[Elect] Expired

[pepperMonkey]

Also, is there any way to check the shutter actuations or any other way to determine how much use the camera has had? Shutter Count doesn't work.

There should be. All Panasonic cameras that I have handled did have a way to find this out (GF1, GF2, TZ3). Usually a combo of button being pressed while turning the camera on. You'll have to search for the right combo on the net though. I'll look if I have time (which I don't right now). Also, this won't be the best way to do it but in general (there are exceptions), the photos taken are numbered in increasing order. So if you look at the image file name you should be able to get a general idea of how many shots. At the moment, I just can't remember what number they start off with. Will have to get back to you.

[bosoxfanx1]

These guys are pretty well made, I had a couple of old bodies, epl1, gf1, none of them had any problems even under heavy use

[bosoxfanx1]

How did the GX1 deal go?

[Imago]

How did the GX1 deal go?

OK, in a manner of speaking... They sold the GX1 by mistake, (I couldn't get there until later in the afternoon, phoned first thing in the morning and left a message which didn't get through to the salesperson) but the good news is that the purchaser didn't want the 20mm 1.7, (with box, caps and bag) so they sold it to me for $$250.00 because of their mistake in selling the GX1. I can put the 20mm 1.7 on the Olympus E-PM1 that I just bought for $200.00, or the red GF2 that's on sale at Aden's or McBain's for $329.00 with the 14-42mm.
All in all not too bad, but I'm thinking the GX1 would have been a better camera than either the E-PM1 or the GF2... thoughts?

[bosoxfanx1]

OK, in a manner of speaking... They sold the GX1 by mistake, (I couldn't get there until later in the afternoon, phoned first thing in the morning and left a message which didn't get through to the salesperson) but the good news is that the purchaser didn't want the 20mm 1.7, (with box, caps and bag) so they sold it to me for $$250.00 because of their mistake in selling the GX1. I can put the 20mm 1.7 on the Olympus E-PM1 that I just bought for $200.00, or the red GF2 that's on sale at Aden's or McBain's for $329.00 with the 14-42mm.
All in all not too bad, but I'm thinking the GX1 would have been a better camera than either the E-PM1 or the GF2... thoughts?

huh? why would you spend $329 on a GF2 + 14-42 when you can have the 14mm for the same price.. you can easily get more money for the 14mm than the 14-42mm lens...

the 20mm was definitely a INSANE price, $250 is not real

[Imago]

huh? why would you spend $329 on a GF2 + 14-42 when you can have the 14mm for the same price.. you can easily get more money for the 14mm than the 14-42mm lens...

the 20mm was definitely a INSANE price, $250 is not real

Sorry, I meant the GF2 and the 14mm 2.5.
I tried out the 20mm 1.7 last night on my E-PM1... very nice!
For a kit, I think the 14mm 2.5 and the 20mm 1.7 will be fine.
If I want a longer longer lens, what do you recommend? The 14-42mm that came with the E-PM1 or something better?

[bosoxfanx1]

Sorry, I meant the GF2 and the 14mm 2.5.
I tried out the 20mm 1.7 last night on my E-PM1... very nice!
For a kit, I think the 14mm 2.5 and the 20mm 1.7 will be fine.
If I want a longer longer lens, what do you recommend? The 14-42mm that came with the E-PM1 or something better?

I would stick with the kit lens, it does a lot of everything.
if you want a solid travelling lens that does a bit of everything, Panasonic makes a great 14-140mm, you can find one used and it will really be worth it. Otherwise 20mm is great. Eventually you want to look into the Panasonic 25mm, it does a little more of the everyday stuff

[Ticco]

I don't have the time to go through all of them(not even time to blow them up as just looking at some of the shrink down version already show the things I don't like again not about the 'art' perspective but just picture characteristics ) and if some of them are taken from DSLR as suggested, nothing more to say.

So if they were taken from DSLRs and they're showing inferior picture character, I'm not sure how this demonstrate anything other than DSLR quality tricking you believing that their iPhone pictures.

To me that mean you can't tell the different

[chimp]

So if they were taken from DSLRs and they're showing inferior picture character, I'm not sure how this demonstrate anything other than DSLR quality tricking you believing that their iPhone pictures.

To me that mean you can't tell the different

Noop. Even if they are taking with DSLR, they may exhibit the same defect which means the photograher, which is why I said if they are taking with DSLR I have nothing to say as that :-)

IOW, I can't tell the difference of two picture with equally bad image chacteristics(taking by iPhone or Mark 1) but I can understand the reason if it is an iPhone, probably not with Mark 1.

What I was saying is using an iPhone, you need perfect lighting condition due to the fact that you cannot control any other aspect of the scene. With a higher end camera, you CAN (but not necessary know how to) control some aspect like shooting RAW, like fill flash(obviously not useful in landscape) and that DSLR sensor usually have a higher dynamic range meaning you have more info to work with in PS etc. for harsh conditions.

Again, these are all about image charateristics, it could be intentionally to compress the d range for 'ART' reason which I said I would not comment.

EDIT:
take the other link about the fashion shoot using iPhone. The photograher obviously knows about lighting(as the setup is studio like setting) but we can still see the patch of all white/black, these are things that is the inherit limitation of the phone, even for a pro it is not easy(if possible) to overcome.

[bosoxfanx1]

I dont even know what side you guys are on in this debate lol

[chimp]

there is no side, to begin with, at least not me :-)

[bosoxfanx1]

there is no side, to begin with, at least not me :-)

What camera do you use?

[Imago]

I would stick with the kit lens, it does a lot of everything.
if you want a solid travelling lens that does a bit of everything, Panasonic makes a great 14-140mm, you can find one used and it will really be worth it. Otherwise 20mm is great. Eventually you want to look into the Panasonic 25mm, it does a little more of the everyday stuff

Well, I just bought a used G3 as well with the kit lens from B&H for $239.00... hard to believe you can get this technology for this sort of money. I'll see which one suits me best, and sell the rest. I've got a feeling I'm going to like the viewfinder of the G3 the most given my history with large Nikon SLR's and DSLR's.

[bosoxfanx1]

Well, I just bought a used G3 as well with the kit lens from B&H for $239.00... hard to believe you can get this technology for this sort of money. I'll see which one suits me best, and sell the rest. I've got a feeling I'm going to like the viewfinder of the G3 the most given my history with large Nikon SLR's and DSLR's.

Lol you have like 2-3 bodies now? well at least you got good deals on them all, play with em and sell the ones you don't like, pretty easy
I have used D5100 to D7000 to D700 to D800. Comparing with the D800 I used to own, the EVF on the G3 is nowhere close to the pentaprism of the D700/800. It hurts my eyes to use the EVF (I had the LVF1, I believe it's the same thing inside G3). To me it just adds to the extra weight.

if you have some extra cash lying around, I'd suggest to buy a few lenses to try them out as well, you can do the same, sell them if you don't end up using them. Try to find a cheap Panasonic 25mm and compare with the 20mm if you want. Also the 14-140mm I mentioned is a good one, kind of an all-in-one lens. If you like something wider, Panasonic makes a good 7-14mm lens (expensive). If you want something long range, Panasonic has a 100-300mm that's fairly good for its price. I think you will enjoy trying out different lenses than cameras, and as you probably know, the lens is much more important than the camera you ultimately decide to keep

[chimp]

What camera do you use?

If you read my first post in this thread, I have put down my camera for quite some years, Canon S3 was the last 'digital camera', EOS 5 was the last SLR I used. Nowadays, I only use iPhone for snapshot. It is recently that I was asked the question that the photos come out of it is bad(which is understandable as it is mostly used in social occasions where the lighting are very harsh), what can they do.

And why I ask if these new generation of P&S have improved to the point that they can be used in these situation yet still reletively discrete.

Just to give a scenario, I recently want to take a picture with iPhone in a candle light type lighting in a restaurant, with the iPhone flash(which is extremely weak), everything is dark except the subject which is too bright, without flash it is too dark for the subject. I end up needs to back off for quite some distance to effectively reduce the 'flash' power(i.e. dial it down). But since it is not a zoom lens, the subject becomes a bit smaller than intended.