Here is landscape towards north from a rocky hill in the middle of Nuuksio, south of Högbacka, just before sunset on September 13th.
I haven't thought about cameras for some time, but the introduction of the Panasonic DMC-GM1 camera got me to take notice. With the 12-32mm F3.5-5.6 kit zoom this camera would make an interesting upgrade to my LX5, at least in terms of camera size.
However, there would be tradeoffs, and some things wouldn't change much.
The sensor is of course much bigger than on the LX5 or LX7, but with the kit lens the difference in IQ (noise) during the dark season wouldn't be much different, probably 1-2 stops better than the LX5 and 0-1 stops better than the LX7. As the body doesn't have image stabilization pancake lenses wouldn't do that well during the dark season, losing rapidly the advantage of bigger aperture. The kit lens has OIS and should be all right for taking photographs when it is darker.
What is good is that the GM1 supports the 1:1 aspect ratio, but here the LX5 and LX7 are better as they have a build-in aspect ratio switch. Maybe one can set the Fn1 button on the GM1 to switching aspect ratio? Fortunately the kit lens is 24-64 mm equiv. which means that at the wide end it is comparable to the LX5 and LX7, allowing to use 1:1 at 24 mm which is my favorite view to the world.
In terms of DOF the kit lens of the GM1 performs almost identically to the Panasonic LX7, as you see when comparing the equivalent focal length charts here and here. But the closest focusing distance is 20 cm at wide end and 30 cm at tele end, so macro photography would be rather limited.
In addition, the battery is rated at 230 shots (CIPA), which is much less than with the LX5, and thus one would need to carry a spare battery. With the LX5 I seldom need a spare as typically I get about 1200 photographs with one charge with my style of shooting (switch camera on, take 1-10 shots in rapid succession, switch camera off).
However, I'm still somewhat tempted, even though I would probably use only the kit lens, to keep things to carry to a minimum.
(Posting title is from the poem Towards the Primeval Lightning Field by Will Alexander.)
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2 comments:
Just reading some of your older posts. You mention the GM1 as tempting you. I bought the GM1 with the kit lens late last year as a smaller supplement to my OMD EM5 and have found that I use the Lumix now much more than the Olympus. It is a really nice camera that can squeeze into a pants pocket, but not as easily as your LX5 for sure. I recently found a great deal on a Panasonic Lumix 14mm f/2.5 and it works very well on the GM1... it is faster, focuses closer, and is a bit smaller than the kit zoom. Makes a nice set-up, but of course no zoom. It is a great walk-around camera combo however.
Always like your posts.
I'm still thinking about the GM1. It is tempting, but the LX5 has sufficed for me. I looked at Sony RX100 III also, but it doesn't convince me.
There are signs of the LX5 starting to break apart, which is no wonder, as I have taken over 184,000 photographs with it. But who knows, maybe it lasts for a quite a while still.
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