"Panasonic G series" Owners Thread

Swissy said:
I'm the opposite i've always had Panasonic cameras and find them easy to setup, my recent Olympus purchase was pretty daunting to setup how i like it.
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I thought it would be that way, going on the style of the menus I'd seen in reviews, I think it's just how they word the options and the knock on effect of some. Like 'Direct focus area' - this one bugged me for a bit, it was driving me mad that the direction pad keys were not doing what they should. There was no clue that I had switched this on while flicking through the menu or that this was the solution, turn this off and your ISO/WB/AF return to normal on the pad. Also 'constant preview' I imagined was similar to Fuji's, where it would simply see the effects of exposure adjustments, I didn't know that it also literally showed exactly how the exposure should look, lag and all! When my EVF was lagging like crazy I had no clue as to what was causing it. Eventually it clicked, I just wish it didn't actually show lag when i want to do a long exposure hand-held, they should just have assumed we would know it'll blur if we're not steady?!

I do have it set up nicely now though, and I am starting to remember where all those important settings actually are without having to scroll through every single page to find them :)
 
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Some more pictures taken with my GX80 and Oly 17mm f1.8 and all passed through Nik filters for effect. I think they were all a bit of a torture test for one reason or another.

F4, ISO 1,600. I had to use a lot of fill light to lighten the underside of the canopy.

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F4, ISO 400 with lifeless light.

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F1.8, ISO 1,600. This was under horrible artificial light with natural light coming in through the window.

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F2.5, ISO 320 and trying to capture the room and its lighting.

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F4, ISO 1,250. More horrible artificial light.

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Now that is confusing. The Newport Bridge isn’t the transporter bridge, but the bridge in Newport is...

Great shot either way .
 
Chaffinch

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Chaffinch[/url] by Jeff Hardwick, on Flickr[/IMG] P1000117 copy.jpg
 
Anyone using the Pana 100-300, original or mkII? I have an Oly 40-150 but it's not enough reach for my birdies. How is the quality beyond 200mm? Is the mkII much different to the original?
 
Cagey75 said:
Anyone using the Pana 100-300, original or mkII? I have an Oly 40-150 but it's not enough reach for my birdies. How is the quality beyond 200mm? Is the mkII much different to the original?
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I don’t have one, but have owned two mk Is in the past. I found IQ to be fine up to around 275mm, but it softened up after that. For its price, the reach and IQ it gives really takes some beating. If I was buying one now, I’d definitely go for the improvements in AF speed the mk II version brings.

Simon.
 
srhmoto said:
I don’t have one, but have owned two mk Is in the past. I found IQ to be fine up to around 275mm, but it softened up after that. For its price, the reach and IQ it gives really takes some beating. If I was buying one now, I’d definitely go for the improvements in AF speed the mk II version brings.

Simon.
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Nice, 275 would do just fine, I'm finding 150mm just too short atm. Even with the birds only 20 odd feet away at the feeders. I have a 200mm manual focus prime that I find better, but, with these little birds being so Goddamn fast AF is nice to have, plus a little more reach. I'll have to keep an eye on MPB for a mkII at a nice price :)

There is also the Oly 75-300 mkII, but that is a little slower
 
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Cagey75 said:
Anyone using the Pana 100-300, original or mkII? I have an Oly 40-150 but it's not enough reach for my birdies. How is the quality beyond 200mm? Is the mkII much different to the original?
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I have just bought a mk1 from the classifieds here, i'm not to bothered about the focus speed being slower than the mk2, i won't be doing any bif, just set focus on a bird table hopefully.
 
Swissy said:
I have just bought a mk1 from the classifieds here, i'm not to bothered about the focus speed being slower than the mk2, i won't be doing any bif, just set focus on a bird table hopefully.
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I think the mk1 would be plenty enough for me too tbh, I don't do BIF either. I do like to capture them fighting and play-acting around the feeders, adds some character, and I guess if you needed to capture some in flight it's possible with the mk1 just a bit more planning.

I saw that in classified btw, was tempted, but I need to move a few bits and bobs first. Only just bought the G80 new.
 
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Been giving the G80 a good work out over the past week, I did a family photo shoot on Thurs and shot a 21st last night. The 21st was the first real opportunity to work it using hand-held off-cam flash - my trusty old YN-560, which has been my main unit for years. I used it with the D800E, the Fuji X-T1 and now it works just as good for the G80, same old cheap trigger and receiver set too. I shot between ISO 640 - 1200 for the night, to keep some ambient, adjusting only the aperture and ISO when needed. Flash was full maual, switched between 1/16th and 1/8th depending. The room wasn't badly lit, but it was still a 3200 ISO+ setting without flash to keep shutter speeds respectable. Thankfully the ceiling was white so I just bounced. I used the Pany 25mm 1.7 only.

I had no mis-fires, I used only one battery for the whole night and many people were admiring the wee little power house too :)

21 by K G, on Flickr

21 cake by K G, on Flickr

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The remote app has annoyed me a bit, maybe Fuji's was just so good? But having to disconnect from your main wi-fi just to connect to the camera via your phone was something you did not have to do with the Fuji version. I have yet to really play with it, but when I did try it also cut off on me numerous times :/
 
Cagey75 said:
The remote app has annoyed me a bit, maybe Fuji's was just so good? But having to disconnect from your main wi-fi just to connect to the camera via your phone was something you did not have to do with the Fuji version. I have yet to really play with it, but when I did try it also cut off on me numerous times :/
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One thing annoyed me was I was trying to refresh the page for the loco times, even though mobile data was still on, it wouldn't use it, the phone was trying to use g7 wireless which I found odd, it also took quite a few attempts for the phone and camera to connect, perhaps the wifi signal was frozen like everything else around... but I'm glad I managed to get it to work.
 
michael23 said:
One thing annoyed me was I was trying to refresh the page for the loco times, even though mobile data was still on, it wouldn't use it, the phone was trying to use g7 wireless which I found odd, it also took quite a few attempts for the phone and camera to connect, perhaps the wifi signal was frozen like everything else around... but I'm glad I managed to get it to work.
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They definitely need to update it, I was expecting it to be pretty impressive - I mean, I was using a 4 year old X-T1 that was nippy and reliable with Fuji's app. The G80 is only a year old, should be much better tech-wise, but the app is a bit of a fail. Still loving the camera though, these apps are just a bonus to me really, rarely do I ever put them to good use.
 
The remote app always works fine with my GX8. Mind you I’m usually using it in the field as it were without my phone or iPad connected to any other WiFi when I start.
 
I need to give it a good test when out shooting, but I would prefer if it could switch to the camera without having to faff about with your main network.
 
Hi everyone,

I’m waiting delivery of a GX8/12-60 combination from Castle Cameras - a net price of £529 after cashback was too hard to resist. Have also ordered the 25mm f1.4 and picked up a very reasonable 45-150 on the ‘Bay.
Only problem now is disposing of all my lovely Pentax gear - but my dodgy hands are looking forward to it!
Hopefully I will be able to make a contribution to this thread - but I just enjoy everyone else’s contributions anyway.
Happy New Year !!
 
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Malfis said:
Hi everyone,

I’m waiting delivery of a GX8/12-60 combination from Castle Cameras - a net price of £529 after cashback was too hard to resist. Have also ordered the 25mm f1.4 and picked up a very reasonable 45-150 on the ‘Bay.
Only problem now is disposing of all my lovely Pentax gear - but my dodgy hands are looking forward to it!
Hopefully I will be able to make a contribution to this thread - but I just enjoy everyone else’s contributions anyway.
Happy New Year !!
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Just an update - the 25mm f1.4 Leica is on back order, so I've ordered the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 ll ASPH.

Reading the reviews of the lens, it looks decent - do you agree?
 
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Malfis said:
Just an update - the 25mm f1.4 Leica is on back order, so I've ordered the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 ll ASPH.
Reading the reviews of the lens, it looks decent - do you agree?
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It's a bit late if you've ordered it :D but...

I've had two of these, the original and the MK2 that came along after a few years. On the positive side I liked the focal length and it's sharp enough and very compact too and on an RF style body it makes for a compact camera and lens combination. On the negative side you can get banding at higher ISO's (and this is lens related even though it's hard to understand why...) and I'm not sure it's suitable for focus tracking... but check that as I think there's an issue with tracking or video or something like that but I can't remember exactly what the issue is but it's something that never bothered me as I don't use tracking or shoot video. The lens is also relatively slow to focus but this was never much of a real world issue for me.

Anyway, I changed mine for an Olympus 17mm f1.8. You could also take a look at the excellent Olympus 45mm f1.8.

And another point.

The GX8 can unfortunately induce shutter shock when used with some lenses and this shows up as a slight blurring or even a slight double image and usually manifests at shutter speeds of something like 1/80 to 1/250 or so. It might be worth reading up on this issue before you invest too much in lenses to make sure that you avoid lenses that can manifest the issue.

The issue can be avoided by using the electronic shutter but this can cause rolling shutter effects and banding under some artificial flickering lighting. Sadly there doesn't seem to be a list of affected lenses so it's best googling for feedback on any lens you're interested in using on your camera.

I only have one micro four thirds lens which seems to be affected, the otherwise excellent 14-42mm mega OIS and amazingly my old Minolta Rokkor 50mm f1.2 is affected too.

I'm rather angry about this issue and personally I think that Panasonic should be ashamed of themselves especially as they knew about this issue for years and continued to sell affected body and lens combinations as kits. I think a few people at Panasonic need nailing to something over this issue. If it didn't exist I'd have probably bought a GX8 years ago.
 
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woof woof said:
It's a bit late if you've ordered it :D but...

I've had two of these, the original and the MK2 that came along after a few years. On the positive side I liked the focal length and it's sharp enough and very compact too and on an RF style body it makes for a compact camera and lens combination. On the negative side you can get banding at higher ISO's (and this is lens related even though it's hard to understand why...) and I'm not sure it's suitable for focus tracking... but check that as I think there's an issue with tracking or video or something like that but I can't remember exactly what the issue is but it's something that never bothered me as I don't use tracking or shoot video. The lens is also relatively slow to focus but this was never much of a real world issue for me.

Anyway, I changed mine for an Olympus 17mm f1.8. You could also take a look at the excellent Olympus 45mm f1.8.
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That's true the 20mm can't be used with continuous autofocus in photo or video mode, only AFS or manual focus.
 
CSB said:
That's true the 20mm can't be used with continuous autofocus in photo or video mode, only AFS or manual focus.
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Thanks for clarifying, I knew there was something but I couldn't remember exactly what.
 
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