G80 vs GH5 vs E-M1 ii - Stills Only

[Billabong]

Hi all,

I'm moving from a Canon DSLR to MFT and my interests are landscapes, HDR, macro, motor sports and birds in flight. The Panasonic 100-400 looks to be the perfect lens but I'm wondering which body to pair it with. I'm not interested in video so I'm not sure the GH5 offers much more than the G80 for my needs? The E-M1 ii is there because it seems to have arguably the best focus ability of any MFT camera at the moment, though again I'm not sure how much of an advantage it has over the G80?

Comments from those of you that have/have used any of these would be gratefully received!

 

[srhmoto]

Hi all,

I'm moving from a Canon DSLR to MFT and my interests are landscapes, HDR, macro, motor sports and birds in flight. The Panasonic 100-400 looks to be the perfect lens but I'm wondering which body to pair it with. I'm not interested in video so I'm not sure the GH5 offers much more than the G80 for my needs? The E-M1 ii is there because it seems to have arguably the best focus ability of any MFT camera at the moment, though again I'm not sure how much of an advantage it has over the G80?

Comments from those of you that have/have used any of these would be gratefully received!

If you like doing long exposures (>2 mins), then the G80 discounts itself as I believe that 2 minutes is the longest time allowed in Bulb mode.

That leaves the GH5 and the EM1 mk II.

For the stills only shooter, and despite being a long term Panasonic user, I think the EM1 mk II makes the most sense for what you want to photograph. You've already mentioned the focusing ability of the camera for predictive autofocus (the GH5 is arguably better at single shot AF, but you are down to splitting hairs), but the Olympus offers things such as Live Composite, Live Bulb, high res mode etc that the Panasonic just doesn't have. Add in that to get the very best out of the DFD focusing system on the GH5, you not only have to use Panasonic lenses, you have to use the very latest ones capable of focusing at 480fps.

IQ between the GH5 and the EM1 mk II will, in the real world, be much of a muchness. The decision will come down to the predictive autofocusing ability, the feature set and the usability (for you) of each system.

Simon.

 

[Nawty]

If you like doing long exposures (>2 mins), then the G80 discounts itself as I believe that 2 minutes is the longest time allowed in Bulb mode.

That leaves the GH5 and the EM1 mk II.

For the stills only shooter, and despite being a long term Panasonic user, I think the EM1 mk II makes the most sense for what you want to photograph. You've already mentioned the focusing ability of the camera for predictive autofocus (the GH5 is arguably better at single shot AF, but you are down to splitting hairs), but the Olympus offers things such as Live Composite, Live Bulb, high res mode etc that the Panasonic just doesn't have. Add in that to get the very best out of the DFD focusing system on the GH5, you not only have to use Panasonic lenses, you have to use the very latest ones capable of focusing at 480fps.

IQ between the GH5 and the EM1 mk II will, in the real world, be much of a muchness. The decision will come down to the predictive autofocusing ability, the feature set and the usability (for you) of each system.

Simon.

This basically.

For me the GH5 makes little sense if you are primarily a stills shooter switching from a DSLR as it is just as big and the AF simply isn't as good.

The EM1ii has the best AF and it works across all m43 lenses, not just the ones programmed for DFD for use on the GH5 and a couple of other Panasonic bodies. Add to that all of the long exposure modes (live composite is simply awesome) and the in built focus stacking for macro is great and the amazing IBIS allows you to do this handheld which is mind-boggling really. You also get good bracketing options and the inbuilt HDR isn't actually that bad so can be useful in a scene you know is just a bit too high in DR (snowy mountains for example) and it outputs in raw so can be manipulated nicely afterwards. Etc etc. The EM1ii is an amazingly powerful camera.