"Panasonic G series" Owners Thread

GaryS70 said:
Thanks for the info -- wasn't really aware of this so good to hear about it. I mainly shoot long exposures so not sure if this would affect me but will read up on it..

As Mike says, is there a list of lenses that are prone to the issue ?
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I'm another GX8 user, and have one of the lenses mentioned by Alan, but if you read back through this thread, you'll see that for how I use the camera, I've never had any issues whatsoever with shutter shock. As for long exposures, I've done exposures of 2 mins plus using my GX8 + Panny 14-42mm mk II, and never had an issue.

Cheers,

Simon.
 
Whilst not disputing its existence with the GX8 its not something i feel i have experienced with the 12-35 or 45-175,i also dont think i have seen it with the 100-400 but most of the time i use it between 200-400 (400-800 fov) hand held on a 20mp m4/3 sensor,any failures could easily be user error as i know hand holding is not my strong point.
I am thinking of swapping to the G80 but only because of body design,ime not sure though i understand the EVF situation or the C-AF on it,on the GX8 both are great and moving to the G80 would be a no if it was a step back with one of these features,i added a EM10MK11 and felt the same handling problems with the 100-400 as i do with the GX8,this has been 100% resolved by adding the Ebay grip in the picture,the G80 looks to be a similar holding design to the Olympus and grip but waiting for my LCS to get one in.
The handling problem was the way i grip the camera (again user error) while zooming meant i was putting pressure on the buttons on the back of the camera and changing settings,the grip sorted that for me.

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Does anyone find the playback preview quality appalling, how do you judge focus/sharpness? Have I changed the preview quality somewhere?

I'm shooting raw only with the new GX80, if I zoom in to check sharpness in playback mode the preview quality is terrible - the image looks like it's out of focus and is full of artifacts.
If I then convert that raw to a decent jpeg in the camera, it's pin-sharp e.g. zoomed in 16x - but the raw preview is still awful.
 
I've noticed that the preview images on my GX80 and G7 look much less noisy than those on my GX7 even though the final image quality on my pc is the same. This must tell me that the newer cameras are doing something to make the preview image less noisy and this may account for the lack of sharpness and artifacts that you're seeing.

Personally I don't worry too much about images viewed on my cameras, for me they're ok and I seem to have adjusted and to be able to judge what's ok and what isn't or maybe I'm just happy that the image can be seen on the camera at all :D
 
I just find it disconcerting, I'd check a preview on my e-m5 and think OK - I keep checking them on the GX80 and thinking, "That's out of focus, I need to retake it."
Then when I take the shots onto the PC, I've got half a dozen identical in-focus shots...doesn't do it in raw+jpeg - just raw only.
 
archstanton said:
Does anyone find the playback preview quality appalling, how do you judge focus/sharpness? Have I changed the preview quality somewhere?

I'm shooting raw only with the new GX80, if I zoom in to check sharpness in playback mode the preview quality is terrible - the image looks like it's out of focus and is full of artifacts.
If I then convert that raw to a decent jpeg in the camera, it's pin-sharp e.g. zoomed in 16x - but the raw preview is still awful.
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I could be wrong but I believe that, when you're shooting RAW and review pictures in camera, what you're looking at is the low res, low quality, JPEG that's embedded in the RAW file. That will never look very good. How about trying RAW + (full res) JPEG? That would probably give better results.
 
EspressoJunkie said:
Anyone here using Yongnuo RF603 mkii triggers?

I have the old Mk1s but apparently they don't work with Panasonic cameras!
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You can mod them to make them work if you are handy with a soldering iron, it's an easy job and only takes a few minutes. That's what I have done with my Mk1s and they now work fine on both Canon & Panasonic. There is a guide online somewhere.
 
CSB said:
You can mod them to make them work if you are handy with a soldering iron, it's an easy job and only takes a few minutes. That's what I have done with my Mk1s and they now work fine on both Canon & Panasonic. There is a guide online somewhere.
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Yeah I found that but it seemed more hassle than it's worth.

I figured that I only actually need to buy one Mkii trigger, because the mki's I have should be ok to receive the signal. So I got one on eBay!
 
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gcogger said:
I could be wrong but I believe that, when you're shooting RAW and review pictures in camera, what you're looking at is the low res, low quality, JPEG that's embedded in the RAW file. That will never look very good. How about trying RAW + (full res) JPEG? That would probably give better results.
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I agree (about needing raw+jpeg) - but why is the preview quality sooooo terrible that you can't even judge a sharp shot off it?
The previews aren't wonderful in the e-m5, but you can tell if you need to reshoot.
Hmm, needs some experimenting to find what jpeg quality's enough for review purposes...thanks all.
 
archstanton said:
I agree (about needing raw+jpeg) - but why is the preview quality sooooo terrible that you can't even judge a sharp shot off it?
The previews aren't wonderful in the e-m5, but you can tell if you need to reshoot.
Hmm, needs some experimenting to find what jpeg quality's enough for review purposes...thanks all.
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For me the raw previews aren't as bad a picture as you paint. Maybe you need some more time and experience with the kit to be able to get to a point at which reviewing images and gleaming something useful from assessing them is more worthwhile.
 
woof woof said:
For me the raw previews aren't as bad a picture as you paint. Maybe you need some more time and experience with the kit to be able to get to a point at which reviewing images and gleaming something useful from assessing them is more worthwhile.
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Errr, it ain't rocket science, all I'm doing is zooming in on the image to check the edges are sharp - which you can't do on the raw preview.
[Edit] - Sorry, don't mean to sound snarky, just frustrating compared to other cameras.
 
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I do agree, compared to Canon cameras the raw preview on the Panasonic cameras I've used is awful. I don't want to have to use up memory card space with jpgs just so I can check critical sharpness.
 
I've never been into "street" stuff but surely it depends what focal length you're happy with? From what I've seen classic street stuff FoV is often something like 28...35... or 50mm????

Maybe GX80 and Panny 15mm or Oly 17mm? Or you could go for a standard range zoom which will cover the 14-25mm (FF 28-50mm) range?
 
Is that the one you can't manually focus on most bodies? I think I'd prefer the 17mm f1.8 because of the snap focus ability. Set it to manual, set the distance and aperture and shoot old timie zone focus.
 
I have the Oly 17mm f1.8 and it's a very nice lens and I wish they were all built like this. It has a metal body and that manual focus system with markings and end stops is lovely :D It comes in black or silver, I have the silver one.

I had the GF1 but I much prefer the G1 as it has an EVF. I loved my GF1 when I first got it but it didn't take too long for me to decide that back screen shooting isn't for me. The G1 comes at the expense of slightly more bulk but you get the EVF and a fully articulated screen.

The image quality of these first generation cameras is IMO excellent at low ISO's but they can't live with more modern cameras as the ISO rises. I'd say that these cameras are excellent at ISO 100-200, very good at 400 and perfectly useable at something like 800-something just short of 1600. At 1600-3200 they're good with care and probably / certainly exceed anything I got from film. I've posted a lot of 100% crops from my G1 in this thread. I had a G1+14-42mm in the for sale section for £100 but there was no interest :(
 
woof woof said:
Is that the one you can't manually focus on most bodies? I think I'd prefer the 17mm f1.8 because of the snap focus ability. Set it to manual, set the distance and aperture and shoot old timie zone focus.
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I see 2 17mm 1.8's,do you mean the older one Alan?
 
I think the older 17mm is the f2.8. The 17mm f1.8 I have is like this one...

http://www.ffordes.com/product/16120616012881

The older 17mm f2.8 is like this one...

http://www.ffordes.com/product/16111608403781

The older f2.8 is cheaper but I don't think that it has the snap manual focus feature of the f1.8 but don't take me as Gospel, if you're interested in the cheaper f2.8 you should read up on it. There's also the cheap Panasonic 14mm f2.5. I have one of those and it's a very nice and very compact lens but for me two things attract me to the 17mm f1.8... the lovely metal build and the manual focus facility with markings and end stops and to be honest I prefer the 35mm FoV to 28.

I've gone mostly for the Oly primes and I have the 17mm f1.8, 25mm f1.8 and 45mm f1.8. There's some nice MFT kit at reasonable prices, most of my MFT kit was bought used.
 
The small Lumix kit lens is the 12-32mm and it does not have a manual focus ring. The only way to manually focus this lens is by moving a slider up and down on a touch rear screen, definitely not a real world option for street photography. I'd be tempted to use a function button for back button auto focus, on those bodies that have a convenient button, or the rear LCD screen for touch focus and shot. Other than that, the lens is actually pretty good and usefully wider than the 14-42mm lens.
 
Ulfric M Douglas said:
If you're in the street ... and its daytime ... a GF1 is excellent.
Also, GF1 still has dynamic-B&W mode which is very nice and got dropped by Panasonic when they made their new bodies.
Also : David Bailey.
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Some of my favourite night time shots were taken with my GF1 and 20mm f1.7 on holiday in Brugge. f1.7 might buy you anything from 1/80 at ISO 1,000 - 1,600 which may not be suitable for shooting people (and the 20mm f1.7 may not be suitable for shooting people either as it's slow to focus) but is ok for scenery. All that was needed in the case of my Brugge shots was a smidgen of noise reduction, nothing excessive, and to back the exposure off a bit post capture and these cameras do IMO over expose a bit.
 
One thing I try and do is take an interesting picture through a window of anywhere I go for holidays etc. I have a little collection of through the window shots now :D I've been waiting for the light and everything to be right for one particular shot at home I want to add to my little collection but today things weren't right so in boredom I took this which I quite like :D

GX7 + 45-200mm @200mm and f5.6.

 
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PS.
I've never been really happy with the Panasonic 45-200mm. I find it nice enough for a whole image but a bit soft when pixel peeping. Is there anything better?
 
Under the pier. Taken some time ago with my GX7 and 14mm f2.5 @iso 25,600. The original shot looks ok, this one has been through Nik filters and has had an oldie camera and film effect applied so it isn't indicative of the GX7 and 14mm lens quality and is just a bit of fun...

 
It's nice that they're fixing the shutter shock issue as the new models come out but sad that it was there in the first place when clearly it shouldn't have been. It's not as if they weren't told about this issue yet they kept knocking out affected new models and shipping affected body and lens kits.

It's interesting that he's seeing differences in image quality. I can't say for the G7 v G80 but for the GX80 v GX7 which I own I'm seeing zero difference in image quality and as the G7 gives the same IQ as the GX7 and to my findings also to the GX80 the findings in the vid are a little surprising to me. Great stuff if they have managed to somehow squeeze a little extra IQ out of the G80.
 
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