GF1, f1.4, 1/3200, ISO 400, RAW, 80mmToday I went into town and bought a spare battery for the GF1, since I did not want to pay Panasonic's rip off price, I got a equivalent Energizer battery. Now, I have read of Panasonic being difficult with them accepting 3rd party batteries but guess my surprise when the camera refused to use this battery with a 'This Battery Can Not Be Used' message and there is no way to force the camera to use the battery.
If there is something I really, REALLY hate is locking devices down for no reason and using proprietary stuff to force me to buy the manufacturers own accessories.
So shame on you Pansonic!!! This is NOT how you go about things, either sell your own batteries at competitive prices or allow people to use any battery they want in your cameras.
I HATE proprietary stuff and being locked down for no reason, which I why I would never buy any Sony products for example. I am actually very tempted to return the camera just for this. It certainly is my last Panasonic camera that I bought unless they change their stupid policy.
So while I could recommend the GF1 before, now I can only say stay away from it and any other Panasonic camera until they change this behaviour.
Love the bokeh from the Nokton on this shot Cristian.
ReplyDeleteI thought the pigeons in yesterday's shot had a British look about them. :-)
I would just like to add how much I enjoyed the photos from New York.
Back to the Nokton -- is it easy to focus on the GF1? I take it AF confirmation is not available and you have to trust to your eyes?
Just when I thought you were going to rename the blog *Panasonic GF-1 Diary"!
ReplyDeleteI share your dislike of manufacturers that force the use of proprietary equipment, but I think you are being a bit hard on them if you think it turns a good camera into a bad one.
Peter
I've heard about the problems with Panasonic and 3rd party batteries as well.
ReplyDeleteJust want to say I never experienced any problems with the LX3, even not after a firmware update (while everyone told me that would make the non-Panasonic batteries useless).
I always used Jupio batteries, don't know whether that makes any difference.
Photographs with shallow depth of field? Cristian, are you doing well? :D
ReplyDeleteThe circular pattern in the background might not be everyones cup of tea, in terms of bokeh, but I really like it and reminds me of my Soviet 58mm Helios lens.
Thanks for your comment Calvin!
ReplyDeleteHehe, these were definitely British pigeons :).
Very glad to hear you enjoyed my New York pictures.
As for the Nokton, it is easy to focus thanks to the very good screen, it only gets difficult in low light because the refresh rate drops and it gets grainy.
This is where the GXR is way superior, which is also why the EVF on the GXR is way better than any m4/3 EVF.
Unfortunately there is not AF confirmation but you can press the wheel and have a magnified view that you can forther enlarge and this really makes focusing easier than with a rangefinder.
Peter, my blog won't be renamed just jet. And I might be a bit hard on the GF1 and Panasonic but this is something that really gets me. Manufactirers have to realize that consumers won't accept everything just so that Panasonic can make some extra cash by selling expensive batteries.
Robert, I believe Panasonic really only enforced this on the m4/3 cameras to date. This could also be based on the batteries for the G1/GF1 being some of the most expensive ones.
The LX3 works fine ven with the Ricoh DB-60 and DB-65 batteries.
Hehe, you are right Wouter, shallow DOF and my blog don't really fit ;).
But I see this more as a 'macro' shot and it was meant as a technical example of how the bokeh of the Nokton looks when used on the GF1.
I really like it and the Nokton also gives colors a glow when used fully open so it makes for some interesting pictures.
What awesome shot there...
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