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Lumix G1 vs Oly E450? Your thoughts?

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Madmardigan

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Hello,

I have owned several Lumix cameras and several Olympus cameras. I have been "watching" the G1 since it came out and have really liked the concept, to the point of wanting to buy one. I have been disappointed in the continuing lack of fast lenses however. With the E450 having been announced, I'm wondering if I should just get that (small size and 4/3 is my primary motivation).

Your thoughts? Thanks in advance.

FWIW, I have also posted this question in the Olympus SLR forum. I'm not trying to start a war, I'm really interested in some constructive discussion.
--
Every man I meet is in some way my superior.
R. W. Emerson
 
The Panasonic micro43 lens line is small so far. I expect this to change and the native lens line to grow ... and pretty quickly. There are currently two shipping lenses, with two more coming up very soon and two more beyond that announced. And we haven't heard what Olympus has planned for it at all yet.

However, the micro43 lens mount is the most adaptable lens mount there is at present. And the G1's EVF makes working with manual focus and/or iris lenses very easy. If you want fast lenses, all you need to do is
  • buy the DMW MA1 FourThirds to micro43 lens adapter and use Olympus and Panasonic/Leica FourThirds SLR lenses on it, with choices as fast as f/1.4 if you're willing to pay for the pleasure.
or
  • get a mount adapter for alternative fast lenses ... Nikon, Canon FD, Leica M and R, Olympus OM and Pen F, Contax/Zeiss, Pentax thread and K, Konica, Minolta MD, etc etc can all be used.
The G1 allows many more such adaptations than any of the SLR cameras due to the much shorter mount register and the viewfinder is better for such purposes than almost any of the SLRs.

I have a kit of nine fast lenses I can use on the G1, including amongst others:

Panasonic/Leica Summilux-D 25mm f/1.4 ASPH
Olympus G.Zuiko 40mm f/1.4
Pentax-M 50mm f/1.4

... a lot is possible.
--
Godfrey
 
They are very different cameras.

If nothing else, the 14-45 kit lens with the G1 is slow, but it is a premium quality lens, very different than most kit lenses.

But beyond that the G1 is smaller, with potential for much smaller lenses, and it's the first M4/3 camera. If you buy a G1 you are buying into a new platform. I may be wrong on this but I see a time when we will have other bodies that use the same lenses in many formats that are not limited in design by the requirement for a mirror.

If all you are looking for is a single camera with a few lenses then the G1 probably isn't the best choice and one of the many oly compacts or even a canon rebel might be a better choice.

Tom
--
http://www.kachadurian.com
 
I am so happy to have E-510 AND Lumix G1 ... soon GH1 :-)

I use for both 5 Pana/Oly lenses and 7 adapted Konica lenses - that's enough :-)))

Pictures & handling are excellent, I think, they are best cameras you can find ;-}
 
I have the Olympus E510, which is similar to the E520 which in turn is similar to the E420 which in turn is similar to the E450 (whew..but really they seem to be pretty similar)

But neither the G1 or the E450 has a good cheap fast lens to go with currently. You have the Sigma 30mm F1.4, and you have....umm...nothing really apart from the elusive, expensive and large Leica 25mm F1.4. At least Panasonic promised the 25mm F1.7 which looks very petite as well. But really, fast prime is one of the 4/3rd system's biggest weaknesses IMHO considering the ISO performance and the range of DoF lag behind the competitors so if it's important to you, I'd stay away from both.

Having said that, since you like the 4/3, I think I'd give the edge to the G1 because:

1) At least the Panasonic F1.7 seems to be somewhat near to being launched.

2) Viewfinder: It's hard to check for critical focus with the E450's viewfinder and MF is almost impossible. I use the Pentax 50mm F1.7 with my E510 and the only way I can MF is to use liveview, which is cumbersome. Also the AF performance...

3) AF: The AF system of the E450 is not good. It has only three AF points and struggles mightily when the light level drops. I really get frustrated with the one on my E510 from time to time and it looks like the things have largely stayed the same. Also the contrast detection system of the G1 would have less chance of focusing error. Not to mention the MF is much easier.
Madmardigan said:
Hello,

I have owned several Lumix cameras and several Olympus cameras. I
have been "watching" the G1 since it came out and have really liked
the concept, to the point of wanting to buy one. I have been
disappointed in the continuing lack of fast lenses however. With the
E450 having been announced, I'm wondering if I should just get that
(small size and 4/3 is my primary motivation).

Your thoughts? Thanks in advance.
FWIW, I have also posted this question in the Olympus SLR forum. I'm
not trying to start a war, I'm really interested in some constructive
discussion.
--
Every man I meet is in some way my superior.
R. W. Emerson
Click to expand...
 
I jumped into the G1 camp quite early after having used an Oly C5050 for 5 years. I lot of my photography is done at lower angles -take a lot of plant/flower shots- and one of the things that drew me to the C5050 in the first place was the tiltable screen. I had been somewhat hampered by its lack of zoom range and had been looking for quite a while for something with an interchangeable lens and a pivotable/titlable LCD screen at a price that wasn't beyond $1000, $800 was even better.

As soon as I saw the specs on the G1 I knew I'd had to have a long hard look at it and I plunged into G1 waters in December, with both lenses. It has been everything I had been looking for and I've been able to get shots now with the 45-200 that I couldn't dream of with the C5050. BUT, having said all that, MAN I miss the fast glass of the C5050 as well as the macro and must admit that I now end up using both cameras and my choice will be guided by what it is I'm shooting. The E450 would never cut muster with me since it doesn't have the moveable LCD screen and I don't care what else it does. You get a very different view of the world when you don't shoot at eye level and that feature, or lack of, has been my primary motivator in guiding my purchase since I use it for at least 50% of my shots.
 
To my mind, there are really only two advantages of the E-450 over the G1:
  • superior lens lineup (although the G1's disadvantage is amelioratied by the fact that nearly any lens can be used with an adapter, and more 4/3 lenses are starting to be updated for AF capability).
  • better viewfinder for shooting moving subjects (the G1's EVF/LCD have a slight lag which is a relatively minor issue, but they also blackout after shutter release, which is more of a problem as it makes it difficult to track a moving target). However, the E-450 is far from an ideal camera for action photography itself, so perhaps this won't be a big issue for you.
On the flip side, the G1 has several advantages:
  • The EVF (aside from the caveat mentioned above) is generally superior to the tiny VF on the E-450 due to it's large size and brightness. Plus it has the usual advantages of an EVF such as real-time exposure preview, DOF preview, live histogram, etc.
  • More compact -- this isn't a huge difference, but it's there. The difference is greater though if you consider lenses -- the native µ4/3 lenses have the potential to be a good bit smaller than their 4/3 equivalents, at least in the wide-normal range.
  • Articulated LCD -- this is incredibly useful. I don't think I'll ever buy a camera without it again.
  • Higher resolution & higher sensitivity. The 12MP vs. 10MP isn't a big difference, and some would say that the ISO 3200 mode on the G1 is almost useless (I disagree), but it's better to have these things than not.
--
-Jay

http://flickr.com/photos/48504267@N00/
 
I used E410 and E420 before. Did not like the odd response curve which made JPG look very flat, and there was no OIS - this was the main deal breaker. Went with G1. G1 also has its limitations, but I think is a better choice for me. With GH1 soon to come out, I would definitely go for that over E450 (if the price for GH1 is not something crazy).
--
Eugene
http://picture.stanford.edu/Photo

 
Of course, it the matter of taste, but even ISO1600 in G1 is too noisy in images that have a lot of dark surfaces. ISO3200 for me is very, very questionable. It reminds me of ISO1600 on Canon G10, when really ISO400 is as far as I would like to push it.
--
Eugene
http://picture.stanford.edu/Photo

 
chekist said:
I used E410 and E420 before. Did not like the odd response curve
which made JPG look very flat, and there was no OIS - this was the
main deal breaker. Went with G1. G1 also has its limitations, but I
think is a better choice for me. With GH1 soon to come out, I would
definitely go for that over E450 (if the price for GH1 is not
something crazy).
Click to expand...
Oh, stabilization! I forgot that. The E-450 doesn't appear to add IS, which was one of the greatest weaknesses of the E-420, so unless you buy the expensive Leica 4/3 lenses you cannot have IS with the 450. Both the Lumix lenses available today have built-in stabilization and it appears that Panasonic's intention is to stabilize any lens in a telephoto length.
--
-Jay

http://flickr.com/photos/48504267@N00/
 
I agree, to me 25 1.7 is something that would seal the deal on micro 4/3 and show Panasonic's commitment of making it a full system. But I have not heard anything about it lately, and even 7-14 is not coming out yet.
--
Eugene
http://picture.stanford.edu/Photo

 
Madmardigan said:
Your thoughts? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
The E450 is likely to be better for shooting moving targets, especially in burst mode, which can be a critical area if that sort of thing matters to you.

Mike
--
FZ8, F20, E410 (14-42mm, 40-150mm kit)
 
--Thanks Mike - the thread with your reply was full so posting here...I want to be able to capture dogs, kids, etc - not super fast action but got tired of the canon scene missing too many shots unless outside. I know dslrs have faster captures yet I'm looking for a smaller cam w/ tilt screen and OVF/EVF w video..think that takes the E-620 out of consideration and I'm back to GH1. Thanks again for the great info.

Kind regards,
Susan
 
hwalker said:
3) AF: The AF system of the E450 is not good. It has only three AF
points and struggles mightily when the light level drops.
Click to expand...
The E410 has 3 AF points but I only use the centre one - which I lock on my selected target by half-pressing the shutter button, then recompose.

I thought a lot of people did that? Why do people want a lot of focus points?

It works in very low light. But it should have a separate AF Assist light too, and doesn't.

Mike
--
FZ8, F20, E410 (14-42mm, 40-150mm kit)
Favourite Things, No. 1: NR that can be switched OFF
 
puppyface said:
. . . . I know dslrs have faster captures yet I'm looking for a
smaller cam w/ tilt screen and OVF/EVF w video..think that takes the
E-620 out of consideration and I'm back to GH1. Thanks again for the
great info.
Click to expand...
On moving targets with the GH1, my guess is that your hit rate will be higher using single shots rather than burst mode. I manage like that with the FZ8 and the GH1 should be a bit quicker.

But you'll try all that for yourself - good luck.

Mike
--
FZ8, F20, E410 (14-42mm, 40-150mm kit)
 
--haven't decided for sure on the high priced GH1 - if it's got as expected great IQ and it's fast enough (for my purposes...not sports, just dogs and kids in the famlly) w/ the 14-140 adding the 20mm pancake later it could be all I need. Are you happy with the FZ28 for moving shots?
 
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