And, once we had been fully briefed on just how secret this all was, we got our hands on what Panasonic hopes will be the camera to convince those put off by the limitations of the Olympus E-P1.

The E-P1 looms large over any discussion of the GF1; rarely has a single model caused so much excitement – and fevered discussion – inside and outside the photographic community, with even Panasonic apparently surprised by just how much press it has been getting.

Read more about the product and order online: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1

I’ve used non-SLR digital cameras with generous 2.5- inch LCDs and worked with EVF cameras with decent-sized internal LCD viewfinders, and none of them were as good as the least expensive dSLR when it comes to framing and viewing an image.

If it seems as if shutter lag and other features of digital cameras were designed to make action photography difficult, the reverse is true for the macrophotographic realm. Many features built into every digital camera make these image grabbers ideal for taking close-up pictures. If you’ve been doing macrophotography with film cameras, a few sessions with a digital camera will convince you that digital technology is exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

Back panel LCDs are no picnic to use outdoors in bright sunlight, either. The image is often washed out and difficult to see. Although an increasing number of point-and-shoot cameras boast close focusing capabilities down to less than one inch, they really aren’t the ideal camera you’d choose for macrophotography.

On the other hand, dSLRs not only provide a big, bright look at what you’re shooting, you can press the depth-of-field preview to gauge the sharpness, too. Their zoom lenses focus close even at telephoto positions—something lacking in many snapshooter-oriented digital cameras, which work in macro mode only at the wide-angle setting.

Digital SLR autofocus is faster, and the lack of shutter lag means you can snap off a picture  the instant your dragonfly hovers into the field-of-view—not a second or two later. A dSLR is more likely to have an external flash connection than a non-dSLR, so your close-up lighting setups can be more sophisticated. There are special macro lenses and other close-up accessories like ringlights for digital SLRs that aren’t readily available for fixedlens cameras.

The type of light falling on your subject makes a massive difference to the colour of the scene. The light in the middle of the day is much more blue than it is at sunrise or sunset, while a household bulb produces light with a strong orange cast. This is due to what’s known as the colour temperature of the light source. Our eyes adjust to these changes automatically, but that’s not necessarily how your digital camera will record the scene. Every digital SLR has a white balance (WB) setting to adjust the way it records colours, so to get the most out of your camera you need to know when to use the settings available.

Auto

As the name suggests, this mode adjusts the white balance automatically for different lighting conditions to give neutral results. This mode works well for point-and-shoot situations or if there’s a mixture of light sources. The problem with auto white balance is that it will try to produce a neutral image, even though you may want the image recorded as a warmer or cooler tone. This is especially true when you’re shooting at the start or the end of the day. Sunrise or sunset shots will be ruined by the neutral results of an automatic setting.

Raw Advantage

Using the RAW file format means that you can change the white balance after shooting when you convert your images. You should still try to choose the right setting when you take the shot though, as this will save you time having to change the setting later on.

Pre-Set White Balance

When you’re shooting under a fixed type of lighting you can use one of the pre-set options available on your camera. This means that you’ll get consistent results while the lighting remains the same. This is especially important when you’re using many filters, as using the automatic setting will try to compensate for their effect.

Custom Pre-Set

This mode works out the correct colours for a scene by taking a reading from a neutral subject and recording this setting in the memory. To use this setting you need to select the custom or pre-set option in the white balance menu on the camera. Then fill the frame with a white or neutral grey subject in the same lighting as your main subject.

A grey card or white reflector is ideal for this. You then have to measure the white balance, which is usually done by pressing the shutter release. Once this white balance setting is settings available programmed into the camera you’ll get consistent results as long as the lighting remains the same, so it’s more useful under artificial lighting rather than the changing conditions usually encountered when shooting in natural light. Some pro D-SLRs allow you to pre-program a number of different custom white balance settings, but most models only offer one pre-set option.

You don’t always have to select the ‘correct’ white balance to get a completely neutral result. Using the cloudy setting on the camera has a similar effect to fitting a warm-up filter to your lens. Use this in sunny conditions and you’ll add extra warmth to your images, which is great for portraits, or for eliminating the slight cooling effect of using a polariser filter.