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Disillusioned with gx1

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birket

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I must be getting old. I've had the gf1 for a few years and had ok results with it. The 20mm f1.7 is nice.

However, after jumping from camera to camera (sigma dp1, sigma sd10, sigma sd15, Fuji x100), I decided to blow the cobwebs from my gf1 lenses and upgrade to the gx1. Good grief. I find it a very confusing camera to use. So many options and settings. So many opportunities to accidentally touch the screen and lose focus (though I can probably turn the touch screen features off.

out of the bunch I prefer my x100. No lens choices. Optical viewfinder. simple controls. No clever 'bells and whistles'.

Think I may sell my gx1 system and stick with my x100. It would be nice to have something wider too though. Perhaps the dp1m to go with my x100?
 
I think it's all about the Fn1. Set it to a function you use frequently, have your Q.MENU set up nice, and the camera is very easy to work with. I love my GX1.
 
birket said:
birket wrote:

I must be getting old. I've had the gf1 for a few years and had ok results with it. The 20mm f1.7 is nice.

However, after jumping from camera to camera (sigma dp1, sigma sd10, sigma sd15, Fuji x100), I decided to blow the cobwebs from my gf1 lenses and upgrade to the gx1. Good grief. I find it a very confusing camera to use. So many options and settings. So many opportunities to accidentally touch the screen and lose focus (though I can probably turn the touch screen features off.
Click to expand...



Use M mode. Simple.
 
Once I sorted out the Q-menu, the UI differences between my GF1's and my GX1 were hardly noticeable.




BTW, I made the Q-menu very sparse, only keeping in the some 5 functions I really wanted at hand. That made life a lot easier.




I hope you'll manage to make friends with the GX1, it's a great little thing! So, good luck!
 
birket said:
)birket wrote:

I must be getting old. I've had the gf1 for a few years and had ok results with it. The 20mm f1.7 is nice.

However, after jumping from camera to camera (sigma dp1, sigma sd10, sigma sd15, Fuji x100), I decided to blow the cobwebs from my gf1 lenses and upgrade to the gx1. Good grief. I find it a very confusing camera to use. So many options and settings. So many opportunities to accidentally touch the screen and lose focus (though I can probably turn the touch screen features off.

out of the bunch I prefer my x100. No lens choices. Optical viewfinder. simple controls. No clever 'bells and whistles'.

Think I may sell my gx1 system and stick with my x100. It would be nice to have something wider too though. Perhaps the dp1m to go with my x100?
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
birket said:
birket wrote:

I must be getting old. I've had the gf1 for a few years and had ok results with it. The 20mm f1.7 is nice.

However, after jumping from camera to camera (sigma dp1, sigma sd10, sigma sd15, Fuji x100), I decided to blow the cobwebs from my gf1 lenses and upgrade to the gx1. Good grief. I find it a very confusing camera to use. So many options and settings. So many opportunities to accidentally touch the screen and lose focus (though I can probably turn the touch screen features off.

out of the bunch I prefer my x100. No lens choices. Optical viewfinder. simple controls. No clever 'bells and whistles'.

Think I may sell my gx1 system and stick with my x100. It would be nice to have something wider too though. Perhaps the dp1m to go with my x100?
Click to expand...
 
jessicajp said:
Why not give the GF1 + 20mm another try? You might be surprised how much you might still like that combination. Or pick up a 14mm for the GF1 and see what you think (14mm is very cheap now, wider, very fast autofocus and still a very sharp lens especially in the center) . Also shooting RAW with the GF1 makes it a much more capable camera. I never liked the GX1 (outside of the slight sensor improvement). I sometimes feel it is too easy for us to read these review sites and put too much weight on sensor improvements and not be satisfied with a great ergonomic camera when we have one (like the GF1)
Click to expand...
Great reply. It's very easy to get caught up in the hype surrounding the latest sensor.
 
mrxak said:
mrxak wrote:

I think it's all about the Fn1. Set it to a function you use frequently, have your Q.MENU set up nice, and the camera is very easy to work with. I love my GX1.
Click to expand...



If they only have a button to turn touchscreen on/off.

How do you carry this camera around with it turned on but not having the screen rub against things and changing all the settings? I do like the tap to focus feature so I want the touchscreen turned on ...
 
growers said:
growers wrote:
growers said:
Why not give the GF1 + 20mm another try? You might be surprised how much you might still like that combination. Or pick up a 14mm for the GF1 and see what you think (14mm is very cheap now, wider, very fast autofocus and still a very sharp lens especially in the center) . Also shooting RAW with the GF1 makes it a much more capable camera. I never liked the GX1 (outside of the slight sensor improvement). I sometimes feel it is too easy for us to read these review sites and put too much weight on sensor improvements and not be satisfied with a great ergonomic camera when we have one (like the GF1)
Click to expand...
Great reply. It's very easy to get caught up in the hype surrounding the latest sensor.
Click to expand...
It depends on the sensor. I got caught when I jumped from the G1 to the G3, just like the OP : the improvement was only marginal and I disliked the new Q.Menu.

But the new Sony sensor of the E-M5, E-Pl5 and E-Pm2 really makes a difference for me.
 
rrr_hhh said:
rrr_hhh wrote:
rrr_hhh said:
growers wrote:
rrr_hhh said:
Why not give the GF1 + 20mm another try? You might be surprised how much you might still like that combination. Or pick up a 14mm for the GF1 and see what you think (14mm is very cheap now, wider, very fast autofocus and still a very sharp lens especially in the center) . Also shooting RAW with the GF1 makes it a much more capable camera. I never liked the GX1 (outside of the slight sensor improvement). I sometimes feel it is too easy for us to read these review sites and put too much weight on sensor improvements and not be satisfied with a great ergonomic camera when we have one (like the GF1)
Click to expand...
Great reply. It's very easy to get caught up in the hype surrounding the latest sensor.
Click to expand...
It depends on the sensor. I got caught when I jumped from the G1 to the G3, just like the OP : the improvement was only marginal and I disliked the new Q.Menu.

But the new Sony sensor of the E-M5, E-Pl5 and E-Pm2 really makes a difference for me.
Click to expand...
 
I decided to try again with my GX1 and 14-45 lens on a short walk in a local wood with my daughter. I've disabled the touchscreen and managed to set the fn2 button to focus and remove focus from the shutter release button. This is a much better setup for me. I have also removed all the options from the quick menu - most have a dedicated button anyway..

i did have more success this time, so perhaps I just need to give it more of a chance. I guess my thoughts are that most modern cameras nowadays come with so many 'features' just to help them stand out from the crowd. It seems that I may be happier just turning all these features off.
 
I too got fed up with accidentally moving the focus point, or prematurely triggering the shutter. So my approach is to turn off touch focus, but leave the touchscreen on, so,I can access functions like the f3 and f 4 buttons. Nice thing about the camera is that is flexible enough to set up any way you like it.

For the occasions that I might want touch focus, I've set it up to work on one of the custom modes.
 
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