R-D1 vs. Lumix G1

T

Tuolumne

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I had the opportunity to photograph a cello master class taught by virtuoso cellist Steven Isserlis. I had intended using my R-D1 but brought my Lumix G1 as a backup. For some reason, I just couldn't focus my R-D1 (50mm Sumilux and 75mm f2.5 Summarit), although I had never had problems before. Perhaps I was out of practice becuase I hadn't used it for almost 2 months. Perhaps I just wasn't used to focusing at so great a distance. (I was shooting from the control booth in a 300 seat theater. Small, but much further than I usually am from stage. I also didn't liek the color balance I was getting with the R-D1.

So, I switched to the G1, thinking to go back to the R-D1 as I warmed up. I never went back. The G1 was a reall hoot to use. Some observations on my experience:

This was the first time I had used the G1 for an extended period - 3 hours straight. I was sure the battery would fail, but I never used more than 50% capacity throughout the 3 housr+ shoot. I took about 1500 photos, used the motor dirve (first time ever for me to use one), and did a bit of pixel peeping along the way.

The EVF was a real blessing in the relatively dark theater light. It automatically boosts the light output to comepensate for dark conditions, so I always had a bright clear, high res view. When I looked through the R-D1 view finder after about an hour of using the G1 EVF I was surprised at how dark it looked compared to the amped up view through the G1. The G1 EVF does tend to flicker in real dark conditions, but the stage lighting was bright enough to prevent that.

One thing I noticed with the EVF for the first time was that when the lens is racked out to 45mm (90mm efl in 35mm land), you get a 1-to-1 magnification through the EVF. So, if you shoot right eyed and keep your left eye open, you get a Cyborg view of the world: The EVF view dominates, but it is given 3D depth by the left eye. Really strange and exciting.

The motor drive (edit: burst mode) is slow, I think about 1 frame per second, but it was useful for capturing the ever-moving Isserlis, who reminds me of a pixieish Leonard Bernstein with his angular frame and deeply felt passion for the music, expressed in an ever changing body language dance. As he said during the class, "What's the point of playing the cello if you can't toss your head about?"

As Goldilocks said, the G1 size, weight and handling are "just right". Everything balances nicely, nothing is too heavy, and the rubberized finish makes holding the camera for long periods sure and easy. When I compared it to the R-D1, which I keep in a green Luigi case, the G1 felt much better. The Luigi case has snaps for a back cover that make it uncomfortable to hold for a long time, and the camera feels too "thick" in the case. I never noticed these problems before with the R-D1 until I had the experience of holding the G1 for so long and comparing it to the R-D1 hand-holding experience.


I post-processed the photos (all JPGs) using my standard technique: Noise Ninja (I shot everything at ISO 1600), followed by tweaks in Picasa 3 which consisted of cropping, contrast and color balance, followed by sharpening, all done with Picasa's quick one click editing. I spent less than 10 seconds processing each frame. The G1 photos really need sharpening. They look very "indistinct" to my eye without it. All of the camera's "film" settings were left at their default "zero" positions.

The results look pretty good to my eye, even through they were shot at ISO 1600. In fact, I think all of the shots have a kind of dreamy look that suits the subject well. You can see them here. The music school was quite happy with them. Photo 210 and beyond were taken with the R-D1. You can see the focus and color balance problems clearly. Again, I don't know why - I never had these kind of problems before with it.

This was an "eye-opening" experience for me. I certainly enjoyed using the G1 alot, probably much more than the R-D1 whose focus I always find finicky wide open in the dark. The lens stabilization of the G1 was very welcome since it let me shoot much more easily than the R-D1 does. I somtimes used manual focus, sometimes auto-focus, just to try them out. Manual focus was no problem, but the ones taken with auto-focus look sharper to me. I think my eyes must be getting old and tired which is why I am a fan of auto focus these days.

I still like the pictures my R-D1 makes better, but the overall experience and the more than acceptable final results will probably be giving the R-D1 more shelf time and the G1 more bag time in the future.

/T
 
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Whoa! It must be in the wee hours of the morning over there!
Thank you for taking so much time to share your experience. It sounds like fun!
You say you still prefer the look of the photos from the RD-1. After you get some rest, I hope you would elaborate on why--a side by side photo shoot would be really cool.
 
I enjoyed the gallery. My G1 is due today--I've handled one, dled some RAWs and processed and printed so have some idea of what to expect, but reading this made me anxious to shoot with my own.

Diane B
 
Very nice indeed. Shooting at 1/50 of a second is a disadvantage when your subject is so animated and active, but the OS (is that what Panasonic calls it) obviously is a benefit and overall the camera looks to have done well at it's extreme. Your comments about how it handled, the viewfinder and the like are helpful. Now if you had an adaptor for your Summarit, 150mm for some close ups.....
 
Don't own the G1 but the R-D1 was always giving me dreamy shots at 1600 but my rangefinder would misaligned so often.
 
I was more interested in the comments and photos as a statement of how the G1 handled and performed than as a comparison to the R-D1.
 
It just occurred to me that long telephoto M and LTM lenses, which are generally unpopular and hard to focus on a rangefinder, are just as good as any other lens, on the G1. And uncoupled lenses are now as useful as coupled ones. For instance, I could use my Schneider 40/1.9 AND ACTUALLY FOCUS IT on this camera.
 
My 0.02:

I think R-D1 + G1 is a very good combination. Mount the 50mm or wider lenses on the R-D1, and the teles on the G1. Like the pro always say: use the RF for wide-angle, and leave the teles for the SLR.
 
mabelsound said:
It just occurred to me that long telephoto M and LTM lenses, which are generally unpopular and hard to focus on a rangefinder, are just as good as any other lens, on the G1. And uncoupled lenses are now as useful as coupled ones. For instance, I could use my Schneider 40/1.9 AND ACTUALLY FOCUS IT on this camera.
Click to expand...

I'm expecting a slight increase in the price of all those 90mm and longer lenses that no-one bothers with. Same goes for uncoupled lenses - I was experimenting with my Robot lenses today - of course half-frame suits the G1 perfectly.
 
mabelsound said:
It just occurred to me that long telephoto M and LTM lenses, which are generally unpopular and hard to focus on a rangefinder, are just as good as any other lens, on the G1. And uncoupled lenses are now as useful as coupled ones. For instance, I could use my Schneider 40/1.9 AND ACTUALLY FOCUS IT on this camera.
Click to expand...

I have a few CV lenses and am interested in the Lumix G1. Could you elaborate on the adapter one could use for this camera? Thanks
 
If your CV lenses are thread mount, you can use John Milich's thread mount to G1 adapter.

If you have LTM adapters on your CV lenses or if they are M mount, you can use an M mount adapter, there are three currently being produced.

Here is a current list of adapters for various lens mounts for the G1:

http://doiop.com/g1adapters
 
I have never had on in my hands, but isn't it so that if you have an uncoupled lens when stopped down, you will have to look through a dark viewfinder. This is why I would still prefer my rangefinders.
 
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