It took years, but the Panasonic GF1 has finally fallen from the top spot in the ranking of Panasonic's cameras. Considering that the camera wasn't terribly cheap when it launched, and that the sensor was noisy as all hell, its monster success is a testament to how wonderfully groundbreaking it was. Anyone who used the GF1 at the time understands the excitement that Micro 4/3 generated, because if the first camera out of the gate was the GF1, and one of the first lenses was the still-amazing 20mm f/1.7, what did the future hold!?Well, now we know. The future held very little. Micro 4/3 flopped around like a fish on a boat for three years before the E-M5 came along, and while it's suitably good, the complete and utter failure of Panasonic to follow up the GF1 with solid products tempers my excitement for anything new.
But that's beside the point. The GF1 was great, and only now, after many months of being available for some silly-cheap prices, has the GX1 has surpassed it. Farewell, mighty GF1.
There is some comedy to be found in this story, as well. The ascension of the GX1 has less to do with the success of the GX1 and more with the continued fall of the GF1 from the Flickr charts. Panasonic can't even compete with itself! It has to simply wait until its previous, good, products fall into disuse. That's a bang-up business strategy.
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