Contents
Introduction
Micro Four Thirds Review time again…this time with an older setup and a Panasonic of all things!
Jockeying gear around again, I realized that I now lack a smaller coat pocketable setup. The GR III, while excellent for what it is, lacking the viewfinder is just not something I can live with long term.
Finding a deal too good to pass up, got a used Panasonic GX85 with the P20/1.7 lens for relatively little money. While I would love nothing more than to have perhaps gotten another Olympus PEN-F, the used prices are more than I wanted to pay for something that would be used barely, filling in the gaps of when I want a camera with me, but not the larger footprint of bigger lenses – even bigger in the relative term of say the Olympus EM1 Mark II and the O 12-100/4 Pro OIS.
Having played about in the past with the Panasonic m43 in the past (GH4 and G9 specifically), I knew that the controls, menus, viewfinder experience would be different.
Willing to take that plunge and experiment, the 20mm f/1.7 pancake made a lot of sense as well to go along with the aesthetic of coat pocketable. To carry forward with the experiment, I’ve also picked up another P 14mm f/2.5, which, while not f/1.7 fast, f/2.5 is definitely faster than f/4 (12-100) and it is the same size as the 20mm. Because I am really an aficionado of the longer focal lengths – research lead me to believe that the P 35-100/4-5.6 is small yet mighty. Having had a stellar experience with the Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R in the past – those inexpensive, plastic, yet yummy optics made me want to reach out and experiment with that lens as well.
This will give me a full Panasonic family, giving me the equivalent field of view of 28mm all the way through to 200mm. Definitely sufficient for this small, take anywhere kit…either pop it into a very small messenger style bag, or even just tuck it away in my work backpack, surrounded by protective pouches and at the ready as needed.
Without further delay…let’s get into this review, shall we?
Disclaimer – sample images represent was is possible to get from this specific camera and lenses used. The images are not straight from camera JPG and have most likely been post processed in Lightroom or other software to get them to the vision I wanted.
Tech Stuff
Body
Picking up this body, you feel the quality construction right off the bat. There is some plastic here, but I could not find any creaking or flexing anywhere. I was surprised at the weight of it. It’s not an issue for me, just given the size, I would have thought that the body would be lighter.
Styling wise, I like the minimalist almost Bauhaus look of the front. Not a fan of the large LUMIX wording, but that is easily covered up with some gray gaffers tape!
Smaller than the Olympus PEN-F, I would like a little more real estate for my hands or even a bit of a deeper grip…which could be remedied by an add on grip/plate combo. I’ll take some time to decide that as I don’t want to lose out on the compactness.
Power switch is on the back of the camera, around the mode dial and just above the rear wheel.
Dials. There are 3 dials on the camera, 2 on top and one on the back by your thumb. The front dial is easy to find with your index finger. in the middle right of the top plate is a mode dial.
On the rear is a clickable rear wheel. This doesn’t feel like it falls naturally under my thumb so I sometimes have to search around and find it.
Buttons. There are a lot of buttons with a D-Pad setup on the rear plus a whole bunch more with plenty that are customizable.
The front of the camera only has one button and that is the lens release.
Shutter Release – The shutter release has a positive feel between activating the auto focus and actuating the shutter. It has an almost springy feel down to focus actuation, then a positive stop. You can feel a positive click between when focus is activated and then just a little more pressure gives you an actuation of the shutter. I had no problems adjusting to it and did what I needed when I needed it.
Rear LCD – It has a decent size display and dare I say that the rear LCD is a better quality screen than the EVF. if you like to shoot from a rear screen, this will be just fine. It also doubles as a way to adjust the focus point as the camera lacks a joystick for that. The dpad buttons can be used to move the focus point around, just set it that way in the menu. If you do, then you’ll need to access the functions assigned to those buttons marked on the camera via the menu system or using the Q menu button.
Flash
This little camera does have a built in flash. I would have preferred that they got rid of it and instead used that internal room to make the EVF more flush to the camera body. it’s a nitpick, but just sharing my thoughts.
Viewfinder
The viewfinder is one of the let downs of this camera. It does the job and I’d rather have a bad EVF than no EVF. With my glasses, it is hard to get a clear image in the viewfinder. It just seems to distort quickly if you are not looking directly through the middle. Any slight head movements and the corners seem to not be as clear as other EVFs I’ve seen out there in m43.
Weather Sealing
Honestly not sure about the weather sealing on this camera, but given it’s status at the time, I’m sure there might be some…but I do not intend on bringing this into a downpour.
Lens Line Up
You’ve got everything and anything in the world of Micro Four Thirds at your disposal here! I chose to go with the smallest and most compact setup here for this one. Wide to medium with see the use of the Panasonic pancake primes, 14mm f/2.5 (28mm field of view) and the 20mm f/1.7 (40mm field of view). Longer telephoto will use the Panasonic 35-100mm f/4-5.6 OIS lens (70-200 field of view).
I did experiment a little with the Olympus 12-100/4 Pro OIS and the Olympus 75-300/4.8-6.7 II. They did just fine in all respects. I would not generally use them on this camera as it defeats my intended purpose, but others might be curious – so I mention it here.
Performance
Overall System Performance
This camera was released in 2016, so relatively modern compared to the other cameras that I shoot all the time like Minolta’s Maxxum 7D!
Everything works and works fast! Getting into the menus, no problem. Power up, quick and ready to shoot.
Autofocus
AF Point Selector
Here, you have 2 options. This camera was before the AF thumbstick was common – so you can use the rear d-pad (set this as an option in the menu) or you can use the rear LCD as a way to move the AF point.
I am still waffling between using the d-pad keys and the rear LCD. Why the waffle?
The rear LCD idea is good in theory. I mean, just being able to slide your thumb around to the point works quickly and precisely. This implementation of the rear LCD touch AF is probably one of the better ones I’ve seen/used. The problem? It is all too easy to accidentally bump the screen with your face, hand. All too often I would go to look at the rear screen or viewfinder and have the AF point all the way in the corner or the side, even though I last took a shot and the AF point was in the middle of the screen.
Swapping this option on and off requires me to go into the menu or to map a function button to switch it on/off.
The d-pad works ok, but there are options you may want to use and wish to have a button for and now you are diving into a menu to change (or set them up via the tabs on the touch screen).
Functioning of the AF? For all subjects I’ve tried, both stationary and moving (street photos – not shooting sports or anything), I did not get one out of focus shot that was not my fault!
Of the 3 lenses that I shot with (14/2.5, 20/1.7, 35-100/4-5.6) they all worked flawlessly in acquiring focus. The 20mm is slow, but that is just that lens…the others jumped right there. Very nice.
Cannot fault the AF-S functionality at all.
You can change the size and shape of the AF selector. Also another nice touch.
Continuous
More testing here is needed. I’ve heard positive things about the depth from defocus method of continuous shooting, but have no real cause to use it just yet.
Auto AF
AF point chosen by the camera. Need more testing here, but will most likely stick with selecting my own AF points.
Manual Focus
I will use manual focus on occasion, but usually only with adapted manual focus lenses or at times when the subject may be obscured by a foreground element.
Your usual focusing aids are here – peaking and zooming in.
Battery and Battery Life
When I first got the camera, it came with 2 after market batteries. They did not seem to last very long, at least not as long as I thought they should. I went out and got an OEM Panasonic battery. Battery life is closer to the advertised CIPA ratings. If shooting all day, expect to need an extra battery or 2.
Stabilization (IBIS/AS)
This camera does have 5-axis IBIS (in body image stabilization). It also supports dual IS, which is Panasonic’s version of using both the lens stabilization along with the sensor stabilization to get a higher rate of hand-hold-ability in slower shutter speeds.
It works incredibly well. I’ve not scientific test methods, but feel that Olympus still holds the crown here for stabilization, but the GX85 did well here.
Ergonomics
For me, the size of a camera is important. There is a point of diminishing returns on size. You can only go so small before the controls are hard to reach and the camera is difficult to hold.
Feel in The Hand
I already mentioned that the camera feels solid. If a camera is too small it is hard to get to the buttons that are on the camera body. This camera feels very good to me for what it is. The grip is a bit small, but with the size of the lenses I’m using with it and the everyday carry nature of the camera, it does not feel too bad.
I can get to the buttons and dials pretty easily, although I’m not a fan of where the rear dial sits. I often found myself hunting for the dial. Front dial was easy to find.
My bottom fingers do fall off and under the bottom plate.
I do find the ergonomics of the Olympus cameras better for me, but the GX85 is definitely serviceable.
Image Quality
Coming from Olympus I was planning on comparing it squarely against cameras like the EM5 II, EM 1 II.
I really do like what I see coming out of the GX85. The m43 micro contrast, contrast, sharpness, colors are all there. Slightly different than Olympus take on it, but actually very good.
I did not like the JPG rendering with the camera default settings. Sharpness was not there and the details seemed a little mushy. Did a little research and used the natural JPG setting with a custom -5 noise reduction setting. Cleared it right up.
Another difference I see is in the base level noise. It seems a little different than Olympus. Most notably, Olympus has quite a lot of base ISO noise in solid colors (sky is where I see it a lot), where as the 16mp Panasonic sensor did not have that. Now, there is a bit more overall noise even at lower ISO, but that is because I turned the NR down to -5. I’d rather deal with a bit of that in post in the JPG or just start from the RAW file and go from there.
I did notice that it does not seem to handle recovery of highlights as well as other sensors and has a signature much like what I’ve seen from my Leica M240. So, protect the highlights and bring the shadows up to compensate.
Shadows – I noticed that the shadow recovery seems to have a lot of color noise, way more than I experience with the Olympus sensors.
Overall, I like what I’m able to get out of this camera. Very pleasing and enough there to work with them how I want.
Reading a lot of the praise of the monochrome on this camera, I ventured into L.MONO territory. I’ve really liked it. A few tweaks to the base settings to add some more contrast and a green filter and I’m in heaven! I shoot this in RAW+F JPG a lot of the time.
Final Thoughts
The GX85 was not my first choice for the small, EDC camera. I liked the output from the Ricoh GR III, but it lacked a viewfinder. That was my EDC camera for a few years.
When you get a good deal, you sometimes jump on it. I was able to get this GX85 with the P 20mm f/1.7 for less than the price of what most places are selling the GX85 alone! I figured, If I hated it, I can just sell/trade it off.
I’m not hating it, and in actuality, it is growing on me quite a bit. With the small m43 lenses it really is a powerhouse of a setup that you can take with you for little penalty in weight. With the viewfinder, even though it is not one of the better ones out there, it better than no viewfinder, and this one will be in the arsenal for some time!
Final Verdict = Recommended!
Some additional things to point out:
histogram – you can have a live view histogram and it is able to be placed anywhere on the viewfinder/screen you want. Nice touch!
viewfinder monochrome mode – every want to shoot RAW, but not JPG with monochrome settings but want to see what the scene would look like in B&W? Yep, you can set that. This could be a good savings on card space as well as a good way to get the most contrast for manual focusing.
Some additional images for your viewing pleasure!