Recently I picked up Panasonic’s GH1 to accompany the 5D MkII. The 5D MkII is at the top of its game, but sometimes lugging around that body with a host of prime lenses can be a bit much. On a dedicated photography assignment it’s perfect, but when you’re out for a vacation and the priority is to think as little as possible then the GH1 fills the bill perfectly.
Just don’t expect the GH1 to replace the 5D anytime soon, because it won’t. What it will do is accompany you without weighing you down and return beautiful photos and video.
The GH1 ships with the flexible 14-140mm zoom. The lens was designed from the very beginning with video in mind. There are no aperture clicks, instead the aperture is constantly variable. More importantly the lens has a silent AF motor. Changing apertures, zooming and AF noises do not show up on the built in stereo microphones. The lens also incorporates Panasonic’s MEGA OIS to give you hand holding stability. I’m not sure what Panasonic rates its MEGA OIS system, but from my experience so far I would guess you probably gain a 2-stop advantage. So far so good.
More later.
