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

[The Chris]

1 hour ago, tweak said:

Think you missed a few things on a6300 -
- Can't be used outside, will melt.

- Also has moire.

- 1080p is unusably soft.

- Extremely bad RS (not just bad).

I'd say GX85 is looking pretty decent in comparision .

I didn't miss anything, just threw a few highlights out. Depends on your needs I guess. A6300 4k looks better from the samples I've seen, and it goes higher ISO's. Plus Sony's PADF is vastly superior, especially tracking people. And it has an audio input. And you can get great AF with adapted Canon lenses.  Obviously we can go on for both cameras  

It's great to have such choices at this price point. 

14 hours ago, Inazuma said:

To be fair, that moire is only appearing in 1080p with pretty harsh circumstances. And the a6300 has a really soft image at 1080p. 

 

Haha, we will nitpick at anything these days huh. 

I've seen moire in 4k GX video as well. But yes, we do nitpick everything. 

Cheers

[tweak]

Aliasing and moire look worse on a6300 imo.

I'd get an a6300 if I was into doing locked off, in-door 4k shots/interviews. That could indeed be what some people need I guess.

[Sedazin]

Got my GX80 yesterday. Switched it to 30p/60p and did a few test shots. Image stabilization is incredible. Used the 14-42mm and the collapsible 12-32 vor the first shots and it s really amazing. Now handheld shots really become usable for me. Continuous AF is for sure not as reliable as on the a6300 or the 70/80D but that is OK for me.

Tab to Focus works can be used in two ways which is not really described in the manual:

Set Continuous AF to OFF. Set AF to AF-S: During recording or before, tab on the screen to select the area you want to focus at, push the shutter button halfway to engange focussing. 

Set Continuous AF to OFF. Set AF to AF-C: During recording or before, tab on the screen to select the area you want to focus at and the camera performs a focus transition from the current focus setting to the point selected (no shutter button action involved). The (not really expected but) appreciated behaviour is that the camera only does one focussing action. If you move the frame and your focus selection point to a blurry part of the image the camera will not try to get focus again. Probably because "Continuous AF" is OFF.

From what I saw in the first shots the transitions are pretty smooth, especially for a CDAF system.

[John Matthews]

There's been quite a lot of people comparing the A6300 and the GX80. Here are my thoughts:

I considered the A6300 back when it was introduced, but I concluded that it just had too many problems (they have been mentioned before in this thread). The killer for me was the price in mainland Europe... for some reason, Sony wanted us to pay a much higher price. I thought the G7 or even a 3-year old GX7 would have been a better value choice. I ended up getting a GX7, but the GX80 was announced; so, I sent the GX7 back and got the GX80. I'm quite happy with it now. I'm sure the A6300 is a competent camera for stills and video, but at that price with all of its problems? No thank you. One could also make an argument in favor of MFT for the lens choices too. Hope that help anyone looking to choose.

[7 Lakes]

9 hours ago, The Chris said:

I've seen moire in 4k GX video as well.

Moiré artifacts? It would be a nonsense on these days cameras. I'm waiting for a full review about the image quality of this camera and will make a decision then.

[Andrew Reid]

I have both the GX80 and A6300, I much prefer the Panasonic so far.

[sanveer]

39 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

I have both the GX80 and A6300, I much prefer the Panasonic so far.

Hi Andrew, I am looking forward to your next part on the GX85/ 80/ 7 markii. If you could please test:

1. Image sharpness with a lens like the Leica 42.5mm f1.2 or 25mm f1.4, especially on comparing it with the GX8 and GX7 would be great.

2. Some high photos from sporting events or any high speed action would be great. Especially compared to other Panasonic or Olympus cameras. 

3. Video recorded into Blackmagic 4k Monitor would be greatly appreciated. I am curious as to how well it holds (and grades), including the mic preamps on that one. And, how it compares to everything else on the market.


 

[mechanicalEYE]

52 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

I have both the GX80 and A6300, I much prefer the Panasonic so far.

Waiting for your video... 

[Fredrik Lyhne]

The GX80 finally arrived in Norway too. First impressions are really good and stabilizer is truly amazing! If anyone is building a rig with an external monitor please share some images of it.

[Dimitris Stasinos]

Can you guys suggest me a european store to buy the GX80? Ι was considering DigitPhoto as someone here mentioned it but its in French and can't order in complete darkness neither using Google translate

[bonesandskin]

Has anyone tried matching GX80/85 footage and a7Sii footage?

[sgreszcz]

On 26 May 2016 at 0:04 AM, mercer said:

Try Lock&Load by CoreMelt. 

I used that recently with some footage shot with my GX80 and non-stabilised lenses to fix a couple of pans.  Worked really well.

[Nathan Gabriel]

On 5/22/2016 at 1:45 PM, John Matthews said:

I have a question about workflow. I've resorted to shooting just jpegs because they look great from this camera and also I refuse to pay Adobe for the newest Lightroom when it comes out for GX80 raw support. I also use OSX and fcpx, but would love to move to Linux. Any ideas?

 

On 5/23/2016 at 2:17 AM, norliss said:

Non Linear Editing software i.e. Final Cut, Avid MC etc.

For Linux I highly recommend kdenlive. It's easily the best free NLE I've seen, it handles my gh3 footage no problem. I know there are better proprietary options, but you might be surprised at how capable kdenlive is.

[DPC]

For anyone having trouble opening the raw files (in Lightroom etc), just use http://basepath.com/site/detail-ExifChanger.php and modify the camera model to (for example) GX7.

This is a great camera. Excellent value. I wish my A7R ii would focus as well!

[David Webster]

Semi random question I haven't seen answered anywhere else (I did look).

Is there a time limit to liveview out over HDMI? Either with or without recording internally?

Scenario is that I use a Nikon D5200 to feed an HDMI signal to a Wirecast/BlackMagic rig for live streaming.

I use the hacked D5200 firmware to keep it Live View awake for up to 3 hours.

I'd love to step up to 4k, but the deal breaker has been finding a camera that can keep Live View open for the duration of a rock show.

I've heard the GH4 will do that? Does this one or any other you guys know about?

I can obv purchase one and find out the hard way but thought I'd ask first.

Thanks!

[DevonChris]

16 minutes ago, David Webster said:

Semi random question I haven't seen answered anywhere else (I did look).

Is there a time limit to liveview out over HDMI? Either with or without recording internally?

Scenario is that I use a Nikon D5200 to feed an HDMI signal to a Wirecast/BlackMagic rig for live streaming.

I use the hacked D5200 firmware to keep it Live View awake for up to 3 hours.

I'd love to step up to 4k, but the deal breaker has been finding a camera that can keep Live View open for the duration of a rock show.

I've heard the GH4 will do that? Does this one or any other you guys know about?

I can obv purchase one and find out the hard way but thought I'd ask first.

Thanks!

I use a Ninja Star with a Panasonix GX8 and that keeps streaming 1080P over HDMI.

I haven't tried 4K out of the HDMI as that is not supported by the NInja Star.

[sgreszcz]

On 28 May 2016 at 6:39 PM, Sedazin said:

Got my GX80 yesterday. Switched it to 30p/60p and did a few test shots. Image stabilization is incredible. Used the 14-42mm and the collapsible 12-32 vor the first shots and it s really amazing. Now handheld shots really become usable for me. Continuous AF is for sure not as reliable as on the a6300 or the 70/80D but that is OK for me.

Tab to Focus works can be used in two ways which is not really described in the manual:

Set Continuous AF to OFF. Set AF to AF-S: During recording or before, tab on the screen to select the area you want to focus at, push the shutter button halfway to engange focussing. 

Set Continuous AF to OFF. Set AF to AF-C: During recording or before, tab on the screen to select the area you want to focus at and the camera performs a focus transition from the current focus setting to the point selected (no shutter button action involved). The (not really expected but) appreciated behaviour is that the camera only does one focussing action. If you move the frame and your focus selection point to a blurry part of the image the camera will not try to get focus again. Probably because "Continuous AF" is OFF.

From what I saw in the first shots the transitions are pretty smooth, especially for a CDAF system.

You can also keep it in manual mode, assign s-af to the back button to get s-af during recording (like the G7 but not the LX100 for some reason).  That is what I sometimes use if I lose focus or I am having trouble seeing peaking.

[Vesku]

GX85 is the newest Panasonic camera. Can it finally show exposure information during video recording? It could be helpful to see what aperture, shutter or iso the camera is using.

[Astro]

I love the look of some of the footage I have seen from this camera, just the colors seem to have extra pop and some extra detail than the GH4 has.No AA filter maybe?
I have had the GH4 for a long time now (I still really love it) I always felt the whole noise...low light thing about the GH4 had been really overblown IMO
If you use it right, with a fast lens. its not an issue at all.
BUT somehow the GX85 has something in the image that seems to be a step up...poses a problem...GX85 or wait for GH5?...GX85 or wait for GH5?...Jeez I dont know.

[TheRenaissanceMan]

16 minutes ago, Astro said:

I love the look of some of the footage I have seen from this camera, just the colors seem to have extra pop and some extra detail than the GH4 has.No AA filter maybe?
I have had the GH4 for a long time now (I still really love it) I always felt the whole noise...low light thing about the GH4 had been really overblown IMO
If you use it right, with a fast lens. its not an issue at all.
BUT somehow the GX85 has something in the image that seems to be a step up...poses a problem...GX85 or wait for GH5?...GX85 or wait for GH5?...Jeez I dont know.

Why not both? GH5 as A-cam, GX85 as B-cam. More than likely that'll be my next kit.