Panasonic GX7

[Vobluda]

I give it a try yesterday at the shop.
The camera is normaly available but I dont think that they will sell lot for the asking price (25990 CZK body only - ca 1350 USD / ca 1010 EUR.. also Czech customers are very conservative - if it is not Canon/Nikon DSLR than it just doesnt work with them).
I played with the silver version and it felt somehow plastic.
Focusing is almost instant.
I expected a bigger finder.
The main problem was the grip - too big for my average size hands so no space/very uncomfortable for my little finger.
Oly E-M1 is coming to town next week (39 990 CZK body only - more than 2000 USD.. ).
And Sony Alpha 3000 was also there but I didnt have time to play with it.

 

[Godfrey]

The Panasonic USA site is listing the GX7 ship date as October.

Pretty much the same for the Olympus E-M1.

Having fondled the E-M1 at the shop now, I think the GX7 is actually more comparable to the E-M5, and for some possibly a little more likable as it is simpler and easier to learn. It's just the timing that's going to put the GX7 head to head against the E-M1, which I feel is indeed a higher end camera.

The really hard part is that I now want both for their respective strengths. But it would make FAR more sense for me to acquire the E-P5 since I've already ordered the E-M1, and the E-P5 takes the same batteries, cables, viewfinder, etc, and has very similar control and menu structure.

One at a time... ;-)

G

 

[biomed]

Another update on the GX7

Another update on the GX7

I just spoke with the local store where I preordered the GX7. I need to send my GH3 out for warranty repair after the GX7 arrives. The latest ETA from Panasonic is sometime next week. It seem a lot of people in Europe and Asia have already received their orders. I always have my LX5 to use or better yet, dust off one of my film bodies.

Mike

 

[Taipei-metro]

I just spoke with the local store where I preordered the GX7. I need to send my GH3 out for warranty repair after the GX7 arrives. The latest ETA from Panasonic is sometime next week. It seem a lot of people in Europe and Asia have already received their orders. I always have my LX5 to use or better yet, dust off one of my film bodies.

Mike

Japan street date is 9-12-2013

 

[biomed]

I picked up my GX7 this morning. The stock arrived at Kenmore Camera late yesterday at the dealer. I opted to get the kit with the 24-42 instead of the body only. This will give me an extra lens for one of my older bodies that I am giving to my wife or one of our kids. I was on my way to the Museum of Flight when I was called by the store. It was just about 2 miles out of the way, but worth it. I took a few shots at the museum with the small charge on the battery. I am very pleased with the results. I have to wait until the weekend to get a copy of LR5 to process the RAW files. The JPEGS look pretty darn good. Headed to a couple of more aircraft museums tomorrow ( with a fully charged battery). I am in the process of installing a Gordy strap right now.

Mike

 

[kknox]

Congrats on the new GX7. I have 2 rolls of 120 to pickup at Kenmore Thursday, maybe I can hold one. We need to have another beer & gear so we can see your new camera.

Kevin

 

[biomed]

After using the GX7 for a few days I am liking it more than when I first held one in my hands. The weight and size is just about perfect. The handling is wonderful. The EVF is the best I have used so far. It is much better than my GH3. I am able to se the entire image while wearing my glasses. The corners are dark on my GH3 EVF when viewed through my glasses. The GX7 EVF doesn't smear at low light levels like every other EVF I have used. Is this the perfect camera for everyone? Probably not, but it comes pretty close for me.

 

[andrew00]

I've been testing a GX7 and in many ways it seems awesome - excellent IQ, IBIS, good video, peaking, nice and small, evf etc.

One thing it lacks though is the hot shoe is weird - it won't trigger my Elinchom Skyport/Quadra. Works fine with an Xpro1, Ricoh GR but the Panasonic won't trigger. Same with the Pana G6 too.

So for anyone who uses studio strobes it's not gonna work. No PC sync either.

 

[JoeV]

I've been testing a GX7 and in many ways it seems awesome - excellent IQ, IBIS, good video, peaking, nice and small, evf etc.

One thing it lacks though is the hot shoe is weird - it won't trigger my Elinchom Skyport/Quadra. Works fine with an Xpro1, Ricoh GR but the Panasonic won't trigger. Same with the Pana G6 too.

So for anyone who uses studio strobes it's not gonna work. No PC sync either.

That's interesting. I've had the same problem with my G1 and G5 with the Lomography "Fritz-The-Blitz" flash (yes, it's a cheap flash, but has a nice retro look and a good 1/16th power mode). I've tried using a Wein cell and several other methods, but no dice. The Lomo flash does work on older cameras with mechanical flash contacts, and higher power standard flashes (like Vivitar 285, etc.) work fine on the G1/G5.

I'm guessing the G-series cameras use some sort of FET-type solid state transistor switch to fire the flash contacts, and if the bias voltage provided by the flash isn't right, the FET won't fire. I even tried using clip-leads to switch the polarity between the Lomo flash and the hot shoe, but still no dice.

I do know that the Lomo flash has very low voltage (<5v) across its contacts (and hence doesn't need a Wein cell to protect the camera circuit itself); perhaps it is insufficient for the G-series flash circuit to operate properly. One way to test this would be to connect, via clip leads, a small DC voltage source in series between the flash and the camera. If a method could be found to make these flashes work, a small interface box could be built atop the camera's hot shoe mount, upon which to mount a flash.

I'm hoping someone has a more intelligent solution than simply discarding an entire category of flashes.

~Joe

 

[biomed]

I've been testing a GX7 and in many ways it seems awesome - excellent IQ, IBIS, good video, peaking, nice and small, evf etc.

One thing it lacks though is the hot shoe is weird - it won't trigger my Elinchom Skyport/Quadra. Works fine with an Xpro1, Ricoh GR but the Panasonic won't trigger. Same with the Pana G6 too.

So for anyone who uses studio strobes it's not gonna work. No PC sync either.

Panasonic and Olympus have the same flash shoe that apparently will only work with u4/3 compatible flash units for TTL. The hot shoe has the same pin layout as Nikon and Canon. Either the Nikon or the Canon off camera flash cables will work with the u4/3 hot shoes and u4/3 flashes, but the Nikon and Canon flashes will fire but don't seem to communicate with the camera bodies. I am guessing that even though the pin layout is the same the internal pin connections are different in the Canon and Nikon units.

The only u4/3 bodies that have a standard PC connector is the Panasonic DMC-GH3 and the Olympus OMD-EM1.

Mike

 

[andrew00]

I do know that the Lomo flash has very low voltage (<5v) across its contacts (and hence doesn't need a Wein cell to protect the camera circuit itself); perhaps it is insufficient for the G-series flash circuit to operate properly.
~Joe

So do you think that's why the Elinchrom might not be working? Maybe it's a low voltage trigger that the Panasonic's aren't able to get going? It's a one pin flash, a simple 'go' trigger, central position so should be triggerable.

I've not got Pocketwizard's anymore so I don't know if that also has problems with the Panasonics. I was hoping the GX7 could be my main camera, but without working strobes it's dead in the water :/

 

[DNG]

I have a Sunpak 5000AF I use on my O-MD E-M5, the zoom button will work, and I can use Manual (with 1:1 to 1:64 power) and Auto modes only. I was surprised that the manual zoom button worked... that is a good thing, because it has a 28-135 zoom lens inside the head.

The Canon flashes has 4 contacts, the Olympus/Panasonic has 3 contacts.
The front left Canon contact has no hot-shoe contact that corresponds with it.

with older flashes, I have safe-sync (hot-shoe to hot-shoe) that works fine with anything, and it has a flash sync cord outlet if needed..

 

[khollister]

My GX7 will be here tomorrow, but after reading this thread, I dug out my PocketWizard Plus II's, stuck one on an E-PL5, wired the other to an SB-900 I had sitting here and the Oly triggers the PW's fine.

TTL won't work with anything other than a m43 speedlight, but manual should work.

I'll be surprised (and pissed) if the PW's don't work on the GX7.

I haven't done much manual studio flash stuff with m43 because if I'm dragging out lights and grip, I might as well use the D800. My m43 flash work has been field stuff with the TTL Oly guns.

I will report back after testing my GX7 tomorrow

 

[biomed]

The EVF is the best I have used so far. It is much better than my GH3. I am able to se the entire image while wearing my glasses. The corners are dark on my GH3 EVF when viewed through my glasses. The GX7 EVF doesn't smear at low light levels like every other EVF I have used. Is this the perfect camera for everyone? Probably not, but it comes pretty close for me.

After trying some other MFD cameras last weekend I can say that the GX7 EVF is the only one that the entire image is clear to me while wearing my glasses. I had to move my eye around a bit to see all of the edges and corners without any darkening with all but the GX7. This is really a big deal for me.

The IBIS (yes, I know it only 2 axis), focus peaking, low light performance, RF like handling (IMHO) and an EVF that works for me make the GX7 the most enjoyable camera I have owned. I still have a bit of fine tuning the set up to do. The only complaint I have is the smaller battery. I am used to shooting all day with the GH3 and not have to change the battery. Last weekend I managed 476 shots before exhausting my only battery. I suppose that isn't too bad. I have two more batteries on order, so it won't be a problem too much longer.

Mike

 

[khollister]

OK - the new baby is here courtesy of the Brown Truck of Happiness (UPS) and I tried the PW's and a Nikon SB-900 Speedlight directly in the hotshoe.

Everything works exactly as expected - PW's fire normally and the SB-900 works fine in M or A (not TTL). Not sure what is going on with the posters Elinchrom's. If the PW works, I can't imagine why the Skyports wouldn't.

The little fellow with a Lance strap and Kirk PZ-130 arca QR plate:

 

[biomed]

OK - the new baby is here courtesy of the Brown Truck of Happiness (UPS)..........

The little fellow with a Lance strap and Kirk PZ-130 arca QR plate:

Does the LCD catch on the Kirk QR plate. All of the plates I have tried touch the bottom of the LCD frame and prevent it from moving. Enjoy your GX7!

Mike

 

[khollister]

OK - the new baby is here courtesy of the Brown Truck of Happiness (UPS)..........

The little fellow with a Lance strap and Kirk PZ-130 arca QR plate:

Does the LCD catch on the Kirk QR plate. All of the plates I have tried touch the bottom of the LCD frame and prevent it from moving. Enjoy your GX7!

Mike

No, the LCD clears the Kirk plate just fine.

 

[biomed]

OK - the new baby is here courtesy of the Brown Truck of Happiness (UPS)..........

The little fellow with a Lance strap and Kirk PZ-130 arca QR plate:


No, the LCD clears the Kirk plate just fine.

Thanks, I used my GX7 with the Kirk QR plate this past weekend. It worked well and has plenty of clearance for the LCD.

Mike

 

[biomed]

After shooting with the GX7 for 1 1/2 months I am very satisfied with the camera. As a result of the excellent focus peaking I am using my Voigtlander and older Nikkor lenses as much as the native u4/3 lenses. In silent mode, the operation is exactly that, perfectly silent. I am finding the dynamic range to be a bit better than my GH3. The IQ is about the same as the GH3, but the GX7 starts to take the lead at higher ISO settings. I am also very happy with the EVF, so much so that I usually have the LCD turned off. I did have to tweak the EVF saturation and contrast a tad. I do use the LCD when the camera is on a tripod. This is where I have found a minor problem. When taking vertical (portrait) format photos the LCD has to be viewed from the side (with LCD tilted toward the top or bottom of the camera). I prefer the GH3's fully articulated LCD in this situation. With the GX7 set to manual mode and manual focus there is as much control over the exposure and focus as with any film camera I have used. The easy to read exposure indicator shows over/under exposure in 1/3 or 1/2 stops. Manual focus using focus peaking allows precise selective focus and pretty much indicates the depth of field. After taking over one thousand photos with the GX7 I am still exploring the features and the operators manual. A few of the features that I haven't tried yet are video (I use the GH3 as my primary video camera), any of the "art" filters and the sweep panoramic setting that I just noticed yesterday. Hopefully I haven't rambled on too much. I really, really like the GX7.

Mike

 

[Jim-st]

After shooting with the GX7 for 1 1/2 months I am very satisfied with the camera. As a result of the excellent focus peaking I am using my Voigtlander and older Nikkor lenses as much as the native u4/3 lenses. In silent mode, the operation is exactly that, perfectly silent. I am finding the dynamic range to be a bit better than my GH3. The IQ is about the same as the GH3, but the GX7 starts to take the lead at higher ISO settings. I am also very happy with the EVF, so much so that I usually have the LCD turned off. I did have to tweak the EVF saturation and contrast a tad. I do use the LCD when the camera is on a tripod. This is where I have found a minor problem. When taking vertical (portrait) format photos the LCD has to be viewed from the side (with LCD tilted toward the top or bottom of the camera). I prefer the GH3's fully articulated LCD in this situation. With the GX7 set to manual mode and manual focus there is as much control over the exposure and focus as with any film camera I have used. The easy to read exposure indicator shows over/under exposure in 1/3 or 1/2 stops. Manual focus using focus peaking allows precise selective focus and pretty much indicates the depth of field. After taking over one thousand photos with the GX7 I am still exploring the features and the operators manual. A few of the features that I haven't tried yet are video (I use the GH3 as my primary video camera), any of the "art" filters and the sweep panoramic setting that I just noticed yesterday. Hopefully I haven't rambled on too much. I really, really like the GX7.

Mike

That's good to hear, Mike. The GX7 seems to have taken a back seat here and other parts of the web since the EM1 came along. I think I'll stick with my first instinct and grab a GX7 to replace my GF1, but not before the price slips down a few points 😉

Thanks for posting