I was in a camera shop on Stanley Street the other day and overheard a customer ask the sales clerk, in Cantonese, if they had the electronic viewfinder for the “Girl Friend 1.”  Of course he was referring to Panasonic’s very hot micro-four-thirds format GF-1 camera, which I also own.  I knew that people were jokingly referring to it by that name, now it appears to be official.

I’ve had mine for a couple of weeks now (and finally succeeded in finding the 14-45mm zoom lens on Thursday) and finding that the camera is capable of truly excellent results – but getting those results takes some care and attention.  Simply leaving it in Program mode only works about half the time.  And despite also having Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto Mode and more than a dozen pre-sets for specific types of scenes – from “Sunset” to “Architecture” to “Food” and beyond – clearly this is a camera that rewards those who take the time to figure out the manual settings. I also note that writing the image to the memory card takes noticeably longer (I’m using RAW + JPEG mode) but that could be because I’m using the free Toshiba card I got with the camera – I may need to invest in a couple of SanDisk Extreme cards.

SeriousCompacts.com has just posted an updated review, 2 Months With the GF1, and I’m happy to read this conclusion:

Overall the GF1 is a good, solid camera with no significant weaknesses. It’s certainly fun to use and I find I’m carrying it along more often than I did its larger siblings.

That certainly mirrors my experience with the camera to date.

Share