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)

5.0 out of 5 stars

By Mittentastic - Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2016

4K IBIS! No 29 min limit! Hooray!

Let's start by talking about 4K. The GX85 shoots 4K at 100 Mb/s, the as GH4. The GX85 will shoot 4K as long as your battery and storage allow. For me, my 64GB filled up after 1 hr 29 min, but hey, the camera filled that card up, no questions asked (battery held up, almost). If you want to shoot video in 1080P or lower, shoot in AVCHD and you will have unlimited recording time. You can officially retire that camcorder for good. In my opinion, this camera is better than the GH4 for video. Even though the GH4 has more bitrates for 720P/1080P and some flat profiles, the fact is that the GX85 and GH4 have identical best image quality, but your handheld footage on the GX85 will look much better than on the GH4 because of its excellent IBIS. After repeated claims that IBIS is impossible in 4K because of overheating, two years later, Panasonic somehow combine IBIS and 4K in a tiny body that can continuously shoot an hour and a half without any signs of overheating. Heh. Good one, Panasonic. If you want to bypass internal codecs, you're in luck because this camera also has clean HDMI out for external recorders. In short, while the GH4 still has some "pro" features some "pros" might want, in practice, the GX85 is every bit the video shooter that the GH4 is, at basically half the price and with IBIS! Chew on that! Anyway, many of the other reviews cover what I would have covered anyway, which is that this is a beautiful camera that is a superb stills shooter, but I just wanted to address the video issue, too, since a lot of these points were not made in the press releases (probably to protect the GH4's reputation as a high end video shooter). Despite all this talk of video, I'm mainly a still shooter. Ever since receiving my GX85, I find that I simply cannot put it down. This is a gorgeous little camera. I initially started using MFT because of its balance of size and quality, but over time, I had been trending toward bigger cameras because they had the best features. However, a weird thing happened. I took my camera out less and less. When I got the GH4 to be the camera to end it all, I pretty much stopped taking my camera to social events completely because the GH4 just felt too formal. But ever since I received my GX85, I want this camera around me all the time! I love shooting pictures again. The image quality on this camera is easily the best I've ever seen in any Panasonic camera I've tried yet. There is no shutter shock. Thanks to the lack of an AA filter, improve shutter, and IBIS, I find that pictures are sharp to the last pixel! There is no softness whatsoever. Are there downsides? Yeah, small ones, but it seems like almost every downside has an upside. For instance, I prefer charging in an external charger so I can be charging a battery while using another one, but in-camera USB charging has a huge upside for keeping my camera bag light! I must say, though, the port cover for the HDMI/USB is kind of annoying to open, but hey, I'll get used to it. The tilt screen is a bit stiff and doesn't have huge freedom of movement, but on the other hand, it's super low profile and functional enough. Blah blah, I could go on and on, but a lot of people consider the GF1 to be the best MFT camera that Panasonic has ever made. To me, this camera, the GX85, is their best camera since the GF1. It's a camera that combines usability, stylish looks, superb stills performance, and 4K prowess. And it even comes with a pretty good kit zoom lens. It is excellent bang for the buck. As an aside, I feel bad for GX8 buyers. I wonder how many of them feel a bit bitter about the improved shutter and IBIS on the GX85, which is considerably cheaper than the GX8 ever was.

1.0 out of 5 stars

By Tyler J. - Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2018

Better photos with a 200 dollar Canon....

Very disappointed with this camera. I can take better shots with my 10 year old, $200 Canon. Here are the deal breakers for me: - Auto focus is GARBAGE - Battery life is abysmal (holds a charge for maybe an hour?) - Wifi capabilities are also GARBAGE (can't connect to anything) - Ergonomics are terrible. You basically end up holding this thing by the lens 90% of the time. I had high hopes but I'm sticking with Canon. If you've read about how this doesn't have AA and produces sharp photos think again. Don't expect the results you'd get from a full frame camera. Do yourself a favor and spend an extra 200 bucks and get a full frame. Also, for anyone who is still going to buy this camera, mine was an open box item but sold as new. The hot shoe connector was scuffed, the plastic baggies were clearly re-taped together and the lcd screen smelled of some kind of scented hand sanitizer... just be extra careful of this. Hope I save some folks the heartache.

4.0 out of 5 stars

By Chifan - Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2016

Great IBIS and Lots of feature in a small package... with a few flaws mainly the Tiny Electronic Viewfinder

First, I am a proud owner & professional Videographer who uses Panasonic gear as my primary tool for VIDEO imaging purposes (for pro photo, I have to use Canon alas - wish it was different.. though for everyday photo the GX85 is perfectly fine). I have owned pretty much all flavors of Lumix cameras from GH1, GH2, G6, G7, GH3, GH4 to the GX85. I was excited about the GX85 as a small camera tool to shoot videos on the go for my events without having to use extra gear (gorilla pod, etc) to film detail & movement shots quickly using the new 5-axis IBIS on the GX85 that no other Panasonic camera has. I was very intrigued and positively influenced by reviewers online to purchase this item for my work. After two events covered (full day weddings), I have to say that there is a lot to like about the GX85 and a few very annoying things to dislike as others have said. Panasonic tends to create many different variations of a camera these days with several big flaws in each so you have to buy them all it seems... The Cons: - The TINY electronic viewfinder is going to be the worse part of this camera. You can barely squeeze your eye into it and accurately use it when you shoot. I don't have big eyes either... After about 5-10mins of usage, my eyes hurt a lot because of the squinting I have to make when shooting with that EVF... And I've never had any issues with other Lumix cameras which I've used for hours non-stop, except the LX100 which I've borrowed in the past and is similarly flawed. I wished they had kept the GX7 type of eyepiece for the viewfinder for this supposedly GX7 mark II update that is the GX85. The resolution isn't bad, and I am not too worried about the ghosting / refresh rate if I can barely get my eyes to see through that EVF viewfinder which also lacks tilting compared to the GX7. - The battery life is not very good either... With the panasonic OEM battery, you can maybe squeeze 1h15min to 1h30 of recording because you have to rely heavily on the LCD display instead of the EVF... With non-Panasonic batteries, you get about the same depending on which one you buy, but you lose the knowledge of knowing exactly when the battery dies as these cheap batteries will display 2-bars and go suddenly to die after about 1h or 1h30 of usage. - LCD display lacks degree of movement... It can only tilt a little bit down or a little up to about 30 degrees... So it's useless for selfies or filming with LCD display flipped open like on a GX8, G7 or GH3/4 - Lack of Microphone jack... The audio isn't bad but not nearly as good as a standalone shotgun mic... Plus you get the extra vibration sound from IBIS which can be annoying - SD card slot under the camera next to battery slot... Makes it hard to change cards when mounted on a tripod... - Lack of quick manual AF-S/AF-C/MF switching mechanism like on GX7 or GX8... You can program one of the FN button but it still prevents you from switching from AF to MF when you are recording... which is so crippling as often times you just want to switch on the fly between the AF-C and MF without having to stop recording video. The Pros: - 5-axis Stabilizer IBIS... Used in conjunction with the Panasonic lenses which have IS on lens... this makes it a very good camera for shooting video & stills without too much blur or shake... The videos are not smooth like when you use a gimball... but it definitely helps big time. I'd say it's on par with the Olympus IBIS such as that on EM5-Mark II... There are definitely some artifacts though still like jerk in motion... The supplied tiny 12-32mm lens (equivalent of 24 - 64mm Full frame) seems to do a very good job though working with the GX85 on camera IBIS to remove as much shake as possible. It's not perfect though and you will always get better movement shots with a gimbal or stabilizer. But on the go, it does a very good job filming with little shake when you don't have a tripod with you. It's not perfect though and does create some minimal vibration sound/feel to the body. - 4K and different 1080p video flavors. That's Panasonic's strength... Though it lacks in terms of higher bit rate that you can find on GH4 or GH3. Still the videos are good on this tiny camera - Lightweight / Can be carried in many places without being obtrusive. It's not tiny but small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. The benefits of Micro 4/3... - Low light seems to be better than the GH4 or G7. The improved engine seems to give pretty good results even at ISO 3200 for video & photos. I'm glad it improved... Now let's hope we can actually shoot photos at ISO 6400... It's still not there for ISO higher than 3200... An improvement nevertheless compared to past recent LUMIX iterations. Overall... This is a very good addition to the LUMIX lineup mostly because of the 5-axis In-Body Image Stabilizer Panasonic has finally been able to implement... You only wish Panasonic would actually create a camera that has all of its best features instead of always crippling each new addition with flaws that didn't have to be there... But it's their game these days... Let's hope the GH5 includes the IBIS on the GX85 which is a given, with improved clean & usable ISO6400 video & photo in low light, and I can happily get rid of all my Canon gear for both Photo & Video...