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Panasonic Lumix GX80/GX85 settings

dirk

dirk

DPRF-Founder
Administrator
I added recently the Panasonic Lumix GX80 (GX85 in the US) to my photo arsenal. As always, you have to get used to each camera, before ypi can maximize the potential of it.

The problem with mirrorless cameras is nowadays the overwhelming options you have in the menu settings. Fortunately Panasonic is a lot better in structuring the options than Olympus. I would say Panasonic is very close to the way how Nikon is offering its menu settings. You find quite fast the option you are looking for. But nevertheless sometimes it is not that obvious what is meant with this or that setting.

Maybe some of you also have their preferred settings they want to share here with other MFT users.

Feel free to post it here for your GX80/GX85
 
First - as with every brand - you should check whether you have the latest firmware installed with your body and your lenses. As of August 2017, this is FW version 1.2 with the Lumix GX80/GX85.

You will find an overview of the current FW available for Panasonic cameras and Lumix lenses and for Olympus lenses on Banansonic cameras here:

http://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/dsc/download/fts/index2.html?=

If you do not update regularly your firmware, you might miss Dual IS on some bodies or with some lenses etc.


http://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/dsc/download/fts/index2.html?=
 
There are settings I misunderstood and made therefore mistakes in the settings. The consequence was that specific features did not work at all and I did not know why at that time. This is why I started this thread, so others learn from my mistakes. I will not go through each setting. Only the 2-3 most important ones for me, which are not self explanatory.

1. Sound

The first setting I always change with my cameras is the sound. I do not like sound. I want to be stealthy while I take pictures. And here is the problem. With the GX80/GX85, there are 2 different possibilities to turn off the sound. even worse. both options are in two different setting-groups. So if you do not know that there are two different ones, you make mistakes :(

A. Go to "Custom settings". There is the so called "silent mode", which you always find first. Unfortunately. Because if you turn on this silent mode to "on", you will not hear a sound anymore, but at the same time, you will not have anymore the mechanical shutter available. And this is for my kind of photography very bad. I absolutely want to use mechanical shutter as much as I can. So do not use this setting to turn off sound!

web-6996.jpg
  • Canon - Canon IXUS 300 HS
  • 4.9-18.6 mm
  • 4.9 mm
  • ƒ/2
  • 1/30 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200




B. Use the other option instead. Go to "set up" and there to the setting called "Beep". Within that option there are 3 different settings available. I always turn off the first two, the third I leave it to "1" to have an alert, if the ES is used.

web-6997.jpg
  • Canon - Canon IXUS 300 HS
  • 4.9-18.6 mm
  • 4.9 mm
  • ƒ/2
  • 1/30 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200
 
2. Touch Screen

There is another setting which drives me regularly crazy with cameras. The touch screen. I mean I love touch screens. They make many changes so easy and quick. But this is at the same time also the disadvantage. Because sometimes you change seetings via the touch screen without realizing it. Just by lifting the camera to your eye and you face is touching somethingon the screen. Boom... suddenly something works in a weired way and you do not know why...

Fortunately Panasonic has a very clever and sophisticated way in the settings to adjust the touch screen functionality to your invididual liking. This is a life saver!

You find these options in the "Costum Setup" group under "Touch Settings"

web-6998.jpg
  • Canon - Canon IXUS 300 HS
  • 4.9-18.6 mm
  • 4.9 mm
  • ƒ/2
  • 1/30 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 250



I use the following settings, to be able to change the AF point with the touchscreen...

web-6999.jpg
  • Canon - Canon IXUS 300 HS
  • 4.9-18.6 mm
  • 4.9 mm
  • ƒ/2
  • 1/30 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 320




but apart of that the touch screens is disabled.

Only if I press the Q-menu button (labled Fn2/waste paper bin), I can select the options on the screen with my fingers. If you want to disable that too, simply set in the first line (see image above) "Touch Screen" to "off".
 
3. Automatic "improvements" while taking pictures

Many camera-brands offer nowadays in their different models options in the settings to improve the image qualilty of the photo. Same goes for the Panasonic GX80/GX85.

I am not a fan of these "improvements" (I am not talking about film simulations here). In most cases it does not improve anything, it makes image quality worse. If you know how to shoot then shoot in RAW and make adjustments later for yourself. So I disable the option "iDynamic" and "iResolution". It is for jpegs ooc anyway and if you shoot RAW, it is always better to do it yourself afterwards in postprocessing.

web-7001.jpg
  • Canon - Canon IXUS 300 HS
  • 4.9-18.6 mm
  • 4.9 mm
  • ƒ/2
  • 1/30 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 320


iResolution is a kind of selective sharpening, iDynamic is more complex. The processor is applying a lower contrast tone curve after sensor capture. The tone curve is applied to JPEG only. But there are discussions on the net that this could also effect the RAW images. I have not tried it yet.

Whoever wants to test iDynamic, go ahead and report here back.
 
4. Shutter type

The Panasonic Lumix GX80/GX85 has 3 different settings for the shutter type available.

web-7000.jpg
  • Canon - Canon IXUS 300 HS
  • 4.9-18.6 mm
  • 4.9 mm
  • ƒ/2
  • 1/30 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 320



Here are the explanations in the official GX80 manual:

Screenshot_20170831-164049.png

Screenshot_20170831-164038.png



You want to avoid the rolling shutter effect. Although this is less of an issue with the GX80/GX85 compared i.e. to the Panasonic Lumix GM5 or older models.

Therefore I use mechanical shutter ("MSHTR") as often as possible (attention: check also sound options in the settings above posting #3 click here). Since the GX80 has a mechanical shutterspeed up to 1/4.000s, this should cause almost no limitations.

The electronic shutter of the GX80 ("ESHTR") goes up to 1/16.000, if needed.

I did not check yet the setting "Auto". Looking at the explanation in the manual, it sounds promising, but I prefer to keep control when the camera is using which shutter type. I do not know how I can control that in the Auto setting while shooting.
 
Last edited:
5. Focus Stacking

Originally, the GX80/GX85 had only the so called "Post Focus" feature. You make a series of photos (around 30 frames within 2 seconds) and you can then select afterwards the focus point. This is showsn in a couple of videoas of Panasonic canada. Look here in the forum for these videos.

Later Panasonic released a firmware update (FW1.1) which brought a new feature to the GX80/GX85. It is called "Focus Stacking", which is different to "Post Focus"

Since it is really nice new feature, especially for Macrowork, and it is not in the official documents because it did not exist in the FW version 1.0, I want to mention it here. Make sure that you have the newest firmware installed on your camera.

1. You switch the setting "Post Focus" (MP4 format) to "ON". It only works with this setting activated.

web-7001.jpg
  • Canon - Canon IXUS 300 HS
  • 4.9-18.6 mm
  • 4.9 mm
  • ƒ/2
  • 1/30 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 320



2. Now you press the shutter and the camera starts recording a video with around 30 fps. During this time tha AF goes from the background to the foreground and "checks" all parts of the subject within the frame. After that there is from every element within the frame at least one sharp picture.

3. This is all a MP4 video of which you can then export a 8MP Jpeg at your taste. Switch to playback mode. Now you see your images. Press the icon on the touchscren on the upper left hand corner.

GX80_Focus-Stacking_1.jpg




4. Now click on the "Fn3" button on your camera or on the touchscreen.


5. You can now either "Auto Merge" alle images or select specific images by clicking on "Range Merging"


6. Click on "Yes". Now the camera merges the images. You get the "please wait" mesage while it is doing that.

After it is finished you can see that everything is in focus from foreground to background.
 
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