Thoughts about the GH1 so far

Short version: I love it.

Long version:

• Ease of use: It was personally quite easy to pick up and use it for me. I’ve been messing up my pictures by fooling around with the aperture, shutter, ISO, and white balance settings on my point and shoot for years. In preparation for the GH1, I actually went and read up on how to NOT mess up pictures with those settings, so I’ve been feeling pretty good outside of auto mode.
• Shooting pictures: If I am baffled by what to do (or am in a hurry), I can just throw it in auto mode and hit the shutter. It usually does a good job of it. Even detects and tracks faces!… Though I haven’t actually got to test this yet, being a hermit and all. Auto focus is super fast (manual is another story), the little jog wheel is pretty awesome (I thought it would be annoying, but it isn’t), and of course all the other controls available right on its surface as physical buttons and switches means I’m setting up and shooting much faster than with my point-and-shoot (which required some digging through menus).
• Shooting movies: Also really easy with that movie record button right under your thumb, though I’ve been clicking the dial to movie mode and using the shutter button. The camera automatically focuses as you zoom, but you can still half-press the shutter and spot focus if you want. Beyond that, I am quite clueless about all the features (my previous film repertoire includes various puppet shows and Real World spoofs made for school projects… and they were all hideous).
• LCD screen: I freaking love the swivel LCD screen. After all the Sony Handycams we’ve owned, using it is like second nature. Oh, and the detail on the LCD is just awesome. It can also auto-dim based on how much light is going through the lens.
• Electronic viewfinder: I first thought it was shitty, because the flickering of my fluorescent lights showed up crazy horribly in the EVF, but looked a little better on the LCD. But after getting used to it, the EVF is pretty dang good. Haven’t had a bit of problem using it in low light, though I hate that my face oils get all smudgetastic on the camera when I’m looking through the EVF. However, the automatic eye detection feature (that switches the LCD to EVF when it senses your face is there) thing is super annoying. It thinks I’m looking through the viewfinder when I’m only leaning in to see the LCD in the sun. I’ve turned it off. The camera automatically switches between EVF and LCD depending on whether or not the LCD is opened, and that’s been working very well for me (since it is exactly like how a video camera works). Despite all that, though, I’d still say the lack of an optical viewfinder is one of the most unsettling aspects of this camera for me. I’m fine with it (I’d already come to terms with having no viewfinder with my last point-and-shoot), but a lot of people won’t be.
• Handling: It does not seem that small in my tiny, childlike hands, but it really is quite compact… if you ignore that ginormous lens. It’s quite possible to shoot with one hand, though the HD lens makes it rather tiring because the weight is all in front. The button layouts are very nice in my opinion… but I never have problems with buttons because my fingers are just so dang small. The soft-touch texture feels very nice, but like I said before, body oils show up awesomely well on the camera’s surface.