"Panasonic G series" Owners Thread

I always enable all ISO settings including the very highest and I make sure it's possible to call up the focus point with a function button and other than that I just shove everything else I need into the custom menu.
Thanks Alan. You may remember kindly posting some replies to my original thread re "manual lenses on micro 4/3". Well, having originally "hired" a G3 for a few days, I've now done the deed and bought the G80! Incidentally, do you use auto ISO on the G80? Stuart
Set the camera to shoot RAW or RAW+JPEG :)

It also defaults to 1080p for video so i'd change that to 4k (if you want to shoot video).

Also for some bone-headed reason the G80 seems to default to both dials modifying the current priority (e.g. in A, both dials change aperture....). So set it to exposure bias.

I also set my auto-ISO to limit to 1600 (or 3200). But i'd suggest you find a setting you're happy with.

Cracking camera btw, I love the G80, my wife has one. I think I prefer it to my E-m5ii!
Many thanks for these tips. I'm used to shooting video on a Canon 80D and Sony RX 100 mk 3, so it'll be good to see how the G80 stacks up. How do you find auto ISO operation? Is it fairly basic or can you set minimum shutter speed? Thanks. Stuart
 
I don't have a G80 but if I did I would :D I did have the mini SLR style G1 and G7 but sold them both and these days I have a GX7 mostly with a 12-35mm f2.8 and a GX80 mostly with a 17mm f1.8.

One thing I do miss about the G7 is the excellent evf and I assume that the G80 has the same one or maybe a better one.

I use my cameras mostly in aperture mode with auto ISO until the light drops and the shutter speed gets too low and then I switch to manual mode and dial in the aperture and shutter speed I want and let the ISO float as needed.
 
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Thanks Alan. You may remember kindly posting some replies to my original thread re "manual lenses on micro 4/3". Well, having originally "hired" a G3 for a few days, I've now done the deed and bought the G80! Incidentally, do you use auto ISO on the G80? Stuart

Many thanks for these tips. I'm used to shooting video on a Canon 80D and Sony RX 100 mk 3, so it'll be good to see how the G80 stacks up. How do you find auto ISO operation? Is it fairly basic or can you set minimum shutter speed? Thanks. Stuart
Auto iso I think you can change the shutter speed limits. i-iso if I recall correctly makes shutter speed decisions based on focal length and it seems good to me. It's what I like to use.
 
I don't have a G80 but if I did I would :D I did have the mini SLR style G1 and G7 but sold them both and these days I have a GX7 mostly with a 12-35mm f2.8 and a GX80 mostly with a 17mm f1.8.

One thing I do miss about the G7 is the excellent evf and I assume that the G80 has the same one or maybe a better one.

I use my cameras mostly in aperture mode with auto ISO until the light drops and the shutter speed gets too low and then I switch to manual mode and dial in the aperture and shutter speed I want and let the ISO float as needed.
Thanks Alan. As far as i can tell, the G80 has gone to an OLED EVF. All I know is that I tried one at at a recent camera show and was more than happy with the EFV - quality wise it compared very well to my (soon to be sold) Sony RX 100 mk3.
Interested to hear you're using the 12-35 F 2.8. I don't suppose you have any first hand experience of using this lens v (say) the Canon 17-55 which is what is on my "main" camera? Stuart

Auto iso I think you can change the shutter speed limits. i-iso if I recall correctly makes shutter speed decisions based on focal length and it seems good to me. It's what I like to use.
many thanks. If I do use auto ISO, I need a minimum shutter of around 1/250 for fast moving grandchildren! Stuart
 
Thanks Alan. As far as i can tell, the G80 has gone to an OLED EVF. All I know is that I tried one at at a recent camera show and was more than happy with the EFV - quality wise it compared very well to my (soon to be sold) Sony RX 100 mk3.
Interested to hear you're using the 12-35 F 2.8. I don't suppose you have any first hand experience of using this lens v (say) the Canon 17-55 which is what is on my "main" camera? Stuart


many thanks. If I do use auto ISO, I need a minimum shutter of around 1/250 for fast moving grandchildren! Stuart
Always have shutter priority for that :)
 
Thanks, albeit I don't want the camera taking random decisions on aperture and stopping down too far. I do use a combination of TV & AV for these type of shots.
Fair enough. Also worth noting that I think the button on top of the dial will change the dial to control ISO. Could be very useful if you get used to it.
 
Always have shutter priority for that :)
The problem with shutter priority is that the camera may select too wide an aperture but manual mode gives you the option of nailing both aperture and shutter speed and letting auto ISO adjust the exposure.
 
I don't suppose you have any first hand experience of using this lens v (say) the Canon 17-55 which is what is on my "main" camera? Stuart

I've never used the Canon 17-55mm but I did have some nice lenses when I had my Canon 20D and later my 5D so just talking generally... When you compare MFT shots to larger format shots the larger format may have an advantage if sharpness is what you're specifically looking for simply because the larger format doesn't need to be magnified quite so much. However, I do find I find the Panny 12-35mm f2.8 and indeed all of my lenses sharp enough and I think that the shots stand up to pixel peeping.

There are lots of 100% crops in this thread and they look good to me and actually my own shots always look sharper on my pc than they do when posted here via photobucket. I think it's only when you do side by side pixel peeping comparisons to larger formats that MFT starts to loose out for sharpness.

Anyway, the main advantage for me of the 12-35mm f2.8 and indeed of any faster than f2.8 lenses isn't ultimate sharpness as such but light gathering ability and the ability to get a FF look by shooting at f2.8-5. When shooting FF I very often shoot between f4/5 and f8 and less often wider than f4 or smaller than f8 so I like the f2.8 and faster MFT lenses and the FF look they give :D
 
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Having recently jumped back into the Panasonic camp I have a few questions.

Are all copies of he 20mm/f1.7 II slow to focus and noisy compared to something like the 14/2.5?

Can anyone suggest a small speedlight to use with a GX8? Not fussed if used or new, so long as cheap! If there was a pop-up flash I wouldn't be asking, so nothing fancy or powerful required.

TIA
 
Are all copies of he 20mm/f1.7 II slow to focus and noisy compared to something like the 14/2.5?

I've had two, one when they first came out and one that came with my GX7 and although cosmetically they looked slightly different in use they were just the same, comparatively slow to focus. If you want faster operation maybe look at the Oly 17mm f1.8, the Panny 15mm or even a 25mm.

The big advantage of the 20mm is however it's compact size and if you go for a faster focusing lens you'll lose some of that but these lenses aren't exactly massive so maybe a slight increase in bulk may not matter.
 
Ta.I had an Olympus 17 when I perviously used a Panasonic and didn't like it. I've got a 25mm/f1.7 and that's snappy. I was hoping the 20mm would be a more compact alternative to replace it and fit the camera in my pocket easier. I don't need both and the 25 was going to go. I'll persevere for now, but it's looking like I might end up with a 15mm and 25mm.
 
If it helps at all... although the 20mm is slow depending upon what you shoot it may not be an issue. For walkabout shooting I was very happy with it and really only changed because I often take pictures of people indoors and two things were an issue for that, the slow focus and the possibility of noise banding at high ISO's. For daylight outdoor walkabout shooting though I found the 20mm excellent.
 
I think 90% or more of the time it'll not be an issue. :)
 
If it helps at all... although the 20mm is slow depending upon what you shoot it may not be an issue. For walkabout shooting I was very happy with it and really only changed because I often take pictures of people indoors and two things were an issue for that, the slow focus and the possibility of noise banding at high ISO's. For daylight outdoor walkabout shooting though I found the 20mm excellent.
^ what woof woof said. I love my 20mm. Speed is only an issue in low light I find.
 
I've never used the Canon 17-55mm but I did have some nice lenses when I had my Canon 20D and later my 5D so just talking generally... When you compare MFT shots to larger format shots the larger format may have an advantage if sharpness is what you're specifically looking for simply because the larger format doesn't need to be magnified quite so much. However, I do find I find the Panny 12-35mm f2.8 and indeed all of my lenses sharp enough and I think that the shots stand up to pixel peeping.

There are lots of 100% crops in this thread and they look good to me and actually my own shots always look sharper on my pc than they do when posted here via photobucket. I think it's only when you do side by side pixel peeping comparisons to larger formats that MFT starts to loose out for sharpness.

Anyway, the main advantage for me of the 12-35mm f2.8 and indeed of any faster than f2.8 lenses isn't ultimate sharpness as such but light gathering ability and the ability to get a FF look by shooting at f2.8-5. When shooting FF I very often shoot between f4/5 and f8 and less often wider than f4 or smaller than f8 so I like the f2.8 and faster MFT lenses and the FF look they give :D
Thanks for the reply, Alan. Although I'm not a pixel peeper, I need to get away from my semi-obsession with absolute sharpness - whatever that means. Most of the time, i do no more than look at my photos either on my PC screen or on a retina IPad. Stuart
 
Thanks for the reply, Alan. Although I'm not a pixel peeper, I need to get away from my semi-obsession with absolute sharpness - whatever that means. Most of the time, i do no more than look at my photos either on my PC screen or on a retina IPad. Stuart

I'm the same. I usually average a print a week but most of my pictures are viewed on my 17" pc (I think that's what it is) or on my GF's Samsung tablet. She posts pictures on Line (a sort of chat application) and the pictures I give her are saved from Adobe CS5 as 2000 wide and quality 10.

I think you'll like the 12-35mm :D

PS.
I do a lot of heavy cropping, often 100% of flowers and butterflies and the like and the pictures still look good to me :D
 
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I'm the same. I usually average a print a week but most of my pictures are viewed on my 17" pc (I think that's what it is) or on my GF's Samsung tablet. She posts pictures on Line (a sort of chat application) and the pictures I give her are saved from Adobe CS5 as 2000 wide and quality 10.

I think you'll like the 12-35mm :D

PS.
I do a lot of heavy cropping, often 100% of flowers and butterflies and the like and the pictures still look good to me :D
Thanks again. Buying the 12-35 would definitely mean selling my Canon 17-55 which (on my 80D), is currently my "goto" kit for just about everything - especially photos of the grandchildren and family, etc. Having only just bought the G80 (and not used it yet!!!), I decided to start off with the Panny 25mm, principally because there was £50 off when buying with the body. It seemed to be virtually a "no-risk" option, given used prices for the 25mm. Once I get used to the G80, I can then think serioulsy about the walkabout zooms and whether to make the big change. That would then leave me with the Canon & 70-300L just for the motorsports. No doubt in time, I might even consider whether the G80 could take up those duties too! Stuart
 
Just wanted to share a wonderful sight from yesterday's walk!! A very rare breeding occurence around here, but the Goosanders have nested for 3 years in a row! Enjoy!
 
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Here's a picture i captured with my G7 and 14-140 while out at Warwick castle yesterday. Pleased with how it came out seems sharp to me, is a JPEG straight out of the camera. Was so pleased to have a day carrying the camera around in a shoulder bag without getting home with a shoulder that felt like I had been carrying an elephant on it all day as I used to get with my D7000.

Eagle by Ian Diplock, on Flickr
 
Re my recently purchased G80. I'm getting a little confused over IBIS, dual IS and dual IS2. Alan (woof woof) kindly posted comments re the Panny 12-35 above and that lens is on my list of possibles. More generally, though, is it correct that only some Panasonic lenses will use dual IS2, some will use dual IS (version 1?) and some won't have dual IS at all. Re the latter, will I still have the option of IBIS or lens IS (e.g. with the 14-45 or 45-175). Any help much appreciated. Probably not going to do anything just yet as I've purchased a 25mm 1.7 prime, but I need to get my head around whats what before i commit any more cash. Thanks
 
You are right about some have dual some have dual 2 and some have lens only,the 45-175 now has a firmware update to give it dual but not dual2.

If you have a lens that can give any form of dual thats all you can have (unless you can have body only i never looked into that but i think not),i wanted to use lens only on my 100-400 but you cant,if you switch the body stabilising off then use the lens with stabilising switched on it over rides the body setting and gives dual 1 or 2 depending on the lens.
 
Feeling disappointed - no remote on GX80
I have had the GX80 for a while now and today I decided to use my Hahnel remote control with it. I now find that it doesn't have a port for the remote lead. I can't believe that Panasonic has left this off. How can you shoot remotely using your smart phone app when there is no wifi???
 
Feeling disappointed - no remote on GX80
I have had the GX80 for a while now and today I decided to use my Hahnel remote control with it. I now find that it doesn't have a port for the remote lead. I can't believe that Panasonic has left this off. How can you shoot remotely using your smart phone app when there is no wifi???

Doesn't the camera act as a WiFi node that the phone connects to? I've certainly used my GX8 that way in the Lakes with zero phone signal.

Simon.
 
Sorry to sound so dumb Simon, but if there is no Wifi nearby, and no phone signal, how do they see each other??

I'm a bit of a technical Luddite, but my understanding is that the camera generates and transmits the WiFi signal over a very short distance. Your phone can see this (as it can any WiFi signal regardless of whether it has a phone signal) and connects to it.

Hope this helps.

Simon.
 
I'm a bit of a technical Luddite, but my understanding is that the camera generates and transmits the WiFi signal over a very short distance. Your phone can see this (as it can any WiFi signal regardless of whether it has a phone signal) and connects to it.

Hope this helps.

Simon.
Thanks Simon and R.Y.K LEE. I'll give it a try when I'm out in the wilderness.
 
Wild Garlic and lichen by Barbara, on Flickr
I just realised I first started this thread in Sept 2010. I thought it's about time I posted a photo. This was taken on my GM5, although not so many options as my GX7 and GX80 it's a lovely light camera to carry when I'm out hillwalking.
 
Hi, can anyone in this thread reccommend a flash for a G3? I'm mainly going to be using it for macro photography (with some kind of adaptation!).
 
Wild Garlic and lichen by Barbara, on Flickr
I just realised I first started this thread in Sept 2010. I thought it's about time I posted a photo. This was taken on my GM5, although not so many options as my GX7 and GX80 it's a lovely light camera to carry when I'm out hillwalking.
Looks like wild garlic? I hope you took some home. Yum.
 
I'm a bit of a technical Luddite, but my understanding is that the camera generates and transmits the WiFi signal over a very short distance. Your phone can see this (as it can any WiFi signal regardless of whether it has a phone signal) and connects to it.

Hope this helps.

Simon.
This is correct, and is the same for most cameras with wifi capability. So the camera itself generates the signal and acts as the wifi hotspot for you to connect your phone/tablet/laptop to.
 
While I've got to grips with the GX8 and the lenses now, I have remembered why I got rid of my G2. The colours are horrible. Lightroom seems to be making the raw files very contrasty by default too. Some reds and blues are bloody awful and I can't seem to get them to look anything like they should. A great shame because everything else about the files is great, and the camera's a delight to use now I've got it set up to suit me.

I'm going to give it another week of shooting and fiddling and if no joy then I'll give up.
 
While I've got to grips with the GX8 and the lenses now, I have remembered why I got rid of my G2. The colours are horrible. Lightroom seems to be making the raw files very contrasty by default too. Some reds and blues are bloody awful and I can't seem to get them to look anything like they should. A great shame because everything else about the files is great, and the camera's a delight to use now I've got it set up to suit me.

I'm going to give it another week of shooting and fiddling and if no joy then I'll give up.

I've not used Lightroom so I can't help with that aspect but it's a popular package and MFT are reasonably popular cameras and I haven't read too many posts describing problems like you're having. I use CS5 and find that files from all of my MFT usually don't take a lot of work when going for a realistic look. Even my G1 produced excellent files at low to mid ISO's. I think you need to take a serious look and see if you can figure out what you / your software is doing wrong as I'm sorry to say this but the problem almost certainly isn't the camera. Sometimes when I get a bit frustrated with gear and / or processing I look on line and see the excellent results others are getting and it's easy to find excellent MFT and model specific pictures so there must be a way of getting good results...

I hope you can begin to get it sorted and move forward with your files.
 
I always assume user error as a starting point.;)

From what I have gleaned via Google Panasonic bake settings in to their raw files which Lightroom automatically reads. I know it auto corrects lens distortion and CA, for example. Which I'm fine with. But I've noticed that altering the jpeg colour profile settings in camera affects the initial preview in LR but when the file is fully loaded they are overridden. An initially flat preview looks highly contrasty and more saturated when loaded fully to process. So it's not my fault, it's a combination of Panasonic's and Adobe's! :LOL:

The best thing I've found to date is to drop the contrast considerably. But some reds, while less garish, are still not right.

I'll persevere for a while longer because I like the camera and all the other colours and file qualities are great. But even Fuji files were less trouble than this b*****d of a camera's! :D
 
I'm a GX8 user and process in LR and PS CC. I have to say I don't recognise what's been described above. When I import raw files into LR, the initial preview shows the embedded JPEG and whatever picture style settings I had at the time of capture. However, once fully loaded the raw file preview is very flat and lacking contrast which is exactly the starting point I need.

I am extremely careful at point of capture to make sure I don't clip anything at the highlight end of the luminosity and individual RGB channel histograms. The red channel in particular can be almost impossible to rectify if highlight clipped.

I hope you can identify and resolve your problem!

Simon.
 
I'm a GX8 user and process in LR and PS CC. I have to say I don't recognise what's been described above. When I import raw files into LR, the initial preview shows the embedded JPEG and whatever picture style settings I had at the time of capture. However, once fully loaded the raw file preview is very flat and lacking contrast which is exactly the starting point I need.

I am extremely careful at point of capture to make sure I don't clip anything at the highlight end of the luminosity and individual RGB channel histograms. The red channel in particular can be almost impossible to rectify if highlight clipped.

I hope you can identify and resolve your problem!

Simon.
The red channel isn't just a potential issue with Panasonic cameras. I remember my Canon DSLR's needing care when shooting red.
 
I always assume user error as a starting point.;)

I don't know LR at all but maybe there's an option to discard camera raw settings? If not then what I'd do is tweak the raw settings and save them as a custom setting and then batch apply it. That's what I do with CS5 and I think that MFT is and always has been capable of capturing very life like pictures.
 
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