There are times when I want to carry a camera, but I don’t want to carry my full DSLR kit around. For the past couple of years I have used a Panasonic LX3 for this role. I purchased it when travelling in Asia and used it for some street photography first, where the small form factor was a nice benefit. It’s tiny, by DSLR standards, has a wide angle zoom (24-60) for a point and shoot. It also deals with low light reasonable well, both with a fast lens, and with acceptable high iso performance.
I like it, but I wanted to try something different recently. I’ve been toying around with trying out a micro-4/3 system camera, so I picked up Panasonic GH1 micro-4/3 camera to try out. It’s larger than the LX3, but can swap lenses, has a larger sensor which should provide some ability to handle high iso better. On a downside it’s got an EVF, but it does have an articulated liveview screen, and it’s still small compared to my DSLR.
I’ve had it for a week, and took it on a recent business trip. I snapped the above picture out of a commuter plane while taking off from Salt Lake City. It’s probably my first keeper from the camera. I’m going to continue with it for awhile and see how it works.
