It’s been the best part of two months since I last updated the site. Not by choice; not by design – but by circumstance and misfortune. In mid-June I suffered a bike accident that had me in A&E with a badly bruised hip, a bloodied elbow and most significantly a broken collarbone. The ramifications of the accident I am still dealing with when I type this. It’s been a long ten weeks and it looks like I have many more weeks to go before I can consider myself recovered.

From a photography point of view things came to a grinding halt. For a couple of weeks with my arm in a sling and barely able to walk, I was confined to a homebound existence and the only photos I could take were with my diminutive Sony RX100, both the OG and VII variety, the latter being used for the day by day selfies showing off my shoulder in various hues of purple, red and yellow. Any camera larger and heavier was just not possible to hold one handed, which was the only way I could take a photo. I could carry on editing photos and therefore working by adapting my workflow so I could edit and caption one handed (The Logitech MX Master Mouse in particular was utilised to the max).

By the beginning of July I had literally taken my first painful steps in the great outdoors. Knowing that it would many weeks before I was in a position to run or cycle outside one way of making the Road to Recovery walks more palatable was to take a camera with. Much as I enjoy and like the RX100 VII it isn’t actually that easy to use one handed, especially when zooming was required and my copy’s sticky lens cover needed a corrective flick. I also have the OM System TG-7, which, looking back as a one handed walker, would have been ideal for use – especially as it survived the bike crash unscathed), but I was looking for something that could add photographically something better than the point and shoot could offer.

For several months, ever since I’d gone down the micro 4/3s rabbit hole, I had been intrigued by the Panasonic Lumix GM1, arguably still the world’s smallest interchangeable lens camera thirteen years after its launch. Spurred on by reviews showing it held comfortably in one hand, being no larger than a regular pack of playing cards, and convincing myself it could fill a recently created gap in my camera inventory, when a model on MPB in good condition became available for £324 on the second of July I bit the bullet and snapped it up.

As I’d chosen free delivery it took the best part of a week to arrive but arrive it did and I was thrilled with what I had in my hands. The camera was essentially in excellent condition – no scratches or marks, the buttons and dials all doing exactly what they should. It soon became apparent why it was marked as good when I took the battery out to charge after my initial to play to top it up for my first walk with it the following morning, put it back in and was asked to set the date and time, something I have subsequently had to do every time I have changed the battery (Which is relatively frequently as it is a tiny battery – albeit the third party ones I have picked up last significantly longer, especially if you get used to turning it off when not in use). Doing this is a slight PITA but with the fix to replace the internal battery looking terrifying I have decided it is a small price to pay to pick the camera up a fair but cheaper than it is going in excellent or as new condition (Which is overpriced for a thirteen year old camera, but with the exception of the obscenely expensive GM5 has no competition nor successor – but insatiable demand currently).

There would be no Random Lens Generator for these photo walks which doubled up as rehab exercise. The first walk was with the Lumix G 12-32 f/3.5-5.6, which was bundled with my GX9 but built with the GM1 in mind. The combination is almost mind-blowing: so tiny and light in the hand, yet capable of taking pictures that – in good light especially – could look every bit as good as one taken on equipment triple the size and weight and more. I had no trouble holding the camera completely one handed (The other being in a sling): zooming, focusing, shooting – something I couldn’t do with my phone, for instance.

There is no EVF so you are reliant on using the non-articulating LCD screen. It’s not my preferred method of photography but one that I am used to using with the RX100 and the TG-7, so as long as it wasn’t so bright that the screen was hard to see, it was simple enough to use.

Unlike the 20mp sensors in my GX9 and G9 cameras, this has an older 16mp sensor. It’s capable of great still pictures but you need to be mindful when using it that it’s dynamic range is more limited, it’s high noise performance is poor and, having less pixels, is not suited to monster crops that a 61mp camera like my Sony A7R IV can handle.

As with all my other cameras I shot black and white jpegs and RAW for the colour post edits. The black and white is flexible in that you can add or subtract contrast in camera, and even add different coloured filters which is cool – I went with yellow to produce dramatic skies when they were blue – which was most of the time as we enjoyed a seemingly endless heatwave. There were some black and white results which I liked but I have been spoilt by the GX9 and the Leica Monochrome D profile which these just cannot match, so mostly edited the raws to colour and made black and white images with Silver Efex Pro if desired.

The camera all but paid for itself when, a day later, I needed to take some portrait images for my wife’s website. For such shoots I usually use my Sony A7R IV, but despite trying there was no way I could use it one handed safely or efficiently. Yet with the GM1 and my Olympus 45 f/1.8 I was able to produce some perfectly acceptable images, the deficiencies creatively were as a result of being in a lot of pain rather than being unable to take the pictures.

After around a week of using the 12-32 lens on my walks I had enough confidence in my walking abilities to handle the ever so slightly heavier and larger DJI (Pana Leica) 15mm f/1.7. Using this lens brought about the true value of this camera – it being capable of rendering images that couldn’t be produced with my RX100 VII for instance, something that I thing couldn’t be said for the 12-32. I then took the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 out and that again showed off how amazing the GM1 is – something so tiny yet capable of producing images that, if you don’t pixel peep, could be mistaken for being taken by a camera 3x times larger than heavier. I now get why YouTuber Chris Nichols last year unironically declared the more premium but similarly diminutive GM5 as the greatest camera ever made.

Two weeks of walking later and I now had my left arm out of a sling, which meant that, so long as I didn’t lift the camera up too high, I could hold the lens with my left hand. This meant I was able to up the size of the lens to the Lumix 12-60 f/3.5-5.6, which still felt comfortable with the GM1.

When photographing outdoors, especially on walks such as I was doing, I do like to gave GPS tagging so that I can identify where images were taken. Being a 2013 model, the camera can connect to my phone to transfer images and remote shoot, but couldn’t establish a GPS connection. Therefore I had to come up with an alternative solution.

After reading around the web, I utilised the GPX file I could export from my Garmin watch via the Garmin Connect website that I had as I was recording all my walks for Strava likes. I then used EXIFTool (Via ExifToolGUI) to import that GPS data to the the images I had edited. It took a bit of working out but once I’d got used to it, it became so straightforward I used it subsequently when using my G9 and GX9 cameras as I find their GPS integration with my phone cumbersome (I have to leave the camera on all the time essentially).

My GM1 with 12-32 lens was now my go to on a family trip to Lincoln / five week check up with the shoulder specialist at the hospital. With a UV filter on the end of the lens I had no qualms carrying the camera in my pocket and taking it out when required, which actually made it more convenient that when I took my RX100 VII which is so expensive and fragile I feel compelled to carry it in a case at all times when not in use. Noise reduction software meant that the kids taking silly photos of me in wearing women’s sunglasses in shops was not an issue cranking up the ISO wise. There was the occasional shot where I missed not having in-body camera stabilisation, but for the most part it was the ideal pocket camera.

Another purchase whilst in rehab was the Olympus M40-150mm f/4-5.6R, not to be confused with the similarly named Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6R which I originally bought but soon realised was a 4/3s lens and not a micro 4/3s lens (Many thanks to CEX for accepting my stupidty and accepting it back for a refund!) Coming in at under £100 in excellent condition second hand, it is a little large on the GM1 and I needed to have use of the left hand to be able to hold the lens, but once again the smile on my face when I produced some of my favourite pictures of the summer while out walking was a small price to pay indeed.

Just two and a half weeks after my first photo walk with the GM1 I had sufficient strength in my left collarbone to be able to go out for a walk with the slightly larger GX9 slung over my left shoulder. I would rely on using the LCD screen for most of my photos, I did make use of the rotating EVF for a week or two before I had enough movement in my shoulder to just about bring the camera naturally to eye level.

As much as I had loved using the GM1 in some respects it was a relief to be back using the larger GX9. Normally I shoot in manual mode and rely on having a front and rear dial to adjust shutter and aperture. With the GM1 there is no such dial and instead you are reliant on the spinny wheel of doom as the back menu wheel has come to be known. This quite quickly became too much of a faff to switch between shutter and aperture mode and adjust so I used aperture mode instead, which for the most part worked fine, I did have to adjust exposure quite frequently though, which is equally cumbersome unless I used my 15mm f/1.7 where I could set the aperture on the lens and have exposure compensation the doom wheel’s adjustment of choice.

There were other niceties that the GX9 has that the GM1 has, primarily the former being the beneficiary of three years more development and refinement plus having more real estate to make the handling experience more pleasurable, especially when using larger lenses.

With my body able to handle the GX9 and in future walks the Sony A6700 (albeit with small lenses) one may have feared that the GM1’s days were numbered. Not so! Determined to go on holiday despite only having one properly useable hand, my choices of camera were somewhat dictated by weight and size in terms of what I could carry. The GM1 was bought as the camera I would take in my pocket on the car / ferry journey to Germany while the others were in the camera bag. With a stop off in Maidenhead it yielded some of my favourite family photos of the holiday, partly because it is a camera so small my family aren’t afraid to pick it up and use it.

With the Lumix G9, GX9, Sony A6700, RX100 VII, TG-7 and for one day only my mobile phone being in competition for use, the GM1 did not see the most use. For the first four days in Germany on my morning walk I took my G9 and on the family days out my GX9 for street photography and the G9 for a countryside walk.

It came into use when we headed to Amsterdam for the weekend. I was using the A6700 at my brother’s apartment as I could use his Viltrox 56mm f/1.2 (A fantastic lens) but when out I used the GX9 and the GM1. The GM1 took, with the Olympus 45 f/1.7 took my favourite portrait of my daughter of the holiday (It had taken my second favourite back in Maidenhead), along with some lovely new born baby photos. It then came out with me for a photo walk with the 15mm f/1.7 where the rapid fire style nature of the image taking was ideal with the diminutive GM1.

It was next used when back in Germany for three days when my morning walks morphed into walks with a little bit of easy jogging as my bruised hip healed sufficiently to allow a little light shuffling. The GM1 was small enough to hold in the palm of my hand and not affect my running, which was already impacted by having a left arm which wouldn’t move. For the final two days of the holiday my walks metamorphosised into runs with a little bit of walking so it was more appropriate that I took my TG-7 which had hitherto been unused. Using this camera for a couple of days made me appreciate that camera too – in many ways this could have been my perfect solution for my one handed dilemma when out walking dilemma, but the TG-7 cannot produce the type of images the GM1 can with the appropriate lens.

The GM1 came back in my pocket for the long journey home back to England – barely any images were taken for the journey was too long and I was too tired. But all in all I was very pleased and at times amazed by the little GM1. If you are in the market for a super compact camera, if you can pick one up in good condition it comes highly recommended despite its age, limitations, and slightly inflated second hand price. Having used it for a couple of months I am sorely tempted to invest in a GM5 but my head says the extra £400 is not worth it when the image quality will essentially be the same, even if the quality of life improvements would make it a more pleasurable camera.

Instead I think I will hold out in hope that Panasonic act on the demand for super compact cameras and produce a GM6 which maintains the form factor of the GM5 but comes with a modern 20-25 MP 4/3s sensor and some / all of the AF / AI tracking improvements that a modern camera has – I relied mostly on single AF as the continuous AF is not very good. I could live without IBIS if that meant the small form factor was maintained – there would be little point in this camera being 1/3 bigger in my opinion to satisfy IBIS and / or increased battery size.

Whether this is a pipe dream is up for debate, I personally think it will happen if the second hand prices remain as inflated as they are currently. In the meantime I will continue to enjoy my GM1, especially as a camera to slip in my pocket and carry about when it is a pain to have a larger camera on my person. Thanks Panasonic!