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

[olivegm3 at yahoo.ca (joe leung)]

Dear Henning,

I have the G1 and love it's EVF. Is GF1 so?much better than the G1 as to 
warrant trading up?

Best Regards,
Joe Leung
(Still in Hong Kong)




________________________________
From: Henning Wulff <henningw at archiphoto.com>
To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Sun, January 10, 2010 4:38:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] more on the GF-1, the finder, and a portrait of an 
artist

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

-- 
? *? ? ? ? ? ? Henning J. Wulff
? /|\? ? ? Wulff Photography & Design
/###\? mailto:henningw at archiphoto.com
|[ ]|? ? http://www.archiphoto.com

_______________________________________________
Leica Users Group.
See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information



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