Panasonic GX85 Production Gallery Supp.

Panasonic GX85 Production Gallery Supplement

By Dave Pardue

A few months ago we brought you an initial gallery sampling with the Panasonic GX85 while still in pre-production firmware status. Now we have full production firmware, and with our lab shooting and First Shots now completed, we wanted to circle back and bring you a real-world gallery sampling with this now updated production-grade sample.

For this batch I turned once again to the tried-and-true Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8, a very versatile sports lens that received high marks from our test lab. I also paired the GX85 with the latest lens offering out of the Panasonic gate, the 12mm f/1.4 Summilux, as well as one of the ultimate portrait lenses for Micro Four Thirds, the 42.5mm f/1.2 Nocticron. Lastly, I tried my hand with the svelte and versatile 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens.

Let the games begin!

We'll begin this sampling with a handful of action shots using the 35-100mm f/2.8 at a local swim meet. Catching swimmers in action isn't the toughest of sports to nail focus, but with the shallow depth of field afforded by this lens when zoomed in a bit and wide open at f/2.8, achieving critical focus for the moving subjects is a necessity. I found this lens to be an excellent pairing on the GX85 for overall balance and weight, quite the comfortable and professional package to be carrying about for extended shooting (like a 4-hour swim meet in the Atlanta summer heat).

Panasonic GX85: Action Photography

[Notes: Images have been cropped, resized to fit this page and slightly adjusted in post, primarily to balance shadows and highlights when needed. Clicking any image will take you to a carrier page, where you'll have access to the full resolution image as delivered straight from the GX85, in addition to EXIF data. RAW files are also available for download in our Panasonic GX85 Gallery page.]

We'll head now to portrait shooting, using primarily the 85mm equivalent, super-bright "Nocticron" lens, and remaining at f/1.2 and f/1.4 for the most part, although there are some examples when stopped down on our GX85 gallery page. I also used the 35-100mm f/2.8 for a portrait, because, well... why not? There are also plenty of additional portraits in the gallery with that lens as well.

The GX85 is the first Panasonic to come without an optical lowpass filter, so for portrait and landscape photographers this promises a bit more sharpness and clarity when desired. So while you don't get the higher resolution as offered by the GX8's 20mp (for anyone who wants that much) you do get the additional detail from stripping away the OLPF. Of course, as most of you know, this comes at the cost of potentially introducing moir into your images, but that's generally only an issue with subjects such as architecture, and sometimes certain fabric patterns as well.

Panasonic GX85: Portrait Work

The first shot in this next landscape section is with the diminutive 12-32mm kit lens. It's so small and light that it brings the GX85 into a different camera bag league, but is quite capable of delivering the goods for images such as this one. Then it's on to using the most versatile lens in the arsenal, the 35-100mm f/2.8, who insisted on cameos for most of these sections. And the last image shows the GX85 paired with the newest member of the Panasonic lens bunch, the 12mm f/1.4 Summilux. For anyone who's not yet read about this lens, it's the widest and brightest rectilinear lens made for the MFT mount that can employ autofocus.

Panasonic GX85: Landscape Shooting

So there are three common real-world use cases for a versatile camera like this one, and we'll conclude this article with a few general-purpose type uses.

Panasonic GX85: All purpose photography

Summing it up from a first experience

So far, the Panasonic GX85 shines in the real world, across the board for a variety of shooting scenarios. Our sample is now on the way to one of our most senior and experienced reviewers, Eamon Hickey. We'll have you a full Field Test from Eamon, as he takes the GX85 and a few choice lenses to Mexico, so stay tuned for more to come.

See more images in our Panasonic GX85 Gallery