GM5 Nut case

[Tom Caldwell]

Hi again,

Well, looks like I'm now a member of the GM5 Nut Case Club....and GM1 club too....

Managed to get them both in excellent condition....and successfully converted them to English from Japanese.

Fun little cameras that take great pics....

Will definitely keep the GM5, not sure about GM1....

Anyone have any recommended settings for these little guys?

Thanks,

Mark

Welcome to the club Mark.

One of my reasonings for owning more that one GM body was that I could fit three GM5 cameras each with a lens in a shoulder bag. It made up a sort of 'mini-pro' kit with little baggage to carry. On a trip great versatility could be achieved with little sacrifice in image quality. Instead of trying to make do with one small camera and crippling it with the tiniest lens I could find I embraced the fact that it still needed a bag and that a shoulder bag was till within what I could comfortably carry.

I think that I should have the settings for the GM bodies worked out by now - but there are a lot of them. Each new GM5 had me replicating setup from and exiting one click by menu click and wishing that Panasonic had implemented an easy instant transfer of existing settings to a new body as Ricoh had already offered with its modular GXR camera body.

Ask away, but one important setting springs to mind - don't use the PIP (Picture in Picture?) patch magnified screen inside the full screen for magnified view - use Fullk Screen Magnification. The PIP insert is far too small to be useful. The Magnified Full Screen Image works well and is sharp as tack to maximum magnification.

When you lose magnified screen on soft press with eye to evf then a thumb dab anywhere on the lcd will re-magnify the image seen on the evf. Quite useful with MF lenses when swapping between composition and focus mode screens. But you can always click the rear wheel to go back into magnified mode as well.

These little things can actually be a delight to use once set up to personal preferences and have become familiar to use with some practice.

 

[Tom Caldwell]

The GM1 was and is a handy little quite powerful point and shoot and can also be used with a variety of lenses but unaided it wimps out on bright days. Furthermore those used to holding their miniature camera by each end of the camera body will soon find large lenses cumbersome. Furthermore there is not a lot of body to grip before the thumbs meet touch-lcd interface and touching the screen with careless thumbs can have unintended consequences. Not the camera's fault.

Many also had trouble with the rear wheel were over-zealous rotating can easily operate the underlying arrow key functions. I had a few Scottish curses that I had not previously known that I knew that came from 'that' wheel before I learned that it was very sensitive to input, and did not need thump-thumb contact and liked to be rotated in parallel to the back of the camera. Once I developed what I described as 'the lover's touch' for its operation I became almost a fan.

The GM5 by comparison is a 'proper camera' simply made small and somewhat bereft of 'user conveniences' but it does have all the necessary controls to operate as a full function camera. That touch-lcd is also a magic shared by all the modern Panasonic cameras that I know. It is not twee entry level icon but a serious tool which rewards intelligent use. The evf is adequate and works as is necessary. If this is not adequate then the user surely should not wish to use a camera body thus small.

The rear wheel was a rebound fit after complaints about the GM1 wheel - it is a as rugged in action as the GM1 wheel was touch sensitive, But I suspect thump-thumb is still very much alive as the principal flaw of the GM5 seems to be a dicky rear wheel - maybe from it being oft pressed 'CLICK' with some gusto?

The worst feature of the G100 is its grip - the rest of the G100 is pretty good in my opinion. I can put up with the grip at the price I bought mine. I will acknowledge that the GX9 is a better all round camera - but if I can afford both .... why not?

The grip on the G100 brings back the nightmare grip of the Sony Series One A7 with the shutter button on top with finger cccked to use it and the little 'pinkie' finger hanging uselessly off the bottom and the thumb struggling around the proper thumb rest as it tries to give the remaining two fingers on the front grip some assistance. The other issues of the A7R made the grip harder to forgive. But the G100 is so well sorted out otherwise that I forgive it its awkward grip.

A closer comparison between the GM1 rear wheel and the G100 version shows things that I had not understood completely about the GM1 version.

The G100 rear wheel works perfectly and need no mental adjustment to use ... why?

By comparison the GM1 wheel is slightly smaller in diameter and had a stiffer detent ratchet. This requires a more determined rotational action. Inviting more pressure from the thumb which in turn is more likely to invoke one of the direction arrow keys from that extra pressure.

I have always advocated the light touch and thumb rotation parallel to the back of the camera. This is good advice but comparing the wheels back to back I found that my light touch rotation also involved a slip over when the detent stopped the wheel turning. In other words my GM1 successful wheel turning action was a combination of light touch, parallel action to the rear of the camera body and some accepted slippage of the thumb over the wheel serrations. The end effect was a light pressure and rapid turning action accepting some slippage to avoid depressing the arrow kesy by accident. I admit that it is an acquired art but it works quite well once mastered.

There is no slippage or extra pressure necessary on the G100 body as the larger wheel also has softer detents making the action very smooth and easily to use.

I believe that the GF7-GX850 model used the same rear wheel and I note that this model did not seem to have any complaints about the action of its rear wheel either.

Comfort wise the only issue I have with the G100 is the grip - which is too short and I can see no easy way to correct this. Adding a grip extension would only make the quite compact little body lose its main attraction - that it is fairly compact.

As far as lack of IBIS is concerned - the G100 works just as well as the GM5 with image stabilised and fast lenses. Which is quite good really.

I have been experimenting with the Olympus 12-100/4.0 lens which is image stabilised. The G100 accepts this lens for its 5-way stabilised action in video. I don't do video so my aesthetic efforts at capturing are pretty terrible. But I have made a few clips and the combined lens-IS/digital stabilisation seems to work well. No apparent shake, jitter or other issues - just smooth zoom and movement transition. Hardly a real test as I am not experienced, but as far as I can see the G100 video stabilisation works quite well. No stabilisation for stills or even video with a not-stabilised lens.

 

[ArchiMark]

Thank you, Tom, for all your insights and info....as always, very helpful!

Understand your point about have having multiple GM bodies, each with a different lens.

And appreciate your tip about the GM1 wheel....will keep this in mind....

If you think of anything else regarding settings, etc, will be great to hear...

Best,

Mark

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Thank you, Tom, for all your insights and info....as always, very helpful!

Understand your point about have having multiple GM bodies, each with a different lens.

And appreciate your tip about the GM1 wheel....will keep this in mind....

If you think of anything else regarding settings, etc, will be great to hear...

Best,

Mark

Depending upon your style of use but the ability to change the point of focus on the lcd with your thumb in the relative movement set up could be handy. I don't use it but probably should. There are two settings - one where the full lcd is live for exact placement and the other just uses the lcd 'relatively' from the point of thumb contact. This is obviously a much easier solution if your eye is looking through the evf at the time. It is just an extension of the thumb-dab which if only a dab and not touch and drag only serves to magnify the lcd.

But there is a whole number of settings that can be helpful for personal preference ways of working - as with all Panasonic bodies there is a thread of menu adjustments that are very similar and this makes moving from one Panasonic camera body to another fairly easy.

 

[ArchiMark]

Thanks again, Tom, for your input and tips. This is all very helpful as I'm trying to shift from using digital cameras in auto mode to more manual approach.
Also, the GM cameras are my first MFT ILCs.....so, this is all a transition for me and lots of info to absorb and utilize.

Back in the mid-70s I did use a Pentax KX slr camera....and did my own prints in darkroom, so, I used to be a much more hands on type photographer....so, feels like I'm coming around full circle now....although these cameras have a lot more features, settings, and options, than my trusty ol' Pentax.....sometimes my heads spins from all the options, settings, menus, dials, buttons, etc...but I'll keep plugging away at it....and watching too many YT videos......

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Thanks again, Tom, for your input and tips. This is all very helpful as I'm trying to shift from using digital cameras in auto mode to more manual approach.
Also, the GM cameras are my first MFT ILCs.....so, this is all a transition for me and lots of info to absorb and utilize.

Back in the mid-70s I did use a Pentax KX slr camera....and did my own prints in darkroom, so, I used to be a much more hands on type photographer....so, feels like I'm coming around full circle now....although these cameras have a lot more features, settings, and options, than my trusty ol' Pentax.....sometimes my heads spins from all the options, settings, menus, dials, buttons, etc...but I'll keep plugging away at it....and watching too many YT videos......

Let me take you through my custom setting for a GM1.

Some of these are just personal-preference as I turn off all the helper screens as I have figured out what most functions do. Also I turn off beeps and auto playback.
Other 'don't really care' settings I will mark '*' as my choice but others may prefer something else. More or less all my Panasonic bodies have similar settings modified by their individual capabilities and features. Later models with evf have a setting to toggle between mono or colour capture mode view. I usually set this to a Fn close to the evf unit (Fn 2 'LVF' on the GM5) which is otherwise defaulted to otherwise switching between evf and lcd screens. This doe not change the colour of the captured image only switches the evf/lcd to mono view - which I sometimes like to use ...

I generally use 'A' mode on the unless another setting is dictated by necessity. I have not used 'P' mode for years.

You can use the touch screen in the menu intuitively: for example touching the up-down arrows move a menu page at a time.

Rec Menu
Photo Style = Natural* - I also set all noise reduction on 'styles' to minimum as I prefer detail to no noise.
Sensitivity (ISO) = Auto*
iDynamic & iResolution = Standard*
ISO Limit = 3200* but I don't always follow this myself
ISO Increase = 1/3*

Custom Menu
AFS
Pinpoint AF Time = Short
Pinpoint AF Display = Full (Essential in my opinion)
AF Assist = Off
AF+MF = On
MF Assist = Lens+Four-arrow Icon
MF Assist Display = Full
MF Guide = Off*
Peaking = On, Blue (Standard), and Low (easier to see)
Constant Preview = On
Dial Guide = Off*
Auto Review = Off*
Fn Button Set (user preference)
Video Button = Off*
Touch Settings = all On, AF+AE
Touch Scroll = L
Menu Guide = Off*
Shoot W/O lens = On (important if you use dumb lenses with not electronic contacts)

Setup Menu
Beep = Off*
Menu Resume = On (useful to return to last item accessed in every menu) This can act as a temporary extra Fn key!
Menu Information = Off*

There are many other settings to play with but most of them can be left as default.

I also have treated this as 'new to digital cameras'

 

[ArchiMark]

Excellent info, Tom, thanks so much for sharing your settings!

This is a great starting point for me....will try it and then if I feel it's needed, will make some adjustments from there.