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So D is a film-SLR Nikon junkie from way back, and both of us have bought solely Canon PS's since we first started buying digital cameras, and loved them. For the past two years or so we've been debating the relative merits of the various Canon and Nikon dSLRs out there. I have never, ever even thought of buying a Panasonic camera... until now.
My current digital compact is a G7, which I loved. Note the past tense on that. It took really lovely pictures. It has a dial for manual shutter/aperture manipulation! It has a large zoom. We had good times together. So when the G10 came out, I checked out the dpreview.com review. Which said, "Check out Panasonic!" And then my beloved G7 got a dust spot (actually four). I sent it to Canon. Canon said, "Your warranty has expired and it will cost $200 to repair." I consulted the interweb. The internet told me, "Actually, even if you get Canon to fix it you'll probably still have problems later on, because dust spots are a problem with the G7-G10 series."
So. Panasonic just came out with these two cameras-- the LX-3 and the G1 which I am totally coveting. The former is a high-end compact with a fast (f/2.0!) wide (24mm) lens, be still my heart! (No optical viewfinder, sorry![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ase!) The latter is a smaller-lighter interchangeable-lens larger-sensor electronic answer to the SLR. Not many lenses for it yet (and the ones it's got are slow) but this is supposed to be fixed fairly soon. The lenses are in a new "Micro 4/3" format which allows much smaller lenses (and camera body) than in the SLR format. I saw the 45-200mm f/4-5.6 (90-400mm equivalent) lens last week and it is TINY compared to the hulking behemoth equivalent lens on D's SLR.
I am really excited about the G1... There is no way I'm taking one of those huge Nikon/Canon 90-400mm lenses on, say, a plane, but I could very well see myself taking several of those cute small lenses along. And I can think of lots of situations (hiking, non-scenic trips by plane, people's weddings) where I would feel awkward lugging around an SLR with a humongous lens but could very well see myself with a smaller SLR-style camera/lens... We were thinking of taking the jump to a dSLR this year, but right now, I am leaning instead towards getting the LX3 before Kid's wedding and delaying the dSLR for even longer to see if this micro-4/3rds thing takes off... Only problem is, I tried the LX3 this weekend, and it's got this little joystick thing that, while not hard to use, really bugs me after the smooth awesome Canon-G dial I'm used to.
At any rate, even if I don't end up getting either of these cameras, I'm really pleased by Panasonic catering to my specific demographic: someone who wants full manual control, great image quality, good low-light performance, but I don't want to lug something huge/heavy around everywhere, and I don't need more megapixels than 7MP or so in my compact camera, which is what your entry-level dSLR has anyway.
My current digital compact is a G7, which I loved. Note the past tense on that. It took really lovely pictures. It has a dial for manual shutter/aperture manipulation! It has a large zoom. We had good times together. So when the G10 came out, I checked out the dpreview.com review. Which said, "Check out Panasonic!" And then my beloved G7 got a dust spot (actually four). I sent it to Canon. Canon said, "Your warranty has expired and it will cost $200 to repair." I consulted the interweb. The internet told me, "Actually, even if you get Canon to fix it you'll probably still have problems later on, because dust spots are a problem with the G7-G10 series."
So. Panasonic just came out with these two cameras-- the LX-3 and the G1 which I am totally coveting. The former is a high-end compact with a fast (f/2.0!) wide (24mm) lens, be still my heart! (No optical viewfinder, sorry
ase!) The latter is a smaller-lighter interchangeable-lens larger-sensor electronic answer to the SLR. Not many lenses for it yet (and the ones it's got are slow) but this is supposed to be fixed fairly soon. The lenses are in a new "Micro 4/3" format which allows much smaller lenses (and camera body) than in the SLR format. I saw the 45-200mm f/4-5.6 (90-400mm equivalent) lens last week and it is TINY compared to the hulking behemoth equivalent lens on D's SLR. I am really excited about the G1... There is no way I'm taking one of those huge Nikon/Canon 90-400mm lenses on, say, a plane, but I could very well see myself taking several of those cute small lenses along. And I can think of lots of situations (hiking, non-scenic trips by plane, people's weddings) where I would feel awkward lugging around an SLR with a humongous lens but could very well see myself with a smaller SLR-style camera/lens... We were thinking of taking the jump to a dSLR this year, but right now, I am leaning instead towards getting the LX3 before Kid's wedding and delaying the dSLR for even longer to see if this micro-4/3rds thing takes off... Only problem is, I tried the LX3 this weekend, and it's got this little joystick thing that, while not hard to use, really bugs me after the smooth awesome Canon-G dial I'm used to.
At any rate, even if I don't end up getting either of these cameras, I'm really pleased by Panasonic catering to my specific demographic: someone who wants full manual control, great image quality, good low-light performance, but I don't want to lug something huge/heavy around everywhere, and I don't need more megapixels than 7MP or so in my compact camera, which is what your entry-level dSLR has anyway.
