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

[Andrew Reid]

The camera which Panasonic can't decide what to call (GX80 in Europe, GX85 in the US and GX7 Mark II in Japan!) really excites me.

It's the first time that anyone has put 5 axis in-body stabilisation in a 4K camera which exceeds the performance of the stunningly good Olympus 5 axis system.

It's not quite as effective as a gimbal for sweeping handheld movement, but that pain-in-the-ass tripod you can certainly dispense with now, along with that Olympus 1080p mush too!!

GRAB A CUP OF TEA, PUT DOWN YOUR F***ING IPHONE AND READ THE LONG ARTICLE!!

[sanveer]

yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss



Thanks a Ton Andrew 

[TheRenaissanceMan]

That's 3 categories, not 2.

Great article! Nice to see you turning around on mu43 again. The lens options are indeed a big part of the system's magic.  So many great options, even if you don't want to shell out for a Nocticron.

[mmills]

I hope you include a couple shots in the new L.Monochrome mode when testing the 4K video function. I'm very curious to see what this camera can do with SOOC black & white video.

[Michal Gajdoš]

Awesome Andrew ! looking forward to footage. looks promising. I need to try out the new m43 cameras to see for myself.

however there still one thing I remember from using the old Olympus E 420 (4/3 DSLR, smallest DSLR at that time) and that was over blown highlights when strong light source was pointed into the camera over when exposed on something in the shadow the highlights would blown out bigger portion of the pic. see the picture for reference and don't get me wrong pls I understand exposing etc. 

[Miklos Nemeth]

As written in the article "You can touch the screen whilst recording to rack focus. It works well but not quite as well as Dual Pixel AF on the 1D X Mark II since there’s a millisecond of a shimmer at the end of the rack. Contrast detect AF doesn’t yet eliminate hunting." Actually this my major problem with Panasonic/Olympus cameras. I have the Sony A5100, the only touch-operable Sony Alpha camera, and because of its phase detect autofocus points, it performs brilliantly smooth, shimmer-less focus pull for $500. This inherent shimmer in MFT cameras practically negates an important benefit of their anyway brilliant touch screens. Canon 70D, 80D and Sony A5100 are the only reasonably priced cameras (all HD-only, unfortunately) that can perform shimmer-free touch-to-pull-focus operation. Sony is repeating its silly mistakes again and again not to add touch-operability to its excellent 4K PDAF cameras: A7Rii, A6300.

[AnthonyWithNoH]

Thank you Andrew! I was hoping we would get a post on the GX85 from you soon and am glad that this isn't the last we'll see of it from you. I'm most likely going to order one in the next few days with your link, makes me wish I had a Canon Mount Sigma 18-35 (use Nikon) so I could easily take advantage of IBIS with it... will have to do something about that soon. What interests me most about this camera is of course the IBIS, but I'd like to see the benefits of it when paired with a gimbal like a Ronin M as the Ronin M doesn't correct for up and down bobbing motion while walking. Do you plan on looking into this? I don't see anyone else testing this. I understand you can turn off the correction for the pan axis too which would be useful for pairing with a gimbal. Also, the XL .64 works fine (mainly in terms of attachment) besides the usual soft edges w 18-35 and other aps-c lenses while in the 1080 mode? I still have my Nikon to BMCC adapter lying around which might find it's place on the gx85 until I decide it's worth it to buy another EF speedbooster as I'd like to use this alongside my GH4. 

[Andrew Reid]

I think the Y axis (and X) is useful for reducing handheld jitter and locking down a shot from the hand more than can be done with an OIS lens, but I don't think it can do much for the bounce of a walk with a gimbal, simply because the sensor would have to move a rather large distance to compensate for it! Interested to see some tests from others.

I sold my 18-35mm Nikon mount for the Canon version, but Sigma also offer a mount-swap service. It's paid though!

1 hour ago, Miklos Nemeth said:

As written in the article "You can touch the screen whilst recording to rack focus. It works well but not quite as well as Dual Pixel AF on the 1D X Mark II since there’s a millisecond of a shimmer at the end of the rack. Contrast detect AF doesn’t yet eliminate hunting." Actually this my major problem with Panasonic/Olympus cameras. I have the Sony A5100, the only touch-operable Sony Alpha camera, and because of its phase detect autofocus points, it performs brilliantly smooth, shimmer-less focus pull for $500. This inherent shimmer in MFT cameras practically negates an important benefit of their anyway brilliant touch screens. Canon 70D, 80D and Sony A5100 are the only reasonably priced cameras (all HD-only, unfortunately) that can perform shimmer-free touch-to-pull-focus operation. Sony is repeating its silly mistakes again and again not to add touch-operability to its excellent 4K PDAF cameras: A7Rii, A6300.

Interesting about the A5100, never realised it could do a phase-detect AF focus pull off the touch screen. I thought the A6000 was the first Sony sensor to get onboard phase-detect AF, and even then it didn't work very well in video mode.

[Brian Williams]

Great article. Great camera (Got mine last week). So glad to, once again, have a camera that gets me this excited to shoot with.

[Dennis L Sorensen]

Thanks for the article Andrew.

Can i ask..

On a list, from "No stabilisation" to a "omg i don't need a tripod (for real).. where would you put the A7SII? (you can use 1-10 if it makes it any easier ). It sounds like you would put the GX80/85 at "omg I don't need a tripod (for real) (10).. But is this true?.. i mean. When i first heard of the IBIS on the Alpha7mk2 series i was blown away. But then i got hold of a a7Sii myself, and i was first pleased.. but the more I shot the worse it got in my mind. I've heard the phrase "end of tripod use" with the a7Sii IBIS.. But I, to this day, I don't understand the people that say that.. I mean.. yeah, it removes most of the micro jitter (though not all if you look on a 400% crop of the video) and bigger movements are not handled well. Well atleast not as well as my Canon 24-105 F4 IS (which does a much better job). And the pitching and Yawing corrections are so easily seen in the footage - often looking like software stabilisation where it warps the footage.

Soo.. to sum up. How does the two systems compare (Sony a7sii vs Panasonic GX80/85)?

THANKS!

[Andrew Reid]

You can do bigger, sweeping movements and even walk with the GX85's stabilisation, you can't do this with the Sonys.

If the GX85 is 10/10 as good as it gets in 2016 then the A7R II is a 7... not bad, just more like a Canon IS lens than anything revolutionary.

[viranikenya]

No mention of dynamic range, a key selling point. Was Andrew being tied down not to mention that? 

[The Chris]

Looking forward to IQ, RS, and DR comparisons with some of the others like the NX1, a6300, 1dc and even the a7sII. Could this little guy be a giant killer?

[bonesandskin]

Are there any macro lenses you've tried with this? If so are any working well with the IS?

I love the LX100 for its macro function, but it is quite jittery -- ...imagining how amazing being able to handhold macro shots could now be

+1 thanks for the initial review!

[ThomHaig]

Thanks for posting this, Andrew. Awesome that Panasonic have got on the IBIS wagon.

As a recent Metabones XL adopter, I'd be interested to know how the ibis works with more EF lenses. Maybe a Metabones firmware update could make this in body stabilisation play ball with more EF lenses?

I'm a little confused about this technologies' application: You mentioned the ibis works well with the sigma 18-35 (which is great news!) - but that said, this lens doesn't have any stabilisation...Does that mean it would work with any non-IS lens? Or is some kind of position data transferred to the body electronically?

Shame the GX80 doesn't have flatter profiles. That said, I use the G7 and usually shoot Cine-D, but I also find Natural to work well.

[Andrew Reid]

Yes the IBIS works with any non-IS lens. It is like the Olympus 5 axis IBIS.

If you have a Panasonic Power OIS lens then it will use that for axis Y and X, with the other 3 axis on the sensor.

Either way it rocks.

[Herb]

Can't wait for the follow up!

[TSV]

50 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Yes the IBIS works with any non-IS lens. It is like the Olympus 5 axis IBIS.

If you have a Panasonic Power OIS lens then it will use that for axis Y and X, with the other 3 axis on the sensor.

Either way it rocks.

According to the manual you only have 5axis if you use the Electronic IS. 5-Axis Hybrid.

It work at least like this one mine. Also this mode crop further the image (did not see sharpness loss)

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

I know that the EU version have the (stupid) 30 mins record limitation, but it is PAL locked (25/50 fps) or it could be switched to NTSC (24 / 30 / 60 fps)?

I will be in Barcelona next month and would like to get one, but if the region is locked, no game. :/

[Eduardo Granadsztejn]

Very hopeful about the gh5...