Any tips for a new GF1 owner?

[Leo R]

Also a new member -this is my second post

The battery has been in the charger for 90 minutes and is still charging.
I bought it with the 20mm 1.7 after having tried it and the EP1 yesterday at a local camera store. The GF1 was the winner in spite of owning several Olypmus DSLRs in the past and still have the 620 and 14-54 Mk II.

I find the camera controls a little confusing even after reading the manual for an hour. I suppose the terminolgy is so different from Olys that my mind is still trying to equate the menues to the 620.

Any tips to help me from having to read the entire manual?

 

[pellicule]

Yea,

once the battery is charged just start using it .. you'll find it easier than reading the book. Then when I need something I just look it up. for example moving the auto focus dot about the screen, or setting the maximum Auto ISO ..

 

[GrahamWelland]

Personally, the first thing I did was set Custom-Direct AF mode. I hate the camera second guessing my focusing. Associated with this I also recommend using the Q-Menu quick menu & learn to access pretty much everything you need from one control.

After that, save custom settings to C1/C2-x for different operating modes and you can access them really quickly from the C1/C2 modes on the PASM dial. I use this to set up things like grid on/off as a mode etc.

I tend to use the iISO mode or just set the ISO manually. I also set the auto-ISO max ISO value to 800 although that's a matter of personal preference.

Shoot RAW.

Budget for the extra lenses or adapters! :ROTFL:

 

[Cindy Flood]

Congratulations and welcome. My tip would be to download the manual from the Panasonic web site onto your desktop. It is really easy to search the pdf for items that you need information on.

 

[Terry]

Some suggestions:

Change the max ISO for auto ISO to higher than 400. I have it set for 1600. With the 20mm lens right now auto ISO is not quite as effective as it is with other lenses as it will let the shutter speed drop to 1/30 before bumping the ISO

I turned pre-af off.

If you are going to use any manual lenses turn shoot without lens to on

I turned off the bar along that shows you f-stop/shutter combos

Set colorspace to Adobe RGB depending on your needs.

Auto Review set to off gets you back to live view faster.

Histogram set to on (I have it in top left corner)

I set the bottom arrow custom button for the grids

 

[GrahamWelland]

Congratulations and welcome. My tip would be to download the manual from the Panasonic web site onto your desktop. It is really easy to search the pdf for items that you need information on.

:thumbs: +1 on this one. You'll find it's in colour too.

 

[Leo R]

Yea,

once the battery is charged just start using it .. you'll find it easier than reading the book. Then when I need something I just look it up. for example moving the auto focus dot about the screen, or setting the maximum Auto ISO ..

Thanks for the reply. Have started using it but I think I need to study the manual .

 

[Leo R]

Personally, the first thing I did was set Custom-Direct AF mode. I hate the camera second guessing my focusing. Associated with this I also recommend using the Q-Menu quick menu & learn to access pretty much everything you need from one control.

After that, save custom settings to C1/C2-x for different operating modes and you can access them really quickly from the C1/C2 modes on the PASM dial. I use this to set up things like grid on/off as a mode etc.

I tend to use the iISO mode or just set the ISO manually. I also set the auto-ISO max ISO value to 800 although that's a matter of personal preference.

Shoot RAW.

Budget for the extra lenses or adapters! :ROTFL:

Sounds like a plan although I don't know ( yet ) what all the terms mean.
Thanks

 

[Leo R]

Congratulations and welcome. My tip would be to download the manual from the Panasonic web site onto your desktop. It is really easy to search the pdf for items that you need information on.

If that makes my learning easier I will surely do that.
Thanks

 

[Leo R]

Some suggestions:

Change the max ISO for auto ISO to higher than 400. I have it set for 1600. With the 20mm lens right now auto ISO is not quite as effective as it is with other lenses as it will let the shutter speed drop to 1/30 before bumping the ISO

I turned pre-af off.

If you are going to use any manual lenses turn shoot without lens to on

I turned off the bar along that shows you f-stop/shutter combos

Set colorspace to Adobe RGB depending on your needs.

Auto Review set to off gets you back to live view faster.

Histogram set to on (I have it in top left corner)

I set the bottom arrow custom button for the grids

Good idea on the auto ISO-while trying the camera around the house I was getting a lot of motion blur.

Is pre-auto focus the same as what the manual calls AF tracking?

I always use Adobe RGB and shoot Raw.

I have just now set the Auto Review to off.

I have the histogram set to on but will have to look up how to position it.

Thanks for all the tips

 

[Terry]

No Pre-AF will start the focus process as you bring the camera up to shooting position and your movement steadies. I simply feel more comfortable in shooting stills to be in control of when the camera is going to focus.

Focus tracking is invoked by pressing the left arrow on the four way controller. There you will see single point, multi, face recog., focus tracking choices.

If you go back into the enable histo item in the menu and play with the setting (like turn it back of and then on) it will show up on the screen in yellow with arrows around it. Once you have that use the arrows to move it where you want it.

 

[Leo R]

No Pre-AF will start the focus process as you bring the camera up to shooting position and your movement steadies. I simply feel more comfortable in shooting stills to be in control of when the camera is going to focus.

Focus tracking is invoked by pressing the left arrow on the four way controller. There you will see single point, multi, face recog., focus tracking choices.

If you go back into the enable histo item in the menu and play with the setting (like turn it back of and then on) it will show up on the screen in yellow with arrows around it. Once you have that use the arrows to move it where you want it.

I just got in from work but I wanted to thank you for the reply. I am too tired to absorbe anything right now but I will read it again tomorrow