New Baby!!

Hello everyone,

I recently had a birthday (May 12th) and as usual, I spent it with my long term bf Oliver.
Oliver isn't really all that big on buying me girly stuff (makeup, bags, shoes, clothes... ) unless I ask him to buy something specific (like when he went to London and I wanted some makeup products from super drug).
ANYWAY - what we both like is photography, and if it wasn't him, I wouldn't have advanced this much in filming and blogging.  Oliver has kept my equipments up-to-date and replenished my gear with new/better ones for over 3 years.  For this year's birthday present, I was given a Panasonic GX1 - which I have been drooling over even before it was released in the states.  I have a soft spot for Panny in my heart, and I was so happy when I got the camera for a present.



So, here's my new baby!!
Oliver decided to get me a GX1 body and the legendary Lumix G 20mm pancake lens.
The 20mm lens is raved about, and one of the rare items on Amazon that has 140+ reviews with 5 solid stars (now that's impressive, considering how even a 4 star is deemed as great).



I've been waiting for it for such a long time, and I find this a perfect camera for my everyday use.  I hated the fact that professional review sites HAD to pick on something (or else they would get some sort of backlash for giving out all-good reviews), and it had to be the "supposedly" flimsy flash.  I mean, that's just nit-picking on something for the hell of listing cons.

Flash is okay in my opinion.  If you are at a level to use micro 4/3, I don't think you are going to have a lot of moments where you have to pop out your flash.

The best thing about this camera is the accuracy it delivers.  You get to capture EXACTLY what you see with your eyes into a still photo.  Usually a lot (almost every camera I've tried) of cameras tend to over-expose or underexpose, but this camera's biggest strength is color accuracy.


The con about GX1 + 20mm combo is the slow focusing and limited focal length.  Since the lens is fixed, I have to manually move my body closer/further from the object I want to take a picture of.  Also, it is nice that the focus is spot on, but the rest of the background getting blurred out could be annoying to some people.  I think the slow focusing is most likely due to the 20mm lens - I will have to see how the camera pro forms with the PZ 14-42mm lens or Olympus M.Zuiko ED 45mm lens.


Here are some sample pictures.


- Great details of the ribbed shirt my penguin is wearing.  I only cropped out the messy background.




- No alterations, except reducing the size.  These were tulips, given to me as a birthday present from my coworkers.  I think I have a black thumb.. I tried my best but they are rapidly perishing.




- Toro on vintage Snoopy.  Lot the focus and the accurate colors.


FAO bunnies!!! They are holding a meeting!




Color is picked up so well - it's mind blowing!!



- click to enlarge (this is an original picture, but I'm sure blogger degraded it while uploading) and see the magnificent details this camera captures. :D



I know I already have more than enough cameras, but I am so happy I got this camera! For those that are camera hoarders like me, I'm sure you will understand how you HAVE TO have every single type of camera of various occasions!

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding performance or handling.  I am still playing around with and I don't feel like I 'own' this camera yet, but I am getting a good understanding of how this camera is supposed to be handled.