On names and choices: review of Lumix GX80 / GX85 / GX7 II

Fortuitously, the day before I started my holidays, my usual dealer received the first commercial units of the Lumix DMC-GX80 and it took me only an hour to visit their store and own one of them. It was my first camera purchased since the diminutive GM1, two and a half years ago, that was still fully functional. Why did I buy a new camera, then? Had I outgrown my previous cameras (the aforementioned GM1 and my first body, the GH3, bought a year earlier)? Was it simply GAS? Today, three months of intensive shooting later, I can answer those questions quite comprehensively and, along the way, I will present my analysis of the camera through my personal experience with it.

Seso, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Guests, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Nacimiento del Río Cuervo, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Río Aragón Subordán, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

It's somehow symptomatic that the only 2 camera bodies that I have had since I became more serious in photography, almost 4 years ago, were the smallest (GM1) and biggest (GH3) that the micro 4/3 system of cameras has ever had. I landed in photography from videography, which made the GH3 the logical choice at that moment (January 2013); for a year, I shot exclusively with that camera and that's how I slowly learned the basics of photography and started my journey. Since the camera is quite bulky (considering the system it belongs to) I only used it in the weekends, when I used to go out for photowalks to practice.

Hikers, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Bargain, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm

Cool shade, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Workers, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm

Workers and hand, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm

A year later, as my understanding of the basic tools and my enjoyment of photography grew wider, I wanted a smaller body that I could carry wherever I went for more occasional shooting or for those situations where small size really mattered, and that's why I bought the GM1. From that moment on, I kept using the two cameras alternatively, depending on my needs. Eventually I started carrying both bodies and using them simultaneously, each one paired with a different prime (a wide and a short telephoto) so I didn't need to swap lenses. This became my primary setup until recently, when I realized that carrying two cameras at all times was not always that practical. Here's how the new Lumix GX80 came to be a new member of my photographic arsenal.

Parking, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm

Smoking area, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm

Laundry, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm

The Lumix DMC-GX80, GX85 or GX7II (in Europe, US and Japan respectively) sits between the GM1 and the GH3 in terms of size, so it is a medium-sized micro 4/3 camera, which is still small enough to carry in a handbag. Sure it is not pocketable but it definitely is more portable than the GH3, which makes it a better choice for everyday shooting since you will be more likely to carry it with you everywhere. And compared to the GM1, it offers much more versatility and direct control over the settings (viewfinder, small grip and double control wheels as prime examples). In my hands, it feels as the perfect balance between the former 2 bodies, to the point that, even though I didn't buy it as a replacement to either of them, it has actually ended up being exactly that. Using a Lord of the rings analogy, I could describe it as "a camera to rule them all", for its controlled size and its multiple options make it a great choice for a wide range of shooting scenarios, making it a great travel camera. It was the only camera I carried in my holidays through Spain and Italy and it was a great companion.

Cuenca, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Foro Romano, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Boltaña, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Abizanda, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

From a technical point of view, there is probably nothing I couldn't achieve with my previous cameras that the new GX80 would allow me to do; they all share very similar innards, so the decision to purchase it was not due to technical limitations (after all, it's the photographer that matters most). However, that is not to say that the newest model doesn't include new improvements and additions, and the 2 that were especially appealing to me, were:
1– In-Body stabilization that worked in conjunction with the lens-based OIS (none of my previous cameras had any sort of body IS), which would let me use longer shutter speeds, and that could potentially be a big deal in low-light photography to prevent ISO from getting to high, moreover opening the door for new creative possibilities, such as hand-held, longer-than-normal exposures.

Coliseum at night, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm (1/5 seconds, f1.8, ISO 200)

Red ghost, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm (0.4 seconds, f2.5, ISO 200)

Disproportion, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm (1/5 seconds, f1.7, ISO 800)

Calle Mayor at night, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm (1/5 seconds, f1.7, ISO 200)

2– Sensor without an anti-aliasing filter and a new shutter mechanism that promised to almost completely eliminate the shutter shock that had affected some earlier models. These two improvements promised images that would be a bit sharper and crisper and devoid of any blur, which seemed to be perfect for landscape photography, where every bit of detail counts.

Aguas Tuertas I, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Aguas Tuertas II, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Summer pastures, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Guarrinza, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Every new camera has its idiosyncrasies and requires some adjustments to find the way in which they work better for us, so after the initial trial and error period, we came to terms with each other and the shooting experience became much smoother. This is how I ended up configuring it:
1– I assigned the AE/AF button to act as a back-focus button, removing that functionality from the shutter-release button altogether. This way, the shutter-release would only shoot, skipping the re-focusing that happens every time you press it in autofocus mode. This is a perfect middle ground between autofocus and manual focus, because it lets you pre-focus at the desired distance and then shoot as many times as you want without any change of focus distance, which works great for street photography, for instance, where there is no second to lose with adjustments (granted, zone focusing with manual focus would be better, but since none of my cameras has distance scale marks I found this to be a good workaround).

Streets of Rome, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Girl with a fan, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Under construction, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Yellow and blue, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm

Overprint, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

2– I assigned the back control dial to directly adjust the exposure compensation (rather than doing so after clicking it, as it is set by default), so I didn't need to waste one step every time I wanted to adjust the exposure compensation; since I use aperture and shutter priority modes most of the times, depending on the depth of field or motion blur that I want in my images, this was the optimal solution because it assigns the front dial to control that parameter, while the back dial adjusts the exposure compensation. This combination has been of great help in architectural and geometrical photography to adjust to situations with challenging dynamic range.

Museo de Arte Abstracto Español (Cuenca), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

St. Peter's Dome Reflection, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Vatican Museum I, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Vatican Museum II, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

3– I set the fn1 button to control the metering modes, so I could quickly change between multi metering or spot metering. Finally, I kept the fn2 button as the quick menu, but I assigned the first option to control the focus modes. It's not as fast as having a dedicated focus mode dial (the thing I miss the most from the GH3 and GM1), but at least it lets you change between auto focus and manual focus fairly quickly in the lenses without a focus mode switch. This way I could be more precise with what I wanted in focus in those instances where autofocus would fail, such as through fences or foliage, or when I wanted to focus in very small and specific areas of the image.

Botijo, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Tyre frame, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Yellow and green, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

The remains of the wall, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

I always shoot RAW and process my images in Lightroom one by one without applying presets, so I can't comment on the quality and tonality of the .jpg files straight out of the camera; still, there is an option that I had never used before in my previous cameras that has turned out to be very useful: Panorama, which is accessible directly in the mode dial on top of the camera. Granted, the resulting file will be a .jpg, so you will lose flexibility and latitude for post-processing but, if done carefully, the images produced are very detailed.

Aguas Tuertas Panorama, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Boltaña panorama, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Foro Romano panorama, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Colisseum at night panorama, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

All in all, what more clearly summarizes the good opinion I have of this camera is that, since buying it, I have never used any other camera and, more importantly, I haven't missed anything from my previous models, which speaks volumes about the versatility of the GX80. Sure, every camera has its weak points, and in the case of the GX80 two are the most glaring ones for me (a limited battery, that definitely requires you to have a spare or two at all times; and an average viewfinder, a bit small to be comfortable for people wearing spectacles such as myself). On the other hand, the GX80 has some strong points that have been decisive for me, and those are: RAW images that are a bit crisper and sharper than previous models (which has forced me to reduce the default sharpening I apply to all files in LR upon importing), and a package that is small enough yet versatile at the same time, achieving almost anything necessary in a very balanced and comfortable design.

The end of the road, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

The clouds above, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Boltaña's castle, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

St. Peter's Dome, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Vatican Museum spiral staircase, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Towns that were, or the language of stones

I was fortunate to be born and raised in a place of expansive landscapes and vast natural splendor but of few towns, most of them scattered around and isolated from one another in the middle of intricate mountains or sharp ravines, as if they didn't want to talk to each other, as though they valued privacy and confinement above anything else. Things are definitely changing and improving nowadays, with roads being built were only paths used to exist and tunnels being dug where no walkways could be found, with internet reaching astonishing depths and technology permeating the most unreachable places. However, for all the good that progress has brought, not everyone enjoyed its blessing, and there are those that, on the contrary, never had the chance to bloom under this new world, for they were long gone before development arrived at these shores. Of those (the departed, the vanished, the ghosts) I wanna talk here today, a few words and images that won't even begin to outline the shape of places that once were but eventually died, disappeared, faded away.

Morillo de Sampietro, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Silves Alto, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Morcat, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Despite living ten thousand kilometers away, the place where I lived until I came off age will always remain my home, for it was there where I learnt the most important lessons and where I probably suffered the most disheartening blows: the mountains of the central Pyrenean foothills, in Northern Spain, a land of rough beauty and exorbitant depopulation. Spain, still a very rural society until the halfway point of the twentieth century, started rapidly drifting towards the cities, and thousands of farmers and peasants around the country that had struggled to survive for generations in the hardness of the mountains decided to try their luck, looking for a new life in the booming metropolises, leaving everything behind them: their lands, their traditions, their memories, their loyal tools, their centenary homes.

Espierlo I, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Espierlo II, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Casa Juste (Morcat), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Pardina de Ballabriga, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Aperos, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

One of the areas of the whole country most strongly struck by these abandonment was precisely my region, that gradually lost hundreds of neighbors, slowly trimming down the already small hamlets until only a few inhabitants remained, silent and powerless against the tides of time. Entire villages populated by single families, communities reduced to single digits and one same blood that, painfully and unstoppably, would age, and wrinkle, and die with none else around to care for or remember them. Not even the priests stayed, for such impoverished parishes dwindled beyond repair, and only the plain churches and hermitages remained in place  against all odds once everyone else was gone, defying solitude and harsh weather, letting time eat away their former pride.

Iglesia de San Martín I (Espierlo), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Iglesia de San Martín II (Espierlo), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Iglesia de San Andrés (Torrolloala del Obico), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Ermita de San Bartolomé I (Silves Alto), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Ermita de San Bartolomé II (Silves Alto), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Iglesia de Santa María I (Morcat), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Iglesia de Santa María II (Morcat), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Walls began to crack and tremble, wounded to the core; roofs started to hesitate and surrender, suffering from loneliness; windows commenced to scream out loud only to fell into silence shortly after, while wooden beams rotted, chimneys collapsed, floors sunk, and all traces of past happiness were blown away by dust, undergrowth, decay, ruins.

Interior de la iglesia de San Andrés (Torrolloala del Obico), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Interior de la iglesia de Santa María (Morcat), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Interior de la ermita de San Bartolomé (Silves Alto), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Interior de la iglesia de Santa Eulalia (Silves Bajo), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Morcat desde la ventana de la torre, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Torre de la iglesia de Santa María (Morcat), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Ventana de la iglesia de Santa María (Morcat), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Cénit (Morcat), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

The sheer, steep hills, that had taken entire generations to tame in tiered terraces, were gradually engulfed  by vegetation; the vegetables stopped growing and the fruit trees withered; cattle was relocated to lower (concrete and sheet) grounds while wild, autochthonous fauna reclaimed their lost dwellings. Decades of effort and hard work merged back with nature and only the small shepherd's huts that lied spread out throughout the hills managed to survive somehow the erosion of oblivion and unemployment.

Borda en San Velián, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Borda en Pardina de Ballabriga, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Borda en Morcat, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Casas de Montalbán, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Borda en Espierlo, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Remnants that, despite their forgotten power, still speak today in low voices of yesteryears and tenacity, stones that dare to stay piled up, one on top of another, against the laws of time and gravity, while shapes loose their definition and become blurred, drifting inexorably towards nature. In this quiet chaos of destruction, however, some new inhabitants can be found, sometimes, populating the grounds that used to belong to their ancestor's masters, roaming freely through the rubble, bringing the circle to a likely end.

Caballos en Silves Bajo I, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Caballos en Silves Bajo II, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Caballos en Silves Bajo III, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm 

Caballos en Silves Bajo IV, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

It's a sad story, a tale of upbringing and departure, of loose ends, dreams and regrets, but not all hope is lost: here and there, across the precipitous cliffs and mountains, some humble signs of survival and even recovery can be spotted: a house that has managed to stay standing despite emptiness, a building that received occasional visits throughout the years and stayed healthy, a ghost village that has regained a new living neighbor, willing to revert the flow of extinction. These are, in my book, sincere reasons to be hopeful. Surely the smoke is still lukewarm upon venturing itself out of the big chimneys, but perhaps the smallest hunch of fire will in turn lead to a new, despite timid, awakening.

Mesón de Fuebla, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Casa Rufas (Silves Alto), GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Casa en Morillo de Sampietro, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Borda en Morillo de Sampietro, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Banderas de fiesta, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm