Found this pic while rummaging through my 8GB SD today... priceless... lol.

Photo credit goes to chimou.

My Lumix FZ7 hav been serving me faithfully for more than 3 years. It's built like a tank, yet still small enough for me to bring around everywhere without bogging me down. It really is a dependable companion and the idiot proof menus are really a boon for photography retards like me. However, good as it is, deep down inside, I never was really happy with the photo quality... even from the first day I purchased it. Sure, there were workarounds I could use... but at times, I felt it was kinda crippled from that standpoint.

I've been toying around with the idea of getting a DSLR for years. But being from the PnS camp, both the price and learning curve intimidated me enough from commiting to it. But I did continue to follow the scene closely, hopefully something will catch my eye somewhere down the line. This year, 2 models finally did.

The Nikon D5000.

and the Panasonic Lumix G1.

The D5000 blew me away with it's specs and price. You could say it's practically a mini-D90 (with some compromises here and there), but I was a little put off by how butt-ugly it looks. And it wasn't exactly small. I fell in love with the Lumix G1 on the other hand; it looks beautifully petite. And being a big fan of the Panasonic menu system, I'm sure I could just jump in and start using the G1, instead of spending weeks relearning everything if I were to switch camp to Nikon.

I decided to go ramas these 2 candidates before making my decision. I managed to find the D5K in one of the camera shops in Penang road while I stumbled accross the G1 in one of the camera fairs at Gurney Plaza. First impressions; the D5K was rather plastiky but rock solid. The G1's felt like a Prada purse in my hands. The silky rubbery surface was pure joy to hold. No contest here.

In terms of handling, I leaned more towards the D5K. The bigger size and it's considerable weight made holding a stable stance much easier. The G1's dinky size meant it felt more like an oversized FZ7. And the diminutive 14-45mm lens was a little difficult to work with, especially when zooming in and out. In terms of screen size and clarity, the 3inch atriculating LCD (weighing in at almost half a million pixels) on the G1 whacks the shit out of the unit on the D5K which only have half the pixel count.

When it comes to autofocus speed, as expected, the D5K was fast, locking on almost instantaneously. The G1 was a big suprise. Even with it's full time live view which uses contrast detection AF, it was FAST. It was a joy using live view full time to focus; it felt exactly like a PnS camera. Seriously impressive shit here by Panasonic.

I then turned my eye to the viewfinders. As a traditional DSLR, the optical viewfinder on the D5K was a little small and dark, but perfectly usable. On the other hand, the G1 uses an EVF with 1.4million pixels. It sounds fantastic on paper, but when I used the EVF in person, I was a little dissapointed. It's smooth, but the experience was a little similar to what I have on the FZ7, just bigger and brighter. It felt 'artificial'. And to add salt to it, the moment I point the camera at a dark area, the EVF starts lagging horribly.

After going home to think about it for several days, I made up my mind, sold my remaining one kidney at the black market, and finally coughed up the blood money to purchase my first DSLR.

It really was a no brainer decision ;)

Sumimasen Panasonic...

*Tick another item off my 2009 wish list. Wish list is now officially closed.