at F4.5 at 3200 iso. Being full frame the image quality at this iso is just great, but you can't put a D700 in your pocket. If I had been carrying the GF2, using F2.0 would have given an iso of 640. Just use wide aperture primes. With a choice of 12mm F2, 14mm F2.5, 17mm F2.8, 20mm F1.7, 25mm F1.4 and 45mm F1.8 the solution is easy.
Note: I was looking for the Panasonic 14mm 2.5 lens. This was selling in the UK between £240 to £330. Some of the cheaper sellers didn't actually have any stock. They attract you in with the cheap price and then try and source one to send to you. If you want it the next day then you usually have to pay more. In checking this out I came across the GF2 + 14mm kit selling between £359 to £544 (the body only selling between £200 to £399). With a bit more effort I found and bought the camera + lens through an online offer for £299. In effect the lens for £240 plus the camera for £59.
Note 2: The main criticism of the m4/3 system is that the sensor size is noisy at high iso compared to APS and especially full frame cameras. This is of course true but is it a problem? How often do you actually need to shoot at a higher iso. After all Steve McCurry made a career from using Kodachrome 64. Let's accept though that the image quality of the 12mp m4/3 sensors starts to suffer after 800 iso. One of my favourite personal photos was taken of people night dancing in Shanghai lit only by normal street lights. As I remember it the picture was taken on a D700 at 1/30 at F4.5 at 3200 iso. Being full frame the image quality at this iso is just great, but you can't put a D700 in your pocket. If I had been carrying the GF2, using F2.0 would have given an iso of 640. Just use wide aperture primes. With a choice of 12mm F2, 14mm F2.5, 17mm F2.8, 20mm F1.7, 25mm F1.4 and 45mm F1.8 the solution is easy.
