Panasonic G80/85 for events

goncalomp wrote:

Background: I shoot events with two GX8s and a GX85, and I've lately considered adding a D750 or even a7RIII with f1.4 or f1.8 primes.

The D750 is still a great camera. My partner in event photography shoots with one, and I've lately been considering adding one to my kit with some bright primes just for the extra light gathering when shooting in low light without flash. With f1.8 primes, it offers 2 stops lower noise than my GX8 + f1.8 prime and 1 stop more than I'd get with my GX8 + f1.2 prime. Mount an f1.4 prime on the D750 and you have a low-ambient-light beast.

That said, after a couple months of research and dithering, I'm going to stick with MFT. My event work is almost never printed big (it all goes online), so my GX8's 20MP and my GX85's 16MP is plenty. I can almost always keep ISO at or below 3200, which is a usable ISO for me with these cameras. And, the TT350's TTL works really well for me at close range. As for the 75/1.8, to get equivalent reach on the Nikon, I'd need a 70-200/2.8, and that costs $2k and gets me just 2/3 of a stop more light - hardly worth the expense and bulk.

What really made up my mind about getting some f1.2 MFT primes instead of a D750 with f1.8 primes, though, is a workflow test I ran last night. I downloaded DPR's Studio Test shots (daylight and tungsten light) for the D750 and the GX8 and ran them through my preferred RAW processor, DxO PhotoLab 2. Figuring a worst-case scenario where I'd shoot with an f1.2 MFT prime or an f1.8 Nikon prime, I compared ISO 6400 NEFs with ISO 3200 RW2s. After Lens Sharpness squeezed out every last bit of available detail and PRIME noise reduction worked its magic, both sets of images looked very clean and detailed. The D750 better resolved some of the very smallest details, such as the lines on the wall of the B&W etching, but I really had to look closely at 1:1 on my 4K display to see the differences.

The upshot is that my GAS-attack musings about adding 35mm format to my kit have subsided, and I'm going to get some premium MFT primes instead. Part of it is money, part of it is simplicity, part of it is the smaller-than-anticipated difference in real-world results (for my purposes under my shooting conditions), and part of it is I just really like shooting with my GX85 and two GX8s. I've got a system I like that works, and a couple of brighter lenses will get me where I'm trying to go. Nocticron, here I come!

I think you made a good decision. For what it is worth I use nikons 1.8 primes, and almost never use the 1.8 aperture, it just misses the focus to much and sometimes the focus is so narrow it is really hard to really nail it. So I stick to 2.8, 2.2 when I am feeling wild. 1.8 when the subject is static and I have time to take multiple shots.

My partner loves shooting his new Nikon 105/1.4 wide open on his D750. He hasn't said anything about focus issues.

But! To be honest, the FF look is a hell of a look, I really love it.

Are you gonna go with the olympus 1.2 primes?

I will check out the software you mentioned that reduces noise, thanks.

What about color correcting two diferent bodies? Are the files produced by the GX85 and GX8 the same? Do they share the same colores etc?

I haven't tested this critically, but yeah, my GX8 and GX85 seem to have similar color after I run the RAWs through DxO PhotoLab 2.

As for the rest, I suffered another case of GAS. I just couldn't bring myself to spend almost $3k for a 12/1.4, 17/1.2 and 42.5/1.2 just to get one more stop. Found a good price ($1300) on a barely used a7R II and ordered a Rokinon 35/1.4 and Sony 85/1.8 to go with it for a total of $2400. This gets me two full stops. 42MP for my non-event work (landscapes) is icing on the cake. I sure wish there were similarly affordable 24/1.8 and 35/1.8 options. The Rokinon is a hell of a lens for just $500, but it's way bigger than I'd prefer. The issue for me isn't noise, since PhotoLab's PRIME noise reduction makes it a non-issue even with the GX8 at ISO 6400. The issue is loss of detail. At ISO 6400, my GX8 files are right at the edge of what I'm comfortable delivering to my client, even though they look OK and are more than big & clean enough for use online. With the a7R II I can push to ISO 25600 and get the same quality. And, with f1.4 & f1.8 primes, I'm not giving up anything on aperture, so I get the full two stops. This will be useful for no-flash low-light shots of audiences reacting to presentations (with the 35/1.4) and no-flash unwitting candids during low-light cocktail hour sessions (85/1.8).

I'll be shooting the Sony alongside my two GX8s, the latter with f2.8 zooms mounted for flash shots. I'll stick with the 7-14/4 on a GX8 for venue shots. This might do the trick.