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| Big scene Sydney. G85 with 14-42mm lens at 14mm f5 hand held. |
I recently picked up a G85 and started using it again after several months without an interchangeable lens camera. During this time I have been mainly using a Panasonic FZ300, Canon G1XMk3 and Sony RX10 Mk4. Each of these is a fixed zoom lens model and each uses a diaphragm type leaf shutter in the lens.
Handling, feel and operation The G85 with the kit 14-42mm lens feels very nice.
It is right in what I consider to be the “Goldilocks” size range: large enough to have a comfortable anatomical handle and a full set of controls for the expert user but small enough to be light and inconspicuous.
The handle and thumb support are well shaped and most of the controls are located just where my fingers want to find them. Except for the cursor Button module, haptics are very good. The EVF is very nice.
Overall the camera is very well designed with very good ergonomics. This means that the G85 can be controlled efficiently with few actions, each of low complexity.
The only ergonomic failure is the Cursor Button module. This uses the flat five buttons style which is really difficult for the right thumb to locate and operate by feel. The Disp. button is likewise too flat and difficult to locate by feel.
I am completely at a loss to understand why Panasonic uses this suboptimal module on their G cameras when they could easily use the rocking saucer type module from the FZ1000, FZ2500 and FZ300. This is much easier to locate and operate by feel.
My fix for the problem is to drop a spot of clear epoxy resin on each of the flat buttons making them much easier to feel and operate.
Responsiveness and speed I have owned and used every Panasonic G camera since the first, the G1 in 2008, so I am very familiar with the breed.
So I was quite surprised to find my response to the G85 was …”hey, this thing feels a bit slow”.
Of course it is no slower than other M43 cameras. The sense of slowness comes from my recent familiarity with the fixed zoom models which are appreciably faster and more responsive in operation.
That sense of slowness comes from two factors.
The first is the focal plane shutter which has to jig up and down before exposure can commence.
The second is the longish EVF blackout time after each exposure.
Auto ISO implementation Pansonic STILL has not copied Sony’s excellent if obtusely named [ISO Auto Min.SS]. They should do so tout suite. This changes the minimum shutter speed which the camera will set in response to the lens focal length. In addition it can be set to any one of five speed bands.
Moving the AF Area On the G85 this is done with the cursor buttons or the touch screen function. Some users prefer one of these over the other but I find a well positioned and designed thumb stick easily beats both of these. Panasonic has given the G9 and GH5 a thumb stick but only offering 4 way action. It needs to provide 8 way action to include diagonal movement and be located in exactly the right place.
Discussion
The focal plane shutter. This was a wonderful invention a hundred or so years ago but now it has become a major impediment to improving performance in interchangeable lens cameras.
Why ?
With respect to the G85 with [Mechanical Shutter] selected, when I press the shutter button there are four shutter sounds: 1 shutter closes, 2 shutter opens, (exposure occurs) 3 shutter closes, 4 Shutter opens.
As the shutter has to close and open before the exposure can begin shutter response to my press on the shutter button is appreciably delayed. If I am photographing still subjects this hardly matters. But when subjects are moving the delay can become significant.
If I want to use continuous autofocus and burst drive the slowness becomes even more significant.
I can switch to the Electronic shutter for a quicker shutter response BUT this drops output from 12 bit to 10 bit and this leads to a very considerable increase in dark tone noise especially color noise which can become objectionable.
If I select Electronic first curtain there is a triple cadence shutter response but this is no quicker than M Shutter.
Each of the fixed lens leaf shutter models offers an appreciably faster shutter response. There is a barely perceptible delay between pressing the shutter button and exposure.
EVF blackout The G85 and other M43 cameras have an appreciably longer EVF blackout time after each exposure than the leaf shutter models. This is no big deal with unhurried single shot photography but for fast moving action it is a substantial barrier to better performance.
I have been using the Sony RX10 Mk4 quite a lot recently. This has a very fast shutter response and a very short EVF blackout time. It can shoot still photos at 24 frames per second with virtually no EVF blackout and keep a fast moving subject accurately in focus on every frame. No other camera in existence can do this. (well, maybe the RX100Mk5 but that is not the first camera I would chose for sport/action)
I actually use [Medium] speed on the RX10M4 which is 10 fps but this is still impressively fast and about 95% of the frames are in focus.
When I go back to the G85 after shooting action subjects with the RX10M4 it feels like I stepped into a time machine and rode it back to a previous and much slower era of photographic technology where cameras go clunkety---clunkety…… when you press the shutter button and the EVF is blacked out for more time than it shows the subject.
What can the G85 successor, M43 generally and other mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras do to improve their responsiveness and capability particularly for sport/action continuous shooting ?
1. That focal plane shutter has got to go. Ideally it would be replaced by a global shutter which reads out the whole frame simultaneously but a very fast E-Shutter would do the trick. But in order to do that Panasonic, Olympus, Canon, Fuji etc need to:
2. Greatly increase on chip data processing speed. This on chip processing speed is Sony’s big advantage right now and the reason the RX10Mk4 (and some other Sony cameras) can run so spectacularly fast.
3. Implement an auto ISO algorithm that looks just like Sony’s [ISO Auto Min. SS].
4. Fit an 8 way thumb stick on mid range models like the G85.
5. Panasonic will very likely want to upgrade their DFD function or do as Sony and Olympus have done and fit on sensor phase detect AF.
6. The Tripod socket on the G85 is way too close to the front edge of the baseplate. I would not want to hang one of the big zooms off this.
7. The G85 lacks a My Menu. Panasonic has started implementing My Menu on the upmarket models. It should be available on every camera.
That’s about it really. One reviewer dismissed the 16 Mp sensor which several M43 cameras use as being “dated” as if it were a fashion accessory. Actually given a good lens 16 Mp can reveal a great deal of detail in a scene with good highlight and shadow detail.
Summary The G85 is one of the nicest and most user friendly Micro Four Thirds cameras yet produced. But there is plenty of room for improvement. Panasonic already has the technology to implement some of my suggestions above. Others might require a major sensor technology upgrade.
Sony is the performance technology leader right now. I suspect that one of the reasons Sony is not already top of the sales charts is the less-than-wonderful ergonomics of many of their cameras.