A love letter to my old Lumix GF1 and the Ricoh GRIIIx that replaced it.
For the longest time, this Panasonic Lumix GF1 was my constant companion at a time in my life when a lot of photo-worthy things were going on.
That’s right: my early 30s. In fact, I bought it a few weeks after my 30th birthday, in 2010. When I had a social life!
This beautiful, metal-bodied ‘micro four/thirds’ thing lived either in a sling bag or in the pocket of my jeans – making for a very visible bulge, but it worked. It was just small enough to work, and thanks to that, it was always with me when a worthy moment came along.
And that mattered a lot, because if you think of the cameras our phones had back then – the iPhone 4 launched only a few months earlier – they were ‘fine’ but they were a long way off competing with any decent, dedicated camera.
This was also my first ‘proper’ camera.
I was never into film, as I had neither the patience for processing the photos myself nor waiting for them to come back from a 24-hour dropoff at the camera shop. I was always a digital boy, in my graphic design career (I came of age at a pretty convenient time for that), so it wasn’t until the advent of compelling digital cameras that my interest bloomed.
And boy did I dive into it! I’ve attached a few photos below, but there are full albums on these two flickr pages: van and mkstvns.
Warning: I was often very heavy-handed on the processing, with the clarity and saturation cranked up. It’s a common ‘rookie’ move, but I’ve also learned over the years that it’s important to be honest about these things.
So, here’s the honesty: I still love how all of these look. No regrets!
Lumix GF1 + 20mm f1.7 pancake
People
Lumix GF1 + 20mm f1.7 pancake
Cars
Lumix GF1 + 20mm f1.7 pancake
Scenes
Now, all these years later, I’m still no expert, but I do know a bit more about the tech and the craft.
One thing I’ll say, though, is that I’ve yet to find a true ‘successor’ to that stunning 20mm f1.7 pancake lens for my Sony A7CR. There are plenty of compact E Mount lenses, and a few pancake lenses too – but none with a faster aperture than f2.8 or so. I think this has something to do with the much larger full-frame sensor size? It’s a bit beyond my meagre knowledge of such things!
These days, the Lumix GF1 belongs to my little brother. I couldn’t bear selling it, but as I wasn’t using it much since ‘graduating’ to full-frame, I decided to at least keep it in the family. If you’re tempted to pick one up yourself, you’ll find the GF1 easily on eBay for about $100 USD.
If you’ve got more to spend, I’d recommend going for the latest-possible of its many spiritual successors. The line ended with the GX9, but any ‘GX’ models will be just as pocketable while adding various upgrades. In fact, these days you’ll find more “omg this retro camera is incredible” reviews of the GX1 than you will of the GF1, as the GX1 is newer but still pretty comparable in price on the used market.
Amusingly, my move to full-frame meant that I no longer had a pocketable camera, no matter how compact the A7CR can be – so I decided to fix that.
Ricoh GRIIIx
That brings us to my Ricoh.
My word I love this thing. It is absolutely tiny, as you can see in the photo at the top of this post, its lens is pin-prick sharp, and its 24mp APSC sensor is a great upgrade over the GF1’s 12.1mp micro-four/thirds sensor.
It isn’t perfect, of course. Its autofocus is too slow for any action shots, its battery life is on the short side, and it has zero weather sealing, but… to me, these are all very easily forgiven sins. I do miss the aperture of the Lumix lens, but hey… we can’t have everything.
The GRIIIx (40mm equivalent), or its wider-lens brother the GRIII (28mm equiv), are both well worth checking out!
