Panasonic GF-1 self portrait hack

As I previously wrote, I'm supposed to do more self-portrait photography this year, so I thought of a little photo hack that would make it a little easier. For this project, I'm going to be using my Panasonic GF1, mainly because of its compact size.

One of the accessories I picked up recently was the LVF1 External Viewfinder, and while I'm not in love with it, it does have some good points. Once minus is that the diopter adjustment gets bumped so easily that nearly every time I use it, it has to be reset for my eye. Aside from that complaint I use it about 30% of the time, the rest of the time I use the rear of the camera.

Anyway for this self portrait hack, I picked up a sheet of Cut & Stick Replacement Mirror, its meant to replace a broken rear-view mirror on your car.

And I slapped a 1" x 3/4" square on the conveniently flat spot on the front of the LVF1 viewfinder. Works much the same way that cel-phone mirrors work (that's where I cribbed the idea from), but its much larger and you can cut it to whatever shape your camera will allow.

So its pretty simple, point that camera at yourself and when you see your eyeball, you're centered in the frame. I only snapped a few frames with it in place, but it works pretty well. Would be better if it was a little convex, but its good enough for now.