Was gonna buy a G9 but just saw a used G85 in a camera shop for $280 bucks. What to do?

Emsquared wrote:

I don't print big and the main reason I wanted G9 was dual IS2 and nice viewfinder. Both of which G85 has. Image quality from my beloved GX7 are good enough, except for unfocused mf shots due to crappy viewfinder and possibly shutter shock (I have 2 of the infamous lenses for that). Rolling shutter in silent mode plus field sequential display is queezy-making on GX7.

I'd feel bad if I missed out on the $1000 deal on G9 which might represent the pinnacle of value for M43 though.

What to do?

When i was planning my G9 purchase last year i had looked at quite a few bodies, including the G85. It's inferior in a whole lot of ways to the G9, those differences are what you need to look at here. The G9 has a higher burst rate, faster sensor readout (less rolling shutter), much bigger EVF than the G85, higher rated IBIS, super rez mode, and the best CAF Panasonic offers in MFT.

The G9 also has a really neat video IBIS feature called IS Lock which gives you tripod like IS for stationary shooting, which can be toggled on/off with a single button press (no menus needed). Way more buttons and customization, a full auto ISO system with SS minimums, and the slew of things added in FW2.0 like highlight metering and animal AF. Add in in-camera 10 bit HDR 4k video and the G85 isn't even close to the same league as the G9.

Now whether you need all those features instead of the cash you would save, that's up to you.