Review of G1 by DPreview

[jonoslack]

HI Vivek

Jono, Please clarify if the the DR and noise response are attractive or not with the G1 (excuse me for throwing in the pixel density factor, I honestly did not throw that in as an excuse. In fact I had no idea why I even threw that in!).
Ignore the distraction with terminologies (density, pitch, etc) and let us look at the end result.

Okay - well, ho hum. I haven't been irritated by it, but I don't feel that I have enough experience with the camera yet to be very sure. Cameras seem to behave so differently with respect to blown highlights and noisy shadows, and it always seems to take some time to get accustomed to the behaviour, and the best way to get the most out of it.
It's one of the reasons why I'm always rather sceptical about the usefulness of those kinds of test results.

A good example of what I mean is the A900 - It has LOADS of DR, but it's very important to over-expose if you want it, the highlight detail seems to be recoverable forever, but it's easy to get noisy shadows. The Olympus E3 is just the opposite with blown highlights being the biggest issue, but with shadow detail fairly noiseless.

As for the G1, I DO like the output - colour is good, crisp etc. but I don't know it well enough to be able to make an absolute judgement.

 

[jklotz]

While I'd have to agree that no one review can present the "whole picture" (no pun intended), I did enjoy reading that review. I had my G1 in my lap the whole time and made sure I knew how to use every function they covered. I definitely learned a few things about the camera I didn't already know. That alone made the price of entry a bargain, especially considering it was free....

 

[Brian Mosley]

Yes, worth every penny

Kind Regards

Brian

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Question I have say we have the G1 and whatever lenses that normally work with it, is it safe to assume that whatever Oly brings to the table we can use our existing lenses from the G1 for instance say the kit lens. It sounds like a stupid question because the short answer is yes but like anything else they may decide to change the rules of the micro 4/3 game. Thoughts

 

[Brian Mosley]

Good question Guy - especially if Panasonic decide to keep their CDAF technology private... how would Olympus implement support for their lenses?

Should be interesting to see just how closely Panasonic and Olympus are cooperating on m4/3rds... the G1 looks like a direct competitor to the E-4x0 to me.

Kind Regards

Brian

 

[Diane B]

Question I have say we have the G1 and whatever lenses that normally work with it, is it safe to assume that whatever Oly brings to the table we can use our existing lenses from the G1 for instance say the kit lens. It sounds like a stupid question because the short answer is yes but like anything else they may decide to change the rules of the micro 4/3 game. Thoughts

Interesting thought. I've been rather counting on Olympus coming out with
m4/3rds mount lenses that I'll be interested in. And then--up the road, when one wants to upgrade this 'standard' and might want to go to the other---hmmmmm.

Diane

 

[jonoslack]

:talk028:Now Now chaps. Don't get paranoid!
They announced it together, it's a standard, the lenses will work on each other's systems (whether the lens correction in RAW will is another matter, but then I'm not sure that I like that much).

Whether Olympus will have access to the panasonic secrets is a different matter, but I think you can assume that the lenses will work across system. Mind you, if Olympus bring out a camera with IS in the body, they'll probably be able to make the lenses even smaller - in which case you may not need to use the kit lenses. In addition, using the Olympus lenses on the Panasonic may not be as attractive if they don't have IS in the lens . . .

it would be amazingly ironic if the only lenses that don't work on a G1 are the ones from an Olympus m4/3 :ROTFL::ROTFL:

They've said it's a standard - let's believe it until they say otherwise.

 

[peterb]

Interesting thought. I've been rather counting on Olympus coming out with
m4/3rds mount lenses that I'll be interested in. And then--up the road, when one wants to upgrade this 'standard' and might want to go to the other---hmmmmm.

Diane

If they made AF-able MFT versions of their 7-14mm f4.0, 14 - 35mm f2.0 35-100mm f2.0 (not to mention their juicy fast 150mm f2.0 and 300mm f2.8 primes) or just their 12-60mm f2.8 I'd be one extremely happy camper.

Peter