OK, I say it outright and go on the record – the new Panasonic DMC-GF1 will fail!
Sure, it beats the Olympus E-P1 left and right in almost all the specs. But Panasonic made one design decision that is going to haunt them and ultimately cause the failure of the GF1: In-lens image stabilization (IS). This means that only Panasonic’s own, image-stabilized micro four-third lenses will provide IS for the GF1. Put on any four-third lens through an adaptor, even Panasonic’s own four-third IS lenses, and you will lose IS.
This is crazy! They should have followed Olympus’ example. The E-P1 has in-body IS, which means that any micro four-third lens or any other lens attached via an adaptor will not impact IS on the E-P1. Any lens, including Zeiss and Leica glass! It is a no-brainer what I would choose.
Even in the DSLR market, in-body IS will win in the long term. Sure, in-lens IS offers probably one additional stop of stabilization, which is important for professionals. Thus, Canon and Nikon, with their huge Pro base to serve, keep turning out in-lens IS (or VR – vibration reduction in Nikon-speak) and their users keep paying for it over and over again with every lens they purchase. But the rest of the market has already moved to in-body IS, since it makes ANY lens stabilized. Especially the smaller players, such as Olympus, Pentax and Sigma, which are facing tough times, have no choice but to offer in-body IS. They need third-party lens manufacturers such as Tokina, Sigma and Tamron to stay competitive, because they cannot afford developing enough lenses on their own. Once Nikon, the smaller of the two big players, starts to move to in-body IS, the game is over.
Frankly, if I had to re-buy my entire equipment today, I would have a very hard time justifying the extra hundreds of dollars Canon charges for every of their (otherwise great) IS lenses. I would be very much tempted to move over to Sony and use a combination of Sony and third-party lenses instead, especially if you buy any camera with an APS-C crop factor sensor.
For a travel camera like any micro four-third system, I simply do not want to lock myself into Panasonic through their in-lens IS camera. As always, the investment is in the glass, not the body. Going with the Olympus E-P1 will protect that investment even if I were to switch at a later time. As long as the new camera has in-body IS, I’m fine. Which is exactly, why I will not look at the Panasonic GF1, if and when I decide to get a micro four-third as a travel camera.
p.s.
Our apologies that the Weekend Musings appear on a week-day due to the long weekend we just had.
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