Lumix G1 first impressions....

[Raist3d]

no, I didn't buy one. Not yet anyway. But finally was able to track down a place that had them and gave one a spin. The display model was blue. If I get one, it will have to be blue

Size-

Honestly, not the revelation I thought it would be. If anything the grip felt to me uncomfortable and my hand felt "cramped." Somehow the e-420 works, the G1 didn't. This could be one of those things you may get used with time.

Biggest revelation:

AF speed and overall speed. The AF speed is just very very fast. Even in lower light from what I saw though don't know how far it would go. VERY VERY fast. Faster I would say than even the e-420. That took me by surprise. Another thing which I always had a pet peeve with Olympus since forever now is that I want the camera in manual focusing to take a shot instantly the moment you press the shutter. With Olympus there's always this little 0.25- or so second delay if you do that.

Not so with the G1- it seemed to take the shot instantly- as fast as when you are holding the shutter half way.

Biggest downer

I am not that impressed with the EVF. Yes, it's the best, but after reading some descriptions I expected this big huge bright thing that would put the Canon 5D/E-3 OVF to shame and no, nah it doesn't. If you move around fast you get a weird ghost of color around the objects, probably an artifact of new data coming in at the time it's refreshing one of the RGB passes. But not bad. I mean it's pretty good.

The biggest win there is that you see the same interface of the LCD so you don't have to take your eye from it if you don't want to.

Live view and manual focusing work like a charm, pretty much as I expected.

The camera doesn't feel flimsy at all. Even the usual flimsy memory card door felt sturdier than average. It feels solid, no wobbling, inspires confidence. Even the articulated liveview feels substantial.

I took some shots right at the store and uploaded to my computer. Seems like banding is improved in this sensor.

Another thing that caught my attention is the camera is ready to shoot near instantly from the point you turn it on. If it's doing the anti-vibration SWD thing (and it has one) it must be either at shutdown or in a lens change, or it does it so fast that it can shorten the time (supposedly it does it at 50,000 cycles per sec, not the usual 30,000 cycles per second).

To me the biggest win of this camera for me is that it's a "decisive moment camera" in that you press that shutter and you get a shot. I am still thinking about it, but I would have to buy the 4/3rds adapter because with only one relatively slow lens even with IS, there are many situations it wouldn't sit well with me.

- Raist

[levaploeth]

I took one for a spin twice now ... the second time because I had a hard time believing how good this cam felt and worked. I don't yet know about the image quality but in truth I don't think that such is the primary concern.

Now I know I will get one ... but you are waay off on what you said - the RED one is the one to get!

The dilema of course, for me, is when? I've been burned with 4/3rds as an early adopter who hoped and hoped but never got the lenses he wished for from Oly ... and so got out. I'd hate to have that happen because while the 14-45 is a nice lens, what I really want is a couple of super small f 2.0 primes. The 20 f 1.7 is a start ... but I'd like to see, need to see, something like a 40 f 2.0 and perhaps a 65 f 2.0. Then there would be no hesitation.

But what potential here! A paradigm shift?