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

[John Matthews]

7 hours ago, fuzzynormal said:

The GX85 seems like the best value on the market if you're a shooter desiring 5-axis stabilization.  It's a cheap cam with good IQ and the 5-axis works quite well.

Who can argue with that?

Would I say it's a great camera overall?  No.  But it's an AWESOME camera if you're buying it to do what it's strengths allow you to do --'kuz you get more for less.

More for less is exactly what the GX80 is all about. Personally, I got the gx80 because I wanted to start out and be able to get a few primes after. It completely fits my needs. It's offering top-tier IQ with 4k in a small package, truly in the spirit of M43. I have reached my "good enough" camera.

[Fredrik Lyhne]

It's a fantastic image for the price! Prices in Norway: GX85 is 590 euros, G85 is 1050 euros and A6300 is 1335 euros. If the price keeps dropping I might have to keep it as a B-cam when the GH5 is out, which isn't so bad as it's a perfect match for Hercules with PL 15mm and PL 25mm:

 

[Duplex]

On 06/10/2016 at 9:54 PM, fuzzynormal said:

The GX85 seems like the best value on the market if you're a shooter desiring 5-axis stabilization.  It's a cheap cam with good IQ and the 5-axis works quite well.

Who can argue with that?

Would I say it's a great camera overall?  No.  But it's an AWESOME camera if you're buying it to do what it's strengths allow you to do --'kuz you get more for less.

 

 

This is right on the money.

 

For me, I could have spent more getting a somewhat higher end cam, but being on a budget ( and being purely a hobbyist)  I would rather have a mid range camera with a few different lenses, than one high end camera and only a kit lens. Although the 12-23 is actually a great wee performer!

 

It's very easy to get caught up in the gear side of things. I spent way too much money and time on cameras for still photography over the last few years, thinking that better kit equals better photos and while obviously it's a contributing factor in certain areas, it really comes down to the skill of the user in 90% of situations.

 

Now that I'm more focused on trying to learn video, I'm determined to do it to a budget because as I mentioned it's purely a hobby. M4/3 often gets slated, certainly in the photographic world as there is a huge amount of gear snobbery, but I actually don't mind because there's nothing more satisfying than showing a great picture and then explaining that I didn't need a huge full frame DSLR and £1000 lens to take it!

[sgreszcz]

13 hours ago, Fredrik Lyhne said:

It's a fantastic image for the price! Prices in Norway: GX85 is 590 euros, G85 is 1050 euros and A6300 is 1335 euros. If the price keeps dropping I might have to keep it as a B-cam when the GH5 is out, which isn't so bad as it's a perfect match for Hercules with PL 15mm and PL 25mm:

 

How are you liking the Hercules? Any tips or tricks on using it with the  gx80?

Some really nice shots in those videos!

Has anyone done much night shooting with this camera? I'm thinking of filming a lantern festival after dark and hoping that my native 1.4-1.8 primes will work ok.

[fuzzynormal]

9 hours ago, sgreszcz said:

How are you liking the Hercules? Any tips or tricks on using it with the  gx80?

Some really nice shots in those videos!

Has anyone done much night shooting with this camera? I'm thinking of filming a lantern festival after dark and hoping that my native 1.4-1.8 primes will work ok.

Yeah, the max I can push it is to use my canon fd 55mm f1.2 on a speedbooster. Shooting 4K I can run 3200iso and get a clean useable exposure when delivering for 1080.

Does that make sense?

Anyway, that'll pick up some pretty low light scenes. Not perfect, mind you, the glass gets soft wide open, but low light is there if I really need it. 

21 hours ago, Duplex said:

 

 

This is right on the money.

 

For me, I could have spent more getting a somewhat higher end cam, but being on a budget ( and being purely a hobbyist)  I would rather have a mid range camera with a few different lenses, than one high end camera and only a kit lens. Although the 12-23 is actually a great wee performer!

 

It's very easy to get caught up in the gear side of things. I spent way too much money and time on cameras for still photography over the last few years, thinking that better kit equals better photos and while obviously it's a contributing factor in certain areas, it really comes down to the skill of the user in 90% of situations.

 

Now that I'm more focused on trying to learn video, I'm determined to do it to a budget because as I mentioned it's purely a hobby. M4/3 often gets slated, certainly in the photographic world as there is a huge amount of gear snobbery, but I actually don't mind because there's nothing more satisfying than showing a great picture and then explaining that I didn't need a huge full frame DSLR and £1000 lens to take it!

99%

[Fredrik Lyhne]

11 hours ago, sgreszcz said:

How are you liking the Hercules? Any tips or tricks on using it with the  gx80?

Some really nice shots in those videos!

Has anyone done much night shooting with this camera? I'm thinking of filming a lantern festival after dark and hoping that my native 1.4-1.8 primes will work ok.

Thanks! Hercules is great for product shoots but it's a little fiddly to control as it only has one button and many settings. Would love it if they made an updated version with smartphone control. Some of the shots are also a bit wobbly and I'm not sure why, could be the IBIS though.

If you're going to use the rail on a tripod it needs to be a steady one. Didn't work well with the gorilla pod, I used a Benro alu tripod . Small primes like PL 15mm and 25mm on the GX85 works very well with Hercules. It can tip over with bigger/ longer lenses so be careful. 

Haven't shot so much at night yet, but it holds really well up to 1600 ISO and pretty good at 3200. Did you see the ISO video I posted in this topic? 

Or @jase festival video? 

 

[markr041]

Shot at night:

 

[tonysss]

day shooting :-)

https://vimeo.com/185070585

[John Matthews]

9 hours ago, tonysss said:

day shooting :-)

https://vimeo.com/185070585

Nice video. What was the wide lens you were using in the opening sequence?

[Cary Knoop]

Shot on the GX85

 

[jonpais]

32 minutes ago, Cary Knoop said:

Shot on the GX85

 

Skin tones so orange.

[jase]

1 hour ago, jonpais said:

Skin tones so orange.

Indeed, the whole footage looks like the WB was way of (yet it could be that this was desired). Doesnt look natural to me.

[jonpais]

I don't know why so many clips I've seen from Lumix cameras recently look so orange. I'm currently testing the Voigtlander Nokton 17,5mm f/0.95, here's a very short clip shot this morning with the Lumix GH4. No color correction or sharpening added in post - I simply dragged and dropped the file into YouTube as is. Of course, not all Asians have milk and cream complexions, but Panasonic's colors have improved dramatically since I owned the GH3, and radioactive orange is extremely unflattering, unless you're aiming for the orange and teal blockbuster look. BTW, as I already said in the Lenses thread, the Voigtlanders are in a class unto themselves: superb 'haptics' and gorgeous color rendition. Although Panasonic makes many fine lenses, I find they have a disagreeable warmth to them that I dislike, and I've been able to achieve more satisfying results with 3rd party manufacturer's lenses like Sigma and Voigtlander. I still have to test this, so that's my mission tomorrow morning - I'm going to try to compare the color of the G X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 to the Voigtlander to see whether it's just my imagination. 

 

[Orangenz]

55 minutes ago, jase said:

Indeed, the whole footage looks like the WB was way of (yet it could be that this was desired). Doesnt look natural to me.

You guys are so silly. Are you seriously opposed to standard cinema colour grade in post? 1) it looks terrific, 2) it matches the central colours 3) try to be positive to new guys

 

2 hours ago, Cary Knoop said:

Shot on the GX85

 

Ignore the sad people Cary, really nice work. Would be happy to have most of it in a TV doco (or indeed a movie). I also liked that it wasn't a serious of random shots, but had a logical story flow. 

[jonpais]

48 minutes ago, Orangenz said:

You guys are so silly. Are you seriously opposed to standard cinema colour grade in post? 1) it looks terrific, 2) it matches the central colours 3) try to be positive to new guys

 

Ignore the sad people Cary, really nice work. Would be happy to have most of it in a TV doco (or indeed a movie). I also liked that it wasn't a serious of random shots, but had a logical story flow. 

Right, ignore the constructive criticism. Just keep shooting orange movies. I don't really see a prime-time story here: on the other hand, I do see someone who seriously enjoys observing people, and who tries to capture their expressions and gestures; pretty much exactly like I've been doing for the last few years in Korea and in Vietnam. I just finished watching Gomorra: every single shot was green; many of my favorite Danish films also have a greenish or cool color cast; while many of my favorite Indian films are warm and oversaturated - and in one of my short videos  that I uploaded to YouTube around a year ago, I alternated between warm and cool, which I found to be very effective at breaking up the monotony - but I don't see the pervasive orange skin tones in this clip as either flattering or contributing in any way to the atmosphere.

[jase]

5 minutes ago, Orangenz said:

You guys are so silly.

Ignore the sad people Cary, 

Thanks for your kind words. If you would have read my comment properly you would have seen that I am totally fine with the grade IF it was wanted. Since no additional comment was given about that here, we can just give feedback based on what we get. And in the end, why should one post a video here if not for the reason of feedback?

[Fredrik Lyhne]

3 hours ago, Orangenz said:

You guys are so silly. Are you seriously opposed to standard cinema colour grade in post? 1) it looks terrific, 2) it matches the central colours 3) try to be positive to new guys

Ignore the sad people Cary, really nice work. Would be happy to have most of it in a TV doco (or indeed a movie). I also liked that it wasn't a serious of random shots, but had a logical story flow. 

I have to agree here, it's looks really good! Maybe a few shots are slightly warm but that's ok on a hot day. Great shots, edit and music. 

@jonpais and @jase. I get that you mean well and are just giving feedback, but your posts can easily be interpreted as negative, especially on the internet. I wouldn't call "skin tones so orange" constructive feedback and creative looks seldom look natural. Besides, isn't this the Canon look that everybody loves  

[EyeSoul]

I agree the skin tones in most of the shots do appear a bit orange but if it's a creative choice to each his own.I do like the quality of the images though.

[John Matthews]

@jase,

I think I read that you were mainly shooting 1080p 50fps. I would like to know if it was only because you thought you'd slow it down or because you thought it was a slightly more gradable image? ...or both. I'm just trying to get the best gradable image out of the 1080p options without transcoding the 4k.

[jase]

46 minutes ago, John Matthews said:

@jase,

I think I read that you were mainly shooting 1080p 50fps. I would like to know if it was only because you thought you'd slow it down or because you thought it was a slightly more gradable image? ...or both. I'm just trying to get the best gradable image out of the 1080p options without transcoding the 4k.

True, i am only shooting 1080p, but again only because I need the slowmo. I didnt do any bulletproof tests but I think the 4k is superior. Yet, 1080p is good enough for me.