Lumix GF3

While I was at Mid Valley the other day, I stopped over at Key Color, the place where I got my LX3 and 7D previously. I was actually inquiring about the Fuji X100, but they did not have any in stock.

Looking around for what was hot in the market, my eyes landed on the rather slimmed down Lumix GF3. That thing was tiny. Seriously tiny. Coupled with the stock zoom lens it came with, it really felt awkward and front heavy. But the small body complimented the 14mm pancake lens very well. The zoom had a built-in image stabiliser, but the pancake lens did not.

The body plus the pancake lens was RM1999, and with the EOS 1100D kit selling at around RM200 less, it would be a serious investment.

I got a few images saved onto my memory card. The ISO went up to 6400. So, here are the sample. Unfortunately I was not let loose with the unit.

1/80 f3.5 ISO4001/60 f3.5 ISO160 flash on1/60 f5.6 ISO800 at full zoom 42mm1/160 f4.0 ISO 3200So what were my first impressions? The unit is tiny, and being metallic, rather slippery as there were no rubberised grip surface. The autofocus were damn fast, either by using the shutter button, or tapping on the LCD screen. Grip is awkward with the zoom lens attached. Nice red colour - Puan Anita would definite loved that. The high ISO captures showed unbelievable lack of noice - definitely better than my old EOS 400D.

With an M-mount four-thirds lens converter, I can see potential in putting of those Leica M lens on these baby! LOL! 5 minutes was not enough to just the the product I was afraid, but I can see it as a potential street photography device with the pancake lens attached on it. Let's wait for the X100 first before I can make a judgement on what I should get to replace my trusty old LX3.

Yes! I Got Myself the LX3

After a good few month eyeing this camera and I finally got it today. First impression, it is bulkier than I thought, but the weight felt right in the hand. Took a few pics on the way back home, via Pavilion since I went to the bank there. And these are the pics.

The interface were intuitive, menu were pretty straight-forward. There is a button to indicate record and playback, and the rest is as expected. What is interesting is the Ai mode which automatically predicts the theme that you are likely to need - eg: night mode, slow sync flash, sports with higher shutter speed. It will also control the ISO sensitivity. Basically it is a 'dummy' mode which is quite smart.

I used the P mode since it allows me to capture in RAW format. Coming back home, I noticed that my CS4 cannot read the file. Looking through the net, it is time to update my RAW conversion file. Then walla!

The conversion worked a treat. The pictures were sharp and the colour was just nice. The RAW conversion looks much better compared to the jpeg file the camera generates should you wish the camera to do so. Definitely worth going RAW in this one for the time being. Maybe there is a way to change the settings on the camera to allow a better jpeg picture generation without needing to go through the trouble of converting the RAW file.

I shall spend some more time during the weekend getting a feel of the camera. Definitely will need to try the video mode since it can generate HD quality clips. So watch this space. In the meantime, time to read the forums.