jonpais

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Forget the scopes for a moment. If the Lumix were exposed for the highlights to maintain the detail that is lost, the shadows would have been crushed. And low light sensitivity has absolutely nothing to do with focal length. Finally, it is a well-known fact that Panasonic inflates their ISO figures, whereas Sony's are closer to the genuine ISO. According to your own criteria, Sony would blast the Panasonic out of the water. But I really don't want to talk about specs any more. All I care about is the final image quality, and things like AFC ability. And here Sony smokes Panasonic. BTW, nothing I've seen online yet has convinced me that either the G85 or the GX85 has better low light performance than the three year old GH4 - just more processing, oversharpening and smearing of detail. And AFC is still useless as ever.

I guess seeing is not believing... I just finished watching a test comparison between the GX85 and the Sony a6300, concerning rolling shutter, high ISO performance, dynamic range, 1080p, continuous focus - and I thought the a6300 just killed it, leaving the Panasonic in the dust in all but IBIS (the a6300 didn't have IBIS). Yet almost 100% of the comments preferred the GX85 to the Sony. One viewer even said that 4K was a fad. Slog was able to maintain so much more detail in the highlights and shadows, whereas the GX85 lost detail in both. One reader, seeing the exact same video I was watching, and unable not to see the enormous difference in dynamic range, was still unsure which camera would be better for video. The test was not about battery life, overheating, user interface or price, just image quality. While reviewers can be disparaged at times for not being photographers (some don't even own a camera!), being biased, or in the pay of this or that manufacturer, I think often the readers are most to blame. They are so unsure and desperate, they just want opinions, rather than actually being able to judge image quality by themselves. The problem is, very few reviewers are good photographers, and simply shoot a bowl of fruit or a wine bottle for testing purposes, whereas I don't shoot those subjects. I don't shoot test charts either. I'm sure everyone at EOSHD owns a lens that maybe doesn't score high over at DxO, but every time they use it, it's magical. I admire Mathieu Gasquet, because he shoots subjects I encounter every day - people and nature - and he does it well. One other thing so many of these so-called reviews focus on that I absolutely loathe is features. Thousands of shots of AFC and so on - but at least they are sharing shots instead of just voicing an opinion. I think too many readers are overly concerned about features rather than handling and image quality. I never used 1/10th of the features on my GH3, GM1 or GH4. I just want a camera that shoots magnificent video at 24fps. And more so than any other camera I’ve owned, I chose camera X based almost entirely on the overwhelming number of beautiful videos people were uploading to YouTube and Vimeo, not test charts and features I’ll never use.

I've been thinking some more about the astronomical cost of the Olympus. The only real justification I could come across here in the forums is that it just feels better (and probably looks better) than the Panasonics. Which I don't doubt for a second. Panasonic will never win any design awards, but to be fair, their stuff works. I've owned at least three Panasonics and haven't had any issues with any of them. The last time I handled an Olympus was in the 1980s. My dad had given me his Olympus film camera, and I thought it was incredible how they'd managed to pack so much into such a small body. And how a camera feels, how it handles, its build quality, the sound of the shutter - those are all important too. However - $2,000? For just $200 more, you could be packing a Fuji X-T2 equipped with a 35mm f/2 lens and vertical power booster. And the build quality of the Fuji is second to none. It's also made in Japan, not Vietnam. As for the size of the APS-C camera, it's no bigger than the GH4, I think it's actually physically smaller. Or... you could come to Malaysia and buy the G85 for a mere $725, a whopping $1,300 savings over the Olympus, and use the money you save to take a holiday. I haven't been able to shoot with the G85 yet, since I didn't bring any lenses with me and I purchased it without lens, since I've already got a dozen back home. Anyhow, I couldn't decide, so I got both the X-T2 and the G85.

Could you give any estimate as to battery life? Will one battery last 10 min. shooting video? I don't think a single reviewer has mentioned battery life for video in their tests. That seems to be the very first thing they test with laptops. @Inazuma Those two clips are some of the best video I've seen yet from the G85 - not over-sharpened, good WB, skin tones are pleasing. It looks like it could very well be intercut with my GH4 no problem (with some tweaking).

Here you go! Thanks Mercer!

I bought my GH4 3 years ago with the intention of shooting 4K and delivering in HD, and that's what I'd been doing up until just a couple months ago, when I miraculously discovered I could edit 4K in the timeline.

1. Edit ready is great software. It's free for clips up to 1 minute. A baby could learn how to use it in 10 sec. 2. Unless your computer is super old, you probably won't need a new one for editing on a 1080p timeline. 3. I spent all night looking for good sample 1080p clips from either the GX or G cameras. Couldn't find any. If I had a lens, I'd shoot some for you here and now. 4. Can't anyone here please just shoot something in 1080p and upload it? ?

Found the answer: the camera's already running firmware v1.1.

I did that already.

Okay, never mind about the battery life. How about firmware update v1.1? I downloaded the zip file and extracted the bin and copied it onto my SD card, inserted it into my fully charged camera, turned the camera on and hit play and - nothing! it just says no pictures to play or something. What am I doing wrong?

I grudgingly ordered a build after giving up trying to find a MBPr 2015 from a reputable dealer here. They quoted me from four to seven weeks, so maybe by the end of next month. I got 4GB graphics card and 500GB SSD. I still have to order a bunch of new cables, adapters and an SD card reader.

Max Yuryev talks about performance using FCP 10.3 You can download and run BruceX to test the render performance of your machine. You can download the zip file for BruceX here.

FCP X 10.3 is even faster.

Can anyone tell me how many minutes of video you can shoot on one battery with the G85?

And I'd like to know if anyone can tell me what battery life is for video on G85.

I haven't shot with my G85 yet, but I prefer the look and feel of the smaller G bodies to the oversized, butt ugly GH4 any day.

You do not want to shoot 1080p on the GH4 unless you need the slo mo or something. There have already been numerous discussions and videos online about this. Shooting 4K and downsampling to 1080p in the NLE timeline will result in more detailed images without the aliasing and moire that plagues these cameras when shooting HD. With Panasonic, the 4K does not require terabytes of SD cards, either. If you're looking for a camera that shoots nice HD, get yourself a cheap used GM1. Have a look at Jase's handheld work with the GM1 and Nokton: it's beautiful. Panasonic fumbled when they discontinued the GM lineup. Sorry to hijack this thread with off topic discussion, but in a few days we'll know all the specs of the GH5 anyway: organic global shutter, 20 stops of dynamic range, H265, etc. ?

Go ahead, try it, then share your results. ???

Because Panasonic will be announcing the specs at their press event on January 4th.

We will find out in two weeks

I'd like to see more evidence of 2 stops increase in light sensitivity. What I'm seeing instead from the posted videos is sharper, more contrasty, less film-like footage than the GH4.

incremental changes... color is basically identical after three years.

May I ask what firmware you're using? What camera/lens combination?

Here's someone who understands a little something about the language of cinema. At last. But... the colors don't do anything for me at all. I'm going to give the G85 a fair shot, but if it disappoints me, I'm selling all my Panasonic bodies and lenses and switching over to Fuji.

The GH5 will be released in January. Available in March/April. Specs will be announced at CES January 4th. Camera will be available March/April.