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

[jase]

13 hours ago, Fredrik Lyhne said:

Great video Jase! Happy to hear you like the 15mm. I always though it would be a great option for what you do. If I could just choose one lens for a trip it would be the 15mm hands down. Didn't think you would get the Panny since you got the Oly 17mm though. How to they compare? 

I like the Pana much more. Better focus ring, even when the Oly is in manual mode and the color has something special. Really looking forward to my next project with that lens.

[kidzrevil]

panasonic g85 downscaled and converted to DNXHD 422 10bit 1080p 

 

[PannySVHS]

I think GX80 has come a far way color wise. To me first Lumix with pleasing color ooc.

Here is a nice example of color and camerawork with this little gem. Other than the fragile monitor it

has a beautiful solid feel. I don´t know, maybe someone can chim in and tell me, if stabilization

is better with new firmware. Beautiful little cam so far. Kinda torn if I gonna keep it though because

to me the real weakness is the monitor, kinda fragile and pretty small, evf is bad but for filming i´m using

monitor anyway. Here some work I must say showing the GX mojo pretty well. Not my work though:)

 

 

[jase]

Yesterday I watched my more recent videos on my brothers 65" 4K TV, obviously starting with my latest 4k project. I was really blown away about the detail and the resolution. However, then I watched a 1080p (60p) video and I was suprised how good it looked on that same TV. I dont really know whether I would be able to spot the 4k content vs 1080p content from the GX80.

Makes me think how great the Blackmagic cams are... must resist.

[mercer]

4 hours ago, jase said:

Yesterday I watched my more recent videos on my brothers 65" 4K TV, obviously starting with my latest 4k project. I was really blown away about the detail and the resolution. However, then I watched a 1080p (60p) video and I was suprised how good it looked on that same TV. I dont really know whether I would be able to spot the 4k content vs 1080p content from the GX80.

Makes me think how great the Blackmagic cams are... must resist.

Yeah, these are questions I am contemplating right now. Obviously one can get really good 1080p by downscaling 4K, but the image from the Pocket or Micro cam still looks better to my eyes. So is ease of use or better IQ more important in the end? I just don't know...

[Vesku]

4 hours ago, jase said:

Yesterday I watched my more recent videos on my brothers 65" 4K TV,... I dont really know whether I would be able to spot the 4k content vs 1080p content from the GX80.

You must watch closer because the difference is like night and day.

[kidzrevil]

55 minutes ago, mercer said:

Yeah, these are questions I am contemplating right now. Obviously one can get really good 1080p by downscaling 4K, but the image from the Pocket or Micro cam still looks better to my eyes. So is ease of use or better IQ more important in the end? I just don't know...

4K becomes more & more overrated with each passing day. The image from black magic at 1080p blows almost everything out the water. They make a dslr its over

[jase]

55 minutes ago, Vesku said:

You must watch closer because the difference is like night and day.

I did. Like I said, the 4k image is spellbinding, but so is the 1080p image. And since no one sits like 1 meter away from his 65" TV, why even bothering? Heck, my audience doesnt see it, so why should I care? These are questions I am asking myself.

[Vesku]

50 minutes ago, jase said:

I did. Like I said, the 4k image is spellbinding, but so is the 1080p image. And since no one sits like 1 meter away from his 65" TV, why even bothering? Heck, my audience doesnt see it, so why should I care? These are questions I am asking myself.

My GH4 1080P video looks soft and ugly compared to GH4 4k in my 65 inch 4k TV. Is the GX80 fullhd better than GH4 fullhd?

[kidzrevil]

52 minutes ago, jase said:

I did. Like I said, the 4k image is spellbinding, but so is the 1080p image. And since no one sits like 1 meter away from his 65" TV, why even bothering? Heck, my audience doesnt see it, so why should I care? These are questions I am asking myself.

Exactly ! The things we care about as cinephiles the regular guy looking at your stuff doesn't know and doesn't care. Lol Just keep the content interesting ?

[jase]

7 hours ago, Vesku said:

My GH4 1080P video looks soft and ugly compared to GH4 4k in my 65 inch 4k TV. Is the GX80 fullhd better than GH4 fullhd?

Well, check out my latest to videos on vimeo on your TV. bahamas was shot in 4k, hoge veluwe in 1080p - do you see the night and day difference?

[Vesku]

49 minutes ago, jase said:

Well, check out my latest to videos on vimeo on your TV. bahamas was shot in 4k, hoge veluwe in 1080p - do you see the night and day difference?

The difference is quite big but the GX85 fullhd is also good. You have lots of movement and soft backgrounds so the resolution difference is not visible all the time. I shoot a lot static or slow moving sharp nature clips so the clean resolution shows better.

[dantheman]

The gx85 produces some very nasty aliasing in 1080p so a lot depends on what you shoot. It's 4K is better as it produces a lot less aliasing and it is more detailed, the difference notices the most when you shoot wide with a deep dof and with lots of fine detail. I use it's 1080p 50p a lot though as I need it to slow down my shots from time to time and in that mode I use fast lenses and shoot with a shallow dof and those look just fine but anytime I need to capture a wide shot with lots of detail I switch to 4K

[PannySVHS]

12 hours ago, dantheman said:

The gx85 produces some very nasty aliasing in 1080p so a lot depends on what you shoot. It's 4K is better as it produces a lot less aliasing and it is more detailed, the difference notices the most when you shoot wide with a deep dof and with lots of fine detail. I use it's 1080p 50p a lot though as I need it to slow down my shots from time to time and in that mode I use fast lenses and shoot with a shallow dof and those look just fine but anytime I need to capture a wide shot with lots of detail I switch to 4K

 

hallo,

50p on GX80 could mean half the vertical lines in resolution compared to the 24p mode. So 1080 24p would be much better.

Shouldnt be different from the G6.

 

[dantheman]

It is different, 25p and 50 look the same on the gx80 in terms of detail, both modes show aliasing.

[Thpriest]

Another example with the GX85. The shoot was a bit of a disaster! Record company said they needed the video for the next week. We had a Sunday to shoot. Only one venue available. Picked up lights on Saturday. Group arrived late on Sunday. Get to the location and plug in the lights...fuse switches off! We could only use overhead fluorescent lights! Arrrrgh! Anyway, the GX85 held up quite well all things considered.

Lenses: SLR Magic 12mm T1.6 and Voigtlander 25mm F0.95. A mixture of 4K and 1080 50p

[seb]

First time posting here but I've lurked this thread ever since andrew started it, which ultimately made me get a GX80.
Anyway, Ive been using a Sony a7s (mark I) since it came out and this was the first time I used my GX80 for a shoot. I wanted to use as little gear as possible, so I only took the cam, my lenses (14 2.5, 25 1.7, 42.5 1.7) and my glidecam (which I only used for the walking shots in the beginning). All filmed in 1080p50. In hindsight 4k might have been a better choice, but I'm happy with details, noise, etc..

Just one thing - the video has grain added in post.

During filming I wasn't too sure about the footage - especially using the kinda crappy EVF. But editing I realized everything came out pretty much as I hoped. The only times I felt the the camera wasn't up to the task were high-contrast images (see the shot at the counter, handing over the bag). Exposing for the bright parts would have made everything else too dark and otherwise the highlights were blown out. But using my Sony (and even an external recorder) woulnd't have resulted in a more balanced shot.
So, not to make this post too long, I'm stoked on this little cam and even consider getting a GH5.
If anyone's interested, I'll keep posting as I use the cam more and hopefully notice more detailed stuff (like using adapted nikkors, downscaled 4k vs. HD,...). Just don't expect scientific tests.

[Grimor]

Whats the color profile seb?

[Yannick Willox]

51 minutes ago, seb said:

First time posting here but I've lurked this thread ever since andrew started it, which ultimately made me get a GX80.
Anyway, Ive been using a Sony a7s (mark I) since it came out and this was the first time I used my GX80 for a shoot. I wanted to use as little gear as possible, so I only took the cam, my lenses (14 2.5, 25 1.7, 42.5 1.7) and my glidecam (which I only used for the walking shots in the beginning). All filmed in 1080p50. In hindsight 4k might have been a better choice, but I'm happy with details, noise, etc..

Just one thing - the video has grain added in post.

During filming I wasn't too sure about the footage - especially using the kinda crappy EVF. But editing I realized everything came out pretty much as I hoped. The only times I felt the the camera wasn't up to the task were high-contrast images (see the shot at the counter, handing over the bag). Exposing for the bright parts would have made everything else too dark and otherwise the highlights were blown out. But using my Sony (and even an external recorder) woulnd't have resulted in a more balanced shot.
So, not to make this post too long, I'm stoked on this little cam and even consider getting a GH5.
If anyone's interested, I'll keep posting as I use the cam more and hopefully notice more detailed stuff (like using adapted nikkors, downscaled 4k vs. HD,...). Just don't expect scientific tests.

 

I really like this. Also the shop, I am sure there is nothing like this over here...

how did you handle white balance ?

The high contrast at the counter, did you try getting the contrast setting all the way down to -5, and then adjust highlight/shadow curves in camera until you have a nice result ?

[seb]

28 minutes ago, Grimor said:

Whats the color profile seb?

Color Profile is Natural with everything dialed down to -5.

 

28 minutes ago, Yannick Willox said:

...

how did you handle white balance ?

The high contrast at the counter, did you try getting the contrast setting all the way down to -5, and then adjust highlight/shadow curves in camera until you have a nice result ?

I white balance with a small grey card I keep in my bag. But I feel AWB is quite reliable too.
About highlight/shadow - I messed with it a bit when I got the camera, but didn't like the results very much. At least turning up shadows made grading a bit tricky. But I'm no colorist by any means, so maybe it might help a bit if you know what you're doing while grading.  I'll play with it more for sure.

 

I also didn't have much time finishing the video, so I used filmconvert (GH4, Natural, KD Portra 400) with some adjustments. If I find some time I'll try to get more out of some shots.

 

EDIT: About the shot of the counter - that's basicly what the lighting was. Hard light from top, so I guess it's fine. I just prefer a more balanced look.