[Leica] more on the GF-1, the finder, and a portrait of an artist

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

It's quite easy to focus manually. With the latest software you can 
set it to magnify the image with one press of the multifunction 
wheel, so you do that when you focus and then touch the shutter 
button lightly to get back to composing. It's really quite quick and 
smooth. You can do it fairly decently with the back screen as well as 
the electronic viewfinder. The EV is fairly coarse, so while 
focussing is actuall quite easy and possible, it doesn't give you the 
confidence a higher resolution screen would give. The coarseness of 
the screen might be related to the size of the viewfinder, since the 
better viewfinder of the Olympus EP-2 is a lot bigger, making the 
camera fairly clumsy in my opinion. Neither are as good as the 
electronic viewfinder in the G1, so if you're mainly interested in 
using an electronic viewfinder you're probably best off getting the 
G1, which with lens isn't any bigger than the GF-1 with electronic 
viewfinder in every dimension, and you get a better and integrated 
viewfinder and a swiveling LCD.

I use the 20/1.7 (since October) mostly with the GF-1 with the VC 
mini-28-35 finder, and sometimes Leica lenses from 35 on up. The 
shorter lenses haven't produced satisfactory results, and now that I 
have the 20 haven't been as important.

I especially like the 50 ASPH; easy to focus, high speed and a good 
portrait length without being too big. The 75/1.4 is also excellent, 
but starts being a bit of a handful. The interesting thing is that as 
you stop down, the view through the viewfinder doesn't get darker but 
the dof increases.



>On Jan 9, 2010, at 10:20 AM, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
>
>>  Wonderful, Kyle. By coincidence, I received my GF-1 today and have 
>>tested it a bit this afternoon, inside a bar and on the street. 
>>Very pleasant indeed. I got it with the 1.7/20mm lens too, but I 
>>also have the M-MFT adapter, so tomorrow I will test it with my M 
>>lenses.
>
>
>this all sounds like a very attractive combination, especially with 
>the Pana 20mm 1.7 lens. If you use it with the electronic 
>viewfinder, adapter, and manual focus M lenses, how easy is 
>focussing through the viewfinder? compared to the LCD screen ? Is 
>focussing easy enough to attract people who care to frequently use 
>their leica M lenses with manual focus?
>
>thanks,
>
>Steve
>
>
>>
>>  Cheers,
>>  Nathan
>>
>>  Nathan Wajsman
>>  Alicante, Spain
>>  http://www.frozenlight.eu
>>  http://www.greatpix.eu
>>  http://www.nathanfoto.com
>>
>>  Books: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/search?search=wajsman&x=0&y=0
>>  PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
>>  Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog
>>
>>
>>
>>  On Jan 9, 2010, at 5:44 PM, Kyle Cassidy wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  I'm finding the GF-1 with the 20mm f 1.7 an awesome ... really, 
>>>substitute for what I used to use my Leica for. Though it gets 
>>>noisy at 400 asa, the lens is fast enough and sharp enough that 
>>>I'm finding it not difficult to shoot in relatively low light 
>>>situations at 100 or 200 ASA and for on-the-fly portraits, it's 
>>>been fabulous -- two photos of the painter John Ennis 
>>>(www.johnennis.com)
>>>
>>>  http://www.kylecassidy.com/lj/2010/john-ennis-1.jpg
>>>  http://www.kylecassidy.com/lj/2010/john-ennis-2.jpg
>>>
>>>  I really like having JUST A CAMERA in my _pocket_. It seems when 
>>>I leave the house with the Leica d700 I'm always thinking "well, I 
>>>need to take the 85 1.8 because it's an awesome lens. but it's too 
>>>telephoto for a lot of stuff, so i'd better take a mid range zoom. 
>>>Oh, and heck, the room might be crowded, so I'd better bring the 
>>>fisheye, cause it's small and all. Heck, if I'm bringing that I 
>>>should bring a flash, and I can't bring the flash without the 
>>>cable, because on camera flash blows......" and now my back hurts.
>>>
>>>  The electronic viewfinder (i wanted to do a macro through the 
>>>lens but it's not in the cards) isn't a gimic -- its really 
>>>useful. I MUCH MUCH MUCH prefer shooting through a viewfinder to 
>>>using the screen on the back of the camera, i'd consider the 
>>>finder part of the camera (i.e. don't get one without the other). 
>>>it's a low resolution LCD but it's fine for composing, you know 
>>>what the scene looks like (if you forget, just open your other 
>>>eye). i don't think an optical finder will work nearly as well, 
>>>because you have your exposure and FOCUS info in the electronic 
>>>finder as well and you needs that. you can also change the angle 
>>>of the finder and look straight down into it if you'd like, useful 
>>>for shooting straight up or around corners (you can totally hold 
>>>the camera around a corner and look through the finder -- i don't 
>>>know why you would, but you can).
>>>
>>>  it's surprisingly loud. the shutter goes off with a "CLICK" you 
>>>can feel, seriously, it's like a tiny mousetrap went off inside 
>>>the camera. by default focus is also acknowledged by a chirp (you 
>>>can turn off sounds).
>>>
>>>  and it's FAST, like a lot faster than i can wind and shoot a 
>>>leica (you can probably kick it's butt with a rapidwinder, but you 
>>>won't accidentally stab yourself in the leg with this one. This 
>>>really is the digital LikaLeica I've been waiting for.  It just 
>>>needs a couple of stickers.
>>>
>>>
>>>  I am totally listening to Led Zeppelin IV right now.
>>>
>>>  kc
>>>
>>>  _______________________________________________
>>>  Leica Users Group.
>>>  See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>>
>>
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  Leica Users Group.
>>  See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Leica Users Group.
>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information

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    *            Henning J. Wulff
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