Annoyances with my gx7, em5 II or gx8 fix?

dulynoted wrote:

overtime I have begun to notice that my panasonic gx7 has some peculiarities that really annoy me and slow down the usage of my camera.

Number 1: constant exposure preview. For some reason in manual mode this feature is basically broken. Past a shutter speed of 1/1000 you no longer get an exposure preview. It just stops at 1/1000 and if your aperture is too bright at 1/1000 and you have a totally white image well screw you. This imo makes manual mode on the gx7 basically useless. Hopefully the gx8 doesnt share this flaw. I understand that the omd's dont behave this way.

Yeah, that does suck. I shoot in M mode most of the time. One of the best features hobbled with odd behavior. I just bit the bullet and chimp.

this also annoys me when a flash is attached to the camera.

Never use a flash.

Number 2: focus magnification. Maybe this is just the gx7 being stupid and other panasonics dont do this. When in manual mode and I activate magnification I can immediately take a picture from the magnified view. As soon as I hit the shutter button it starts the exposure. But in aperture priority, which I am forced to use 99% of the time due to the useless manual mode, the magnified view has to close before it will allow you to start the exposure meaning that magnified view becomes far less effective for moving subjects who might have left the zone of perfect focus before the camera decides to take the shot. It is MUCH slower this way and I cannot figure out for the life of me why panasonic chose to do this.

Honestly, I really haven't noticed that.

Number 3: The lack of a thumb grip. The grip on the gx7 is perfectly substantial but the lack of a proper thumb rest/grip makes it very tiring to use with longer lenses and heavier lenses. This has become noticeable recently since I got the 10.5mm nokton. After awhile my thumb begins to tire and become sore due to the way I have to grip the camera. An integrated thumb grip would make the camera many times better ergonomically.

Fotodiox makes two hotshoe mountable thumb grips. Type (A short), Type B (long)

I have both, but prefer Type B, but it does cover the AE/AF Lock somewhat.

https://www.fotodioxpro.com/camera-photo-accessories.html?cat=47

Number 4:

Never use that.

Number 5: iso is not assignable to one of the control dials. This is a simply an oversight. With manual lenses exposure compensation or shutter speed control always takes one dial and the other is left empty and useless. Being able to push up on the control pad and then control iso with a dial is a small consolation but it is slow and then covers the screen with an iso control overlay. It also has to be done each time I change iso meaning it is very difficult to do so fluidly.

Hitting the 4-Way keypad seems easy enough.

These issues are little things that have built up and just generally give me some problems. Id like to find a camera that relieves these issue and can make my day to day shooting faster and easier. Im think the gx8 or em5 mark II. The em5 is a possibility as is the gx9.

The GX8 looks great, but short of buying one, why not download the manual from the Panasonic web site and read up on the areas that are most annoying.

Since NO camera is perfect, or much else for that matter, buying something entirely different to solve a few problem will most likely open up a whole 'nother range of annoyances. (Olympus menus? Talk about trading one poison for another! EGAD!).

As with ANY tool, my approach has always been to find workarounds and learn to deal with it… like chimping with Constant Preview above 1/1000th. YES, it's annoying as hell, but do I want to ditch the camera for something that's annoying only 5% of the time, if that? So, I tell my inner beeatch to STFU and deal with it.