I love the old m43 cameras: very large sensor for a compact camera, cheap to buy used, outputs raw file format, lets you go full manual when you need to, lots of affordable lens options...
@@ChengBros123Make some lemonade and set up a lemonade stall and sell for $1 a cup, or go to garage sales with your parents to try and find cheap used old camera to start with lil bro. Sadly no one gonna give you anything free (nor should they). Good luck, you can do it!
I picked up a GF3 that is a stripped down GF2 for $35. Great pocket camera that I can turn on and shoot quickly even when wearing winter gloves. With the 14-42 power zoom lens, it's a pocket rocket. Liked the small size so much, I recently upgraded to the Lumix GX850 😊👍
The worst thing about this camera is that is has a touch screen that can't be turned off. Other than that, it's great with its approx. 96mbps 25fps 1080 video and decent picture profiles. It may only be 8bit, but it's an older camera these days and still grades nicely. I still use it as a scouting camera to present shots that will go to production (some of those shots get mixed in with the final product). It's a HELL of a lot better than a phone these days and such a great price. There are some real bargains for cameras at this price point now. There's really no excuse to be using your phone anymore for terrible pictures and videos.
Well, I have a nice GF1 with he nice attachable EVF and sitting here looking at an HD TV screen that is 8 or 10 feet away on a large, TV the images from the GF1 resolve down to the pixel level of the TV screen, which as I said is about 10 feet away. Granted it is a longer lens, but the detail is there. So, 12 megapixels is kind of lens dependent and a good lens on a 12 megapixel camera may resolve effectively as much as many other cameras with more megapixels but lesser lenses, and then there is the effect of shake, shutter speeds, and general movement to consider. Frankly, in the past, most 35mm film situations when used by most people would be hard pressed to effectively resolve 15 megapixels since camera shake, poor lenses, bad light and crappy developing and printing all tended to ruin things. One would need good technique to coax the best out of even fine grain slow speed film. The same can be said for old digital cameras. Much as in carpentry, surgery, or political office, it is not so much the tool as the one who wields it. Old digital cameras were designed to be primarily stills cameras, video was an add-on feature at best.
I still have mine with the 14-42 and 50-200mm lenses. I always blue lighted it for Ebay pics and my listings would still look 10x better than 99% of other listings. Last month we went hiking with my in-laws and I decided to bring along my GF2 for some better quality pictures. Turns out my wife's cousin had picked up a used Sony A7 (not sure if ii or whatever) which, to say the least showed up my GF2. This week I picked up a G7 body for $325 and my 14-42 and 45-200 Panasonic lenses have new life. Not sure about selling the GF2. If anyone sees a "Perfectly Working Dented GF2 Body with Soothing Blue Light" on Ebay for $50. you'll know we've parted ways. A good thing is that my new G7 has forced me to learn about aperture, iso, shutter speed etc rather than just checking the blue light is on. My GF2 probably be happy to find a new home, lol.
Actually you can adjust the color and bw profiles contrast, sharpness, noise reduction and saturation for the color profile. You can also adjust color on the My Colors jpegs and there's a Custom color you can create in camera! Those are the stills options along with RAW. I got my GF2 body from MPB for $30 a couple of years ago, flash didn't work but I don't use flash much anyway and you can get a hot shoe flash of course. Excellent deal, get a Lumix 20/f1.7 to go with it and shoot RAW plus jpeg.
I still find the GF2 & GF1 perfectly usable. I bought a GF2 when they were still new after stumbling upon one for sale at Costco. I didn't know anything about them or Mu43 but I thought it would be a good alternative when I didn't want to carry my Nikon APS-C gear. After I got a 20mm f/1.7 the GF2 was a perfect little companion. Eventually I sold it when I got a Nikon Coolpix A that took over the role. in 2019 I realized that many of the photos I really liked were shot with that GF2 so I bought another one. When I saw how cheap all this older gear was I snagged a GF1 as well and some essential Mu43 lenses (for me): Olympus 12-40mm Pro, 60mm Macro, & Panasonic 20mm. I found myself never using the Nikon gear so I invested in a new Olympus E-M5.2 and sold all the Nikon gear. I've since picked up a E-M1, E-M1.2, several more lenses, and 2 more GF2s that essentially came free with lenses I bought. The GF1 with a Panasonic 15mm f/1.7 is currently my grab & go setup. It's still taking great shots. Get good glass, shoot in RAW, and these old cameras will serve you well. I did just get back into Nikon APS-C though...with a D200:)
My old GF3 is maybe going to be my next webcam with a $20 HDMI capture card. Fed up of having to open my laptop (connected to a monitor) to do video conferencing.
i bought a gf3 in 2014 just because it cost 10$ more if i bought just the lens. thought to myself: let me buy a lens and i'll get a camera for free. and man, i love with my gf3 for travel. my best pictures in life i took with this little marvelous of a camera. and it takes beautiful raw photos. I definetly reccomend these old panny cameras for anyone who want a small cheap option for traveling and take great photos.
I bought one for $50 (body only) to video record my son's wedding from a tripod, which worked out fine. I use it occasionally with the 20mm f1.7 as a point and shoot for family get togethers. I hoped it would do better using adapters and older lenses. I prefer my bargain $110 Pentax K10D DSLR which has better image quality but no video.
Gf1 produces much better skin tones than other newer m43 models including G9. Gf1 has very bad noise performance and dynamic range. But it is a very good camera for portraits if u know what u are doing. I always use it with my A73 and most of the time my clients prefer the portrait from gf1.
Oh wow - $380 is absolutely insane for this camera in this day and age. If the lenses are some of the higher quality micro four thirds. I could see it, but a lot of times people try to sell a 14-42mm kit lens plus a 45-150mm zoom and that’s just way too expensive.
@@steve_heise yeah I normally see them for like a hundred fifty bucks. Lately I'm just seeing some insane prices. Someone was trying to sell like a Fuji bridge camera for $500. The biggest problem is people go by Amazon and there's always a retailers trying to unload stuff they're at still new cost. I just got a Pentax Q great little camera for $100 used at Adorama. If you got a lens or two you can usually find them around 225 but yet I did find a listing on Amazon for $645 which is totally nuts the problem is somebody's going to price their used item on Facebook by that listing it really becomes quite a s*** show sometimes. I came across some Canon 6D s the first one the price range goes from 450 the 1200 depending on the listing I don't understand who's trying to get $1,200🤷
I just pulled out my old GF2 and slapped on a 14mm pancake lens. It is a great little camera to take anywhere and if you shoot it with the monochrome mode it kind of hides some of the old higher ISO issues.
Interesting... I have Canon XSi (no video!). And my dad has the GF5 (similar to this one in the video). I was thinking of trading the Canon for this one...
Thanks for the review, when you were talking about pros, the lenses was the only thing I could think of... and you called it! 10 years ago was yesterday! Lol
No mode dial means you have to do everything with the sluggish LCD. I haven't found any way to do exposure compensation. But I don't thing twice about throwing it into a bag usually with a 20mm f1.7.
Even with a f1.4 lens, the GF2 video feature is like using 16mm 100asa motion film-must have lots of light, but the results are quite pleasing. Don’t use it indoors, it SUCKS for interior/studio videos.
I bought a 14mm f:2.5 and it came with a complete GF2 as its back-cover... All in for 80 bucks. I really should charge the battery and give it a spin. :-D
The video you did using the GF2 on yourself kind of video selfie was actually better than whatever camera you were using for video to do the rest of the video. So use the GF2 in future for that it looks much better.
How's the lcd screen for use with manual focus lenses? I heard the gf1 was pretty bad in that regard. Thinking of picking one of these up for fun since it's so cheap
Graet video, but its not that cheap ^^ for girl i bought Fuji X-A2 for... 85$. This fuji blows away Panas. I like panasonics, but... 65$ is too much ;)
I love the old m43 cameras: very large sensor for a compact camera, cheap to buy used, outputs raw file format, lets you go full manual when you need to, lots of affordable lens options...
I agree!
@@steve_heise do you have any camera i can have for free! I KNOW IS a random question but anyway you could?
@@ChengBros123Make some lemonade and set up a lemonade stall and sell for $1 a cup, or go to garage sales with your parents to try and find cheap used old camera to start with lil bro. Sadly no one gonna give you anything free (nor should they). Good luck, you can do it!
Just few days ago i got myself red GF1 minto condition for 30 usd and pair with my own 14mm pancake seem amazing.
I think 720p is enough for vlogging.
I picked up a GF3 that is a stripped down GF2 for $35. Great pocket camera that I can turn on and shoot quickly even when wearing winter gloves. With the 14-42 power zoom lens, it's a pocket rocket. Liked the small size so much, I recently upgraded to the Lumix GX850 😊👍
The worst thing about this camera is that is has a touch screen that can't be turned off. Other than that, it's great with its approx. 96mbps 25fps 1080 video and decent picture profiles. It may only be 8bit, but it's an older camera these days and still grades nicely. I still use it as a scouting camera to present shots that will go to production (some of those shots get mixed in with the final product). It's a HELL of a lot better than a phone these days and such a great price. There are some real bargains for cameras at this price point now. There's really no excuse to be using your phone anymore for terrible pictures and videos.
Yeah right tell that to the rest of the world unfortunately true
Honestly it's still really good for stills, i "rediscovered" mine and it's great. Video mode sucks though, any phone is better for that these days.
Well, I have a nice GF1 with he nice attachable EVF and sitting here looking at an HD TV screen that is 8 or 10 feet away on a large, TV the images from the GF1 resolve down to the pixel level of the TV screen, which as I said is about 10 feet away. Granted it is a longer lens, but the detail is there. So, 12 megapixels is kind of lens dependent and a good lens on a 12 megapixel camera may resolve effectively as much as many other cameras with more megapixels but lesser lenses, and then there is the effect of shake, shutter speeds, and general movement to consider. Frankly, in the past, most 35mm film situations when used by most people would be hard pressed to effectively resolve 15 megapixels since camera shake, poor lenses, bad light and crappy developing and printing all tended to ruin things. One would need good technique to coax the best out of even fine grain slow speed film. The same can be said for old digital cameras. Much as in carpentry, surgery, or political office, it is not so much the tool as the one who wields it. Old digital cameras were designed to be primarily stills cameras, video was an add-on feature at best.
I still have mine with the 14-42 and 50-200mm lenses. I always blue lighted it for Ebay pics and my listings would still look 10x better than 99% of other listings. Last month we went hiking with my in-laws and I decided to bring along my GF2 for some better quality pictures. Turns out my wife's cousin had picked up a used Sony A7 (not sure if ii or whatever) which, to say the least showed up my GF2. This week I picked up a G7 body for $325 and my 14-42 and 45-200 Panasonic lenses have new life. Not sure about selling the GF2. If anyone sees a "Perfectly Working Dented GF2 Body with Soothing Blue Light" on Ebay for $50. you'll know we've parted ways. A good thing is that my new G7 has forced me to learn about aperture, iso, shutter speed etc rather than just checking the blue light is on. My GF2 probably be happy to find a new home, lol.
my favorite camera for everyday use, boiled it now for about $ 20
Actually you can adjust the color and bw profiles contrast, sharpness, noise reduction and saturation for the color profile. You can also adjust color on the My Colors jpegs and there's a Custom color you can create in camera! Those are the stills options along with RAW. I got my GF2 body from MPB for $30 a couple of years ago, flash didn't work but I don't use flash much anyway and you can get a hot shoe flash of course. Excellent deal, get a Lumix 20/f1.7 to go with it and shoot RAW plus jpeg.
I still find the GF2 & GF1 perfectly usable. I bought a GF2 when they were still new after stumbling upon one for sale at Costco. I didn't know anything about them or Mu43 but I thought it would be a good alternative when I didn't want to carry my Nikon APS-C gear. After I got a 20mm f/1.7 the GF2 was a perfect little companion. Eventually I sold it when I got a Nikon Coolpix A that took over the role. in 2019 I realized that many of the photos I really liked were shot with that GF2 so I bought another one. When I saw how cheap all this older gear was I snagged a GF1 as well and some essential Mu43 lenses (for me): Olympus 12-40mm Pro, 60mm Macro, & Panasonic 20mm. I found myself never using the Nikon gear so I invested in a new Olympus E-M5.2 and sold all the Nikon gear. I've since picked up a E-M1, E-M1.2, several more lenses, and 2 more GF2s that essentially came free with lenses I bought. The GF1 with a Panasonic 15mm f/1.7 is currently my grab & go setup. It's still taking great shots. Get good glass, shoot in RAW, and these old cameras will serve you well. I did just get back into Nikon APS-C though...with a D200:)
My old GF3 is maybe going to be my next webcam with a $20 HDMI capture card. Fed up of having to open my laptop (connected to a monitor) to do video conferencing.
i bought a gf3 in 2014 just because it cost 10$ more if i bought just the lens. thought to myself: let me buy a lens and i'll get a camera for free. and man, i love with my gf3 for travel. my best pictures in life i took with this little marvelous of a camera. and it takes beautiful raw photos. I definetly reccomend these old panny cameras for anyone who want a small cheap option for traveling and take great photos.
Hey can you use the lens that came with the kit for other cameras?
Just bought my GF2 few days ago for a similar price. I'm happy with it so far!
Timely. I need to send my Panasonic in for repair (thumb wheel issue) and was thinking of picking up a GF2 as a back up. Thanks.
Thanks and by the way, my G3 is having a thumb wheel issue too. It basically stays pushed in to where it’s difficult to change any settings.
I bought one for $50 (body only) to video record my son's wedding from a tripod, which worked out fine. I use it occasionally with the 20mm f1.7 as a point and shoot for family get togethers. I hoped it would do better using adapters and older lenses. I prefer my bargain $110 Pentax K10D DSLR which has better image quality but no video.
Gf1 produces much better skin tones than other newer m43 models including G9. Gf1 has very bad noise performance and dynamic range. But it is a very good camera for portraits if u know what u are doing. I always use it with my A73 and most of the time my clients prefer the portrait from gf1.
Glad to see another new video with this camera 😁😊😊
Unfortunately I see somebody trying to ask $380 and 2020 with two lenses I'm finding out what lenses they are but that's kind of a ridiculous price
Oh wow - $380 is absolutely insane for this camera in this day and age. If the lenses are some of the higher quality micro four thirds. I could see it, but a lot of times people try to sell a 14-42mm kit lens plus a 45-150mm zoom and that’s just way too expensive.
@@steve_heise yeah I normally see them for like a hundred fifty bucks. Lately I'm just seeing some insane prices. Someone was trying to sell like a Fuji bridge camera for $500. The biggest problem is people go by Amazon and there's always a retailers trying to unload stuff they're at still new cost. I just got a Pentax Q great little camera for $100 used at Adorama. If you got a lens or two you can usually find them around 225 but yet I did find a listing on Amazon for $645 which is totally nuts the problem is somebody's going to price their used item on Facebook by that listing it really becomes quite a s*** show sometimes. I came across some Canon 6D s the first one the price range goes from 450 the 1200 depending on the listing I don't understand who's trying to get $1,200🤷
My 2009 Olympus E-P1 is still going strong.
I just pulled out my old GF2 and slapped on a 14mm pancake lens. It is a great little camera to take anywhere and if you shoot it with the monochrome mode it kind of hides some of the old higher ISO issues.
i have my gf3 and i love it and im planning to buy lumix g3 body for outdoor photography because i need the EV
ill use the gf3 for indoor photography or for quick street photography
Interesting... I have Canon XSi (no video!). And my dad has the GF5 (similar to this one in the video). I was thinking of trading the Canon for this one...
Thanks for the review, when you were talking about pros, the lenses was the only thing I could think of... and you called it! 10 years ago was yesterday! Lol
I picked two of these up last year one at NZ$20, the other came attached to a lens for effectively -NZ$25. With a quick firmware hack it is brilliant.
how do you hack the firmware?
I'm still using the elder GF1 ,, nice video
I just got one for $110 with the 14mm f2.5 lens! Excited to snap some pics with it.
I love those old M4/3 cameras. Are you going to consider doing a 2022 review of the LUMIX GX1 camera?
I have a red colored one, it still shoots much better pictures than my Iphone 12 pro , not the video , though
No mode dial means you have to do everything with the sluggish LCD. I haven't found any way to do exposure compensation. But I don't thing twice about throwing it into a bag usually with a 20mm f1.7.
Even with a f1.4 lens, the GF2 video feature is like using 16mm 100asa motion film-must have lots of light, but the results are quite pleasing. Don’t use it indoors, it SUCKS for interior/studio videos.
I bought a 14mm f:2.5 and it came with a complete GF2 as its back-cover... All in for 80 bucks. I really should charge the battery and give it a spin. :-D
A quality lens helps a ton
The video you did using the GF2 on yourself kind of video selfie was actually better than whatever camera you were using for video to do the rest of the video. So use the GF2 in future for that it looks much better.
Gf1 and gf2 produce very good skin tones, most of the times even better than many higher end models.
I have a GF2. the only thing I dont like the camera is , it cant save the video file in mp4.
How's the lcd screen for use with manual focus lenses? I heard the gf1 was pretty bad in that regard. Thinking of picking one of these up for fun since it's so cheap
Can you use the lens kit included in this with other cameras?
No, you can never replace an old camera + lens with a smartphone. Never. Ok, maybe until 2030.
Don't you mean 'RAW+JPEG'?
For your child?
Graet video, but its not that cheap ^^ for girl i bought Fuji X-A2 for... 85$. This fuji blows away Panas. I like panasonics, but... 65$ is too much ;)
Wow, that’s a great deal! They’re still going for around $200 on eBay. I definitely like those Fuji colors.
You hear yourself complaining about a full digital camera for $65 thank you for being part of the throwaway Society
DP review? Anyone who takes notice of the crap they come out with needs to be sectioned.