Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1

Dan’s first digital camera (one with real controls) when he was thinking about photographing again was a Lumix G1 micro 4/3s camera. Being the cheapskate that he is, he opted to save $50 by buying the red body instead of the black body. So it looked like Dan was using a toy when photographing with it. Given it was early years for the micro 4/3s sensor, its quality was, at best, marginal, and Dan was continually frustrated that it would not deliver results for him the way he expected (as if it was ever going to compete with a 4x5 transparency). That changed when he got his x100 and from that point onward, he largely forgot about the Lumix G1. But it was a great starter camera for someone new to photography.

So when I mentioned to Dan, as we were about to leave on a trip to Olympic National Park and the San Juan Islands with Kit, that I thought I might want to start making pictures, Dan didn’t hesitate to just give me the G1. And that started the adventure for me, as Dan’s picture during that trip shows.

Dan had used the G1 during his travels to Tanzania and early trips in Liberia. But given the opportunities to photograph in Liberia were low, he left it with me when he returned to Liberia and I started taking photographic excursions with it on my own, mostly finding waterfalls I could hike to. Dan and I would spend parts of our weekend Skyping about my photos, which I would send him to discuss. We spent a lot of together time like that when he was away.

He left me with a capable kit with two zoom lenses that covered the wide angle to telephoto range enough for me to be able to photograph anything I could think of at the time.

However, I was surprised after about 6 months when Dan told me that my photos were exceeding what the sensor could handle and that we needed to start thinking about investing in a system that would allow me to grow and make the types of images I wanted to make. Although I disagreed with him about the quality of my images, who was I to say no to new gear!

That led us to the Fuji X-E1.