Having heaped praises on the GF1, I am ready to write something negative about it. Well, it is a camera and no camera is perfect (and no designer is perfect). The discussion here is to point out to prospective users the reality to expect and the camera makers areas for improvements.
There are two big parts in the GF1's design flaws.
Video Button
First it is the position of the dedicated red video button which is located on the right side atop the camera body. It is so undesirably positioned and easily activated that I have accidentally shot several videos in between the shooting occasions. It should absolutely be relocated in a GF2.
EVF
Second, it is the design of the EVF. Pany doesn't give the EVF a neat design. In fact, the design makes me think that the EVF was an afterthought in the wake of the camera production. The somewhat horrible design features:
- a button on the EVF itself for toggling between the EVF and LCD. As you can imagine, the tiny EVF isn't flattering for a big finger to press a button on it. It is bothersome really.
- no automatic toggling between the EVF and LCD like the GX200 with the EVF on. In the case of GX200, pressing the play button turns off the EVF and activates the LCD for displaying photos. This makes photo reviewing easy. Half-pressing the shutter release returns the display to the EVF. With the GF1, the user MUST press the button on the EVF each and every time the toggling is required.
- an unforgiveable flimsy, lockless docking slot on the camera body for the EVF, whereby the user can easily knock the EVF off.
(You can view how easily the EVF can go off here. It actually shows the video button, and the diopter wheel and toggle button on the EVF)
- a loose diopter wheel on the EVF which can be accidently turned and therefore requires regular correction.
(Now, should I withdraw my earlier recommendation to go for a EVF? To me, it is a difficult decision. The EVF saves the sore wrists. It has nice resolution too.)
Others
I also miss the flexibility in adjusting the flash output afforded by the GX200. On the GF1, to my surprise because I suppose it to be a more regular system than the GX200, the flash output adjustment sits astride the range of +/- 2EV but without a similar adjustable manual flash output from FULL to 1/32. The GX200 is much more flexible on this aspect.
And as I said before, the Q(uick) menu should allow users to jump across the function icons rather than rotating from one to the other. The rotating is cumbersome.
I first wondered if the GF1 hadn't a marco mode. At length, I figured it out that the marco mode was transformed into the Flower Mode in the Scene Mode. This is confusing at best.
^This is the closest distance the Flower Mode allows.
The last design flaw I have detected is the AF Assist Light being too close to the position of the lens. So if you have a big hand, chances are that it will be blocked when you wrap your hand around the lens. It also makes it impossible for the photographers to apply their old filters of bigger diameters to the lens because the rim will block the it beam, resulting in difficulties in auto-focusing in low light situation.
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