Panasonic G80/85 for events

pannumon wrote:

First, I think G80/85 makes a perfect sense! With that price, it's the best value for money there is.

Jacques Cornell wrote:

y decisive factor in choosing GX8 over G85 was the buttons. They're raised and easy to find by touch. The G85's buttons are smaller and flush. I keep my eye to the EVF when making adjustments, so this is critical.

Overall, for the most of the people, G85 handling is supposedly superior at least to GX85, but also G8. I have G7 that is basically the older version of the G85. I don't find the 'flush' buttons annoying, but I don't know better. Many people seem to think it is some kind of an issue though, and sugru seems to be a decent solution for it.

Let's put it this way: as long as I can set the exposure parameters without looking the buttons, and as long as I don't need to use the menu system in the shooting/capture phase*, I'm happy.

Also I don't want to go to the actual menu system in the preparation phase*. I use a custom Q.Menu for setting those.

I have lost my nerve with some of the smaller Panasonic bodies because the lack of dedicated buttons, although I find my old GF1 totally adequate (this camera has the shooting mode lever, meaning that I can use the down button on the touch pad to select the metering mode).

*Unless these terms are widely explained, they are explained here (this is also a great resource of camera ergonomics): http://cameraergonomics.blogspot.com/2012/03/setup-prepare-capture-and-review-phases.html

I couldn't find the G85's buttons by touch, so I had to take my eye from the viewfinder and look at the back of the camera. For me, that is a "fail". For casual or more slow-paced shooters, this might not matter. But, as an event shooter, I have to work fast and in the dark, which makes finding buttons by touch essential.