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Learning to Take Insanely Great Pictures

DROdio
8 months ago
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My wife and I are on a quest to learn how to take insanely great pictures. We are just starting this journey and I invite you to share it with us if photography is a passion of yours. The picture above is one of our first attempts at taking the kinds of photos that have a "wow" factor that transcends a regular photo. The photo was taken by my wife; that's my friend Keoni on the left and me on the right.

My first step was to learn about cameras and settle on the right one for me. After doing a lot of research, I chose the Panasonic Lumix GX1. I explain below why I bought this camera and what I think of it, and I'll be posting more in the community section as I learn more about how to take world-class photos.

As I learn more about photography, I'll also talk about post-processing, and HDR photos in particular. HDR is a technique that allows you to select each best pixel from a shot with multiple exposures, and produces stunning results. A huge thank-you to Trey Ratcliff, the blogger behind the popular travel blog Stuck In Customs. He has hours of tutorials about HDR photography that I've already benefitted greatly from. He also proves that it's not just about the camera -- for example, in this post he took a number of photos at BurningMan with various cameras and then asked readers to guess which camera he used.

Selecting The Camera

I knew I wanted a camera that was much better than a point-and-shoot, yet I didn't want the bulk of carrying a DSLR around. The camera had to be compact, yet functional. It had to have interchangeable lenses and manual aperture and shutter controls. After reading dozens of detailed reviews and hundreds of comments from users of various cameras in this category, I bought the Panasonic Lumix GX1. For $659 you can get a camera and lens that fits all of these criteria. Not only that, but this camera uses a new-ish standard called "FourThirds" which is a digital protocol across several camera manufacturers for interchangeable lenses with sensors that while smaller than DSLRs, are much larger than traditional point-and-shoot cameras (and the sensor size is the main limiting factor of point-and-shoot camera picture quality). I've found that with this class of camera, sometimes called a "mirrorless camera" or "micro 4/3 camera," you get nearly the quality of a DSLR in a form factor that's compact enough to carry in a small bag (albeit not quite a pants pocket).

Here are a few things to know about the GX1 specifically:

All GX1s are not created equal! There are two base models for the GX1. The first has a manual 14-42mm zoom lens, which you can score for $469, while the second uses a power lens, also 14-42mm, but is much more compact. It'll cost you $200 more, but to me it was worth the space savings (see the comparison picture at right -- same body, vastly different lens sizes). Having the more compact lens means I don't have to remove the lens when I take the camera in my backpack, and that means I'm more likely to take the camera with me to more places. And as the old saying goes, 'the best camera is the one you have with you to take the shot.' There are a few drawbacks to the more compact version besides the higher price tag. Some reviewers on Amazon found ghosting in the images, although based on the reviews, that problem seems to have largely gone away in more recent production runs (I haven't noticed it). But make sure to read the Amazon reviews to learn how to test for this. Additionally, I've noticed that the power lens uses noticeably more battery than the manual lens, although you can shoot on & off for several hours with either one without a problem. If you expect to be buying a number of lenses, you might want to stick with the base model and then add this very compact 20mm Panasonic LUMIX G 20mm f/1.7 Aspherical Pancake Lens which many owners rave about.

Another small thing to know about the camera is that the charger light shows as a solid green when charging, and then turns off when charging is done. A bit strange, as I thought when I dropped the battery in that solid green meant the battery was shipped full and charing was complete.

Also, if I had an unlimited budget, I would've sprung for the Sony NEX-7 camera, but it costs $1,199 just for the body. I couldn't justify the huge price gap between the two for the additional functionality of the NEX-7.

I'll post more about the camera as I start to use it, but so far I'm very happy with it. I look forward to taking this journey with anyone else who's passionate about photography. If you have tips & tricks -- especially about taking HDR photos, I'd love to hear about them in the comments below.

UPDATES:

More updates coming as I learn about the camera and taking insanely great photos.

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isaac mosquera
6 months ago
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Daniel - This blog post was super helpful!

Ruby asked a photographer friend and he pointed us to the canon EOS-M. We found a few side-by-side comparisons:

http://www.dpreview.com/products/compare/side-by-side?products=canon_eosm&products=panasonic_dmcgx1&sortDir=ascending
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/photography-video-capture/cameras/canon-eos-m-vs-panasonic-gx1-1090252

I think we're going to stick with your conclusion and get the panasonic you described above. It doesn't seem that for the extra cost we're getting that much more unless we already had a bunch of canon lenses, which we dont. We're going to be much more casual photographers and in reality we're probably going to take a ton of pictures of our son.

Seeing the pictures you've produced so far have been impressive! keep the updates coming.

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DROdio
6 months ago
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The EOS-M is a super interesting camera. It looks like Amazon is selling it for $799 w/ the pancake lens. Here are some of my initial thoughts:

The pancake lens doesn't have a zoom, and the F-stop appears to be 2.0 at its lowest. By comparison, for $649 you can buy a Lumix with a very compact zoom lens, which the EOS M doesn't seem to have -- the zoom lens is huge! And the Lumix has a 1.7 F-stop apherical pancake lens that everyone seems to love -- that's probably the next lens I'd get. Since I'm going for compactness (more likely that I'll actually have the camera with me), I'd want to have a compact lens. So, I'd rather have a compact zoom lens by default, which is what the Lumix has.
However, a huge plus for the EOS M is that the sensor is larger. And large sensors = better pictures. So that's definitely a plus.
The EOS M doesn't have a built-in flash. That's not a problem for most circumstances, although there have been a few times that I've been glad to have the flash.
I love that the EOS M has an input jack for video. It's stupid that the Lumix doesn't. I haven't taken much video at all, though -- it's just such a pain to edit video vs. just using Socialcam with the iphone.
My hunch is that the lack of physical buttons on the EOS-M would be painful, but I'd have to try the screen to really say for sure. I do like having quick access to various functions via buttons vs. having to hunt through a menu screen.

All in all, I think the EOS M is a solid alternative. For the $150 price difference, I'd still go for a Lumix for now. Especially since there's no compact zoom lens available for the EOS M.

Thanks for bringing it up as an alternative!

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isaac mosquera

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isaac mosquera
6 months ago
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Since I'm mostly going to take pictures of my son and perhaps some landscapes when on vacation, do you suggest that I start with that pancake lens? I, like you, want compactness because it means I'm more likely to have the camera with me.

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DROdio
6 months ago
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Yeah so here's one thing you could do (and I considered doing):

Instead of buying the $659 camera with the power zoom lens, you could buy the $395 camera body only, and then buy the $349 1.7f pancake lens, which would put you at a total of $750. So what are the pro's & con's of that approach? Well:

PRO: You get an even flatter camera than with the power zoom lens. This means you're more likely to take it with you more places. But, it's not that much of an advantage, because the power zoom lens is pretty flat, as you can see from my pictures above (it's the manual zoom lens that's the bulky one). So there's a little bit of an advantage here.
PRO: You get a lens that has a lower f-stop (1.7) than the power zoom lens (3.5). That's a pretty big deal. I'll do a blog post in the future about f-stops specifically, but for now just know that the lower the number, the better the lens typically is, and the better your pictures will turn out in many situations. (Low f-stop numbers are what allow you to take a picture of a subject & have the background be blurry, for example). To me, this is the biggest "pro" of this approach.
CON: The power zoom lens, on its own, also costs $350. But you can buy it with the camera body for $659 -- only $259 more than the body itself. So you're getting a deal on that lens when you buy it along with the body; you're saving $100 over buying it separately. So you lose out on that "bundling" value.
CON: You lose out on having a zoom. Now, the reality is that the power zoom is a bit of a pain. You can't quickly zoom in & out manually; you have to press a lever up & down on the side of the lens to zoom. Same thing with the manual focus; it's a lever, not a manual adjustment. And that sucks. However, you do have a zoom to work with, and I find that I use it quite often, even though it's not a joy to use. What I would very likely do if I got a pancake lens + body, is then buy a more powerful zoom lens, like this one. The power zoom lens goes from 14mm-42mm, but this zoom lens goes from 100mm-300mm.

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DROdio
6 months ago
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And here's one variation to what I wrote above: Instead of just buying the camera body for $395, you could buy the camera body + the manual (bulky) 14-42mm zoom lens for $449, effectively getting the manual zoom lens for $54, and then buy the pancake lens for another $349.

That puts you up into the $800 range vs $659 for just the one power zoom lens that's very flat, which is why I didn't ultimately choose to do that. However, if you were to do it, then for $140 more, you are getting two distinct lenses (with the pancake lens having an awesome, low 1.7f stop) that don't have the compromises of the singular power zoom lens (to re-iterate, the compromise being that the power zoom lens is focused & zoomed using levers, not quick manual ring adjustments).

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isaac mosquera
6 months ago
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I also found this next lens which is in-between the lens we were talking about in both price and f-stop rating: http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-14mm-2-5-Aspherical-Interchangeable/dp/B0043VE29C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354144905&sr=8-2&keywords=panasonic+pancake+lens

Thats 14mm with a 2.5f rating and costs $267. What do you think of that one?

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DROdio
6 months ago
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Hum, dunno... 1.7 to 2.5 is a pretty big difference. You should read this dpreview about the 1.7 and decide for yourself: http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/panasonic_20_1p7_o20

One especially significant part of the review reads "With the fast F1.7 maximum aperture, Panasonic has also placed a shot across the bows of the other manufacturers producing similar cameras and lenses, who have apparently decided that F2.8 is good enough. In contrast the 20mm pancake lets in a stop and half more light, so a shot which would require a shutter speed of 1/20 sec at F2.8 (for example) becomes relatively comfortable at 1/50 sec F1.7. This makes the lens much more flexible in low-light situations; you're less likely to get blur through either subject motion or camera shake, and so can frequently shoot indoors without needing flash (thereby avoiding the 'rabbit-in-the-headlamps' look which has plagued social snapshots ever since small flashes were first mounted on compact cameras)."

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DROdio
6 months ago
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Oh I found a great review comparing the two lenses: http://m43photo.blogspot.com/2011/01/comparison-lumix-14mm-vs-lumix-20mm.html

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isaac mosquera
6 months ago
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This post here has another good review for using the 20mm lens as a portrait lens: http://m43photo.blogspot.com/2010/09/using-lumix-20mm-as-portrait-lens.html

You can see that there is some distortion at close ranges from the subject. Although we wont be doing portrait shots 100% of the time my wife she really wants a lens that takes a really good shot without having to think about her distance at all.

So, we actually bought both setups and wil be returning 1 of them. I'll let you know how it goes.

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DROdio
6 months ago
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Man, the plot thickens! That's a great writeup. I love the look of the low f-stop in the 20mm pics. It's a 1.7 vs a 4 on the other lens, and having the shallow depth of field just makes the subject pop, like in this pic: http://drod.io/image/2I170o193A1O

Which two setups did you buy?

Let's do this -- when you get them, let's test them both, and post the results in the community section of this blog. That'd give everyone else who reads this a great chance to see the differences. It'll be a fun chance to check them both out.

BTW one thing I did notice from the link you posted above was this line: " At a distance of about 0.7m (2 feet) or more, the face distortion should not be noticeable" ... I'd think that you'd often be at 2+ feet. But like you said, the best plan is to just try them out and see for yourself.

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6 months ago
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Also, I looked in Amazon comments for people comparing the two lenses and found these:

"After living with and LOVING the optics of the Lumix 20mm pancake f 1.7, I find this 14mm f 2.5 to be "just an ok lens". The pancake size profile is great but the optics leave me leaving this lens home."

"I feel some people are being a bit unfair with the rating of this lens, giving all the fanfare to the 20mm 1.7. Now, while the extra stop would be very nice, the quicker and quieter AF [from what I hear] on the 14mm is more to my liking."

Man it's a tough one! Save $100, while getting a faster focusing lens that's 5mm thinner AND a wider field of view... or spend the extra $100 and get a lower F-stop, which means less blur, a shallower depth-of-field, better low light performance and better optics.

After mulling it over a bit, I think I'd go with the 1.7. I just really love low f-stops for picture quality.

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6 months ago
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Here are some more Amazon comments that specifically contrast the 14mm 2.5 lens with the 20mm 1.7 lens:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R195KMMF67C1LT/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_1

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3GIYVC5LCYJFZ/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_2

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1A2518K9SCHQR/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_5

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3U9Z26KGS9U0A/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_6

http://www.amazon.com/review/RCODC7M0N4KJ9/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_8

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isaac mosquera

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isaac mosquera
6 months ago
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I think that last $100 might be worth it for me for the pancake lens. I think that "pro" feel you're talking about with the low f-stop might be worth it for me especially since I'm taking pictures mostly of people.

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DROdio
6 months ago
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OK so I went over to Isaac's house last night and we did a little lens bake-off. Here are the results (a post on the community section -- feel free to write your own questions/thoughts there as well).

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6 months ago
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Yeah agreed. If you're mostly taking pics of people, then that 1.7f pancake lens would be killer good. Very shallow depth-of-field.

You may want to spring for the manual, bulkier zoom lens for $50 more than just the body. That way, you can carry that lens with you whenever you know you're going to be taking outdoor shots, and just keep the pancake lens on the rest of the time.

That'd be a pretty sweet setup. I almost went that way myself and I sometimes wonder if I would've been happier doing it that way... although I do appreciate having built-in zoom capability. I'm definitely going to have to check that pancake lens out if you get it!

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isaac mosquera

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isaac mosquera
6 months ago
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Thanks for the quick and informative response Daniel. Quick newbie question: What is meant by "pancake"? is it just referring to it's size?

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DROdio
6 months ago
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Yeah "pancake" just means a very flat lens with no zoom.

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2 months ago
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Here are some great pics I just took with the 20mm pancake lens. I just did a full shootout review of it here.

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Brooks Anderson

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Brooks Anderson
4 months ago
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Daniel,

I upgraded from the Lumix G1 to the G5 and am very glad I did. I shot this image of my brother-in-law and his wife without flash at ISO 1600. At full resolution, it's quite impressive. Here, I've compressed it for on-line viewing.

The G5 has many scene settings. I used a night portrait setting for this shot.

Brooks

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JeremyCee

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4 months ago
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Ran across this photog that's doing AMAZING HDR stuff!

http://prints.abpan.com

https://www.facebook.com/abpan

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DROdio
4 months ago
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Wow those are some awesome HDRs... makes me want to come back to DC just to photograph the Mall! You gonna give it a shot?

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6 months ago
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BTW here's a gorgeous pic that my wife @SueOdio took using my brother @SamOdio's D-60 camera:

You can find the full wedding gallery right here. Shots were taken either with my GX1 using the 14-42mm power zoom lens, or @Isaac's GX1 using the 20mm portrait lens, or using Sam's D60.

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6 months ago
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Last week, @IsaacMosquera and I did an evaluation of a new 20mm 1.7f lens for the GX 1, which you can find right here.

Now, some real-world results are in. Below are two pictures -- the first taken by Isaac, and the second taken by me. And let me say -- that 20mm lens is amazing for portraits.

And here's a night-shot of our friend Julie taken by Isaac using a 1.3 second exposure at 1600 ISO using the same 20mm lens:

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6 months ago
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Also -- how cool is it that just 2 weeks ago, Isaac you were saying how excited you were to get back into photography, and now you're taking shots like these. Incredible.

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Brooks Anderson

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Brooks Anderson
6 months ago
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Those look great.

I too wanted a camera that I'll always have with me, so I got a Nokia 808 camera phone. I recently posted my impressions of the 808 here.

Here are a couple of photos that I shot with the Nokia 808:

This image is of plastic bottle labels that have been illegally dumped in Pondicherry, India.

I noticed that Amazon was selling the Lumix G5 for $499 yesterday.

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6 months ago
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Very vibrant colors -- did you run those pics through any filters, or are they straight from the Nokia phone?

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Brooks Anderson
6 months ago
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I used the in-camera neutral density filter on the dog photo. Both images were Photoshopped to adjust light balance. The 808 can take surprisingly sharp closeups (within 10 feet), but subjects at greater distance are not always very sharp.

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8 months ago
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I just posted a followup of what I've learned in the first 14 days with the Lumix GX1 in the community section.

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8 months ago
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BTW Here are a few pro-tips for the GX1 I've found after using the camera for a few weeks:

1) The printed manual isn't complete. There's an electronic version included with the DVD, or you can find a version on Panasonic Europe's website. It's well worth reading to really understand how the camera works; I'm still going through it.

2) When I take multiple-exposure shots for HDR, the GX1 will automatically fire off five with consecutive exposure steps. But after doing a few of those in a row, the camera needs some time to write the images to the SD card (although it *can* still keep taking photos for a bit, which is cool -- there's some type of built-in buffer.) So I did some research on SD cards and realized that the regular "class 10" cards I've been using (like this one) are limited to 10mbps transfer. There's a newer standard called UHS-1 which can do 50mpbs (and possibly even up to 100+mbps). Trey had mentioned that he uses a card brand called Raw Steel, and now I understand why: It uses this faster standard. So I checked to see if the GX1 supports UHS-1 and it does! So I may soon purchase a 16gb Raw Steel card, which costs $50 vs. $11.50 for the regular Class 10 Amazon branded SD card.

I'm not sure if the raw steel card is 45mbps or 95mpps, but there is also a SanDisk Extreme version that's 45mbps for $17.88 or a 95mbps version for $42.55, so those are other options too.

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8 months ago
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I've done a test now on the three SD cards. The winner from a value perspective (lowest latency w/ largest card capacity) was the 45mbps card. You can see the full test here: http://danielodio.com/community/micro-sd-card-shootout-the-need-for-speed

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8 months ago
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Adding to the string here ... stumbled on this at ThinkGeek .. that have the BEST stuff for random fits of "why didn't I think of that?"!

Capture SLR Camera Clip System

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f161/?cpg=47832954

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8 months ago
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Now that is pretty cool! I wonder how well it would work with the GX1, since it has a short lens. Regardless, good find!

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8 months ago
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I went on a trip with my wife, brother and his dog over the weekend, and we got a few great pics. I'll explain how we got them, and I'm also including metadata so you can get an idea of what the GX1's camera settings were:

I auto-shot 5 exposures of this pic and then imported them into Photomatix Pro to get this HDR version. It's my favorite shot of the weekend.

This shot was taken by my brother Sam using his DSLR. I used Trey's "Amazing Raisins" preset to pull the colors out. Sam's not a huge fan of HDR pics; he prefers the natural look, so my guess is that he'll feel this shot is over-saturated. I'll ping him to respond to the comment thread w/ his thoughts. Great photography regardless, though!

This is a shot of my brother Sam and his Land Rover Defender. A great shot. I used the set it and forget it "intelligent auto" functionality of the GX1 to get this shot. Basically no matter what mode you're in, you can press one button and the camera goes into "dumb user" mode where it pics the best aperture, shutter speed, etc. It's great for just firing off quick shots where you don't want to miss a moment and you don't want to fiddle with the camera to make sure everything's just right.

This is another picture I took in intelligent auto mode. The GX1 was small enough for me to carry with me while I was on my motorcycle, which is exactly what I was hoping would be the case.

A great picture by my wife Sue of Sam's dog, Ronin.

Lastly, here are 3 variations of a picture of Ronin:

First this is the untouched photo, just imported into Lightroom straight from the camera

This is the same photo with Trey's Amazing Raisins preset applied within Lightroom

And here's the photo with Photomatix HDR filters applied.

Which variation do you like best? I'd love to know; just reply to this comment.

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6 months ago
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Daniel, Since you like dog photos, here's one of mine, shot with my trusty old Lumix G1.

The GH2 body is $499 on Amazon now. Tempted to upgrade.

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8 months ago
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All of them are AWESOME shots ... the one of you in the mirror and the quick, low-angle one of Ronin are my favs ... and they both are all about composition and noticing a cool angle more so than f-stops and post-processing. That's what's so SUPER important about having such a simple camera that "you have with you". And now that your brain is consciously on photography, you'll notice these types of situation more often and get more interesting photos ... even though they were "quick and dirty".

I like the third version of the last image. Very obviously WAY over done with post production compared to the original ... best balance of colors IMHO.

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Rene Vazquez

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Rene Vazquez
8 months ago
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That's awesome Daniel! You've inspired me to get back into real photography. The iPhone cameras have gotten so good that I got lazy about bringing my DSLR with me, whereas before I never left home without it. I love your thought process regarding having a camera compact enough that you are more apt to take it with you, while still getting performance that approaches the larger DSLRs. My DSLR is a dinosaur now, so you've inspired me to start looking at cameras again. Plus my son Brandon has shown interest in photography and has asked for a good camera for Xmas. Your research is most appreciated and will be used!

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CEO of Socialize. Entrepreneur & lifehacker in Silicon Valley. Hopeless travelaholic.

DROdio

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DROdio
8 months ago
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Rene, really happy to hear that, and also great to have you active on the blog. I'd love to get your thoughts on anything & everything; you can just post in www.danielodio.com/community . I look forward to having some great conversations there.

Yeah these new Micro 4/3 cameras are incredible. They really fill a gap in the market. I just never felt that the DSLRs were practical for taking around with me on a regular basis. So this new category is exactly what I was looking for, and I'm super happy with the Lumix GX1 so far. Now I just have to figure out how to completely use it!

Also, I haven't forgotten about your other question regarding the HDR image I took. I'm going to write a separate blog up about that sometime in the next week or so.

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