"Panasonic G series" Owners Thread

woof woof said:
Hmmmm. How odd...

I bought a G7 recently and it came with a 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 G Vario Mega O.I.S.

I gave it a try out and it looked ok but I didn't look too closely... Fast forward a bit and I took my GF and my mam for a day out at Butterfly World and I took my GX7 with the tiny little 14-42mm attached. I usually shoot in aperture priority but as I was shooting inside and the camera would have selected the widest aperture and something like 1/30 second I instead selected shutter priority and dialled in 1/200. The camera still selected the widest possible aperture and the ISO's were middling so I expected decent results but when I looked at them on my pc they looked ok-ish as whole images but once zoomed in it was clear that every single one was soft. I put this down to the lens being a piece of junk but a couple of days ago I stuck it on my G1 and used the pop up flash at a family event and even though the camera shot every shot wide open every single picture is sharp at 100%.

So, how can this be?

I'll have to do some more investigation but at the moment I'm surprised that wide open, 1/200 second and middling ISO's gave utter rubbish on my GX7 but when used with flash on my G1 the results are very good indeed, impressive even for such a small and cheap lens when used wide open.

Any pointers or thoughts before I spend hours testing to find out what's going on?
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how odd... I'm intrigued to know if you find out the answer
 
Today I did a little test. I shot 12 shots with my G1+zoom and then I shot the same shots with my GX7+zoom and then again with the GX7+17mm f1.8.

The G1 hit every shot and all are sharp at 100%. The GX7 missed two with the zoom and none with the prime.

I've only ever had one other focusing issue with MFT... in Thailand on a particularly hot and humid day I took a series of shots with my GX7 + 20mm f1.7 and it missed them all. Just like recently at Butterfly World the focus locked and the image looked ok in the VF but on my pc screen and especially when zoomed in it's obvious that the focus is slightly off. I put the missed Thai shots down to the heat and humidity maybe fogging something up however my A7 + 35mm f2.8 coped well the next time we went to that location and hit every image.

As Butterfly World is hot and humid I suppose it's possible that my GX7 doesn't like hot and humid however it's missed two shots with the zoom today and none with the prime so I think I'll need to investigate this more when time allows.

I normally figure this stuff out but I posted expecting someone to say "Ah Ha! You Fool! You need to turn the IBIS off and use the lens IS" but I can only see one IS entry in the menu and it's nothing to do with switching between body and lens IS. I thought it could be a shutter shock issue but that's something I've never come across before and I'm not sure it'll be the cause of my troubles at ss of 1/200 or more.

I think I'll shoot a series of shots at different shutter speeds and see if I can work out what's going on.
 
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Alan since I have a great load of old m4/3rds bodies and a great load of lenses I often find one pairing works well and another not so well.
I just try to remember what goes best with what and not to overanalyse it.
For example my Olympus 45mm goes best on an e-P2, the wide 9-18 goes best on a modern 16mpx Olympus and my big old 70-300 goes best on a GH3.
Nowt logical there ...
 
Ulfric M Douglas said:
Alan since I have a great load of old m4/3rds bodies and a great load of lenses I often find one pairing works well and another not so well.
I just try to remember what goes best with what and not to overanalyse it.
For example my Olympus 45mm goes best on an e-P2, the wide 9-18 goes best on a modern 16mpx Olympus and my big old 70-300 goes best on a GH3.
Nowt logical there ...
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Ah, you are sensible and lack my OCD :D It's just that when I run into something like this I just can't stop until I get some sort of answer :D Certainly I never ran across inconsistent focus with the original 14-42mm kit zoom, that was simply sharp every time on my G1. I haven't had time to try and get to the bottom of this in the last coupe of days but I did have time to shoot a series of shots with the GX7 and zoom from 1/80 to something like 1/600 and guess what??? Every one was sharp. I'll look into this again when I get a free half day but at the mo I don't know what's happening.
 
Ulfric M Douglas said:
I know how to combat OCD in me and others. :confused: Want some quack therapy?? :wave:
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I'm getting worse...

But in my defence a decent camera and a decent lens should work together... decently, or at least more or less consistently and it'd be a shame to keep the GX7 and 14-42mm apart because they don't seem to get on for me.

I'll have another look when I get time at various focal lengths and apertures and in differing lighting and see if I can figure it out. Certainly a MFT camera and lens should give pretty consistent results in anything like decent non extreme conditions.
 
woof woof said:
Today I did a little test. I shot 12 shots with my G1+zoom and then I shot the same shots with my GX7+zoom and then again with the GX7+17mm f1.8.

The G1 hit every shot and all are sharp at 100%. The GX7 missed two with the zoom and none with the prime.

I've only ever had one other focusing issue with MFT... in Thailand on a particularly hot and humid day I took a series of shots with my GX7 + 20mm f1.7 and it missed them all. Just like recently at Butterfly World the focus locked and the image looked ok in the VF but on my pc screen and especially when zoomed in it's obvious that the focus is slightly off. I put the missed Thai shots down to the heat and humidity maybe fogging something up however my A7 + 35mm f2.8 coped well the next time we went to that location and hit every image.

As Butterfly World is hot and humid I suppose it's possible that my GX7 doesn't like hot and humid however it's missed two shots with the zoom today and none with the prime so I think I'll need to investigate this more when time allows.

I normally figure this stuff out but I posted expecting someone to say "Ah Ha! You Fool! You need to turn the IBIS off and use the lens IS" but I can only see one IS entry in the menu and it's nothing to do with switching between body and lens IS. I thought it could be a shutter shock issue but that's something I've never come across before and I'm not sure it'll be the cause of my troubles at ss of 1/200 or more.

I think I'll shoot a series of shots at different shutter speeds and see if I can work out what's going on.
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I think with GX7, if you switch off image stabilisation, then it will automatically use lens based image stabilisation, however, having said that I do know that when attaching a Panasonic lens with IS, it should automatically switch for you anyway. ... Further investigation needed. Keep us posted
 
Jono1 said:
I think with GX7, if you switch off image stabilisation, then it will automatically use lens based image stabilisation, however, having said that I do know that when attaching a Panasonic lens with IS, it should automatically switch for you anyway. ... Further investigation needed. Keep us posted
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Yup.

Don't worry too much. It's almost certainly me.
:D
 
Can anyone inform me if there are any weather sealed primes for micro four thirds cameras?
 
The ongoing saga of my focus issues with my GX7 and 14-42mm kit lens...

I had a spare hour this evening so I ran around the house and garden firing off test shots. The light was going so unfortunately the shutter speed fell and the ISO rose which made assessing some of the higher ISO shots at 100% a bit problematic but I was able to tell that the focus was (probably / likely to be) a bit off on a few shots which is better than when I went to Butterfly World when every shot was off. I then fired off a few shots with the flash and every one was bang on and stood up very well to pixel peeping at 100% even though the lens was wide open at f5.6. In fact I was impressed at how good these flash shots looked at 100% with the lens wide open.

I then increased the size of my focus point, I'd been using the smallest, and fired off another 45 test shots and guess what? Every one is bang on. Well, one was off but it was of leaves on a tree at 1/80 so I think they must have moved in the breeze during the capture.

I wonder if the size of the focus point is the answer? I've been using the smallest with no problems at all with my primes but maybe this kit lens needs a bigger focus point for whatever reason? The smaller aperture? I wonder if this is my problem? Anyone come across anything like this?
 
Oh dear, this is taking some sorting out.

I'm now convinced it's probably nothing to do with the size of the focus point.

I've just shots several series of shots from 1/80 to 1/400 and in a couple of series 1/160 and 1/200 were soft and indeed 1/200 showed a very slight double image. I had to go to 200% to see it but it's enough to give the image the slight softness I've been seeing. Unfortunately some series of shots didn't show it so I'm still not sure and unfortunately the rain became too heavy and I had to give up.

Has anyone else noticed intermittent problems at 1/160 to 1/200? Could this be the dreaded shutter shock that I've never seen before? I'm still not seeing any issues with other lenses, just this one.
 
Just in case anyone is still reading my little odyssey.

I tried Googling "GX7 shutter shock" and it seems that this may be what I'm seeing intermittently at 1/160 and 1/200 and indeed one site I Googled my way to said that 1/160 is the most affected shutter speed. Actually I think that the worst examples I've seen are at 1/200 but I wont quibble.

I am surprised that I haven't seen this with any other lens so I may well have to assume that there's something about the 14-42mm's construction that makes it more susceptible and noticeable to me. Maybe the shutter shock is causing a lens element to move or upsetting the IS whereas it doesn't with other lenses, I don't know.

I think in future I may have to avoid 1/160 and 1/200 shutter speeds or switch to electronic shutter. My usual practice when shooting in low light has been to switch to either Manual Mode or Shutter priority and dial in 1/160 or 1/200 to avoid motion blur and to date that's worked for me with all of my cameras and lenses but not with the GX7 and 14-42mm C Vario Mega O.I.S.
 
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I've been looking into purchasing a new micro four thirds camera recently and have heard people say that the GX8 suffers badly from shutter shock, but then a lot of people who own it say that the only lens that seems to be problematic with the camera when it comes to shutter shock is the 14-140. Perhaps this is the case with the GX7 and the 14-42?

On a different topic. .. I'm tempted by the E-M5 ii and have found a seller on ebay selling them brand new for £450. Does anyone think this is too suspect considering the price of them on the high street? Or should I just risk it?

I was tempted to purchase a GX80, but the viewfinder and more rugged build of the E-M5 ii might have won me over after playing with one today. ... To be fair I'd probably be happy with either
 
Jono1 said:
I've been looking into purchasing a new micro four thirds camera recently and have heard people say that the GX8 suffers badly from shutter shock, but then a lot of people who own it say that the only lens that seems to be problematic with the camera when it comes to shutter shock is the 14-140. Perhaps this is the case with the GX7 and the 14-42?
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Well, this is the only zoom I've used for more than a couple of shots on my GX7 and I've not seen a problem with any of the primes I've used.

I think Simon srhmoto has a GX8 and I think I read that he hasn't seen any shutter shock, maybe he'll call in and comment.

I have a G7 and I think they've built in some anti shock measures and maybe they've done the same with the GX8?
 
Yet another update on my possible shutter shock issues. Actually I think it's highly likely that this is my issue.

I've just spent hours going though MFT shots and as far as I can see the problems are confined to the GX7 and 14-42mm O.I.S. I can't find any other affected shots taken with my Panasonic 20mm f1.7 or Olympus 25 or 35mm f1.8's (my three most used lenses on my GX7) but I've taken fewer pictures with the 45mm f1.8, 9-18 and 45-200mm lenses and I can't find any in the 1/100-1/250 second range so I might give them a thrashing on my GX7 when time allows and see what happens. I haven't used my original 14-42mm kit lens on my GX7 and I doubt I ever will so testing that combination seems a little pointless.

I've also looked at every single shot taken with my G7 and 12-35mm and they're all ok.

I'm peeved about this shutter shock issue for two reasons.

Firstly because someone at Panasonic didn't catch this and fix it but hey ho. It's the sort of thing I'd have caught (I used to test products / do product approval) and I have a bee in my bonnet when I come across this sort of thing that someone has missed and really shouldn't have :D

Secondly because this will affect how I use any affected body and lens combination as my standard practice is to use Aperture priority until the light and shutter speed drop to a point at which the camera selects too low a shutter speed and then I switch to Manual or Shutter mode and dial in 1/160 or 1/200 and in doing so I'm right in the shutter shock range. Using a slower shutter speed could mean motion blur if animate objects are the subject matter and going to speeds higher than 1/200 sec could mean using very high ISO's. Selecting the electronic shutter could well be a good light fix for me but in artificial light there are problems... There's the possibility of banding and that does bother me as I had one shot which I dearly wanted to keep affected by it and also with the electronic shutter the camera limits the maximum ISO to 3200 and f5.6 and ISO 3200 can easily mean useless shutter speeds for indoor shooting. In fact at home when testing I was getting 1/10-1/50 sec in a normally lit room. 1/10 gives a high reject rate and whilst speeds in the region of 1/40+ give a good hit rate these shutter speeds are next to useless for available light people shots.

I hope Panasonic nail this issue in future cameras. It is IMO careless.

Has no one else come across this?
 
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Cant you just return it as unfit for use.
 
mikew said:
Cant you just return it as unfit for use.
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I've had the GX7 a long time :D Plus it's a decent enough camera and I had no issues (other than the EVF could be better) until I tried the 14-42mm I got with my G7 on it. I just fancied using that lens on my GX7 but I'll probably just keep it for good light day out use when I can avoid 1/100 to 1/250 sec shutter speeds and other than that I'll use my primes which I don't seem to have a problem with and would use 99% of the time anyway.

To be fair I don't suppose most people would actually notice. The pictures I took at Butterfly World are to me rejects but no one else can see what I'm talking about. I'm sure that you lot would, but us lot aren't exactly normal are we? :D

Another question occurs to me, if this is indeed shutter shock there must be a contributory factor in the lens otherwise I'd see this no matter what lens I used and I don't seem to be the only one linking this to specific lenses.
 
Yes, I have a GX8 and as I've said to @Jono1 in other threads I have yet to see shutter shock. I'm not saying it isn't there, but for how I use the camera and the lenses I have it just hasn't be an issue for me in real world shooting.

@woof woof , the GX80/GX85 that's just been released has a newly designed shutter mechanism that is claimed to eliminate any shutter shock issues.

Simon.
 
[QUOTE="I'm sure that you lot would, but us lot aren't exactly normal are we? :D. [/QUOTE]
What is normal? Lol :D
 
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srhmoto said:
Yes, I have a GX8 and as I've said to @Jono1 in other threads I have yet to see shutter shock. I'm not saying it isn't there, but for how I use the camera and the lenses I have it just hasn't be an issue for me in real world shooting.

@woof woof , the GX80/GX85 that's just been released has a newly designed shutter mechanism that is claimed to eliminate any shutter shock issues.

Simon.
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There are a few things about the GX7 that I'd like to improve...

1. I don't like the sequential field EVF tech.
2. I'd like auto ISO in all modes.
3. I'd like exposure compensation in all modes.
4. I'd like constant preview in all modes as per my Sony.

There are also things I like...

1. The size.
2. The tilting EVF.
3. The in built flash.

At the moment although the shutter shock is annoying me I don't think I'd like to lose the tilting EVF so that's against the new model and as far as I know the new one still has the sequential EVF so on balance although a GX80 may cure the SS issue as I can't see myself using the 14-42mm OIS much I don't think that's enough to compensate for the tilting EVF and the new model doesn't bring any of the other things on my want list.
 
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Just in case this helps anyone...

I tested the following lenses on my GX7 by shooting three different targets at shutter speeds from 1/100 to 1/400 and examined the results at 200%. All hit every target and there was no evidence of shutter shock.

Panasonic 14mm f2.5.
Panasonic 20mm f1.7.
Olympus 17mm f1.8.
Olympus 25mm f1.8.
Olympus 45mm f1.8.
Olympus 9-18mm.
Panasonic 14-42mm (the original one.)

I also retested the 14-42mm OIS and every shot was sharp!!!!!

I am however convinced that there is an issue with this lens on my GX7 as I've had enough slightly off shots at 1/160 to 1/200 to prove the point to me despite the occasional good sharp shots. It does however seem to be intermittent but I get more missed shots in this shutter range than good shots and for that reason I'm not going to trust it in the 1/100 to 1/250 sec range. I'll use the electronic shutter or if using the mechanical shutter to avoid artificial light banding I'll... I don't know :D
 
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The new GX80 is also smaller, not as well built and lacks a remote shutter port and an AF/MF switch on the body. I've bought myself an e-m5 ii today as I can't wait for the GX9. Time to get some nice lenses :)
 
Jono1 said:
The new GX80 is also smaller, not as well built and lacks a remote shutter port and an AF/MF switch on the body. I've bought myself an e-m5 ii today as I can't wait for the GX9. Time to get some nice lenses :)
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That is a shame. I use that. Good luck with your new camera :D

I hope Panasonic get their act together and fix the shutter shock issue and I'd also like to see them ditch the field sequential EVF thingy and give ME auto ISO with exposure compensation and constant preview in all modes.
 
maybe next year with GX9.. I reckon they'll soon nail it for us picky folk :)
 
Just updated my little shutter shock findings above and...

I also tested my Panasonic 45-200mm and I couldn't get a single shot on any body (G1, GX7 and G7) that stood up to 200% or even 100% viewing but this is my experience with this lens.

I'm a bit phased by this as in the past shot at 300mm on my Canon DSLR bodies and indeed one lens I used and took some of my favourite pictures with didn't even have IS but I managed so I'm not sure what the problem is as with MFT I've only managed good shots with this lens with flash or a tripod.

Does anyone else have this lens and if so how do you find shooting with it handheld?
 
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Can you post some examples of the shutter shock issues you are having please.
 
mikew said:
Yet another question i cant find the answer to,all the reviews i have seen talk about saving the best image from 4K photo mode but can you save more than 1 and do you have to do it at the time or can you sort it out when you get home.
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You can select as many individual frames as you want and save them using the Camera. You don't have to do it immediately after taking the shot, you can revisit at a later time and select each frame you want to extract.
 
CSB said:
Can you post some examples of the shutter shock issues you are having please.
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Sorry I've deleted the test shots :D but you should see it if you have it and look for it.

What I saw when I looked at the first problem whole images was ... softness, and when I looked at 100 or 200% I saw that there was a slight focus or motion issue and the issue at its worst is a slight double image.

I first saw this when on a day out with my mam and GF at Butterfly World which was the first time I'd used the 14-42mm OIS on my GX7. What I thought I saw when looking at the whole images was that every shot was soft and I just put it down to the lens being rather poor at its widest aperture (I was shooting indoors at Butterfly World at f5.6 and 1/200 sec) but I later used this lens on my G1 and shot with flash and the results were very sharp so that was the clue that there was something wrong somewhere.

There's a lot about this on the net and the problem shutter range seems to be 1/100-1/250. My little tests showed intermittent poor results at 1/160 and 1/200 sec but so far only with this one lens on my GX7.
 
I need help/advice. :eek:

I've bought a Panasonic 14-45mm, mainly as it was a bargain and I'm a sucker for a bargain! Now I need a body for it as I have no M43 kit any more.
I have fond memories of my GF1 and G1 but things have moved on since then. I still think the 4/3 ratio has a lot going for it over 3/2.

I should go cheap and buy a G1 (prefer to have a viewfinder) as I have Fuji CSCs and plenty of other cameras but I'm also quite tempted to try something more modern without breaking the bank.

So should I
1. Be sensible and get a used G1 as I don't need another camera/system. (£40)
2. Try somthing more modern but still cheap like a used G5. (£100-120)
3. Spend a bit more on a used GX7 or even a OMD EM5 or 10. (£200 - £250)

Cheers!
 
The slightly upmarket, recent models are quite amazing. The EM5, EM10, GM1 and GM5 are excellent and inline with the Fuji models.
 
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If it wasn't for the lack of a viewfinder I'd say a used GX1. Someone is selling one in classifieds atm. The GX7 is an awesome handy tool and performs much better than something like G1. I guess a reasonably priced mid range would be a used G5/6. You're unlikely to find a G1 in good condition and the image quality is not up to the standard of more modern cameras
 
There seem to be good deals on GX7's and G7's but I think that it's worth thinking about what you are going to use the camera for. If you are going to be shooting in good light at base ISO and up to maybe ISO 400 I'd say that the image quality of the first generation cameras is excellent. Depending upon your expectations ISO's up to 1250 may be very good and up to the maximum may be perfectly usesble.

I think that the newer models show a clear lead as the ISO rises and also in more dynamic range challenging shooting but other than that and for whole images or even quite heavy crops I think that even a GF1 or G1 can produce very good results.
 
Thanks folks.

As I say, it's a bit of an indulgence, as I don't need another camera! :)

Last night I was looking at pics taken with the G1 and GF1 I used to have and as Alan says, in good light they are pretty good.
However the lure of trying something else is strong. It's just GAS really isn't it!?
 
I like what I'm reading about the OMD range. Never really looked too closely at them before.

I did a have an EP-2 for a short time but didn't like the menus and the lack of a viewfinder.
 
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desf said:
I need help/advice. :eek:

I've bought a Panasonic 14-45mm, mainly as it was a bargain and I'm a sucker for a bargain! Now I need a body for it as I have no M43 kit any more.
I have fond memories of my GF1 and G1 but things have moved on since then. I still think the 4/3 ratio has a lot going for it over 3/2.

I should go cheap and buy a G1 (prefer to have a viewfinder) as I have Fuji CSCs and plenty of other cameras but I'm also quite tempted to try something more modern without breaking the bank.

So should I
1. Be sensible and get a used G1 as I don't need another camera/system. (£40)
2. Try somthing more modern but still cheap like a used G5. (£100-120)
3. Spend a bit more on a used GX7 or even a OMD EM5 or 10. (£200 - £250)

Cheers!
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Completely biased advice - buy my lightly used GX7!
 
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