party camera

I took my GF1 along to a party recently with just the 20mm f1.7 and the 45mm f1.8 ... I wanted to remain discreet (not look like I'm carrying a brick). I dislike flash so I like the GF for its "larger sensor than compact cameras" (meaning better low light high ISO) and experience has shown that this setup is great.

As expected I was able to get some great shots.

and the images were acceptably clean at 1600 ISO which still gave me 1/60th (which stops enough motion). I dislike OIS in these situations because people move (no matter if the camera was on a tripod or had top shelf stabilisation).

And (it being simple) I can hand it off to people and know I'll get good results back:

Again, background separation is good ... dueling photographers

But his is much bigger than mine (as we know that size matters).

So my 5 year old micro43 GF1 is still pulling good shots while some people struggle with their "superior" SLR cameras.

and others snap away with their phones... (its a miracle that we see people holding the camera in portrait here)

its sorta clear to me why the SLR market is diminishing as phones are getting pretty good results these days (well the top shelf phones anyway). Actually its good to point out that if you don't want to spend a thousand bucks on a camera (well my GF and lenses is about that even used) that for party use spending those bucks on your phone will not be a bad suggestion (although lets see how well your phone is working 5 years later)

None the less I'm not about to trade in my GF any time soon as there is no way the phones can capture stuff like this:

with that sort of subject DoF isolation ...(again, hand held, 1600 ISO 1/160th)

Happy Birthday mate!