Camera Lust

[bunn]

I have had my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 for three years now. It still works. It's still a pretty good, reliable camera. It takes decent action shots, excellent close-ups, has a good range of standard modes and if feeling industrious and perfectionist, I can improve results further by manually setting almost everything. I recently bought it a new set of batteries, some of which I haven't even used yet. OK, I am stuck with the one lens, but it's a pretty good one for the size. So, really, I don't need a new camera.  

Alas, I foolishly wandered near a camera review website today.  And I fell horribly in love with the new(ish) Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 - it seems to be the step forward in terms of a really small DSLR-quality camera that I've been looking for.  It's about the same size as my current camera, but with a bigger (and swappable) lens, and using an adaptor, can also take all these lenses.   The reviews say that it focuses as fast as any conventional SLR (important for all those running greyhound shots!). 

It's got no video, but then I shoot video once in a blue moon.   And as a final sign that it is made for me, it comes in red and blue as well as the standard boring camera colours!  I love blue or red gadgets! 

WANT!!!  WANT before we go to Iceland and have exciting new things to photograph!  Unfortunately it costs roughly 500quid that I do not have.   Woe is me!

Oh yes, and if I hadn't idiotically driven my car into a wall for no good reason I could probably just-about-not-quite afford to buy it.  Wail!  Curse!  

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

The G-1 does look lovely. There's also a brand new micro 4/3 offering from Olympus: http://photo.net/olympus-camera-forum/00TfTR. And hey, if you skip a couple of meals in Iceland, you'll be able to afford to buy one! ;-)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Rather hoping that given the exchange rates now, we will get more than a couple of meals for £500!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

... the Olympus E-P1 does indeed look gorgeous, but the Panasonic is supposed to have a similar user interface to my current camera, which is a plus - and anyway, the E-P1 looks like it's going to be a good £200 more than the Panasonic, so I definitely can't afford that.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

I have the DMC-FZ8, really bought it for the lens and the 12X zoom. I frequently found that I couldn't physically get close enough to what I wanted to photograph (frequently buildings) and the 3x zoom on my old camera just wasn't good enough.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The FZ8 does indeed have an excellent lens, and is a close cousin to my current FZ7. I just feel that I'm getting to the stage with it where I've exhausted all that can really be expected.

The zoom is pretty good, and the macro mode is awesome - but low-light performance in particular could be better, image stabilisation has moved on, and a DSLR-style camera should be able to capture just that bit more fine detail. Or so I tell myself.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Any chance of 'trading in' your current camera? Don't know whether digital cameras hold any resale value?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

They do - I usually flog my old ones on Ebay, they sell pretty well if you make an effort with the listing. But sadly the resale value of my current one would be nothing like enough to cover the object of my evil camera lust, so I shall just have to save up.

I could get the money out of savings, but I did that to buy my last car which wasnt' that long ago - and am trying to keep a significant reserve to cover emergency vet bills for the moggies!