Category Archives: Lumix GF1
Niagara Region and Fine dining at Treadwell (Review)
Before our friends flew back to Hong Kong, we took them to the famous Wonders of the World in Canada – Niagara Falls. After that, we visited 2 wineries at Niagara On The Lake, Inniskillin and Peller Estates. Finally we had fine dining at Treadwell – Canadian farm to table cuisine.
(All photos were taken using Panasonic GF1 with 20mm f/1.8 pancake lens)
Treadwell Review
It wasn’t the first time Deb and I had been to Treadwell despite the 2 hours drive from Toronto, we found that the chef Stephen Treadwell is so creative and most importantly they have 7 course tasting menu with wine pairing. That’s why we decided to go back. Also, we support local food – all the wines/herbs/veggies are from the Niagara region. It is NOT easy to find the same quality fine dining experience with similar price range in Toronto, the only places we had been to were in Quebec.
Although we are not professional food critic, yet we have been to Michelin 3 star restaurants in Las Vegas, Molecular Gastronomy in Quebec, and traditional restaurants in France, Spain and Italy. I guess we are qualified to give some reviews. Check out our Food and Cooking section on this blog.
My Comments – I wouldn’t talked about each course individually since overall they tasted extremely good in taste and well balanced, I could actually tasted different level of details that the chef put into the food. The smoked whitefish, salmon and 38 days aged beef tenderloin were just outstanding, everything were so fresh and packed with flavor. The creative part was the salmon skin was deep fried separately and it tasted awesome. The use of poached egg was interesting in the potato soup, but the smoked whitefish just balanced the taste perfectly. Surprisingly, the Souffle was even better than those we had in Paris, it was so smooth!!! Chili Ice Cream was so unique and paired extremely well with raspberry wine, must have.
The only comments I would say is the homemade garganelli and raviolo have room for improvement. Note that it has nothing to do with al dente or not, the texture on the bite has overpowered the meat inside or around it, perhaps maybe make it slightly thinner. Also, green beans were used in one of the courses, the taste was totally fine but the look was a bit ordinary, I would look for some more interesting shape beans instead.
My rating for Treadwell:
- Taste: 4.6/5
- Creativity: 4.6/5
- Plating: 4.5/5
- Service and Environment: 4.5/5
- Price: 4.4/5
- Overall: 4.52/5
James Treadwell (son of the owner) was so friendly and we enjoyed the experience so much. Definitely strongly recommended. Remember, it’s farm to table cuisine and it’s more down-to-earth style fine dining, you don’t need shirt and tie. If you are looking for Foie gras, Caviar or gold flakes, go somewhere else. It is an Art that you need to appreciate that the chef brings from the farm, and taste the creation process behind it. Compare to many restaurants in Toronto, many so called “fine-dining” are cookie cutting business, you need to experience yourself to tell the difference.
Day trip to Brooks Farm
[Oct 14, 2010 Update]: One of my photos taken at Brooks Farm was published on Toronto’s Tonight Newspaper! That is pretty cool!
Friends at MLG decided to have a fall’s event for the kids, so we went to Brooks Farm on the ThanksGiving long weekend. I didn’t bring the DSLR because I was so lazy, so all photos were taken using GF1, it did a pretty impressive job. However, if you have professional eyes and compare to my Canon DSLR album, you can tell the difference.
Quebec Charlevoix Road Trip
Deb and I went to Quebec and Charlevoix for a few days, the first stop was to have our anniversary dinner at La Taniere Restaurant with 14-course modular gastronomy French cruise. It took 4.5 hours to finish the dinner, and it was just amazing. In our opinion, in some ways it is better than the Michelin 3 Stars rated restaurant we had during our Vegas Trip.
We drove around 8 hours from Toronto and stayed in Quebec City for 2 days and then drove another 2 hours to Charlevoix to watch whales. On the way to Charlevoix, we stopped by Ste Anne Canyon (without any plans, we just found that place while driving) and took some great waterfall pictures. We stayed at Auberge des Falaises for 1 night and I woke up at 5:00 AM to take some amazing sunrise photos and I went swimming in the heated pool at 5:30 AM overlooking the sunrise. It was a lovely hotel and that is what I call a real vacation.
Photos were taken using Canon 24-70mm f/2.8, 17-40mm f/4.0, some with Polarizer filter/Neutral density filter. Also, Panasonic GF1 with 20mm f/1.7 were used. HDR photos were taken using +/- 2 stops without tripod. Joby Gorillapod was used for long exposure at Ste Anne Canyon.
Recorded GPS Waypoints:
- 47.07162 N 70.87395 W (Ste Anne Canyon)
- 47.63573 N 70.15166 W (Auberge des Falaises)
- 47.908373 N 69.805442 W (Beluga Whales)
- 47.949345 N 69.785621 W (Minke Whale)
New Photos of Mythos
Mythos is getting bigger and bigger everyday, and we haven’t taken any new photos of him for a while. On a lazy afternoon he felt like being a model, so here we go…
Photos were taken using Panasonic GF1
Henry’s Photography Show
Deb and I went to the annual Henry’s photography show today. Well, similar to last year – nothing really exciting… luckily we didn’t have to pay for the admission. This time, I didn’t bring my DSLR, but Deb brought her GF1. See the last photo with the girls on the bike? That was taken using Panasonic GF1, not bad eh?
What did I buy?
The next big DIY project is to build 2 x hot light soft box to achieve professional lighting effects. At the show, a light adapter caught my attention, it is a little adaptor made by Westcott – it basically splits one socket into 4.
That’s awesome, because I was about to build something similar, that costs me only $17 CAD. Awesome! All I need is to get some light bulb with color temperature 5000K to simulate daylight.
Deb’s Trip to HK, Macau and Japan with GF1
My wife Deb went to HK visiting her grandmom, she then went to Macau and Osaka Japan. With the new Panasonic GF1, she took some good photos. All photos were taken using “iA’ mode (fully automatic mode) with the 20mm lens which is equivalent to 40mm on full frame. Since Deb is not a DSLR user, in order to avoid disaster I told her only needed to focus on her composition and lighting – let GF1 “iA” mode takes care of the rest. What is the result? Let’s take a look.
(Adobe Lightroom 2.4 was used on post-editing, mainly on resizing and cropping)
Verdict: If you use GF1 as Point and Shoot like Deb, it won’t let you down. The quality and sharpness is just amazing, especially at night. The f/1.7, 20mm m4/3 lens did a really good job, and I am impressed. Now, that makes me think that I may ditch my heavy DSLR at home for the next vacation.
Mythos vs Mythos
Mythos finally has a chance to meet Mythos the Greek beer! Let’s take a sip… Arrr.. can’t see straight line, can’t catch mouse anymore. Sober… declare DUI…. meeeooowwww…. Zzzzz.. The next day, it was such a nice day and Mythos went outside to hunt for bees.
All Photos were taken using Panasonic Lumix GF1 – P mode. Please note that Mythos didn’t really drink, it was an empty bottle.
Mythos meets Girlfriend 1
As Deb’s Sony point and shoot is going to retire, she got herself a “Micro Fourth Thirds” GF1 yesterday. It was such a good march break deal at SIG ($200 less than Henry’s/Vistek, only last for several days). The kit comes with DMC-GF1 body and H-H020 20mm f/1.7 prime lens, all are made in Japan.
Girlfriend and PEN
Originally we were looking at Olympus PEN E-P1 and PEN E-PL1, but after playing with both GF and PEN at Henry’s and Vistek, we totally agreed with our friend FBB – Olympus’s has slow/poor LCD screen, slow auto focus and it’s made in China. So, the winner is so obvious.
Anyways, today is not the best day for taking test shots in the park, since it’s raining out there. Anyways I will keep updating this page if I take more shots on a sunny day.
Update: The photos have been updated several times, all photos were taken using with Panasonic GF1 using 20mm f/1.7 m4/3 lens. Last photo was taken at Henry’s Photography Show on May 14, 2010.
Notes: GF1 is NOT a full frame camera, it has a 2.0 cropping factor, but since it doesn’t have view finder so the cropping will never be a problem to Deb. However, 20mm prime lens would become a 40mm in this case. We didn’t buy any zoom lens because 40mm is pretty close to a standard lens, it is good in most situation.
Verdict: I have been using DSLR for more than 5 years, I have a Canon 5D Mark II and I must say GF1 is very impressive. It gives me the DSLR feeling and photo quality, without the weight. It is excellent for travel. Well, this camera is for my wife to use as a point and shoot, basically I told her only focus on 2 things: Lighting and Composition, and leave it on “iA” or “P” mode. We will see the results when she comes back from her HK/Japan trip next month.
I also found that the pancake lens H020 has vignette effect in some cases, for some photos it is good and I actually take the advantage and post-edited it and even make it more dramatic. I also heard that I can buy an adapter to use my L-series lens on GF1 – that would be very cool.
Related Articles
Please also check other photos taken using GF1. This is a very good camera, strongly recommeneded.