Hi guys
This is my second attempt with Panny as I just bought GX1 with VF2. My previous brief experience was with GH2 and G2 but somehow I loved EPL1 more than anything else and that love affair continued when EPL1 retired and I bought EPL2. I was smitted by beauty of GX1 and picked up today . I did shoot some images and I have kinda mixed feeling about it .I will spend a week or so shooting totally with GX1 and PL25 1.4 combo and see how I go .In the meantime ,please give me ur secret settings for getting maximum out of GX1.
Cheers
Bhupinder

Here it is ..shot with EPL2+45mm 1.8 Oly

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OMD Silver with battery Grip
Olympus 45mm 1.8
Panny 20mm 1.7
Olympus 4/314-54mm MrkII,
Fuji X100 Black LE

Arghh you got the silver one ! My secret dream ;)
...
OK, they might not help you, but here are MY tips anyway :

I'm shooting RAW+jpg large (which is stupid, I NEVER use the raw files, not even once in a while), and the camera has no problem flushing bursts, just give it a few seconds until you want to review them, but it will keep on shooting, no sweat.
Here's my jpeg setting : Picture Mode : Natural, everything on default except NR -1 and Saturation +1. I've tried a bunch of other modes or tweaks but always came back to this one which gives me very, very good results.
My C1 settings : Aperture Mode, tweaked Natural, ISO Auto, tweaked Auto WB (you have to mess with your own unit, I believe sample variations occur and my tweaked Wb might not suit your unit).
C2 (for indoor flash photography with external flash in Manual mode) Manual Mode, Wide Open, 1/125th, iso 150, Kelvin WB at 4300°
C3 is for square native B&W, 1:1 ratio, Aperture, Auto ISO, auto WB, Monochrome mode with NR -1.
I have touch shutter set OFF. But touch tab set ON, Fn3 is for Preview (that I leave turned ON at all times), Fn4 is for metering mode, set to center weighted at all times). I have the touch tab retracted and only pull it when needed. My Fn1 button is for built-in flash adjust (set to +2/3 by default) and Fn2 is still AE lock (which I NEVER use, exposure compensation with full time preview is so good I almost never get unproperly exposed shots). I have iA button set to "press and hold" so it won't be pushed accidentally (since I NEVER use this mode).
I have iResolution set to Low and iDynamic set to Low as well (but I've also tried Standard with no ill effect).
My Q menu goes like this :
Picture Mode/ISO/Size ratio/File format/iDynamic/video format (set to MP4)/grid(set to OFF)/
I do have the histogram set to ON but usually shoot with the image only screen (I HATE cluttered LCDs, please someone make selectable icons we we can just choose what we want to appear and be done with it !). So I can cycle thru screens as follow :
image only, histogram + horizon, horizon only, histogram only.
When shooting legacy lens preview doesn't faithfully represent actual exposure, BUT the histogram will, so just dial + comp until you hit the right side of it, and you're good to go.
I have my review picture set on Hold. One little thing you might find useful, and which drove me nuts until I found the culprit : at first I did all my settings, saved them, and then realized my review time was back to 5 or 3s, and the "hold" option was greyed. It took me a LONG time to find out the Face Recognition was responsible for that ! So set it to OFF, and the "hold" option can be selected again. I have NO freaking idea of why this is, but that's the way it works.
That's about all I can think of. Make sure to turn EVF brighness down (1 notch in my case) and Saturation/Contrast of the EVF *at least* 1 (try with 2 as well) for the EVF to match the LCD's exposure and be reliable. That down, I can now get pretty reliable exposure thru the EVF (which I truly dislike, but in bright sun or trying to manually focus, it's a must).
Hope this helps !!!!

Hi Maria
Thank you so much for such a detailed reply.I will play with it and see .
You are a wonderful person .
Cheers
Bhupinder

__________________
OMD Silver with battery Grip
Olympus 45mm 1.8
Panny 20mm 1.7
Olympus 4/314-54mm MrkII,
Fuji X100 Black LE

Hahahaha .... I have done that already..lol my brain is tuned to Oly UI and now I will have to install Panny software in my brain but thats fine as I love challenges and new UIs.
Cheers
Bhupinder

__________________
OMD Silver with battery Grip
Olympus 45mm 1.8
Panny 20mm 1.7
Olympus 4/314-54mm MrkII,
Fuji X100 Black LE

Ouch, that must be painful, lol.
Just kidding here, I know UI's are just personal things, and what may be truly horrid for me (God knows Oly UI is) maybe work perfectly for you, and the other way around.

I come from Nikon, Canon and Fuji DSLRs, including the pro, complex models, and I have to say I was taken by surprise at HOW GOOD Panny's UI is on the GX-1. I think it's one of the smartest and easiest to work with camera I've shot.
Make sure to screw that PL25 and be a man, shoot WIDE open, lol !!
Then come back and tell me you don't see that magic and character, I dare you ;)

Thanks a lot once again. I always shoot wide open but this sun is not letting me do it. I have misplaced my ND fliter . I will get over the UI thing soon as I have strange habit of getting after something . So far so good and I like fast AF ,touch screen etc etc but IQ is at par with EPL2 actually in IMHO.
Cheers
Bhupinder

__________________
OMD Silver with battery Grip
Olympus 45mm 1.8
Panny 20mm 1.7
Olympus 4/314-54mm MrkII,
Fuji X100 Black LE

Hi Bhupinder,

I can only say a big welcome to the wonderful world of GX1 and I hope you will give it time to get under your skin (in a positive way).

I traded my old friend GF1 in for a GX1 last year and then swapped the 20mm for the 25mm f1.4 and that + EVF2 has given me a great carry all camera that produces superb results (I still have my 14-45 + 45-175 though).

I personally only ever shoot in Raw and always use AV as my primary setting and usually set the aperture 2 stops down from wide open to get the "sweet spot" (the 25mm is also superb wide open).

I also tend to leave my Ev at minus 1 third EV as digital acts like slide from the days of analogue and this setting allows me to pull back shadow info when required without blowing highlights.

Since getting the GX1 I have also now got the confidence to leave it set on "Auto ISO" as I find it does the right thing and gives me good results even at very high ISO.

I am delighted with the results from this camera and it produces images on par with the GH2 as well as surpassing what I used to get from my GF1.

You can see a selection of my GX1 images taken on a trip to India this year where it ended up being my prime camera that excelled.

571 Photography: GX1 does Taj Mahal and Delhi

Some more from Hyderabad with the GX1+45-175.

http://571photography.blogspot.co.uk...hyderabad.html

Good luck and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy mine.

Kind regards,
Ian

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Ian Lloyd-Graham
www.Ianskyphotosite.blogspot.com
www.571Photography.blogspot.com

Does the gx1 have dynamic b&w aka dynamic monotone?

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Photography isn't about the gear, but the ability to capture a moment

Micro Four Thirds Street Photography Group

Hi Kelly
I have yet to explore that . I thing other users can answer that but this camera produces beautiful B&W pictures
Cheers
Bhupinder

__________________
OMD Silver with battery Grip
Olympus 45mm 1.8
Panny 20mm 1.7
Olympus 4/314-54mm MrkII,
Fuji X100 Black LE

No, the GX-1 misses the Dynamic monochrome mode.
Mine constantly underxposes to protect the highlights, so I usually have positive exp comp dialed in.
I briefly shot the E-PL2 and really did find an IQ gap between the two, but probably I didn't stick with the Oly long enough to do it justice !