Thanks,
Gus

That’s a good point James but I wonder if this happens only with the MFT lenses by Panasonic, Olympus and Leica? How about if you’re using Leica M lenses with an adapter? I don’t yet have a G1 but am considering it and am trying to learn all I can beforehand. I plan to use M lenses mostly if I decide to get a G1.

Thanks,
Gus

Peter

Sean: I’m honored you took the time to read this post and respond to it. After resisting for many months, I recently subscribed to your site. I kept thinking, “why should I pay for editorial content when so much is available for free?” Within 30 minutes of signing up, I learned the answer — your reviews are the most informative and even-handed photography-related critiques I’ve read. You present clear and useful findings and let us, the photographers, judge whether those findings are relevant to our own needs. I may be a 20 year veteran of the SLR, but the rangefinder world is still a little ‘mysterious’ to me. But thanks to the investigative efforts of the extremely helpful people at popflash.com, I’ll soon be the proud owner of a ‘beater’ demo M8 — and at a price that matches the self-imposed and ridiculously impoverished limit I set as my entry into the rangefinder club. I look forward to your upcoming articles and I hope, once the M8 is in my hands, to share my experiences. To date, most articles seem to approach the M8 from the viewpoint of the veteran Leica film user. I’m hoping to offer a different point-of-view — as an experienced SLR photographer who’s making his first serious foray into rangefinders.

Scott: I have fiddled with the Canon G10 in stores. It seems like a very nice camera and I have no doubt, if I owned one, I’d probably love it at least as much as my little DMC-LX3. But as I mentioned in one of my “Like a Leica” tomes (Part 2, I think), I didn’t need a replacement for the LX3. I needed a street camera. And no enthusiast camera was adequately equipped to address my needs (such as lenses with barrel markings for zone-focusing).

Filip: Thanks for suggesting the R-D1. When I wrote this article, the R-D1 was a long-orphaned product and, though I considered hunting for a used version, I had several concerns about it (not the least, of course, was whether or not I could get it serviced). Since I published that article, Epson has re-released the R-D1 and I admit to being somewhat tempted. But I had reservations about the sensor. Not that I’m a megapixel guy — quite the opposite — but 6 of ‘em was just a little too few for the way I wanted to shoot. I knew I’d be grabbing some fast shots (some from the hip), so cropping often comes into play in my photographs. As with the Canon G10, which Scott (above) asked about, I’m sure the R-D1 is a good camera. Honestly, I’ve never seen a camera I didn’t like. It’s just that, for the price of a ‘new’ model R-D1, I kept thinking I would eventually find a used M8 that, ultimately, would provide me with more of what I, personally, wanted. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not a Leica ‘fanboy’. I don’t even have one yet. I never bought into the Nikon vs. Canon debate. I have Canon gear, not because Nikon is ‘bad’, but because I started with Canon and, as such, have built up a nice collection of Canon gear over the years. It would be pretty foolish to switch just because, every couple of years, one company’s product trumps the other for a short period of time. Similarly, if you’re a good guitarist, you’ll sound great on either a Fender or a Gibson. Or, in my case (as a bad guitarist), I sound awful on both. So I own Rickenbackers because I love the way they look. There are certainly elements of the R-D1 design that I like, and who knows… if I get addicted to rangefinders, I just might end up with an R-D1 at some later date. Particularly since, I’m sure, its sensor would give me a different look than the Leica. That’s one of the things that intrigues me about the rangefinder market. Todays rangefinders seem to be ‘standardized’ on the M-mount, meaning I don’t have to ‘buy in’ to one manufacturer or another.

plevyadophy: Thanks for your description of the Sony R1. I had not used one, but it does sound like a better implementation of manual focus than the G1. Sean Reid (who checked in above) offered up a really interesting idea for an MFT digital rangefinder in his G1 review. I’d love to see one of the MFT developers implement his design concept. It would certainly increase the utility of the format. For that matter, I’d like to see this feature built-in to cameras with larger sensors. There’s no reason why it need be an MFT-only methodology.

Dave J: I agree wholeheartedly that “Leica Love” does not necessarily require a $15,000 investment. I chose that figure because that’s what a new M8.2 and a couple of wide Summilux lenses would ultimately cost me — a kit that I would define as ‘ideal’ for the way I like to shoot. Obviously I don’t need to purchase new, nor do I need to necessarily purchase Leica lenses of that speed (though I am admittedly addicted to fast primes, courtesy of the many happy years I’ve spent with Canon L-class primes). As I mentioned in my response to Sean, popflash.com has managed to find me a used, demo M8 that fits within my self-imposed and previously impossible budget constraints. They promise it’ll have its share of cosmetic battle scars, but that’s fine — I’m a photographer, not a collector. So I’m perfectly happy to own a camera that won’t devalue every time it brushes against a lamp post. I’m already sitting on a CV 35mm f/1.4 Nokton, so you can tell that lens snobbery is not actually in my DNA. In fact, given Sean’s assessment of the 35 f/1.4 Nokton’s focus shift issues (an aberration that doesn’t exist with the G1, since I’m focusing through the lens while stopped down to its actual aperture), I’m rethinking my entry-level lens strategy — perhaps getting a 28mm f/2.8 for ‘normal’ shooting and using the 35 for those f/1.4 and f/2 situations. By the way, thanks for planting the medium format bug in my head… I wrestled with that temptation for nearly a year in the early 1990′s.

I too have been down the retro path, the Bessa was bought and sold, I now have an M6, which will probably go on the block soon. On the other hand, the Fuji GA645 medium format range finder was my introduction to medium format, and a lead in to the exceptional Bronica RF645. True rangefinder shooing, medium format quality, and by using a local lab to develop and scan, it’s not too inconvenient.

You have captured what I have seen with the G1, I just need to get into more street shooting situations to use it.

Dave

Excellent review. This is the first time I have been to your site having just arrived via The Luminous Landscape site.

Anyway, just wanted to add a few words regarding the following comments you made:

- Qoute – First, I’d like to have 1-button access to the zoomed-in MF assist mode. It’s still cumbersome to trigger the 2-button sequence needed to enter this mode and, when using adapted lenses, you need to enter this mode on nearly every shot. Second, I’d like to see a user-selectable minimum shutter speed when using Aperture priority mode. The camera’s default setting of 1/30 is simply too slow for a non-stabilized lens. – End Qoute -

I actually find the way manual focus works with even the kit lenses highly irritating. I think it should work the way it does on the Sony DSC-R1. To illustrate (mainly for those who don’t have the G1) here’s the G1 sequence.

1. Turn dial to Manual Focus (at this stage you have no idea what area of the frame will be focused upon and magnified)
2. So, to find out …………… touch left cursor key ( strangely, if you touch any of the other three cursor keys, instead of moving the focus area frame they instead enable such things as ISO even though you may have told the camera to use the cursor keys only for the purposes of moving the focus frame via the Setup menus (this is not an issue in autofocus modes by the way))
3. But, you still can’t do anything useful as turning the focus ring will do nothing. You now have to press the MENU/SET button in the centre of the cursor pad.
4. Now you can manually focus and get the magnified view.

This contrasts most unfavourably with the Sony R1 where one sets the camera to Manual Focus and is instantly greated with a focus area frame which you can move around STRAIGHT AWAY or leave where it is and start focusing which immediately results in a magnified view.

The R1 way is WAAAY more intuitive and fluid. As the focus area frame is constantly displayed and active, you simply use the joystick to move it around, focus and then fire.

Another issue I would like to see Panasonic address, is what happens when you try to autofocus on a subject and fail. If this happens and you then resort to manually focusing, the camera manually focuses but you DO NOT get the magnified view (the magnified view is only available if you have selected the AF+MF option in the setup AND you actually achieve focus lock in autofocus first). To my mind it would be much more useful if the AF+MF (aka. Manual Focus overide) worked where autofocus failed.

I agree with your point regarding a user selectable minimum shutter speed.

What would also make sense is if the user selectable max-ISO setting worked in the 1/3 stops(pecularly, you can manually choose 1/3 stop ISO settings, say ISO 640, but you can’t set the camera’s Auto ISO to go no higher than ISO640 as it must be ISO400 or 800 since it only works in full stop increments).

Regards,

It’s also interesting that when I write a review what’s often taken away from it, and widely discussed on the web, are whatever weaknesses are revealed. But, in fact, a review is also much richer than that and the G1 review looks at many strengths as well as weaknesses.

I think Egor’s point is important. Various combinations of lenses and bodies will have strengths and weaknesses but what really matters, to the individual photographer, is how each combination works *for the specific pictures he or she wants to make*. There, obviously, are no absolutes in determining that.

Lastly, its a myth that one must buy expensive lenses to work well with an M8. Some of the CV lenses are excellent and also inexpensive. There are also the Zeiss lenses as well as some more affordable Leica lenses (new and used). The camera itself is expensive (about $5K for a used M8.2 or $3500 for a used M8) but the lenses needn’t be. The common cliche that a Leica camera is wasted if one does not use Leica lenses, is of course, ridiculous.

Thanks for the post.

Cheers,

Sean Reid

But you asked about corner resolution and, specifically, if I had the same issues that Sean had. Before I read Sean’s review, I had personally witnessed this in a small subset of my photos. Even without pixel peeping I would, on some shots, see a marked softening in the corners. In general, it was most obvious in infinity-focussed, deep depth-of-field shots that contained trees. In those shots, where DoF wasn’t a factor, tree branches in the corners were noticeably softer than those branches in the center. So I knew the softness was there, but assumed it was the Nokton lens.

When Sean’s review came out, I hesitated to read it. I was, after all, reasonably happy with the shots I had captured with the Nokton/G1 combination and I was afraid his review would point out some fatal flaw that would forever taint the way I viewed my photographs. But I read it anyway. And, of course, I immediately started pixel peeping all the images I’d taken. The result? Yes there is definitely softness in the corners… but it has very little effect on the way I, personally, use this lens/body combination. As I mentioned, the soft corners are very evident in landscapes. In my architectural shots, I can see it if I look for it, but it’s not as ‘in your face.’ This is likely because buildings and details change across the frame and, as such, one’s eye is less likely to unwittingly compare a corner detail of one building with, say, a center detail of a completely different building. As with landscapes, I wouldn’t choose to use the Nokton/G1 combination for architectural photography, but the architecture shots I have taken with this combo have not been offensive. My main reason for using the G1/Nokton combo is street photography — and in that regards, I have absolutely no issue with the softer corners. I can see them if I pixel peep and if the depth-of-field is deep enough, but I have to look for it since, in general, the softness is in the areas of least concern and, often, obscured by DoF issues.

In many ways, I can achieve technically better results with the kit lens than with the adapted Nokton. But ‘technical’ isn’t always better. And for most of the shots I take with this combo (street), I’m much happier with the way the Nokton draws than the ‘clinical’ look of the kit lens.

So, long-winded answer to your short-winded question: Yes I can definitely confirm what Sean sees but, given the way I use this lens/body combination, the corner softness is not a problem for me. The benefits (f/1.4, barrel markings, drawing quality, dual-use for M-lenses) far outweigh the detriments (soft corners, chromatic aberrations, crop factor), and I have no regrets using this system. Obviously, my satisfaction is due to the type of photos I shoot with this system. Were I to shoot landscapes or architecture professionally (which, actually, I do), then I would (and do) choose to use a 5DmkII and L-lenses…

Vilsonius