Lots of E-M1 fever as I knew there would be. And it is a nice camera I'm sure, but for me the missing bits, Poor Video, Fully Articulating Screen, No OLED Viewfinder, means that I'll probably pass on it. The lack of an OLED viewfinder is probably the main problem area for me. (See what I've come up with to deal with this on my X Vario! Coming in a day or two.) And of course the E-M1 looks sexy. Though if its anything like the E-M5 that won't necessarily translate into a camera that's easy to use.
Yesterday I went out for the first time with my GH3 battery grip and all. In pictures it does look a monster, and I guess to the 'stick it in your pocket fans' it is. However, it is actually pretty light. And considering I had the 14-140mm zoom on it, its pretty amazing for what it actually does. I certainly had no problems carrying it around yesterday and found it very easy to get round the controls I wanted and use. Its also incredibly fast, as these latest m4/3 cameras are. I don't know how it compares in terms of AF speed, but its virtually instant as far as I'm concerned, so I really have no need for anything marginally faster.
It is of course a modern looking camera. Very DSLR like, but with a few more curves. Panasonic can't do retro. They have proved this yet again with the GX7, which to me is a really ugly little sucker. I think I preferred the boxy rectangular look of the GX1 , though admittedly it wasn't that great to handle.
No such problems with the GH3. It has that big camera feel, which I do like. Its the big camera weight that puts me off. The other thing I like is the balance. With the 12-35mm f/2.8, 35-200mm f/2.8 or this 14-140mm, the camera balances on its battery grip without tipping over, as in the pictures at the top. This means that I get an almost perfect balance in the hand between the camera and the lens. Its almost subliminal, but it does make the combination feel very comfortable.
The GH3 is one of the nicest cameras I've ever used, in terms of how it feels, how it reacts and how comfortable and foible free it is. Obviously that's to do with the way I use it, others may find it not so well-designed.
I mentioned a possible solution for the problems I'm having with the non-OLED viewfinder in my X Vario. And I'm going to try one of these below. I have actually bought it for hand holding video on the GH3 but I'm hoping it might help with the Leica in bright sunlight.
Its a Carry Speed Video Loupe for the rear screen and its going to interesting to see how it works. Its actually really cheap and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. However whatever happens its sure going to pimp up the GH3!!
N.B. to see more on the cameras and lenses featured in this post click on the relevant labels (tags and keywords) below.
All original material on this blog is © Soundimageplus
Join the Soundimageplus Blog Readers Group at Google+
For comment and discussion - join me over at Google+
soundmageplus website on prosite (under construction)
soundimageplus on behance