What you use, and how you use it

Above is my workhorse camera, a Canon 1D Mark III, and a Panasonic GF1, the new camera I take with me when I want the opportunity to take good photos, but don’t want the bulk or weight of my Canon system.  This post is sort of a riff on my Kit Lens Challenge, going in a slightly different (and smaller) direction.  About a year and a half ago, Panasonic released an EVIL camera–no, there are no gremlins in it that cause mischief–rather, it is an Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens camera.  The GF1 happens to conform to the micro 4/3rds standard, meaning the sensor is much larger than a point and shoot sensor, and a bit smaller than the APS-C sized sensor found in most DSLRs.  I don’t want to get too technical about it, because that’s not the point of this post–you can geek out here.  The basic point is this: it has no prism like my Canon DSLRs, allowing it to be much smaller.  But importantly, it has comparable image quality at low ISOs, has interchangeable lenses, and has fully manual controls.

I have had a draft of this blog about the GF1 for a long time… months, I think. And now I am finally at the point where I know what I want to say about it. I had written lots of technical stuff about the GF1, how it was different and similar to my other DSLRs. I discussed some of its strengths and weaknesses. But you can read about those on pretty much any review site out there. The bottom line is this: I am leaving for a weeklong vacation in Spain in a few days, and I am only taking the GF1. Yep, that’s right, ONLY the GF1. Hopefully this won’t be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, but it is a pretty important one to me, photographically speaking. And I have so much confidence in my own vision and in the abilities of this little camera, that I feel okay (sometimes just a little bit panicky, but mostly okay) about leaving the 5D behind, along with all the various lenses and accessories. I am relatively stripped down to the bone, baby, and I’m excited about it (though in the interests of full disclosure, I DID pick up a 45-200mm lens to go with the 20mm lens on this trip).

So, the point of this blog is pretty simple–yes, mirrorless cameras are that good. In good light, I am consistently surprised by how good the files are coming out of the GF1. The Sony Nex cameras are supposedly even better, due to their larger sensors. Would I shoot weddings with this camera? No–it’s not responsive enough and the high ISO images look not so great north of 800. But for this trip, I’m not even worried about that, because as long as I’m shooting something static (think scenic), I can just pop the GF1 on the little gorillapod that fits in my bag because of all the space I’ve saved.