I haven’t actually used either camera, but I did look at them at B&H Photo yesterday. As you know, the Olympus E-P1 and the Panasonic G1 are the first two Micro Four Thirds cameras, which use the same size sensors as the full sized Four Thirds cameras, but lack a reflex mirror. The lack of the mirror means smaller and lighter camera and lens designs are possible.
The Panasonic G1 is, unfortunately, a boring looking camera. It could easily be mistaken for a small SLR or a big “super-zoom” P&S camera. There was an Olympus E-520 on display nearby, and the E-520 didn’t really give off the appearance of being a whole lot bigger than the G1.
The Olympus E-P1, on the other hand, is the most beautiful digital camera I’ve ever seen. It has a rangefinder retro look which reminds me of the Contax G2, but it’s a lot smaller and lighter than a Contax G2, and it gives the impression of being a lot smaller than the Panasonic G1.
Are looks alone enough of a reason to buy a camera? Maybe. But the G1 seems like the much more practical and useful of the two cameras. For starters, the G1 comes with an electronic viewfinder which is supposed to be the best EVF ever used in a digital camera, and some people say they like it better than the viewfinders on cheap digital SLRs. The G1 has a higher resolution LCD which moves around—I’ve never had a camera with an LCD which moves around, but there are people who swear by them because they allow you to shoot from a position other than eye level and view what the camera is pointed at without having to put your head and body into an awkward position. Finally, people have been saying great things about the G1’s focusing speed. In contrast, the E-P1 has been criticized for not focusing much faster than a much less expensive small sensor P&S camera. You get all these advantages for about $150 less; the G1 seems to sell for around $650 while the E-P1 costs $800.
The primary advantage the E-P1 has, other than looks and size, is that it has built-in image stabilization. Thus, any lens you stick on an E-P1 will automatically be image stabilized. For example, if you attach a legacy Zuiko Four Thirds lens to the E-P1, it’s image stabilized. If you want to use your Zuiko 50mm F2.0 lens on your G1, then you’d better have a steady hand if you are going to shoot at shutter speeds faster than 1/100 of a second. But if you’re just going to stick to new lenses, then at present there isn’t a whole lot of advantage to the image stabilization. The G1 comes with an image stabilized kit lens, and the only Micro Four Thirds telephoto lens is the image-stabilized Panasonic 45-200mm. The forthcoming 20mm F1.7 lens is wide enough so you wouldn’t gain too much of an advantage if it were image stabilized.
The second benefit of the E-P1 is that reviews seem to indicate it has slightly better high ISO performance compared to the G1. Some early reviews of the G1 said that it wasn’t too good above ISO 1250, but it’s not clear to me if that problem was fixed with firmware upgrades. In any event, even if a camera is theoretically capable of superior low-light performance based on its high ISO capabilities, it still needs to focus. I had this problem with the Canon G9: I was trying to use it to take photos of paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the camera just wouldn’t focus on a painting in a low light situation.
I probably won’t be buying any Micro Four Thirds camera until the 20mm F1.7 lens comes out. And let me explain why I am very excited about this lens. As of now, superior low light performance requires a camera which is big, heavy, and expensive. There is the affordable Sigma 30mm F1.4 lens, but I’ve read horror stories online about focusing problems using that lens. One of the advantages of the G1 is that it uses contrast-detection auto focus which, although slower than phase-detection auto focus, is more reliable because it’s using the actual image sensor to make the focus determination. In traditional SLR systems, everything has to be aligned and manufactured perfectly in order for a lens with a very narrow depth of field to focus accurately.
If the 20mm F1.7 turns out to produce decent image quality when wide open, and if it sells for a reasonable price (I’m hoping that it will sell for the same price as the 45-200mm zoom), I think the G1 or E-P1 with this lens will suddenly be an extremely popular combination and will encourage a lot of serious amateurs and pros to consider buying a Micro Four Thirds as a second camera. For whatever reason, Olympus has decided that the people don’t want fast prime lenses. I hope that Panasonic proves Olympus wrong and sells a lot of 20mm lenses, and that this encourages Panasonic and Olympus to design more fast lenses.
