Difficult to underrate this camera

Hen3ry wrote:

arn it -- Iam trying to resist the urge to switch from the GX7. People like you make it hard! Explosive GAS coming on!

I think you should run down to your local Panasonic camera store in Rabaul and give the GX8 a whirl.  LOL.

I loved my G3, hated my G6, but really like the GX8, which I've had for a few months now.  What I most like about it is that it's almost infinitely customizable.  I've reassigned the function of nearly every button on the camera so that the hard controls on all of my cameras now work in similar fashion, whether they are Panasonic, Sony, or Nikon.

I've always liked my Panasonic 100-300mm lens, which is quite sharp, and on the GX8 it shines.  I've now added the 12-35mm and the 35-100mm, the latter of which arrived yesterday.  The 12-35mm is an excellent lens, very sharp, nice colors...at least for Panasonic (whose colors I normally detest).  My first photos today with the 35-100mm were disappointing, at least at 100mm where I could compare IQ with the 100-300mm and my old 14-140mm, which I've used a lot for travel.  But then I had the idea to switch from using the normal focus box to pinpoint focus, and the resulting improvement in image acuity was really dramatic.  That lens is really sharp.

There are only two things about the GX8 that I have some issue with.  First, there's more luminance noise at base ISO than I was expecting.  OK, that's fixable in post-processing, for the most part.  The second thing that bothers me is the ergonomics...but not what you might be thinking.  I find shooting with the GX8 a tad uncomfortable because there's just too LITTLE space between the large (right) hand grip and the lens mount.  I use the classical photographer's grip, cradling the lens from below in my left hand.  There is simply not enough space for the fingers of my left hand to go all the way around the barrel of the lens, so they end up overlapping the fingers of my right hand which grasps the hand grip on the camera.  This is a problem because I've assigned the function button on the front of the camera body to bring up the focus options from the shooting menu, with the idea that I can use it to switch the focus mode, the size of the focus box, and the location of the focus point within the field of view.  The tight spacing makes it awkward for me to locate and press that particular function button with my left hand while I am using my right thumb to maneuver the location of the focus spot by means of the 4-way controller on the back of the camera.  But, other than that niggling issue, I am very happy with my GX8 and I can heartily recommend it to you.

BTW, I will be heading your way in PNG come this November, but probably not to revisit Rabaul.  I will be touring the highlands region after spending a week in Indonesia and West Papua.