Does the Panasonic GF1 retain manual focus with LCD off?

[tribal-warrior]

I was talking about the focus changing when power cycling the camera re reading your thread I can see you were not talking about turning the camera off only the screen so you can blame me for mis reading your post

Oops!

 

[tribal-warrior]

There are quite a few people doing time lapse with the various Gs.?

Oh cool. I did hear about one individual who was using a G1 for time lapse but I didn't know anything about that person's power supply set up.

Perhaps your fears about power usage by the EVFs or LCDs are misplaced.

Me paranoid? Lol. It's just common sense that an EVF and an LCD will draw more battery power than a camera using a purely optical viewfinder. In particular an LCD screen. I admit that I have never used a still camera that has an EVF. My only prior experience with EVFs are with video cameras and those things are intensely power hungry.

Are you using an intervalometer?

Ive purchased a cheap Hong Kong intervalometer from eBay. Looks to be the same input socket. It works on my Canon EOS 30 35mm SLR. Though the main reason why I bought it was to use with my Canon 1014 Autozoom Electronic Super 8 motion picture film camera. It plugs into the movie camera okay but the interval timer does not work with that camera. I used to have the original interval timer that Canon made specifically for the 1014 (manufactured during the 1970s) but unfortunately that has disappeared.

 

[tribal-warrior]

Sorry for hammering away at this topic! For quite a while, I was looking at a number of digital compacts from different brands as possible candidates for time lapse photography. From the specs, they all seemed quite impressive, versatile and had a great deal of manual control combined with good image quality. However, upon closer scrutiny, they all had some sort of restrictive short coming that would be a nuisance for time lapse shooting.

For example, the Pentax Optio 550 has a built-in interval timer but there is a severe limit placed on the number of frames shot in this mode...you would only end up with something like 3 or 4 seconds of footage. There was another brand camera - possibly Toshiba but I can't recall exactly - that switches to automatic exposure when you're in time lapse mode (you have no choice in the matter.) And fairly recently, I was just about set to go out and buy a Canon G12 until I learned that as soon as you switch off the LCD screen (to save power) the lens reverts to auto focus (even though you previously selected manual focus when the LCD was active.)

With the Panasonic G series cameras, I just wanted to be sure that they didn't have such annoying restrictions placed upon them. That explains my thorough persistance on this topic! Thanks everyone for your patience. It looks like now, they will be well suited to my needs, particularly the G1.

 

[pellicle]

I was looking at a number of digital compacts from different brands as possible candidates for time lapse photography. From the specs, they all seemed quite impressive, versatile and had a great deal of manual control combined with good image quality. However, upon closer scrutiny, they all had some sort of restrictive short coming that would be a nuisance for time lapse shooting.

since you're at it, I thought I'd remind you that the G1 is no more a compact than the EOS Rebel series is. The major difference is they have an EVF over the optical pathway of the EOS. Both have similar sized sensors, similar shutter types and interchangable lenses. So compared to compacts (and real Prosumer seems to have disappeared) they're in a different league.

Full frame 35mm film / sensor (blue), APS (in green) and all 4/3 including (G1) in yellow

if you look at the front on below you can see the focusing screen (10D) and sensor (G1) and see they are more or less the same size.

While the physical body size difference may lead you to thinking they are chalk and cheese, the sensor and other electronics are on the same page.

of course they weigh differently on the same scale.

Think of the G1 as being something like a Olympus E-510 with permanent live view in the viewfinder and on the rear screen and without the bulk

/endSoapBox
:deadhorse:

 

[Diane B]

Pellicle, that's a nice little demo or presentation.

 

[tribal-warrior]

So compared to compacts (and real Prosumer seems to have disappeared) they're in a different league.

Exactly. What I was getting at in my previous post was that I had basically given up even considering compacts for time lapse. I had shifted my focus over to DSLRs or perhaps something in between a compact and a DSLR. It was only fairly recently that I discovered about the micro 4/3rds format. I have seen a very similar diagram to the one in your post. Very good at illustrating the difference in sizes between the different formats.

 

[pellicle]

Pellicle, that's a nice little demo or presentation.

:salute:

thanks for the positive feedback ... put it together in a blog post back when I had more time (and when I had both cameras).

http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2009/03/panasonic-g1.html