When Impressive GF-1 Meets Striking Girls

The GF1 has lots to impress users, which we will go through in this impression series. As an advocate of serious compacts, I have no hesitation in recommending a buy. Until I can try the GXR, which I bet inherits the first-class ergonomics, I have found the GF1 superb in most aspects of the control layouts which include the menu system and the disposition of the buttons.

The menu system is easily understood and more likeable than the GRDIII particularly in terms of the much bigger font size. It has five function sections each of which splintered into several pages. By rolling the back wheel, hopping from one page/ section to the other in the menu is blissful. The tab-type menu layout, together with the page number indicator on the upper right corner, makes the menu-surfing anything but confusing .

I will give 4½ stars out of five for its menu system, with the caveat that Panasonic doesn't give users the elbowroom to customise the preferred functions in a quick menu or the Fn (function) slot. The camera offers a quick menu and registers five most used functions in a menu section (which is not useful IMO) though. More one the quick menu below.

As for the buttons on the back of the camera body, they require some practice before a user can get used to them, especially when the user looks into the EVF -I highly recommend one to go with the GF1 which, without the EVF, makes sore arms after a day of holding it up steady to compose pictures through the LCD screen. But the getting used to will only take you a day or two.

The most notable button is the Q(uick).menu which further improves the user's experience in tweaking the functions. Pressing the Q.menu button leads the user to the icons of functions on the screen in turns. Whether the desired icons appear in a clockwise or anti-clockwise order simply corresponds to how you turn the back wheel. Once reached, the desired icons can be activated and the tweaking can be made by pressing the round menu/set button.

A tweeny-weeny pet peeve is, for photographers who tweak the camera a lot, the function icons cannot be reached in a jumping fashion. That is to say, if going from the middle icon in the upper row to the middle one in the lower icon row, the user needs to roll the back wheel like crazy. This shortcoming is not helped by the rather crowded function icons on the screen, of which some you may never need to tweak.

« I was busy browsing the quick menu to do the tweaking because of which I became unable to properly focus the lady on the move.

On some occasion, I missed the shots because of this implementation of the quick menu, which is not a big issue but should be improved.

By the way, if you have experience with the Ricoh GRD or GX cameras, their quick menus are much better because users can customise them, which is much shorter and effective for tweaking. Activating the quick menu by pressing the back rocker and rolling the front wheel to tweak functions save the photographers lots of good shots.

That said, the GF1 featuring a larger sensor in a small body is impressive in its own right. The bigger sensor affords the possibility to do shots with a swallow DOF. The defocused background renders delicate bokeh, especially true when the fast f1.7 prime lens is used.

The focusing ring works seamlessly and responsively when doing manual focusing. Manual focus can be activated by a few presses of the AF/MF button and the back wheel (yes, the back wheel can be pressed to confirm setting a function) on the camera back. Then, the spot being manually focused will be automatically magnified on the LCD/ EVF screen while the focusing ring is turned for ease of confirming the focus.

To save users the trouble of toggling between automatic and manual focus, there is a AF+MF option, which can be activated in the menu. This function allows AF to work when half pressing the shutter release, and MF to chime in when turning the focusing ring.

It is certainly a dream photographic machine combining the advantages of size, likeable ergonomics and better image quality. A fuller photographic experience it surely has over the small-sensor serious compact.

The impression series is to be continued.