Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX80 + 12-32mm

APPEARANCE, ERGONOMICS

The body of Panasonic Lumix GX80 is partly assembled from metal, partly from plastic. The base, back and bayonet are metal, and the top and front panels are plastic. The grip places are covered with synthetic material that mimics the skin. The camera is assembled qualitatively, all elements are perfectly adjusted, nothing lyuftit, does not creak and does not hang out. There are four customizable hardware keys on the camera body, and five more are software buttons, which are transferred to the touch screen. They are all located on the back of the camera. From above only selector wheels, the shutter release button and the video recording button. 

DISPLAY and EVI

The main display of the camera Panasonic Lumix GX80 went to her "inherited" from the GX7: touch, rotatable in one vertical plane, turning 90 degrees up and about 45 degrees down. The basis is a 3-inch LCD matrix with a resolution of 1040 megapixels. This is enough for the vast majority of tasks, but the swing-and-tilt displays like the GX8 and G and GH lines are still more convenient. A new useful feature that is embedded in the Panasonic Lumix GX80 - Touch-pad AF.

(autofocus on the touch screen). The bottom line is that you can look at the viewfinder, move the focus area by swiping your finger on the main display. At the same time, nothing is displayed on the display, only the touch panel is working. The function is not only very convenient, it also saves battery power (because you can turn off the display, turn on the EVI and do not lose the convenience of focusing with the touch screen). 

An unusual feature of the GX7 (besides the built-in stabilization) was a rotary electronic viewfinder.  In the Panasonic Lumix GX80, the viewfinder is not rotatable, it uses a similar GX7 LCD matrix with a resolution of 2.76 million pixels and an increase of 0.7x (in GX8, I recall, a more modern OLED matrix is used with improved color reproduction and contrast, lower resolution but higher magnification). EVI has a high refresh rate and excellent contrast. 

FEATURES OF MANAGEMENT

On the main display, as on the EVI screen, you can display all the basic settings, as well as a grid, a histogram and a virtual horizon - all of which can be accessed simultaneously. In addition, the camera has the ability to customize the fast menu, tuning it very thinly "for yourself," which is also very convenient and great to save time when shooting. Moreover, you can even customize the focus area by placing the active AF zones in random order. Touch control in Panasonic is one of the most convenient: all camera control can be transferred to the touch screen if desired: scrolling through the menus, selecting settings, viewing the footage, selecting the AF area, and releasing the shutter. Who is used to the "smartphone" management, will be pleasantly surprised - absolutely everything is realized and intuitively understandable. In addition, for each menu item a creeping line is displayed with a short description (paragraph). However, if you want, you can not use the touch menu, the camera allows you to make all the manipulations with the help of hardware keys.

AUTONOMOUS WORK

The Panasonic Lumix GX80 comes with a "very modest" 1025 mAh battery that can be charged directly to the camera via the USB / Charge connector. Very pleased that finally there was a camera that can be charged both from a normal USB port and from PowerBank (there is enough power with a current less than 1A).  Full charge of the battery from the USB 2.0 computer port takes about 2 hours, and PowerBank for 10,000 mAh is enough for several charges. In situations where the outlet is not available for a long time, 

The battery life is traditionally the most "painful place" for virtually all mirrorless cameras, and the Panasonic Lumix GX80 is no exception. In real conditions, you can count on not much more than 250 frames - and it's only in warm weather, almost without using a flash and without shooting a video. With periodic video shooting - a maximum of 200, and if you shoot at a temperature close to zero degrees (or a little frost), then that's 100-120. When shooting a video (FullHD, AVCHD, 50 frames / second), the camera barely lasted for one hour of shooting, which is very small. And shooting a 4K video will land the battery and that faster - expect a maximum of 40 minutes. And by the way, if you continuously shoot FullHD video for an hour, the camera body gets very hot and becomes noticeably hot.

SENSOR

The Panasonic Lumix GX80 received an updated 16-megapixel sensor with a maximum resolution of 4592 x 3448 pixels. This is the first mirrorless Lumix camera that does not have an AA filter. 

The camera shows the expected results in the photosensitivity tests, in this sense the sensor is familiar with the previous Lumix G devices. A qualitative image can be obtained up to ISO1600, and at higher values of the photosensitivity the noise becomes noticeable even without a 100% increase in the picture. The range from ISO1600 to ISO6400 can be called conditionally working - noises are visible, but there is no color degradation and more contrast is maintained. At ISO 6400, the images are already of little use, since both the color depth and detail are drastically reduced, but for fans to put photos on social networks or for printing in 10x15 format, they are suitable. It is possible to raise the photosensitivity higher (ISO 12800 and ISO 25600) only if the fact of photo fixation is important to you, you can not use a flash and / or a tripod, and the quality does not matter. The minimum natural photosensitivity is traditionally ISO200. It is possible to expand to ISO100, but it's software emulation, so there's no point in dropping below ISO200. Built-in noise moderately active, works quite correctly and even in the maximum mode does not turn the picture into a "plasticine frame", so there is no sense to turn it off at high ISO. The quality of the picture Panasonic Lumix GX80 is very close to GH4. Most likely, these cameras have completely similar matrices, with the only difference being that the Panasonic Lumix GX80 does not have a low-pass filter, which means (theoretically) - slightly better detail. Feel this difference can only be using new premium lenses and then, if you look closely. But here in comparison with the old sensors of the sample 2011-2012 (as, for example, with the GH3 installed), the difference in detail is visible and tangible. JPEG traditionally "produces" a very high-quality picture, fairly neutral and without a shift in cold or warm tones. RAW is quite plastic and stretches well, but with a dynamic range, everything is fine.

AUTOFOCUS

For autofocusing Panasonic Lumix GX80 answers a 49-point module, the same as for GH4 and GX8. But the main revolutionary feature on which the manufacturer focuses is the availability of DFD technology ( Depth From Defocus - depth of field obtained outside the focus area). This is, in fact, an attempt to introduce all the advantages of phase focusing into the contrast focusing system. It was first introduced in GH4 and has been constantly improving since then.

.In fact, autofocus works really fast and accurately, including in low light conditions. And most importantly, the tracking auto focus became more tenacious: it seldom loses the object of focusing and "crawls" with lenses in search of focus.

STABILIZATION

The main and perhaps most important advantage of  Panasonic Lumix GX80 compared to other Panasonic cameras is the newest 5-axis image stabilization system Dual IS , which compensates not only for longitudinal and transverse vibrations, but also for circular vibrations. The most valuable thing is that the system can work together with optical stabilization, built-in lenses, complementing it. Here, of course, not without nuances: Dual IS does not work with all lenses. With old zoom lenses, equipped with POWER OIS The system does not work, leaving only optical stabilization active.  Another obvious advantage of matrix stabilization is the ability to work with third-party manual lenses. In the camera menu, you need to activate the shooting without the lens and specify the focal length. Just remember that the focal length should be indicated taking into account the crop factor !!! In fact, even at a shutter speed of 1/8 second and using lenses without optical stabilization, you can get a well-stabilized image. The built-in stabilization effectively works both for serial shooting and for video shooting. Naturally, the best result is achieved with the original lenses, which ensure the full operation of Dual IS Panasonic Lumix GX80 - this is the first Lumix camera, which can honestly "compete", in terms of efficiency of the built-in stabilization, with Olympus cameras. But the huge plus that the Panasonic Lumix GX80 can use the built-in stabilization together with the optical, and the lenses with OIS.

FEATURES OF THE SHOOTING

    The Panasonic Lumix GX80 series shooting speed is fully analogous to the GX8 - up to 8 frames per second with a mechanical shutter and up to 10 frames per second with an electronic (at fixed focus) and up to 6 frames per second (AF-C AF tracking mode).  Another nice thing is that the camera has a fairly large buffer: in the RAW format, the camera is able to record about 40 frames, depending on the shooting conditions and the included post-processing mechanisms. In JPEG format, the camera is capable of recording up to 100 frames. For an amateur camera - a very good result. Unfortunately, compared to the GX7 and GX8, there are also simplifications. 

The Panasonic Lumix GX80has a mechanical shutter that works with shutter speeds up to 1/4000 seconds (against 1/8000 seconds for the GX7 / 8). The electronic shutter can extend the shutter speed range to 1/16000 seconds. True, you can use it only for shooting static or slow moving objects. Fast moving photos should not be taken, since the effect of rolling the shutter will be very strong. In addition, the electronic shutter adds the possibility of noiseless shooting, which is priceless for street reporting. Another unpleasant moment, which rarely accentuates attention, the speed of X-synchronization has increased to 1/160 seconds (against 1/320 seconds for GX7 and 1/250 seconds for GX8) and the possibility of remote radio control by external flashes has disappeared.

  The camera has several interesting features, on which the producer focuses attention in official presentations, but it's worth telling about them. The first is the "Postfocus" mode. Its essence boils down to the fact that the focus point can be chosen already after the picture is taken. It sounds beautiful, but in fact there is no magic here. The camera takes a series of pictures at a resolution of 3328 × 2496 pixels, while sequentially focusing on all sections of the frame. All this is recorded in a video, which consists of several JPEG images, which can then be "cut out" from it. Theoretically, this can only be necessary if you are in doubt about the focus area or want to catch a fast moving object (while being afraid that autofocus can fail you). The disadvantages of this mode are a reduced shot and shooting only in JPEG.

The second interesting feature is "4K-photo" , which, in fact, is a variation on the theme of the SH high-speed shooting mode (up to 40 fps with 4Mp resolution, 2336 * 1752 pixels). But if in SH mode the photos are saved in the group, then the principle of operation is the same as in PostFocus. The camera makes a series of 30 frames per second with a resolution of 8 megapixels (3328 × 2496 pixels), recording them in a separate movie, from which later the pictures can be "extracted". The main disadvantage (in addition to the resolution and JPEG) is that the camera uses only an electronic shutter during shooting. Therefore, it is possible to forget about shooting fast-moving objects, since the effect of a rolling-shatter will be simply awful.

Well, the last interesting feature is "Focus Bracketing". Its essence boils down to making it‘s possible to get a very large depth of field in the picture. As it is known, one of the main problem in the subject and macro photography is that even with a very closed aperture, it is not always possible to achieve that the entire subject is in sharpness. 

 Traditionally, photographers solve this problem in the following way: a series of pictures is taken with a successive translation of the focusing point from one edge of the object to the other, after which the photographs are combined in a graphic editor. In the Panasonic Lumix GX80, the first part of this procedure is automated. In the camera menu, the focus step and the number of pictures are set, after which it is only necessary to press the shutter release - the camera will shoot everything itself. But even here everything is not so cloudless. Focusing step,

In addition to the above, the camera can perform interval shooting, create a photo using multi-exposure, glue panoramas and has in the arsenal of a huge number of art filters.

VIDEO

Traditionally, Panasonic pays special attention to video capabilities of its mirrorless cameras. It would be more correct to say that each new model of Lumix cameras (GH series) "sets the bar" for other manufacturers.

The Panasonic Lumix GX80 can record 4K video at up to 30fps with a data stream of 100Mb / s, and FullHD video can be recorded at speeds up to 60fps and a stream of 86Mb / s. The camera has the widest possibilities of video shooting with a huge number of options and settings. As an auxiliary tool for focusing, you can use focus-picking, and to control the light - zebra. It is possible to shoot video in P, A, S, M, with traditionally there is a separate manual M mode for video. During shooting, you can change the ISO shutter speed and aperture. Thanks to the excellent touch control interface, the GX85 allows you to quickly and silently refocus and change the recording parameters. In addition, you can use creative filters. There are a number of interesting functions:

• "4K photo" - which allows you to get 8-megapixel pictures with 4K resolution in the process of video recording;
• "Instant video" - allows you to activate the recording of short video clips, from 2 to 8 seconds long, with certain effects applied to them, such as smooth focus movement, acceleration and slowdown of the video sequence, transition from color to black and white image or the use of damping effect in black or white;
• "Live framing 4K" - allows using a 4K frame area to create a certain video effect and save it to FullHD. For example - to make a small panoramic wiring or a smooth approach. In fact, the camera inside the 4K region moves the FullHD area, allowing software processing to create a very smooth motion. For beginners who want to try to mount a simple video with "cinematic" effects - this will be a very pleasant addition. And most importantly, the mobile application Panasonic Image App allows you to immediately and mount these videos, additionally imposing on them music or other effects.

CONCLUSIONS

Panasonic Lumix GX80- excellent compact amateur camera, with very rich functionality. I am glad that Panasonic, in addition to constant improvement of technical characteristics, pays much attention to the convenience of use. Given that there are a lot of settings in the camera, it's possible to understand the camera control very quickly, thanks to a well-structured menu and on-screen prompts. In addition, depending on your preferences, you can choose your own style of camera control: all manipulations are performed with the help of a sensor, or with the help of buttons, or by combining buttons and a screen. In addition, the camera can be controlled using a smartphone or tablet. For this, there is a convenient and highly functional mobile application Panasonic Image App .

The Panasonic Lumix GX80 has a very effective image stabilization system and an excellent autofocusing system, excellent image quality, 4K video shooting and a capacious buffer for continuous shooting. In general, Panasonic has an almost ideal amateur camera, the most serious drawback of which is the very low battery life, even by the standards of mirrorless cameras.

PLUSES  

Panasonic Lumix GX80:

·       Excellent image quality (both photo and video);

·       Fast tenacious autofocus;

·       Very effective integrated stabilization system;

·       High continuous shooting speed and capacious buffer;

• Very convenient menu;
• Functional mobile application for communication via Wi-Fi;
• Possibility of charging via USB .

·       Excellent sensor control of the camera;

·       A huge number of additional functions;

MINUSES

Panasonic GX80:

·       Very low battery life;

·       Strong heating with long video recording;

·       Errors with white balance determination;

• It is not possible to output the exposure compensation to one of the function keys; No microphone input and headphone output.