New member from York

Hello everyone,
I am, I suppose, in some sense a returning sheep, having previously been a long term four thirds user (Oly E300, Panasonic L1 and Oly E3) only to abandon that route for a Nikon D300 a few years ago after a disastrous experience with the E3. Anyway, whilst I have hugely enjoyed the Nikon, its sheer weight and size have meant it more often than not stays at home when I am out and about and so I have found that my very long standing interest in photography has waned to some extent as a result, with most of my serious bursts of activity being limited to annual summer holidays. Anyway, this year I bought a Panasonic GF1 + 20mm f1.7 and the 14-45 kit lens, primarily to take with me on a work trip to Japan but of course also to provide something I would be happy to sling over the shoulder as a routine.

I like this camera a lot - it is a proper photographers camera with knobs and dials and intelligently laid out. In my view the JPEG engine is terrible - lacking detail, over aggressive noise reduction and blowing highlights at the slightest opportunity but the RAW files are fine, providing tons of details and plenty of scope to manage the limited dynamic range of the sensor (Adobe RAW deals with these files very well; Silkypix is diabolical). I wish Panasonic would licence the processing nuts and bolts in Oly Master and wrap it up in their own processing software - but Adobe does the job very well so not a huge issue.

Anyway, being an old fashioned sort of chap, I miss a good viewfinder and so the GF1 is now in the custody of my wife, who is blossoming as a photographer, and I have just treated myself to a GH2 with 14-140mm. My initial impressions after two days are that the lens is considerably better than I was expecting for portraiture (really very sharp indeed in the centre at focal lengths below 100mm) and looks promising as a walk-around although perhaps a tad soft in the corners and towards the edges of the frame at 14mm. The camera is superb. I love it and the output, processed from RAW exceptional with no signs at all of the dynamic range issues I have with the GF1. JPEG is rubbish though.

So, that's about it.

Martin

 

Thanks all for the welcome. I'll let you know how I get on and perhaps post more impressions on the GH2 once I've had a chance to use it in decent light.
Martin