0:00 – Intro
0:27 – Sony Announcements
1:08 – Sony Alpha A850
1:49 – Sony Alpha A550, A500
4:42 – Canon Announcements
6:11 – Canon EOS 7D
9:02 – Panasonic Lumix GF1
11:02 – Micro Four Thirds Lens Line-Up
12:16 – Carel Struycken’s Olympus E-P1 Review
13:11 – Roberts Imaging on Facebook
Pansonic Lumix GF1
So yesterday Panasonic officially announces the GF1, their answer to the “why does that micro four thirds look like a D-SLR?” query that the GH1 brought up. It looks a bit like a larger LX3 (for anyone who can find one) with swappable lenses. On the subject of lenses -it doesn’t support every FT and M/FT lens that the E-P1 does (Panasonic’s website has a comprehensive list here). They did, however generate a pretty thrilling 21mm 1.7 pancake -being only 23mm (plus mount) long. Hot diggity.
While there’s no in-body IS, there is a pop-up flash and there just isn’t a reason to hate on a feature like that. <*link derek’s value-added analysis*> It also comes in a pretty black matte finish -again keeping in astetic similarity to the LX3. The GF1 can use the AVCHD Lite codec for high-compatibility HD recording.
Since the GF1 is nominally smaller than The Olympus E-P1, it touts the title of smallest and lightest interchangeable lens digital compact. Accessories will include a hotshoe mounted electronic viewfinder (DMW-LVF1), a Panasonic branded polarizer, ND, and protector filter, and an external flash unit (DMW-FL220 with a GN22).
Add to all this the various intelligent auto and scene mode features and we have an exciting addition to the trailblazing in the MFT wilderness. I’m curious about whether it’ll be has hard to get ahold of as the LX3, and where the price-point will start.
The Olympus E-P1 represents a significant step in the evolution of the digital camera. Before it showed its beautifully crafted body, there were roughly two classes of digital cameras: The point and shoots, some of them so tiny we carry them along wherever we go, and the much bulkier and heavier digital reflex cameras with interchangeable lenses and bigger sensors.
The image quality of point and shoots has become very good over the last few years, but in low light situations their little sensors still struggle with too much noise.
I practically always carry a Canon Elph along, but packing my Canon 5D DSLR requires a mission statement, especially when it involves a back country hike. When most brands figured out how to provide a “live view” on the camera’s LCD screen last year, the bulky penta prism and noisily clapping mirror box felt even more like a puzzling anachronism. Why not get rid of all that bulk and do the framing and focusing on the LCD screen? Olympus, with its decades old tradition of delivering exceptional quality in the smallest possible camera body now presents the first camera that follows through on this idea. Although the camera is not easily “pocketable”, it is small and light enough to toss in a daypack and with the wide-angle “pancake” lens, will even fit in the front pocket of a pair of roomy trousers.
The micro four/thirds sensor format, which is currently supported by Panasonic, Olympus and Leica, is smaller than the more popular APS sensor format, but in its most recent incarnation, noise level is not noticeably worse than on the current batch of APS sensors. Olympus, Leica/Panasonic and Sigma also have a very complete list of excellent lenses and most of these are significantly smaller and lighter than their equivalent for the larger sensor reflex cameras.
Handling the camera.
Even with my very large hands, the body felt easy to handle. I usually kept my left hand on the lens, tweaking the zoom or manual focus and providing some stability for the right hand, while it was dealing with the abundance of settings to choose from. The grouping of the functions is not as intuitive as for instance on the Canon G10 and I had to keep leafing through the manual to figure things out. Practically every function can be set using three different interfaces and the second (vertical) knob also helps to eventually work out a personalized routine to master the myriad of settings. Manual focus worked well on the LCD, provided there was no light shining on the screen. Shooting outdoors with only the LCD screen as “viewfinder” was a challenge. Maybe a wide rimmed straw hat would help to keep the screen sufficiently shaded, but a built-in optical viewfinder would really help. There is a separate viewfinder that fits on the hot shoe, but this takes away from the streamlined compactness of the camera body is not of much help when using the zoom lens.
The E-P1 and its soon to appear Panasonic cousins are defining a new and exciting niche and I am looking forward to carrying one of these in my daypack.
Included are some sample shots, straight out of the camera. My bison shots came out a bit blurrier than I had expected. They were shot in a hurry through a car window, so either I or the bison must have moved a bit too much. This was my first experience with a HD video capable still camera and I would like to delve some more into this subject in the near future.
Carel Struycken
Roberts Raw, the blog division of Roberts Imaging, is proud to announce that renowned actor and photo-enthusiast Carel Strucken (MIB, Star Trek, The Addams Family) will be joining the Raw team as a guest blogger. Carel, who’s already a prominent name in the spherical panorama and gigapixel imaging world (see http://www.sphericalpanoramas.com), will from time-to-time contribute hands on product reviews, sample imagery, and more. Roberts is extremely pleased to be working with Mr. Struycken, and we feel that his experience in the highly disciplined and technical worlds of spherical panoramas and giga-pixel stitching will bring even more expertise and practical views to Roberts Raw.
To see the latest articles from the Raw team–and guest articles from Mr. Strucken–covering everything from breaking camera news, product announcements, hand-on reviews, and practical, friendly advice for photographers, check out Roberts Raw at http://blog.robertsimaging.com
Canon’s PowerShot G11, the long-awaited and much desired replacement to the no-longer available G10, appears to have politely taken a step back and removed itself from the megapixel wars. Down to 10 megapixels now, versus the 14.7 of its immediate predecessor, the G11 is a self-proclaimed effort on Canon’s behalf to appease the G series fans and to get back to the series’ roots. So, they’ve traded more pixels for better. Good for them, I say. There’s a lot of market pressure these days (especially from Sony, who hand out megapixels like a digital Santa in a beneficent mood), and I’ve never quite seen a new model go backwards in the megapixel count like this. Good show.
Also back is the tilt-swivel LCD of yesteryear, a feature which I’ve weighed in repeatedly in favor of. Admittedly, 99% of the time I never use it. But, it’s nice to know it’s there for when I do need it. The E-P1 would’ve benefited from one, for example.
So, cease any mumblings about people not listening, ye disheartened fans, the G11 seems to be a pretty solid show of faith and effort to accommodate the actual market and not the imaginary one that drives marketing departments sometimes. It is, in short, a camera for photographers, and we all love that.
Olympus’ ‘Digital Pen’ E-P1 makes a resurgence this past week with a couple notable reviews showing up. DPReview has of course weighed in with their usual detail-oriented approach (the gem of which is they reviewed the two lenses, for those wondering how the 14-42mm and 17mm pancake weigh in), and DCResource takes the other tact and reviews it from a day-to-day use standpoint. A lot of points are made that basically boil down to “it’s a consumer camera”, which I kinda shrug off because, well, it is rather consumer-oriented. As my design prof used to tell me “it is what it i.” I, personally, still dig what it is, and still remain confident the image quality bests my E-3 (if not the weather-proofiness).
Well kids, I finally got my hands on the video files, so before I head out this fine Indianapolis Friday how about my mini-review of my photowalk experiences with the E-P1 and 14-42mm kit lens?
This is a podcast-enabled post, so if you subscribe to our videos you’ll be getting the video from the end here beamed to you, so don’t worry there.
Getting started, let’s look over the highlights of this beastie:
Ready to read my lengthy-ish review? Click below.
In an effort to make Raw Footage even better, we’re going to use the power of Roberts Raw to convert it into a proper video podcast, which you can subscribe to through outlets like iTunes or Zune and carry it around on your portables of choice. So, to kick it off, we’re re-posting the latest Raw Footage video, featuring Olympus’ new and oh-so-shiny E-P1 review.
Olympus has updated its Master software to include the new e-Portrait and Art Filter controls in the software. Except you still have to have a camera that could use these in the first place, in a bit of software lockdown all too familiar after their deal with pano-stitching only working on certain xD cards. So, if you don’t own an E-P1 yet, this is a pretty unexciting update. There might be something in it for you E-P1, E-30,E-620, and E-450 owners, though.
To get the update, make sure you have Master installed (it comes with all Olympus cameras), then make sure you’re connected to the internet, go to Help-> Update Software and follow the instructions.
And if there’s anything with gloss, shine, and a delicious GUI, it’s the browser enhancing digital-image experience called Cooliris 1.11. A small download at 2.9mb, it’s a free to use (and if you’re a geek, integrate into your website) infinite wall of photos which navigates much like the Coverflow function in iTunes, but sleeker and sexier.
And its ruining my web-viewing experience. I checked out Derek’s fine E-P1 shots using Cooliris (by navigating to the set page in Flickr and booting Cooliris from the bouncing logo) and everything was smooth, intuitive, and shiny. Clicking an image brings up any tags or details and the scroll wheel zooms away from the highlighted image so you can click and drag to scroll the wall. It doesn’t integrate image saving or EXIF data, so be a dweeb and sign up to be an alpha/beta tester. The whole of it will massage your eyeballs and immerse your attention.
When I closed Cooliris the standard index of 75×75 pixel thumbnails, frozen as next-year’s fruit-cake, actually confused me for a moment.
It’s not that Flickr has a bad built-in slide show function. It’s tidy and well behaved, like it should be wearing a dark, wool business suit. Cooliris is wearing a slinky dress and a lamp-shade, and probably isn’t measuring the drinks.
So other than ocular hedonists, what use is Cooliris? For a photog with a limited budget (OK, so all budgets that aren’t spawned by the House and Senate are limited) or wants to display their work online with a lot of panache and not a lot of coding -Cooliris is certainly something to consider.
Switch To Mobile Site