The Panasonic GF1 is out and why I don’t buy it

Today the new Panasonic GF1 went on sale and I had a look. What a fantastic camera. Its exactly the kind of camera the Olympus E-P1 wanted to be.

Because it has a grip the handling is much improved over the Olympus, in comparison the Olympus is as slippery as a piece of soap. The control wheel is admittedly worse, but you can get used to it. Alone the fast auto-focus and the optional digital viewfinder (albeit grainy) is worth it. The layout of the controls is very similar, so is the size.

And this is exactly what is wrong with the camera, its too big.

As a photographer I want always carry a camera with me. There are just too many moments which need to be documented. And here the size comes into play. The new range of cameras are able to deliver great quality images, but if I have to carry a rather big body and the attached lenses don’t collapse, its makes for a way too big package. In this case I can just carry my DSLRs with me.

My demands on a carry-around camera are actually quite simple: It must shoot in RAW format, it should have a zoom lens starting at 28mm, the quality should be the best of its class, low light pictures should be usable until ISO800, the resolution should be higher than 6MP and the controls should be easy to change without digging too deep into menus. Plus of course, it should be “pocket-able”.

The good thing about living in Tokyo is that I can go into only one shop and can play with practically all current cameras to get a first hand impression.

Over the years I checked so many cameras and the first camera which fit the bill for me was Canon’s G9. Except the low light ability (I never shot it higher than ISO400) and having a zoom starting at 35mm, it was nearly perfect. As last year the Canon G10 came out, I instantly updated and was very positive surprised: the controls got even better, the zoom started at 28mm and the low-light ability was slightly improved.

Even not everybody would agree with me on “pocket-able” with the G10, but it somehow works. A near perfect walk-around camera… until the Guava-Juice incident happened. I was in a plane with the camera on my lap, opened a Guava-Juice and suddenly the plane dropped a couple meter down. In an instant, my camera was “juiced” and the lens cover was all sticky, so it hardly opened. I was able to fix it temporarily, but later decided to bring it to Canon’s service center, only to hear that the price for a repair was practically the same as a new camera (one of the reasons I don’t get attached to my walk-around cameras).

Since then I was waiting for the next camera to come out and hoped that a camera maker managed to get a bigger sensor into a G10 sized body. The Sigma DP2 came out, but is just awful to handle. The Olympus E-P1 came out, but it was just ever so slightly too big and has a lousy auto focus. Now today’s personal review of the Panasonic GF1 shows me that I probably have to wait a bit longer and have to go for my 3rd Canon G camera in a row, the G11.

Its basically all I liked from the G10, only the low-light ability was improved and the LCD can now be turned at any angle, which might come handy. The size is the same. The sensor size is still small, but since the resolution got decreased, I have hopes that the image quality is actually better than the G10.

It might work for me for another year and I have high hopes that Canon manages to squeeze an APS sized sensor into this small package in their next G-series incarnation, but leaves the lens fixed and collapsible to keep the camera “pocket-able”.