An adventure into the Panasonic GX85/80 begins - and a look at the Leica Nocticron for Micro Four Thirds

[John Matthews]

2 minutes ago, Márcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

I guess that Gordon at Cameralabs told that the camera could only be charged by usb, not powered - the usb only could be used for charging with the camera switched off.

Confirmed. For power, you need the same gx7 adapter.

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

On 22/05/2016 at 0:29 PM, jase said:

Anyone knows whether is possible to get rid of this annoying "change your focal length" popup each time you turn on the camera when using a manuall lens that does not have any electronical contacts? really reminds on the NTSC mode on Sony cameras..

I LOVE this feature on my GX7 - for stills. When using my EM5 II for stills, I change the lenses a lot, and when using some manual lenses I almost always forgot to change the focal length.

For video, yeah, could be kind of annoying - but since it is only a confirmation and ready to go, for me is a good trade off.

3 minutes ago, John Matthews said:

Confirmed. For power, you need the same gx7 adapter.

Thanks, John.

Are you getting the jittery footage that I saw in some videos when panning? It is not the "shaky" movement when the sensor tries to compensate the start / end of the panning, looks like that it interferes with the video cadence...

The video from alanpoiuyt in a previous post shows it clearly, starting at 0:15.

 

 

[John Matthews]

21 minutes ago, Márcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

Are you getting the jittery footage that I saw in some videos when panning? It is not the "shaky" movement when the sensor tries to compensate the start / end of the panning, looks like that it interferes with the video cadence...

I'm not an expert yet. There's a specific setting for IBIS and panning and it needs more testing before I can comment. Dual-IS is probably the best we've got in terms of IBIS. To get a perfect pan, it might take a few takes but I'm sure it's doable. You can leave the tripod at home though. Even with non-stabilized lenses, it does a fantastic job IMO!

[John Matthews]

8 hours ago, tupp said:

Both proprietary and open source projects come and go, and no one can guarantee the future.  I am guessing that you don't want to stick with FCP.  For open source NLEs, Blender has a strong community with a lot of folks crazy about its editing capabilities.  The community version of Cinelerra is updated fairly regularly, and it has some unique capabilities (but its default theme is rather garish).  I don't know much about the proprietary NLEs, but I think Lightworks has a following.  I am keeping my eye on Kdenlive.

I've got nothing against FCPX... love what I can do with it and the plugins galore! I'll take another peak at Kdenlive myself.

8 hours ago, tupp said:

There are numerous image editors/processors that run on Linux.  My favorites are GIMP and Darktable, but there is also Krita, CinePaint, RawTherapee, Raw Studio, Delaboratory, UFRaw, GTKRawGallery, LightZone, Pixeluvo (looks like an interesting processor/editor combo), Photivo, AfterShot Pro, Fotoxx, etc.  These are mostly raster image editors, and, of course, there are also a few open source vector image creators/editors.

A quick note about RawTherapee, it lets me "see" the raw file, but I don't think it's optimised- "supported" would be too strong of a word. I think I'm just going to have to be patient until software catches up with cameras. I did have a look at Iridient Developer 3 (officially supporting the GX80, along with Silkypix) and it's been amazing. Too bad it's OSX only, costs $99, and workflow would need to be changed.

Thank you so much for your help and I'll keep you posted on where I go with this. One thing is for sure, I'm moving from Lightroom and I won't be joining Adobe CC.

[tupp]

5 minutes ago, John Matthews said:

A quick note about RawTherapee, it lets me "see" the raw file, but I don't think it's optimised- "supported" would be too strong of a word.

I think I'm just going to have to be patient until software catches up with cameras. I did have a look at Iridient Developer 3 (officially supporting the GX80, along with Silkypix) and it's been amazing. Too bad it's OSX only, costs $99, and workflow would need to be changed.

Perhaps RawTherapee the default settings/algorithm is not optimized for the GX80, or perhaps its defaults are just a little laid-back in regards to sharpening, saturation and contrast, so some tweaking might help.  As I mentioned, I am happy with Darktable's presets as a starting point.

 

I would guess that Iridient Developer uses open source DCRaw, if it already has GX80 raw capability.  Many of the open source raw developers/processors are multi-platform, so you can use them on OSX, Windows or Linux.  As open source software is usually free, it can't hurt to try other raw processors to see if you like their defaults.

[Alan]

One great wide angle lens that always seems to be forgotten is the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 7-14mm f4.0 Micro Four Thirds Ultra Wide Angle Lens - Brilliant!

[gatopardo]

8 hours ago, Márcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

I LOVE this feature on my GX7 - for stills. When using my EM5 II for stills, I change the lenses a lot, and when using some manual lenses I almost always forgot to change the focal length.

For video, yeah, could be kind of annoying - but since it is only a confirmation and ready to go, for me is a good trade off.

Thanks, John.

Are you getting the jittery footage that I saw in some videos when panning? It is not the "shaky" movement when the sensor tries to compensate the start / end of the panning, looks like that it interferes with the video cadence...

The video from alanpoiuyt in a previous post shows it clearly, starting at 0:15.

 

 

I also find the footage has very strong jitter. Any idea if it is wrong shutter speed. Not good motion cadence. 

[Andrew Reid]

9 hours ago, Márcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

I guess that Gordon at Cameralabs told that the camera could only be charged by usb, not powered - the usb only could be used for charging with the camera switched off.

Andrew, could you confirm this?

Yeah unfortunately you have to turn the camera off for it to charge via USB and it always runs off the battery when switched on, not USB power.

Hopefully Panasonic will change this in future.

[fuzzynormal]

2 hours ago, gatopardo said:

I also find the footage has very strong jitter. Any idea if it is wrong shutter speed. Not good motion cadence. 

Not to put too fine a point on it, but but problem with that video is that it's poorly shot, not that the 5axis is introducing some jitter into the motion image. (Which it does)

Long fast handheld pans?  Sorry, but 5axis isn't going to help in that scenario. So, the solution?  Don't do ridiculous long and fast handheld panning shots.  Easy enough  

Look, good shots need a good shooter. I don't care if you're filming with an Alexa and the worlds most expensive gimbal. If you don't know what you're doing within the limits of the gear, you're going to create garbage. 

The thing that footage is good for is recognizing the patameters of the stabilizing tech. 

If you suffer from the delusion that 5axis is going to make bad footage good...well, this should disavow you of that notion. 

[sanveer]

1 hour ago, fuzzynormal said:

Not to put too fine a point on it, but but problem with that video is that it's poorly shot, not that the 5axis is introducing some jitter into the motion image. (Which it does)

Long fast handheld pans?  Sorry, but 5axis isn't going to help in that scenario. So, the solution?  Don't do ridiculous long and fast handheld panning shots.  Easy enough  

Look, good shots need a good shooter. I don't care if you're filming with an Alexa and the worlds most expensive gimbal. If you don't know what you're doing within the limits of the gear, you're going to create garbage. 

The thing that footage is good for is recognizing the patameters of the stabilizing tech. 

If you suffer from the delusion that 5axis is going to make bad footage good...well, this should disavow you of that notion. 

I also noticed that a lot of people who are testing the GX85/ GX80/ GX7 Mark ii, are using the Auto Focus Continuous for Video. That is causing some of the jump in focus, and making things worse. Apart from the suddenly and jerky pans. 

[mercer]

Yeah, a wide angle lens, set to infinity will probably give the best results. I would imagine pans would be best with you feet planted and your elbows glued to your side... Then just twist your waist as opposed to moving your arms. 

[Herb]

I didn't see anyone post this:

 

[Tiago Rosa-Rosso]

Anyone knows if the camera outputs 10bit 422 or 8 bit 422?

[mercer]

1 hour ago, Herb said:

I didn't see anyone post this:

 

Was that shot with IBIS? If so... Damn. If not... Damn that's a nice image for such at tiny camera. 

[wobba]

For those that are planning to buy the GX80/85 for it's AF capabilities, you may be disappointed:

 

[The Chris]

13 hours ago, mercer said:

Yeah, a wide angle lens, set to infinity will probably give the best results. I would imagine pans would be best with you feet planted and your elbows glued to your side... Then just twist your waist as opposed to moving your arms. 

Also with IBIS move past the point you actually want to stop, if you get a wobble from the sensor settling down it won't ruin the shot. As always, slower is better, even with 5-axis. 

[John Matthews]

2 hours ago, wobba said:

 

For those that are planning to buy the GX80/85 for it's AF capabilities, you may be disappointed:

 

I wish they had tested the video AF from a tripod. IMO the GX80's AF during video with IBIS doesn't really work properly. It seems to wait for the image to clear up, then AF. The 20 billion phase detection focus points on the Sony will be a tough match for the GX80's contrast-only AF... In Europe, good thing the GX80 has manual focus, plus you get 550 Euros left over for GOOD, high-value lenses.   I'm pretty happy about that.

[John Matthews]

Does anyone have suggestions for avoiding noise in the shadows for the blue channel?

ISO 200, Standard PP, Contrast = -3, Sharpness = -5, NR = -5, Saturation = -2, WB = sunny

Heavily back-lit situation. Ungraded, of course.

100% crops of my daughter's skin. Not sure if this will work, but hopefully you can see something. Blue channel is noisier. You might need to increase exposure to see.

green.tiff

red.tiff

blue.tiff

color.tiff

[AnthonyWithNoH]

Andrew, do you have a referral link for the GX85 kit on B&H in silver?

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

Fast pans at 24-25fps are like this, with or without stabilization