Took the Panasonic GH2 on a challenging assignment the other night – a press introduction of Victory’s new motorcycle at Amsterdam Billiards in New York City. I’ve been to my share of billiard halls and I can tell you that they normally aren’t well lit. Well, except for that one in Makati Manila where I ended up playing one table away from Efren “Bata” Reyes, a world champion pool player and the Manny Pacquiao of his day. But I digress…
I expected the pool hall to be dark – it was, lit mostly by the lights shining down on each table. I had originally planned on bringing the Pentax K-x, knowing that its high ISO capabilities and Image Stabilization would come in handy. At the last minute I decided to stick with the GH2 and just a pair of lenses – the Panny 20 F1.7 and a Pentax M50/F1.7 on a Fotodiox adapter. I had a Canon G9 P&S as a backup. It would have been a poor backup, but I was worried about the GH2’s battery.
I should not have worried. The camera worked great. Battery was strong. ISO1600 + F1.7 was enough, and the images are sharp and free of noise. As a matter of fact, I ended up using the 20mm F1.7 exclusively – an evening’s shooting with just one body and just one lens. And I got the results that I wanted. I had a white balance issue, but that was with video – I’ll discuss that later. But as a still camera the GH was great. Kudos Panasonic!