Panasonic LUMIX GX85 4K Digital Camera, 12-32mm and 45-150mm Lens Bundle, 16 Megapixel Mirrorless Camera Kit, 5 Axis In-Body Dual Image Stabilization, 3-Inch Tilt and Touch LCD, DMC-GX85WK (Black)

This review isn't about the technical aspects of the camera. This review is tailored towards the consumer who wants a small, compact and capable mirrorless camera that they could take everywhere with them. This review if for:- Someone who understands the importance of some really good food pics- Likes adventure and looking back at it through pics and videos- Explores around town and takes photos along the way- Has cute pets and likes cute pet pics- Has an eye for design and wants photos of cool spaces- Wants to travel light but not miss a photo momentBasically this is a review for the photographer/social media influencer/enthusiast who believes the best camera is the one they have on them.Just a couple housekeeping notes:* Before I continue, I have to put out a disclaimer and say that I was chosen as part of Panasonic and Lumix USA’s campaign (#PanasonicAdvocate) to test this camera out and share my experiences with an unbiased and honest review. And that is exactly what I’m going to do as these opinions are my own and I have literally been using this camera almost every day for over a month.** All images posted to this review are taken with the kit lens.I started out my mirrorless journey with the Panasonic GF1. It was a pioneer amongst the mirrorless cameras and to this day remains one of my favorite cameras to have used. Since then, I’ve owned mirrorless cameras from Olympus, Fujifilm and now Sony so it’s kind of cool how this all came full circle when Panasonic approached me with the gx85.DISLIKESLet’s get the things I dislike out of the way because they’re not a deal breaker for me, they’re simply just things I think can be improved upon. While I appreciate and have grown to love the tilt screen, I wish this camera flipped all the way up for selfies and group shots. Selfies aside, when I’m traveling, this is super useful trying for getting quick self-portraits.This is also my first touch screen for a camera. While I love the option to quickly change my focal points with a touch of the screen, I find that when I put the camera up to my eye to compose a shot through the EVF, the touch focus point is so sensitive that it moves around like crazy.The camera is also a bit heavy for it’s size. I read that people complained that it’s predecessor seemed dinky in the hands and while they improved that with the gx85 feeling robust, in my opinion, it’s a touch too heavy for such a compact m43 camera.On that same note, because the added weight is attributed to making the camera feel more robust, they really should have made this weather proof. It would cancel out any negative feelings one has towards this camera being slightly heavy for a small compact.High ISO = mehhh photo quality. There’s not much to this point other then when you have a small sensor and you’re pushing it’s ISO, images tend to smudge up, noise builds and the clarity becomes lost. It’s not horrible by any means and they’ve come such a long way since the first m43 cameras, but larger sensor cameras will always have the edge when it comes to high ISO.LIKESIt’s so cute/cool. Yea I said it. Whatever lol. I’m big on how cameras look these days. I think the aesthetic of ones tools are a direct representation of ones style. For me, I love when cameras can embody a retro rangefinder look while still infusing some modern design elements without looking like the two are fighting against each other. When I think of retro and modern design friction, I think of some of the Olympus bodies. When I think of the perfect blend of retro and modern, I think of the Leica Q.The buttons and dials are all fantastic. So much so I rarely use any of the touch screen buttons to navigate around for settings and the camera interface and menus.The build quality is first rate. I know I said earlier it was a tad bit too heavy and while I stick with that statement, it really does feel good in the hands regardless.Start up time is instant. Something Sony really needs to take note on.I love the kit lens. It’s so small but provides a good range and the quality is really good for what it is. It’s also built well for a kit lens so the overall vibe of this combo still feels like a premium product.The image stabilization on this thing is BANANAS. My Sony A7RII also has 5-axis image stabilization, but the gx85 also takes advantage of lens I.S. created a Dual I.S. system. Video clips feel like they’re taken with a gimbal (super amateur clips btw).I’ll never buy a camera without Wi-Fi. Many times, I like to post photos instantly, especially when I’m traveling. The Wi-Fi on the gx85 works great with the app and transfers images relatively fast. I’ve yet to loose connection while transferring photos.And like many current mirrorless cameras, the autofocus is lightning fast.OVERALL IMPRESSIONSJust like with every other mirrorless camera out there, there are still some short comings. Most of which I didn’t feel the need to mention because we’ve heard it time and time before. The most notable for me being battery life. It makes sense though when you have a small battery trying to give life to an almost all electronic device (LCD, EVF, shutter, etc.).With those little gripes aside, I still do believe mirrorless is the future and this camera is just part of that journey.The Panasonic gx85 is a great, be-with-you-at-all-times camera. As you can see by the photos I’ve posted, that’s exactly what happened. The gx85 was with me at all times. It came with me to dinner, it came exploring in my Jeep and it came with me to hang out with some friends.Will I be using it for paid work? No, but that’s because I have my Sony line of cameras to do that for me. Is it capable for paid work? Absolutely! Just ask any of the social influencers making a killing per post with an iPhone.

I’ve been using a cellphone camera as my primary camera for a few years now and decided it was time to move up to a “real” camera. After successive purchases of two other models that both had defects out of the box and simply weren’t compelling enough to get a replacement of the model, I ended up with this camera. After having it for a few months I can definitely say I’m glad I got the Panasonic LUMIX GX85.The first thing I really liked was the size of the camera. I have rather small hands for a male and the size of the camera is just right for me, being just large enough to have a solid grip on the camera while being small enough to carry around easily. The size of the camera and layout of the controls means it’s easy for me to access all the controls.What impressed me after just a few days of use is the interface and menu system of the camera. I’m already very used to touchscreen camera controls from using smartphones and Panasonic did a really good job with the interface on the touchscreen display. It can be as simple or as busy as you wish it to be and works intuitively. I use the touchscreen display as my primary viewfinder, just like on a smartphone, and I simply find myself really enjoying using it.As for image quality, I currently have a iPhone 7 Plus and the GX85 is leagues better, at least in RAW. The iPhone is a great snapshot camera to always have with you but trying to use it more “seriously” (if vacation photos count as serious) leads to disappointment. The GX85 can take photos with far superior detail and vastly superior dynamic range compared to the iPhone. That means being able to capture things a bit more like you see them and having more headroom to play around with in your photos in applications like Adobe Lightroom. I’ve been very happy with the photos I’ve been able to get from this camera.I tend to mostly capture photos of still scenes and the focusing system in AF-S mode works very well for that. I have attempted a few times to get shots of birds using AF-C mode and have actually gotten a few good shots despite my inexperience with this (or any) camera’s focusing system. The mechanical shutter has a surprisingly soft sound, being loud enough to where you can be sure the shutter really did fire but not so loud, or sharp, that it gets annoying. The image stabilization is excellent and even my shaky hands can reliably get shots at 1/8 of a second and with a bit more effort in steadying myself, 1/4 of a second.Battery life is pretty good on this camera and I can generally get a few hundred shots from it before needing to charge it. It charges through micro USB which is extremely handy, though it cannot charge the battery while the camera is powered on nor can it be powered by micro USB alone. Still, being able to use a portable battery pack to recharge camera is very useful. The included lense is very compact and has good image quality which helps make this a good travel camera. The build quality of this all-plastic camera is excellent and it has a hefty, reassuring weight.The JPEG engine on it is good enough but doesn’t quite match up to smartphones like the iPhone 7 Plus. The biggest issue is that it has a tendency to randomly pepper solid-yellow surfaces with noticeable green dots, a rather bizarre effect. Again, it’s not a bad JPEG engine and most people will be quite happy JPEGs straight out of the camera, but I’ve been spoiled by how well smartphones with their extra processing power can do and I also intended to use RAW and process them in Lightroom later anyway.There are some other downsides I’ve noticed. The electronic viewfinder is not very great to me, with it being rather blurry in parts no matter how I adjust the diopter, the image being a little small, and the field sequential image simply being a little unpleasant to look at. I should emphasize that this is quite personal and you may be absolutely fine with it, and also that I almost never use the viewfinder anyway so having it at all is more of a bonus feature to me. The included lense has a rather limited zoom range of 12-32mm and there is noticable barrel distortion at the widest end (12mm) that disappears at 14mm. The relatively narrow maximum aperture of the lense means low-light image quality may not be as dramatic of an upgrade from a recent high-end smartphone as might be hoped. The smartphone app’s location tracking is unreliable and I’d recommend using something like the GPS Tracks app (on iOS) to log your location and then use Lightroom to add the locations to your photos later.I’m not much on taking video and I can’t comment much on that part of the GX85.There’s really lots more I can say about this camera but this review is probably too long already. This has been an excellent upgrade from my smartphone camera that carries over the intuitiveness of smartphone camera apps and combines that with something with far better image quality and control. It’s just the right size and is so enjoyable to use that I actually do take it with me when I can. Simply put, I’m very glad I got the Panasonic LUMIX GX85 and enthusiastically recommend it.