GF-1: the flip side of the coin - some ugliness

[chrisk]

the gf1 has been a much deseried and much talked about camera over the past year or so. highly praised by just about anyone ive ever spoken with or read about online. well; i caved in and made my PP on a gf1 with the 20mm kit. $599AUD to my door within 3 days from DWI which i was very pleased about. the camera itself ? not so pleased. mostly cos of poor research on my part and partly cos of what i think are fundamental flaws with the way the GF1 operates.

pros:
these have been done to death so i wont go into them. for subjects that dont move and you have "time" then the images you can pull out of it are fantastic. for people, ask them to "smile" and they stop moving, excellent. really very impressive quality in the RAW files which surprised me.

the 2 issues i have with it:

Issue 1:
AF-C will not work with the 20mm lens. let me repeat that for a second. the camera will NOT continuously AF at all. its in single focus mode ALL OF THE TIME, (unless you go MF). just in case the gravity of this is lost on you...for anything that moves, especially using a 1.7 lens, trying to nail a shot is so difficult and infuriating that the overwhelming feeling you have is to throw the fuckin thing in the river.

with a camera that functions normally, trying to shoot a rampant 3yo who is running around is difficult enough as it is; you half depress the shutter and track him till you see some decent shots and then fully depress to take the shot. this not possible with this camera. you have to keep half pressing the shutter which of course is not only annoying but not very effective. THIS is supposed to be a P&S ? my arse. for anything moving a POS is a more fitting acronym.

Issue 2:
auto iso is crippled by the fact that the minimum shutter speed cannot be adjusted at all. it works it out to be roughly 1/focal length apparently. so with the 20mm on, the min shutter speed i get is 1/30s which of course is freakin pointless without IS or with an object that has a pulse.

perhaps i'm just too used to a nikon dslr that just "works" but i must say for a camera in 2010 to be crippled by the above 2 issues is imo an epic fail.

at first i thought i could live with it and work around it, but fact is that i cant. it simply does not execute the most basic of functions that one would expect of a high end camera...AF properly. i do not recommend this camera at all to anyone unless all you do is shoot landscape. not sure what the status is for these issues with other m4/3rds cameras, but if they suffer the same issues then screw that m4/3 can jam it !

rant over....happy new year !!

[Mr Darcy]

$599AUD

a high end camera

Check the price on a GENUINE High end camera like a D3 sometime

[chrisk]

it is a high end camera in its category. just like a g12 is in IT'S category. no excuses. im not asking it to track a V8 supercar dipping into hell corner at iso12800; im asking it to be able to autofocus properly...PERIOD. i can track a moving target on my lx3 far better than this heap.

[aim54x]

it is a high end camera in its category. just like a g12 is in IT'S category. no excuses. im not asking it to track a V8 supercar dipping into hell corner at iso12800; im asking it to be able to autofocus properly...PERIOD. i can track a moving target on my lx3 far better than this heap.

Its great to see someone realising how different these EVIL cameras are from a DSLR. The GF1 remains one of my favourites in this category of camera, but now you have taken some of the gloss off it. Thanks

[ozimax]

Roos, thankfully there is eBay, which may get u out of a jam.

[chrisk]

The GF1 remains one of my favourites in this category of camera, but now you have taken some of the gloss off it. Thanks

lol...sorry to burst the bubble...but at least it wasn't a $600 lesson !! lol

[photohiker]

it is a high end camera in its category. just like a g12 is in IT'S category. no excuses. im not asking it to track a V8 supercar dipping into hell corner at iso12800; im asking it to be able to autofocus properly...PERIOD. i can track a moving target on my lx3 far better than this heap.

Actually, the high end M4/3 is the GH1 (now GH2) not the GF1.

The continuous autofocus criticism with the 20/1.7 is valid. This is really a lens complaint, not a GF1 complaint, but I still agree that it is easy to miss the 20mm incompatibility unless the specs are read carefully. It does do continuous in movie mode though (not much help I know). I have always found the GF1 focus to be quick and accurate, but I rarely take moving targets. According to DPReview, the AF Tracking feature works well on lenses that support it.

Auto ISO has never floated my boat, mainly because you need a system with negligible noise for it to be truly useful IMO. Even then, I'm not sure I'd use it. Old habits die hard...

Michael

[chrisk]

just a little update and a cautionary tale for people. this camera kit has now been sold. i was very happy that i sold it for $565 shipped so i only lost $35 on this. but also lost upteen hours or frustation shooting with it and processing the images.

this is undoubtabley the worst camera i have used in a long time. the AF issue means it is DOA for trying to take pics of kids or moving objects. for still shots the gf1 is a stand out for sure in this kind of category but throw some complexity into the mix and its a dog.

glad to be rid of the thing. and i learnt a lesson, (again), that a great camera is only great if it serves your purposes and fits your needs.

michael: RE: auto iso. not true about needing a camera with negligable noise for this to work becasue you can set a maximum iso limit.