Lumix GX85/GX80 review after 12 months of using

It has been 12 months since I bough it and I think I can write very complex opinion on this camera. I use it almost every day, mostly for street shooting and personal projects, but I made also few commercial weddings during this year.
I am not in to film making at all so this review covers only stills.

Build and ergonomics

Lumix GX80/GX85 is placed in a group of very small cameras with interchangeable lenses. Size is very comparable with advanced compacts. When using a pancake or a kit lens (12-32mm) you can easily fit in to your jacket pocket. Though I would not recommend to try it with your jeans.
Camera body is very solid, with special profile that improves holding the camera in your hand. I would say it could be better with the grip. It's not to big and holding the camera for a longer time makes your hand tired. I felt it specially with my fingers, I felt that mostly during 15h weddings. But it is good there is something like grip. I guess if you what lager grip you will choose GX8 anyways sacrificing the size and weight.
We find a bit less wheels and dials than in bigger and more expensive model, but I find to be a advantage for my personal taste.

Back-screen, EVF and menu

Camera has a very good quality 3 inch back-screen, very similar to other cameras. Image quality is good enough for me as I can check if the picture I took is OK or not. Thanks to touch capabilities we can easily move through the menus and choose the right options.
At top left of the back we can find an EVF with 2.764.800 dots. Image quality is excellent.

Usage experience

As other Panasonic and Olympus cameras GX80/GX85 has micro four thirds sensor, but this one is stabilized with 5 axis. Effectiveness of it is astonishing, I managed to handheld shooting at 1/10s and pictures were really sharp.
Sensor resolution is 16MP it is less than offers competition, but to my experience it is more than enough. Pushing this sensor over 16MP could result in much bigger noises on the pictures. 
Maximum ISO is 25600 and I have to admit that Panasonic is pushing it to the limit. Up to ISO 6400 noise is quite acceptable, but beyond that it is becoming noticeable.

Autofocus

To my humble opinion this is one of the biggest advantages of this camera. When I was buyng this camera I was expecting slow AF performance as I heard that mirror-less cameras has some problems with it. I was ditching my Nikon D300s where AF system was superior in any conditions. So I was simply expecting that Panasonic will not handle that specially in low light like church. How glad I am I was wrong. Of course it has some problems, but when attached with my Leica 15mm f1.7 it focusing fast like jet plane.

Summary

I just fell in love with that camera. Yes, there are some issues that could be done better when designing the camera, but it doesn't change the fact that it is still hell of the camera. I would never go back to my big and heavy Nikon. 

Komentarze

Popularne posty