Panasonic vs. Olympus bodies with a bagful of Panasonic lenses

Hen3ry wrote:

I've just been through all this stuff. To my surprise, I posted here asking for help and I got great advice. I didn't take all of it, of course, but I got some really good food for thought and I think I came out pretty well at the end.

It seems you do get that from time to time!

Let me say right at the start, you shouldn't have got the E-PM2, you should have gone for the E-PL3. I did, after an E-PM1. A superior camera in lots of ways.

I tried both but the price difference at the time helped with the 45mm f/1.8 purchase. The E-PL3 *is* however a superior camera.

BUT I moved on from that to Panasonic cameras when I reckoned Panasonic had got their JPEG color right -- I only use JPEG. I switched because of the handling and the menus.

I reckon Panasonic's ergonomics and UI leave Oly for dead -- although Oly is catching up in ergonomics, from what I see on this forum, but not yet UI.

I was brought up in an Olympus family so to speak - well, literally in fact, my grandad was into superzooms in the 80s and 90s and my dad took my baby pictures with a Trip 35 and an old Pen! Then I got the E-400 in 2007. You can say I'm a native Olympus speaker so the UI won't scare me away. $2000 price tag yes, but not the menus. Having said that, again you're right in that Panasonic's UI does seem to be much easier.

My choice now is the G85, just recently bought to replace a G6. I also have a GX7.

As I remarked in another post, I was disappointed Panny didn't put the 20 MPX sensor in this camera, but really, given the IQ I get out of it, it is more for boasting rights than for the reality of what I need. The 16 MPX tweaked as it is, is great.

Sadly, the G85 comes only in black. I would have preferred white (like my G6), or silver (like my GX7). But I am willing to wear the black for the camera's other virtues, the great shutter (nearly silent in EFC mode, lovely), weather proofing, Dual IS with OIS equipped Panasonic/Leica lenses, and seemingly endless capabilities. I regard it as the premier middle range camera of any format today (the E-M1 II and GH5 are the two top cameras, I believe, but I don't need what they do that is beyond the G85.)

Another commenter was a bit critical of my using camera body colour as a factor in this decision but what can I do? I just think silver's nicer and for the price yes I'd like to choose a nicer colour. I don't really like that dark grey on the G7 though.

Some will say I'm "comparing apples to oranges" with G85 vs. E-M1 mark II but the features you mention are similar between the two. It's the lens compatibility vs. sensor improvement thing that's bugging me. No so much in resolution as in noise, DR and PD autofocus.

There might be one other Panasonic you're not considering: the GX8. You can get that in silver, and it does have the 20 MPX sensor. I think it is weatherproofed too. You would have to look at the specs. People say it is big, but the fact is, that if you made up a box that would fit the body of, say, the E-M1 II, you would find that the GX8 fitted that box too. Much like my G6 pretty much fitted the same box as the E-PL3, when it was ready to work with a lens and the VF2 fitted.

The GX8 is a premier camera, but at a couple of years old, right now it is priced pretty similarly to the G85 and can be bought for even less used.

Ah yes, I looked into it. Not much of a fan of the form factor at this point though, and it seems the AA filter robs that 20MP sensor of its assumed quality edge over the 16MP sensor in the G8/80/85. Maybe it's superior in other parameters though. I'll have another look.

Thanks!