GX GARNERINGS

(Camera: Panasonic GF2) The sky is fine and the sun is brilliant. It seems that climbing up the lamp pole will make one closer to them and be able to put in his bag of niceties. But the lamp pole is actually behind the wire mesh, and the sky is far up beyond reach. Sometimes, the anti-climax in life is the same when hopes appearing close by are actually out of reach. This was the instant feeling of the author when he came across this scene, which dictated the way the shot was composed

(Camera: Sony A55) The lion dance took place in Wanchai on the 14th day (yesterday) of the Chinese New Year to celebrate the resumption of business as usual and give blessings to the work results in the new year, putting a close to all the celebrations of the Chinese New Year. The lion (later two lions) dance on the poles which was ended by the lion chewing and spitting the lettuce and displaying a scroll written with four Chinese characters "doing big business". The author took loads of shots, but what can be better than showing the dance in a video:

(Camera: Panasonic GF2) Sometimes, a few simple elements are all that a photographer needs to make an intriguing image.

(Camera: Panasonic GH2) The Chinese Valentine's Day this year falls on 17 February. Lantern carnivals will be held at various locations in Hong Kong, one of which will be the piazza outside the Cultural Centre at Tsim Sha Tsui. Go here for more information.

1) Camera Body 2) Digging into the Gimmicks 3) Image Quality 4) Final Verdicts: GF2 in Action (Thanks to Panasonic Hong Kong for the load items)

(The rest of the GF2 review posts can be found here ) It is widely believed that the GF2 is a paradoxical downward-upgrade version of the GF1. So, after all the discussions of its bells and whistles, how does it perform in reality? First things first. Which or what kind of cameras should we measure the GF2 against for that matter? We believe that potential buyers of the GF2, maybe except for serial fad chasers and the diehard loyalists, are attracted by its smallness in size with a larger sensor to achieve better image quality, especially at ISO 800 or above. However, given the less satisfactory handling with for example just one dial, the GF2 cannot assume the place of a primary camera. Put together, these assumptions suggest that the GF2 is more suited to be used as a backup camera for social and street shots. Let's grill the GF2 on this basis. In the Hand An obvious merit of the GF2 is size. It feels much less bulky in the hand than the GF1 or the NX100, and just lik...

(Click for a large-size photo) Ricoh reveals the GXR M-mount module with the lens at CP +2011. It has surely generated lots of interest evidenced by the mere fact that Pavel's ricohforum has reached its highest permissible traffic at press time. Some other details at the Japanese watch impress site. Googlish version here .

Since the GF2 is fitted with supposedly the same sensor as the GF1, none will expect any significant improvements in the image quality of the GF2 compared to its predecessor. How much improvement, if any, the GF2 has made in image quality? Well, there is noticeable improvement in terms of chromic noise and details. As always, we shot the same scenes at ISO800 with the aperture open at f5.6 around the same time in the evening. The results (NR off) show that the GF2's jpeg images are with less chromic noise and more solid. But the GF2 doesn't win hand down compared to other downsized mirror-less cameras fitted with APS-C sensors we have tried. In fact, it fares not as good in this aspect. If you are interested to check out and download the full-size jpeg images , go to this folder . The full-size RAW images of the same shots have also been uploaded to this folder , where you can check out those produced by other tested cameras. We have also uploaded the full-size jpeg...