When the folks working on the launch of Panasonic’s new Lumix DMC-GX80 got in touch to see if I wanted to get a chance to play around with (and keep) one I was all for it. I just didn’t realise I’d be even more avid a couple months later when I started using it almost exclusively by default. It’s a great camera.
The invitation to shoot with the Lumix came during the end of August right before I took off for more than a month to travel in the States. Thus, I’m just now getting round to blogging about it (sorry). But the long pause certainly doesn’t mean my new camera was stowed away this whole time. I put that baby to good use – far more so than I reckoned I would have too.
In fact, the Lumix was the only camera (well, aside from my iPhone) that I took with me to the States. So, in addition to the shots shared in this post from a blogger/PR event touring around London shooting with the Lumix on the first day I had the camera in hand, all the recent and upcoming posts about my time in in America feature photos taken with the Lumix. Presumably, pretty much everything I publish with my own shots in the near future will have Lumix photography.
Yep, I left my beloved DSLR behind … for more than a month and purposely shot with only a mirrorless system camera. If you know me – and my camera habits – then you know that’s a big deal. You could even say it’s an attitudinal shift. In retrospect I wonder if I got that best pics I could have by only using the Lumix. But I think that hadmore to do with me learning a new camera system on the go and not relying on the near intuition and muscle memory involving in using the same DSLR for over a decade than it does with the actual camera.
The Lumix GX80 feels good in the hand, substantial but not too weighty. It’s lightweight and fits snug in my backpack (or big pockets). I serves well for discreet street photography as well as for “food blogger” shooting in restaurants and bars. Taking pics in dim light isn’t too much of an issue either.
The feature that’s most wowed me is the Post Focus function, enabling the photographer to choose the focal point after the shot’s been taken.
The camera records video too. I haven’t done much with that, but I like how 4K Photo features lets me select frames from a video sequence and save them as a high res still images.
There’s plenty more to rave about. The Lumix is speedy and responsive for any and all unmissable moments that life presents. The photos I’ve taken are as crisp and vivid as I could have hoped for. The Lumix GX80 is a keeper.
Find out more about this awesome camera:
panasonic.com/uk/consumer/cameras-camcorders/lumix-g-compact-system-cameras/dmc-gx80.html
