I have agonized over this decision & considered everything you mentioned as well. I almost bought the a6000 combo (regular kit & zoom) b/c of the speed & sensor size. But the size of the m43 cams/lenses & lens prices were too attractive. Plus, all of the brand new tech on the Panny & the overall look.
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Panasonic GX85 thoughts and mini review from a complete newbie
- Thread starter JuliusCC
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It is a big decision to make - none of these cameras are cheap! I don't think you can go wrong with any of the cameras mentioned, honestly. They all seem to be seriously good quality for both photos and video. The Sony will probably win in low light situations but the dual stabilization of the Panasonic will let you use lower shutter speeds when handheld. There is a lot of flexibility with the Panasonic in terms of lens choices too.
I plan to shoot my daughter's poorly lit indoor swim meets. That was the main reason I leaned towards APS-C. I feel like I'm rolling the dice a bit w/ m43 in that regard since I'm not about to invest a grand in a bright zoom lens. But I was shocked at how inexpensive the entry zooms are for m43 compared to Sony. Good thing the outdoor/summer season is coming up 
I haven't had a chance to test the GX85 in the conditions we typically film in (indoors with average to poor lighting from arcade machines) but we're going to give it a test run this weekend!
Right now I can say that both perform reasonably well, but they "feel" very different. The Sony tends to pop things into focus really quickly, whereas the Panasonic likes to focus more gradually and smoothly - more of a film/cinematic effect. We've had plenty of experiences with the Sony refusing to focus on various objects and items though.
The Sony probably beats the Panasonic when it comes to faster moving situations, but the Panasonic didn't have any issues with focus when I filmed clips at the zoo. I would give both of them a 7 to 8 for now! I still need to learn all the different settings that the Panasonic has to offer, so I will post up more thoughts when I get more experience with the camera.
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That´s a very nice reply, thank you.
About the Sony´s "quick" vs Pana´s "smooth" AF, smooth is good, but I´m worried about the Pana taking an unusually long time to refocus, showing that kind of "blurred mess" I´ve seen in the past. Focus hunting is also an issue I´m concerned with.
And about the Sony "refusing to focus", I do know it´s still far from perfect (I hear it´s slightly improved over the RX100III, which took a lot of flack for this very reason) but I somehow suspect it´s still going to be a bit more "reliable" for people like me, who are mostly interested in taking videos handheld, and for whom AF-C in video mode is even more important than the very promising stabilzation the GX85 is showing.
So please, keep us updated with your new findings as soon as you do some more tests.
Thanks mate!
I got my GX80 yesterday and am very happy with it so far.
I have observed sluggish AF when touching on the display to focus, I am kinda surprised at how slow focus is achieved, not sure if there is a setting that I am missing. When using the shutter release button it is a lot faster.
I just found this post regarding the aforementioned, I´ll post it here just in case anyone else is interested: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4003863
Cheers
Like the OP, I got my GX85 last week from Bestbuy; I'm also coming from the RX100iv, like the OP.
I have the 42.5mm lens, can confirm that AF while shooting video is pretty much non-existant, at least with that lens. In fairness, you get a pretty shallow depth of field with the lens, so it is asking a lot to expect the camera to focus continuously and accurately when DOF is so shallow.
I pretty much focus manually when shooting video though, so I don't really care. Overall I'm loving the camera, there's no affordable video camera out there with this kind of stabilization.
I'm a big concerned now. The Panasonic charge to my Amex was pending. After a few days of pending, I guess unsubstantiated charges drop off. So it's no longer on my card. And the eBates 15% ended. Fingers crossed that I don't get screwed on that fantastic discount. Still shocked that Panasonic wouldn't have stock of their own product sooner than Best Buy.
Hi again! Been really busy but wanted to add in a few more thoughts now that we've had more experience with the camera.
Overall, we had a much easier time working with the new Panasonic versus our Sony RX100IV. The Sony definitely "feels" faster in terms of focus, although the Panasonic focused on what we needed to in a reasonable amount of time (to us, anyway!) We still haven't wrapped out heads around all the different options - we left the camera on AF-F with Face Detection and it did a pretty good job in the situations we used it for - standing in front of the camera just talking like normal and recording gameplay footage in a dimly-lit arcade. We used both the 12-32 kit lens and the 12-35 f2.8 lens and both focused pretty well in video mode (but not lightning quick like the RX100IV can do)
We don't have a ton of movement in our videos, so we haven't really tested the AF-C capabilities fully yet. Right now I would say if AF-C is your priority, then something the RX100 (or even better, the A6300) would be a better choice. But for us, the image stabilization was way more important, so we're totally happy with the GX85. By now I'm sure much more thorough reviews have been posted, but we're glad we could provide even a little insight into the camera's abilities!
Glad you're mostly happy with it. Looks like a terrific camera. Like all cameras, there are some compromises. Your criticisms are valid but I think they largely reflect the fact that it's a lower tiered camera than the GX8, and to some extent it might be for product differentiation. I kind of suspect the GH5 is going to be one heck of a camera based on what Panasonic is putting in the GX8 and GX80/85.
Hey Julius, thanks again for your thoughtful post.
However, and as I indicated before on this very same thread, this post: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4003863 is very "revealing", to me, showing that this camera is nowhere near close what I´d consider to be a good AF in movie mode, at least for my taste. I´d be willing to bet the RX100 IV would´ve performed much better in any of the videos shown.
More power to you if it suits your needs, though. Enjoy the camera!
However, and as I indicated before on this very same thread, this post: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4003863 is very "revealing", to me, showing that this camera is nowhere near close what I´d consider to be a good AF in movie mode, at least for my taste. I´d be willing to bet the RX100 IV would´ve performed much better in any of the videos shown.
More power to you if it suits your needs, though. Enjoy the camera!
No problem, I hope that you are happy with whatever camera you end up with!
It is fortunate that there are users like myself who could care less if video is included in a body or not. If I want video, I will get a video camera. In the meantime, still shots with lots of detail are the target.
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