point n shoot replaced

so the big brown truck brings another box to my house, i've had it since last thursday, but verizon couldn't see fit to repair my dsl service from friday am until monday afternoon. so no announcement until now. after much research, the better part of a year, and much agonizing over the choice, mostly related to finding it hard right now to get to the b&h store so i could actually hold one in my hands, try it on for size really. i found a very good deal on a panasonic lumix dmc g-1, with the 14-45 vario lens, for only a little more than the canon g12 would have cost. i have found a lot of photographers, including some major players such as m reichman from luminescent landscape, have become very impressed with the panasonic micro 4/3 offerings as travel/vacation and point n shoot alternative. i was very specific about the lens, most reviews pan the newer and cheaper 14-42, as a downgrade in the kit optics. with the 2x focal factor, this is 28-90 35mm focal length. the kit, plus perhaps 1 additional lens, either 45-200 or the 7-14mm will be making the trip to vancouver/alaskan cruise in may. along with the 5d and maybe 3 lenses, 17-40,35 f1.4, 70-300 f4.5-5.6 usm. i anticipate that the g-1 will be my carry around vancouver city kit, we will be there for 3 days, and the thought of a real lightweight, small bag setup in a city really excites me. especially since 2012 means a return to europe, either a baltic cruise, a rhine river cruise or a small ship greek islands cruise. i'm pretty satisfied so far, although i've taken less than 30 pics, all outdoor bright sun stuff. lightroom 3 can process the native panasonic raw, so no need for any other software, and no need to use the lame panasonic cd, when will camera companies stop trying to write processing software? give it up, it's not what you do well. the 5dmk2 will still be the main onboard setup, esp the 35 for shows, and the 70-300 for the eagle outing. i might rent the new 70-300 L as it can be used with a kenko 1.4 tc, and supposedly still autofocuses, although oddly enough it can't be used with the canon tc, even the new one. i will hopefully be posting a couple of photos soon, as i am going back to vermont thursday, assuming we are not iced over, and hope to snowshoe into some back country for a few shots. so i'll try to post up a mini review soon, i know that a few folks are interested in something lightweight, but better than a point-n-shoot controls and shutter lag.

 

so far this seems to be a reasonably good camera. i've taken a few more shots, all outside stuff, awb seems to do a fair job with snow, i'll be working some more on settings i want. these below are straight out of the camera, imported from the card viw lightroom conversion to dng, resized down to a jpeg for posting. i use no presets when converting to dng, as i would prefer to decide on develop settings individually. i do sharpen for screen, on export to jpeg, that's the only processing to these 2. and yes i know there are power lines across the church, i just wanted the lighting of the scene and the stone walls against the snow to see how the camera would handle this. if we get any more snow up here my back yard will have a snow pile until may