GX7 review (my first review!)

Yes, this is very helpful,  Lars!

larsbc wrote:

GeorgianBay1939 wrote:

After spending a couple of days experimenting with different layouts and button assignments, I arrived at a combination that pleased me a great deal and made me appreciate the new layout.

I am very interested in what you ended up with.

FN1: AF-ON
FN2: Quick Menu
WHY: AF-ON is a button I hold down for long periods of time while framing a shot. Therefore, I want that func. assigned to a button that lets me hold the camera comfortably while pressing that button. Quick Menu, on the other hand, isn't usually a button I need to press while framing or following a scene, so I moved it to a less grip-convenient spot.

Good idea ... moving QM  further out.

FN3: Silent Mode ON/OFF
WHY: It's a mode I use fairly often to either reduce shutter shock at long shutter speeds or because I want to be stealthy.

FN7: Wi-Fi
WHY: I don't use it a lot, but I hate digging through the menus for it.

Haven't tried this yet.

Rear dial: adjusts exposure compensation without having to press it, first.
WHY: I adjust the exposure comp. a lot.

I just roll either dial, depending in which mode (A or S) I'm in ... and use the little indicator at the bottom of the EVF.  I really miss the histo when I use the EC, the one you CAN get by pushing in the dial.

Flash > Auto Exposure Comp: ON
WHY: With that set to ON, press the rear dial allows me to adjust the flash exp. comp. with the front dial.

Way ahead of me.

Touch Screen: ON
Touch Tab: ON
Touch AF: AF
Touch Pad AF: Offset
Direct Focus Area: OFF
WHY: I like to retain the existing settings on the 5-way controller pad and use the touch screen to adjust the AF point.

Good stuff.

I am a solid believer in Gollywop, Anders, GB etc and a solid disbeliever in the "Exposure Triangle" (having "been there" and suffered).

What did you do? Any advice to a learner?

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the term, "exposure triangle."

Good for you.  I just went through a lot of hassle here:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3579796

Learned some stuff, though.  Always a silver lining!

I just try to capture the important tones in the scene, which is not always the same as getting the right final exposure.

Dynamic range also seems improved. Processing the raw files in Lightroom, there doesn't seem to be as much headroom in the highlights, as compared to my Nikon D300 or even my Sony RX100 II. So I've been shooting with a tendency toward underexposure. Still, I haven't run into many situations where highlights were blown out except in some scenes where it was quite obvious that there'd be a problem. In other words, I haven't been surprised by blown highlights. I've just noticed that there doesn't seem to be as much room to recover highlight detail. OTOH it also seems like I don't have to recover highlights as often as I did on my GH2, either.

Others have suggested a similar lack of headroom. Does this mean that you are required to give more room to the histogram in LV? to the RGBY histograms in chimp view? that you have to reset (downwards) the White point in LR? That you can't de-compress as much using the Highlight slider in LR? OR???

I've been experimenting with leaving the exp. comp. set to -.3 EV and other times leaving it set at 0 EV. I still don't have enough experience with the camera to say this with certainty, but so far I think it's better to shoot slightly underexposed at or near base ISO. It seems to lift detail out of the shadows without much of a noise penalty. At higher ISOs when the light is worse, I will often over-expose a bit and not worry about blown highlights. Something's got to give when the dynamic range drops in the higher ISOs, and in those cases the shadow detail is generally more important to me.

Yes, I am still working on how to optimize getting the best data on teh sensor in challenging situations.   There is some data here....

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52505443

Another learning experience with lots of help from Paul Hogan.

Hope that helps, Tom.

Yes, it does.  Many thanks!

t