Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1

I bought the camera because I am getting older and don't want to carry my Canon 350D plus gear everywhere. ;-) Also, I am used to the Panasonic menu system, and I like most features of the camera.

Panasonic's G1 is a light-weight, very usable camera with lots of nice features such as an excellent EVF, a tilt and twist LCD, both with high resolution, a fast autofocus and a decent image quality, all in quite a small, though still expensive package. It also has some limitations (see below). If you can live with the limitations, go for it! :)

- Good image quality up to ISO 800, quite usable up to ISO 1600 provided that the image is not under-exposed.

- Good and solid construction.

- Twist and tilt LCD

- Both EVF and LCD have high resolutions and are extremely usable. EVF has the advantage that all informations can be easily overviewed and that the effect of settings (e. g. white balance) can be viewed immediately.

- The front wheel ensures fast access to the settings in combination with the Quick Menu button.

- Light package ;-)

- Fast and reliable autofocus

- Lens feels solid, especially for a kit lens.

- Expensive (but I assume that the price will drop drastically after Xmas 2008)

- At present only one lens available (this will hopefully change next year), and I even had to buy spare batteries in Japan (but I guess, this will change very soon).

- No RAW support by ACR yet

- Limited auto-bracketing (maximal steps +/-2/3 EV for 3, 5, or 7 shots)

- Auto-bracketing and self-timer cannot be applied at the same time (remote control may be required in some cases).

- No IR remote control option

Canon 350D, Panasonic FZ28, FZ5...

Not required so far.