Panasonic GX85 Flash

Coverage and Range
A fairly weak flash with narrow coverage. Less than average positive exposure compensation required.

Coverage. Flash coverage is rather uneven at wide angle, leaving the corners of our flash target image quite dark at 12mm, thought that's not unusual, especially for a wider than average kit lens. Some of the corner shading can also attributable to the lens itself. We no longer test flash coverage at telephoto, as it is invariably better.

Exposure. Indoors under incandescent background lighting, the Panasonic GX85's flash underexposed our indoor portrait scene at our standard aperture of f/4, even with Auto ISO which selected ISO 800. However, with +0.3 EV flash exposure compensation (which is less than average for this shot), the GX85 produced a good exposure. Shutter speed was 1/60s, which is good and should help avoid motion blur with most portrait shots, though results were quite warm from the somewhat high ISO and ambient lighting.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range Test. The Panasonic GX85's built-in flash has a Guide Number of 4.2m at ISO 100. That works out to a range of about 4.9 feet at f/4 and ISO 200. As you can see above, the Panasonic GX85 produced a good exposure at the rated distance, which means Panasonic's flash rating is credible.