Is this the most Important Camera of the last 20 years?

NikonD700 - the best camera of the last 20 years. Awesome, tough, sans sticky stuff!

The touch screen of the G1 is way ahead of its time.

What a great video! You lured me in from the start. I loved it. Thank you for sharing this and for your point of view. I loved the whole thing.

Excellent 'class' on the history of MFT. I myself have just jumped into MFT with several Olympus Pens. Now I will look much more closely at the Lumix line. Thanks for the video.

Usually I would take to task and say prove it. But you already did that for your style of photography. My pick would be the Canon 5D MKii- which the resolution was as good as film.

The G1 was brilliant in concept. It did (ultimately) spark a wave of change. It's the first mirrorless SYSTEM camera, not the first mirrorless. before SLRs and TLRs, cameras did not have mirrors. What the G1 and Micro 4/3 did was to establish the mirrorless interchangeable lens camera or MILC category. Fast forward to 2024 and look at the Lumix GH7, which is a work of sheer brilliance. It combines excellent still photo and advanced audio and video capabilities into a body little bigger than the G1. It gives us all the advantages and disadvantages of Micro 4/3, but with AV features unheard of in many other cameras in its price range.

Totally agree with you. So, I kept-collected my GH1 with its 14-140mm (2009). Still working, not mint but almost. But battery was ... not too much (like GX9). I shall kept-collect my GX9. Friendly.

Gracias por su video!! Para mí la mejor cámara construida en los últimos 20 años es sin ninguna duda la Nikon Fm3A. Una verdadera joya.... Creo que es un poco cuestión de gustos. Jamás habrá otra camara para mí que reemplace a la Leíca M3.. es mi mejor cámara después de años y años de usarla.. Saludos desde México..!

Coming out of film, followed by a Canon G3x (with a battery life of about 30 shots for me), the Fuji s100fs was like 'geni in a bottle'. Still have 2 that work perfectly (one with 3/4 million images that died, triggered a panicked replacement, then was resurrected by my repair guy by giving the battery contacts a wipe). On shoots with my newer equipment, there's always an s100fs in my bag as a backup. 11mp but batched through LrC & Photo Ai, and they come back at 24mp hard to tell from my newest gear. Sports, extreme cold winter sports, weddings, events, and general commercial work, and it never let me or a client down. I respect that old workhorse.

Great point!

Lumix? The camera that really made a difference and got people taking photos is the Nikon F, followed by the F2. I still have my F2, built in 1979. Another camera that rocked the photo world was the Canon AE1. And the camera that rocked my boat when I finally entered the digital world was the Sony a6000, a mini-Leica. There are many wonderful cameras that are fantastic, but it was the post-war Japan that really got things started. After the war was over, during the US occupation of Japan, as Japan's optical companies copied and improved on the Leica, servicemen bought the SLR is droves. It was a time when people had a love affair with their cameras and film. Like all beginnings, it was exciting. Digital is an extension of the film camera, and I am glad it happened. With Kodak basically gone for most of us, digital is a godsend.

Thankyou for the great history lesson

Actually with a 12Mp sensor I’d be very happy making large prints, yes, even wall sized as long as they were viewed from a reasonable distance. However the down side of my G1 is the level of noise which is poor in low light compared to cameras even just a year or two newer. Still very usable though.

This popped up in my feed and i recognized the name.....had to think, Snappieness forums!

The Hasselblad SWC ..... it changed the way I could work. The Linhof Technikardan ...... it made large-format photography easier for the solo landscape and architectural photographer ........ as I know very, very well.

I bought its follow up the G2 in mint condition with the box, charger, kit lens and accessories for just £75 from a charity shop a few years ago. I still use it now and again and the results are perfectly acceptable. I do agree with you that the G1 is an important camera having paved the way for what has become the mirrorless revolution. Odd really that it took Sony to push the concept and become arguably the market leader in this sector. Somewhat ironic that Lumix's share of the mirrorless market is perhaps the smallest of the main brands. 🤪

i got the G1 for my wife when it was released. It has a very good kit lens, the 14-45 mm .(not the 14-42) The only niggle with this model is that it turns off the rear screen when it is close to the body. They fixed that on the G3, which I also have. (Don't know about the G2) And it was a chore to rub off the sticky goo from the (blue version) body. Still works great. Better handling than the smaller G2 and G3. Cheers!

Yes there are bargains out there for these and other early g series camera's. I just picked up a 14-42 lens on ebay for £75 to use on my g2 (£40) which is probably slightly over the odds for that lens but it had a working g3 attached to it. They are all great little starter cameras and very user friendly. Great video:)

Digital photography became serious with the EOS350D and the 8mpx sensor. Finally when the same sensor was released in the 20D, built quality met the high Canon "pro" standards. It was in 2005

It's an impassionate thesis for the lumix. Suffice to say that photo industrys mirrorless transition is quite fascinating in a business/craft that has had endless ground shattering transitions and revolutions.