In praise of the Panasonic GX7 and comments about the GX8

321estrellas wrote:

CBubolz343 wrote:

I'm currently considering getting this camera or the Sony A6000. Aside from the change in formats, is there any reason you'd prefer the GX7 to the A6000 or vise versa?

As a former owner of the A6000, I can chime in if you don't mind. I haven't owned the GX7 but I've had a couple m43 bodies and know enough about it.

If by change in format you mean m43 vs APS-C, then the other big reason to to consider the GX7 are the variety in lenses. Put the body aside and check out what lenses you'll want for the A6000. You'll see the selection is few. If you can get by with the 35mm f1.8 or 50mm f1.8 then you might be okay and still within budget, but the kit lens is fairly frowned upon. Or you get a good quality zoom like the Zeiss 16-70mm f4 (which some reviews say isn't much better than the kit lens) for the price of the A6000 + 2 lenses combined (might be exaggerating a tad). And then there's FE lenses which are crazy expensive...

Body functionality-wise, I think the GX7 and A6000 are almost similar. I'm sure the video quality is on par and the AF might be faster on the A6000 but not by much.

Thanks for your feedback!  Why did you move away from the A6000?

Im probably going to only be using the kit lense for now, and maybe one other depending on budget.  I've read good and bad review of the Sony kit lense and have come to the conclusion that at my level the biggest difference will be learning to get the most out of it.

CBubolz343 wrote:

321estrellas wrote:

CBubolz343 wrote:

I'm currently considering getting this camera or the Sony A6000. Aside from the change in formats, is there any reason you'd prefer the GX7 to the A6000 or vise versa?

As a former owner of the A6000, I can chime in if you don't mind. I haven't owned the GX7 but I've had a couple m43 bodies and know enough about it.

If by change in format you mean m43 vs APS-C, then the other big reason to to consider the GX7 are the variety in lenses. Put the body aside and check out what lenses you'll want for the A6000. You'll see the selection is few. If you can get by with the 35mm f1.8 or 50mm f1.8 then you might be okay and still within budget, but the kit lens is fairly frowned upon. Or you get a good quality zoom like the Zeiss 16-70mm f4 (which some reviews say isn't much better than the kit lens) for the price of the A6000 + 2 lenses combined (might be exaggerating a tad). And then there's FE lenses which are crazy expensive...

Body functionality-wise, I think the GX7 and A6000 are almost similar. I'm sure the video quality is on par and the AF might be faster on the A6000 but not by much.

Thanks for your feedback! Why did you move away from the A6000?

Im probably going to only be using the kit lense for now, and maybe one other depending on budget. I've read good and bad review of the Sony kit lense and have come to the conclusion that at my level the biggest difference will be learning to get the most out of it.

I moved away exactly for the reason I mentioned - the lenses. No zoom lenses are f2.8; they're variable aperture or f4. Their macro lens was a short 30mm (this was before the 90mm FE macro was out). There weren't many E-mount lenses I liked, and if I wanted to get into the FE line, the lenses got pretty big, kind of going against what I wanted the A6000 for (a smaller package). Lastly, everyone at the time (about a year ago) was saying that Sony was focusing more on the FE line and not on the E-mount line, and it looks like they were right!

Still, the A6000 is a great camera and pretty cheap used. They're supposed to announce an A7000 soon. Maybe wait for that - see if the A7000 might be a better buy, and if not, used A6000's will get even cheaper

CBubolz343 wrote:

I'm currently considering getting this camera or the Sony A6000. Aside from the change in formats, is there any reason you'd prefer the GX7 to the A6000 or vise versa?

I have owned the a6000 and, aside from the Sigma lens offerings (19 and 30 2.8), I do not like the costliness and general quality of the Sony Nex lens lineup. The ideal lens for me with the a6000 would be the Zeiss 24 1.8 but it is exceedingly expensive for my commitment to the system. So, I moved off the a6000.

The a6000 has, like the Nex-7(an old favorite of mine), superior dynamic range and overall image quality over the GX7. Now, I recall from past research, that the Olympus OM D E M5 and the E M1 and M5 II have great dynamic range that is similar, but I just don't see it with the Panasonic GX7. And I do miss the greater range and a bit less noise of the a6000 files as you move to up the ISO to 800ish. I enjoy bracketing my shots sometimes(examples below) and this helps achieve a bit more DR. I've found the GX7 is fast enough to handhold this task.

GX7 bracketed shot example 1

One more thing, the grip on the a6000 is even better than the GX7. They both have a lot of customization options though the GX7 has more.

I've been shooting with the GX7 for a few weeks and there's really a lot to like. I wish the grip were less rounded so I could handle better with a single hand, as I could the a6000 with a wrist strap.

GX7 bracketed shot example 2