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

[jase]

So, I finally got my Sigma 18-35 in combination with the Canon EF Speedbooster XL. Yes, this thing is huge! But up until now it ticks so many boxes for me, that I am considering to keep it.

Just one thing is really weird: when i turn the zoom ring, the aperture (!) changes, no matter which mode I am in, even in M or A?! It starts at f1.1 @18mm which is correct - however it goes all the way up until it hits f3.6 when zoomed @35mm - I dont get it, maybe @conurus could chime in?

[markr041]

12 hours ago, Vesku said:

Nice clean low light videos. Can you remember how high iso you used with this bright lens? 400? 800?

The GX85 does very well in night shots. The ISO ranged from 1000 to 2500. The green moving dinosaur head shot was 2500; the close-ups of the snow man were 2500. Everything was really dark.

[Fredrik Lyhne]

14 hours ago, jase said:

So, I finally got my Sigma 18-35 in combination with the Canon EF Speedbooster XL. Yes, this thing is huge! But up until now it ticks so many boxes for me, that I am considering to keep it.

Just one thing is really weird: when i turn the zoom ring, the aperture (!) changes, no matter which mode I am in, even in M or A?! It starts at f1.1 @18mm which is correct - however it goes all the way up until it hits f3.6 when zoomed @35mm - I dont get it, maybe @conurus could chime in?

Cool! Can you post a picture of the setup? Excited to hear your thoughts on image quality compared to your other lenses. 

[jonpais]

14 hours ago, jase said:

So, I finally got my Sigma 18-35 in combination with the Canon EF Speedbooster XL. Yes, this thing is huge! But up until now it ticks so many boxes for me, that I am considering to keep it.

Just one thing is really weird: when i turn the zoom ring, the aperture (!) changes, no matter which mode I am in, even in M or A?! It starts at f1.1 @18mm which is correct - however it goes all the way up until it hits f3.6 when zoomed @35mm - I dont get it, maybe @conurus could chime in?

Something's not right here. I've got the GH4, XL and Sigma as well. The aperture should be constant throughout the zoom range. I just checked the calendar to see if you were playing an April Fool's joke...

[jase]

1 hour ago, Fredrik Lyhne said:

Cool! Can you post a picture of the setup? Excited to hear your thoughts on image quality compared to your other lenses. 

Will do. What I can tell for now after a quick test: the focus ring is awesome, nearly on the same level as the the one of the Voigtländers - nicely damped. Vignetting is clearly visible in normal photomode and (although less) in 1080p. Only in 4k, when the additional crop is applied the vignetting disappears. I yet have to see whether the vignetting appears when electronic stabilization is added. Yet, the lens itself is quite the monster... my hands were getting tired quite soon.

1 hour ago, jonpais said:

Something's not right here. I've got the GH4, XL and Sigma as well. The aperture should be constant throughout the zoom range. I just checked the calendar to see if you were playing an April Fool's joke...

No joke... I totally dont get it to be honest, already mailed the Metabones support, no reply yet. When i fully zoom until 35mm, the lowest aperture I can set is f3.6 - something is not right.

[Cinegain]

Doesn't the Metabones SpeedBooster have firmware updates? Did you update it yet?

[jase]

26 minutes ago, Cinegain said:

Doesn't the Metabones SpeedBooster have firmware updates? Did you update it yet?

Yes, it has firmware updates and I have updated it to the newest version...

[Cinegain]

Which is the one from today (Release date: 16 Dec 2016) I take (they seem to have released one today). Sounds funky. Not sure either. Sounds like you need to await that reply. Pretty sure two teammembers are on here as well, they might get e-mail if you send 'em a personal message through EOSHD ( @Brian Caldwell | @conurus ).

[jase]

1 minute ago, Cinegain said:

Which is the one from today (Release date: 16 Dec 2016) I take (they seem to have released one today). Sounds funky. Not sure either. Sounds like you need to await that reply. Pretty sure two teammembers are on here as well, they might get e-mail if you send 'em a personal message through EOSHD ( @Brian Caldwell | @conurus ).

Ha, the one of today I missed! Will try this as soon as I get home! TY!

[Vesku]

Does the GX85 has less banding and more dynamic range in 0-255 video than in 16-235 video? In theory yes but in practise?

[mercer]

18 hours ago, jase said:

So, I finally got my Sigma 18-35 in combination with the Canon EF Speedbooster XL. Yes, this thing is huge! But up until now it ticks so many boxes for me, that I am considering to keep it.

Just one thing is really weird: when i turn the zoom ring, the aperture (!) changes, no matter which mode I am in, even in M or A?! It starts at f1.1 @18mm which is correct - however it goes all the way up until it hits f3.6 when zoomed @35mm - I dont get it, maybe @conurus could chime in?

Yeah, that is strange. Something is definitely not right. Do you have access to a Canon camera to see how it is natively mounted?

26 minutes ago, Vesku said:

Does the GX85 has less banding and more dynamic range in 0-255 video than in 16-235 video? In theory yes but in practise?

You cannot change the Luma Range on the GX85 and to be honest, I'm unsure what it is natively set at. If you're looking for that feature, then you should probably go with the G80/85... which is the better deal now anyway. 

[Cary Knoop]

18 hours ago, jase said:

So, I finally got my Sigma 18-35 in combination with the Canon EF Speedbooster XL. Yes, this thing is huge! But up until now it ticks so many boxes for me, that I am considering to keep it.

Just one thing is really weird: when i turn the zoom ring, the aperture (!) changes, no matter which mode I am in, even in M or A?! It starts at f1.1 @18mm which is correct - however it goes all the way up until it hits f3.6 when zoomed @35mm - I dont get it, maybe @conurus could chime in?

Make sure you run the latest firmware versions:

Metabones should be at least 2.5 but preferably 2.6 (this version came out today!).

Panasonic GX85 should be version 1.1 not 1.0.

 

 

[Stanley]

37 minutes ago, Vesku said:

Does the GX85 has less banding and more dynamic range in 0-255 video than in 16-235 video? In theory yes but in practise?

One thing is for sure is that GX85 looks far superior to GH4.

[Cary Knoop]

1 hour ago, mercer said:

You cannot change the Luma Range on the GX85 and to be honest, I'm unsure what it is natively set at. If you're looking for that feature, then you should probably go with the G80/85... which is the better deal now anyway. 

GX85 outputs video levels but the camera does record out of range values so when you have a high contrast recording most of the time you need to bring values back into legal range to prevent clipping or crushing.

[Vesku]

4k photo records 0-255 video.

[Stanley]

6 minutes ago, Vesku said:

4k photo records 0-255 video.

99.9% of the worlds population don't know that!!

[John Matthews]

4 minutes ago, Stanley said:

99.9% of the worlds population don't know that!!

That leaves just us!

Seriously, I doubt 0-255 is a big deal.

[jonpais]

On 12/15/2016 at 3:39 PM, Vesku said:

Nice clean low light videos. Can you remember how high iso you used with this bright lens? 400? 800?

So clean looking for such high ISOs. Thanks. I would never push my GH4 past Panasonic's inflated setting of 800. I'll be picking up a Lumix in Malaysia next week if they can get me a body without lens. I've already got a dozen lenses, don't need any more.

[Georgios]

19 hours ago, jase said:

So, I finally got my Sigma 18-35 in combination with the Canon EF Speedbooster XL. Yes, this thing is huge! But up until now it ticks so many boxes for me, that I am considering to keep it.

Just one thing is really weird: when i turn the zoom ring, the aperture (!) changes, no matter which mode I am in, even in M or A?! It starts at f1.1 @18mm which is correct - however it goes all the way up until it hits f3.6 when zoomed @35mm - I dont get it, maybe @conurus could chime in?

don't worry ..it happens first time...metabones "calibrates" to the lens...do a full zoom in-out and focus min-max...then close camera..remove lens-adapter-body and reconnect...everything should be fine now..

[jase]

1 hour ago, Georgios said:

don't worry ..it happens first time...metabones "calibrates" to the lens...do a full zoom in-out and focus min-max...then close camera..remove lens-adapter-body and reconnect...everything should be fine now..

You are so right! Problem solved, phew...