Went to dinner tonight at a place very close to the Scramble Crossing, just in front of Shibuya Station. The sign said it was a Japanese food place, but inside the mood was more of a high class dinner and bar restaurant.
I grabbed a few shots to give the Lumix GF1 a bit of a test with low lighting, but mainly my focus was on the meal ^^. You can see from the “Camera Info” if you roll your mouse over the photo and click on the menu, that I tried to capture these photos at the lowest f stop possible with the Lumix GF1 pancake lens, f/1.7.
Enjoy your dinner with these snaps.
What are you having for dinner?
Very cool looking bar/restaurant ! Seems just like down my alley; simple yet moody trough the use of relativly simple minimalistic lighting.
This a neat set of photos, I always love seeing restaurants and food ^^ Whatever I am going to have for dinner most certainly won’t look this delicious hehe!
Great Lumix photos. I’m still debating whether to get a Lumix. Sometimes it’s nice to have a portable camera like that instead of a big DSLR.
very true. There are some things I like about the Lumix, but other things where the Canon Powershot is much better. It depends what you are looking for. At this restaurant it would have been too difficult to pull out the Nikon D700 and start snapping away. The smaller cameras work well in these situations. 🙂
Hmm Shibuya’s story reminds me of being at a nice ramen store at Akiba Yodabashi’s foodcourt. I was debating grabbing my already compact D50+35 1.8 setup, but chose to grab a compact (lumix DSC-5) instead. Then, a minute later the customer infront of me also decides to take a picture of his ramen bowl instead, he grabs a significantly larger D200 pro body (think D700 format) along with a 105mm DC lens O_o . I think he was going for a macro shot of something in his bowl cause 105mm on a DX sensor ^_^;;; that’s _extreme_ close-up for something thats infront of you on a table.
Kind of funny seeing something brought to the table like that.
Regarding the GFE-1 Lumix with the 1.7 pancake lens. Meh. Meh I say. Once you shoot DSLR you can’t go back. Ever.
The GFE-1’s lens will come in full format terms, the focal length is equivalent to 40mm. So knowing that how’s this for portability. A tiny nikon D3000, and a 50 1.8 lens. Both of these will cost you 1/3rd the price of the GFE-1 + 1.7 lens will set you back. And is as portable to fit in your coat’s pocket (my friend always walks with that setup on the street and just puts it in his coat, no other bag needed); but you get alot better pictures from it because the 50 1.8 wont have the mediocre vignetting and will give a superior, more pleasing bokeh (and that’s what it’s all about with lenses with these kind of aperture’s anyway)
That’s my two cents, I really can’t justify the GFE-1 for that price. If it was half the price as a set, than allright. I suppose 🙂
But not for at least 870 whopping Euro’s – OUCH !
Last but not least here’s a picture of how tiny a D3000 + 50 1.8 is. For a DSLR it’s so small you have to carefully place your hand around it not to cover the lens 😛
[img]http://shibuya246.com/wp-content/upload/D3K1518.jpg[/img]
In Japan the price is about YEN 65,000 which works out about 500 Euro. I didn’t realize the D3000 was so small, but looking through the viewfinder kills the mood a bit for the other diners 😉 Have to think about Liveview mode for these type of shots. Also the nice sound a Nikon makes when it takes the photo is a bit of a giveaway sitting opposite the bartender. I was looking for the mobile phone setup (quiet and unobtrusive) whilst also getting a decent DOF.
Don’t worry. The Nikon D700 is still not leaving my side. It is here to stay 🙂
I just checked out the D3000 reviews but note that it doesnt have video. Have to go to the D5000 for that. One of the things I liked about the Lumix was its video capability, which I don’t require in the D700 but its nice to have it in my pocket just in case 🙂
I’m thinking about getting the Leica D-LUX 4 – it has video capabilities and a HUGE viewing screen – might have to search a bit for one.
I have seen this in the stores, but never given it a close inspection. http://en.leica-camera.com/photography/compact_cameras/d-lux_4/ Thanks for pointing it out. I think the f/stop goes down to 2.0
One of the drawbacks of the Lumix is you have to manually put the lens cap on and off. That is a big time waster when trying to get a quick shot. Also, the pancake lens is fixed 20mm (produces a 40mm effect), without zoom. I don’t use flash so having that built in is not a benefit.
The Olympus Pen has stabilizing built into its body, Lumix does not (it puts it into the lenses, but the pancake lens is too small to have it). This doesn’t bother me, but might be worth thinking about for some people.
This is the buri that I ordered.
The D3000 also uses live view. (i’ll be found dead before ever using live view myself tough :P) but you are very right on your point that the D3000 will make a shutter sound whilst a GFE-1 would’nt. So many things to consider when buying a camera !
500 euro ?! For the GFE-1 + the pancake 1.7 lens ? That’s really good. Now at least it’s making a bit more sense to me for people in Japan to buy one. Over here it’s really expensive as stated previously (that’s also the cheapest online deal, retail stores will go 950 easy) hence it’s just not even worth thinking about it. Good to know your D700 isn’t going anywhere soon; well. At least untill the D900 hits hahaha 🙂
yes, that is the pancake lens kit, but in Japan I have only seen a Japanese language model. If you click on the “Camera Info” icon on the bottom right hand corner of the photo, I have now included a photo of the camera and a link to see it on Amazon. The Amazon Japan price is YEN 66,000.
However, they took the English language setting off the cameras sold in Japan probably so they could keep selling the more expensive ones overseas. You might want to have a read of Steve Nagata’s article about cameras in Japan. http://blog.gaijinpot.com/tech/buying-a-camera-in-japan-think-again/4832/
My D700 just made a coughing sound at your D900 comment 🙂
Just read the Steve Nagata article about camera’s in Japan. He’s very right. If you go to any regular store or even big chain (Softmap/Yodabashi etc.) I was shocked at how expensive things were compared to back home in Europe. America’s still the cheapest for camera equipment it seems. So hence keeping mind my own Euro price for the GFE-1 I was expecting it in japan to be in excess of that; funny that it IS cheaper in Japan . I suppose it’s not everything that’s more expensive in japan.
I wonder tough. If It would be possible to just upload English language firmware to a Japanese GFE-1. I mean. The hardware should be the same and it’s not the first time that cross-flashing firmwares have helped 🙂 I think I will go and research this further ! Thanks !
What’s a good used shop in tokyo to get M42 lenses? for cheap?
sorry, whats an M42 lens?
These blue lights cast a warm glow,adding to the ambiance of this restrauant. Nice reflection also.
This doesn’t look like fish at all. Looks like a steak. Not a big fish eater.
RT @tweetmeme http://bit.ly/6vyXfj A great looking restrauant. Hope your meal tasted as good as it looked.
Yummy!
love the first photo…you make me want to buy a decent camera!!
Thanks. I was just showing the people I was with how the camera worked and clicked the end of the bar for them. I was surprised myself how nice it looked. You can see the photo data by clicking on the menu on the right of the photo. It shows the ISO which I had on auto stayed low at 400 and did a good job. The f/stop I set manually to f/1.7
awesome shots… ^^