Review: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7

In-Body Image Stabilization (IBIS)

One of the headline features in the Panasonic GX7 is the inclusion of an in-body image stabilization system (IBIS).  This is the very first Panasonic camera to feature IBIS, though Micro 4/3 has had the feature in every Olympus body since the system’s origin.   Unfortunately, coming from the truly outstanding 5-axis IBIS found on Olympus’ OM-D line, the simple 2-axis IBIS in the GX7 is a bit of a letdown

While the GX7’s stabilizer certainly is better than nothing, I was only able to regularly get around 1 stop of image stabilization, with occasional sharp images at 2 to 3 stops below the traditional 1 / (35mm effective focal length) rule.  While it did a decent job when I was using the very best technique, the problem I had with the in-body IS on the GX7 wasn’t that it couldn’t stabilize at slower speeds, but that it couldn’t do so consistently.  Ultimately, I couldn’t trust the IBIS to steady the shot at anything below about a one stop advantage over the traditional hand holding rule.  Meanwhile, with the best optical stabilizers and the OM-D’s IBIS, I can count on those systems to give me a full three stops easily, with the occasional 4 to even 5 stops in the right circumstances.

While it’s definitely a step in the right direction, I was hoping for a little better performance in this department.  One other disappointment with the in-body IS system is that it is not available when shooting video, which is one of the key areas where in-body IS is useful.  Additionally, the stabilization is only active during exposure, so you won’t get that nice stabilized view that is possible with optically stabilized lenses or the Olympus 5-axis IBIS system.

Focus Peaking

The in-focus areas of the image are highlighted with a shimmering cyan.
The in-focus areas of the image are highlighted with a shimmering cyan.

The GX7 features Focus Peaking for aiding in manual focus, and the implementation in use here is well done.  When you shift into manual focus mode (either via the switch, or automatically when attaching an adapted lens), the camera will give you the ability to both magnify a portion of the image if desired and highlight the in-focus portions of the image in a cyan color.  The cyan stands out easily and is clearly visible in the viewfinder and on the rear LCD. This feature is outstanding for quickly acquiring accurate manual focus, even with wide aperture lenses.

Speaking of adapted lenses, the camera’s in-body IS will also stabilize any adapted manual focus lenses that you may attach.  You simply have to enter the focal length into the camera and the IBIS will make the proper adjustments required to provide the best stabilization.

One thing Panasonic added that is extremely helpful is that when a lens without electrical contacts is attached to the camera, and the camera is switched on, a dialog box pops up confirming the currently set focal length and asking if you’d like to change it.  Not only does this allow you to very quickly change the focal length when needed, it serves as an excellent reminder so that you don’t accidentally shoot a hundred frames with the IBIS set to the completely wrong focal length, thus inducing blur in all your images.  It’s a simple thing to do, but the first time I’ve seen it done, and it’s something I’d love to see Olympus do as well.  I’ve had numerous occasions where I’ve taken 10 or 20 frames before I realize I forgot to change the focal length setting on a different adapted lens.

The focal length dialog box that appears when you attach an adapted or completely manual lens to the GX7
The focal length dialog box that appears when you attach an adapted or completely manual lens to the GX7

Wi-Fi

The Panasonic GX7, like it’s older brother the GH3, features Wi-Fi connectivity that allows you to do a wide variety of tasks with a smartphone or tablet, as well as to a PC.  You can transfer images directly to a mobile device, wirelessly tether your camera to your computer to instantly store photos on your hard drive, and even take full control of the camera via a remote shooting application, complete with live view, image parameter adjustment and focus point selection.

The GX7 is the fourth camera I’ve reviewed (the GH3, Fuji X-M1 and Olympus E-P5 are the others), and Panasonic still has the best Wi-Fi capabilities of any mirrorless camera maker that I’ve had the chance to use to date.  The remote control is full featured without the limitations that Olympus imposes, and the range of options is outstanding.

Crossing the Street - Panasonic GX7 with Olympus 9-18mm
Crossing the Street – Panasonic GX7 with Olympus 9-18mm, using electronic shutter

The only downside to the GX7’s Wi-Fi capability is that it’s a little awkward to get the camera to connect to a mobile device.  I did not have any luck connecting through my home wireless network, but the direct phone to camera connection worked well, though it is a little tedious typing in the long alphanumeric password on initial setup.  The second downside isn’t with the Wi-Fi, but that the GX7 doesn’t offer any in-camera RAW conversion capability.  Since the camera will not wirelessly transmit RAW files to your device, you need to shoot JPEG or RAW+JPEG to be able to transfer an image.

Electronic Shutter

One of the great features of the GX7 is the electronic shutter, which is available when shooting up to ISO 3200 and when not using flash.  The electronic shutter can be accompanied by an electronic shutter sound, or you can simply shoot the camera completely silently (provided you are shooting wide open…when stopping down, you can hear the aperture blades close).  This is great for shooting events in quiet venues, or for street shooting where you don’t want the shutter to distract your subject and draw attention to you as a photographer.

While I prefer hearing the mechanical shutter when shooting, the electronic shutter certainly has great value.   In one situation, I wanted to take a picture of my napping son, without risking waking him.  The electronic shutter to the rescue!  You do need to be careful, though, as the readout of the shutter can make shooting high-speed action create some interesting artifacts, and as mentioned, flash cannot be used with the electronic shutter, but overall, it’s a great addition to the camera.

Other Key Features

The GX7 features an easy to use and access intervalometer, which makes taking time-lapse or star trail type images easy.  You simply set the number of exposures you want and the interval at which they are to be taken, and then just start the sequence.  The camera will continue until the number of requested exposures is complete.  Very handy!

The GX7's scene mode selection - showing the 'Relaxing Tone' mode.
The GX7’s scene mode selection – showing the ‘Relaxing Tone’ mode.

The GX7 also features a bunch of different filter and scene modes that cater to the more novice shooter, though some of the filters may be useful for the odd shot here and there.  There are 22 total creative art filters included with the camera, which can do anything from a high contrast black and white to an artificial backlit sunlight, which even allows you to position and size the sun in the frame.  Many of these are heavy handed and result in horrible color blotching, but at least half of them actually provide nice results.  The black and white modes and some of the softer filters are pleasing.

While many cameras feature modes such as ‘sports’ or ‘landscape’ which dial in certain settings to help a shooter get the shot they’re after, the GX7 goes in-depth, with a tremendous amount of ‘scene modes’ featuring very specific shooting situations like “Relaxing Tone” shown above.  Many of these use the art filters in conjunction with other settings.

Continue: Image Quality

Comments

32 responses to “Review: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7”

  1. […] The Panasonic GX7 has picked up another new review, check it out at Admiring Light. […]

  2. Owen R Auer Avatar
    Owen R Auer

    I believe the GX-7 has a high burst rate of 10 fps, and a super high (with decreased resolution) of 40 fps.

    1. Owen R Auer Avatar
      Owen R Auer

      I agree about the rear thumb wheel, they should have milled it like the front one, My G2 rear wheel is impossible to use in cold weather or with gloves.

      1. jeffharris Avatar

        Wear fingerless gloves. That’s what I do with my GH2. Works great.

        1. Owen R Auer Avatar
          Owen R Auer

          and what do you do when your fiingertips get cold?

          1. Nikker Simon Avatar
            Nikker Simon

            I find a nearby cafe and order some food and a nice big Belgium beer.

    2. Jordan Steele Avatar

      I had mentioned the super high 40 fps, but the 5 fps is the limit with the mechanical shutter. You can shoot in full resolution at 10fps with the electronic shutter, but there is real potential when shooting fast action with the electronic shutter to have very odd distortion artifacts from the sensor read out, which makes it less useful than full speed with a mechanical shutter. I have updated the review to better clarify this.

  3. cosinaphile Avatar
    cosinaphile

    a clear concise effort …. your reviews are always excellent and illuminating

  4. omega34 Avatar
    omega34

    very nice thought out review Jordan!
    The photos do appear to have nice warm colours to them. Do you use Lightroom to process the RAW files and use standard Adobe profiles?

    I read this somewhere and was curious to hear from you – does the noise appear to be bit more film like ( grain) than the EM5 /EP5?

    1. Jordan Steele Avatar

      All the posted images were processed in Lightroom 5.2 with the standard Adobe Profile. I could create a custom profile, though since that requires a separate product, I review new products with what’s available to the average user. (Well, Lightroom is a separate product as well, but most shooters who will shoot RAW will own one of the big RAW converters).

      You can look at the noise sample provided in the Noise section at full size (click on the image, then click the green arrow at the bottom of the screen to go to 100%), which shows 100% crops of the GX7 and the E-M5 side by side at all ISOs. I personally find them to have very similar noise profiles, just that the GX7 has very slightly more noise except at 25,600 where it’s a little better. In any case, the output from these cameras is extremely close.

      1. agachart Avatar
        agachart

        why you test GX7 nosier than EM-5 all around website show the GX7 control ISO better than
        EM5/EP5 ,i want to know about lens and camera settings ,

        1. Jordan Steele Avatar

          Um, because that’s how the cameras work? Don’t trust me, look at the crops for yourself. These were tripod mounted with the same lens (25/1.4) at the exact same settings (ISO, aperture, shutter speed), taken less than 3 minutes apart.

          1. agachart Avatar
            agachart

            Sorry,if my comment so hard,
            may i will buy 2 cam for real result ,but i never know why result was variant about camera test,
            it so hard to control,business or brand royalty, and sometime i think it not science

            and you can answer to me 🙂

          2. agachart Avatar
            agachart

            camera test that i mean all around(web,magazine & other)

  5. Christian G Avatar

    Thanks for he great review.

    I have one question: did you test IBIS with non-OIS lenses? The GX7-IBIS does not work with OIS-lenses. I’ve seen other reviews that find the IBIS to be very effective..

    1. Jordan Steele Avatar

      See my reply to Bob B. below…

  6. Bob B. Avatar
    Bob B.

    Good review…but I have a question…I am reading some other side-by-side reviews on the web and am seeing a different conclusion than what you have arrived at regarding the still-image is. You go out of your way to say how superior that the 5-axis IS is in the EM5 and you site that IBIS as the primary reason that you will maintain using the EM5 As your go to camera.. For still images surprisingly the IBIS in the EM5 would appear to have no advantage over the GX7, (Of course the EM5 has the IS advantage in video mode as the GX7 has no IS in video mode). I am an EM5 owner myself and surprised at these findings, too.
    Perhaps if you did a side-by-side test you may be surprised.

    1. Jordan Steele Avatar

      I had done comparisons side by side with my E-M5. For instance, I tested the 25/1.4 on both cameras indoors. The GX7 was consistent down to about 1/30s. Below that, it was all over the place. Sometimes I was sharp at 1/5 sec, sometimes I was blurry at 1/20s. The E-M5 was consistently sharp at 1/5 sec. The biggest issue I had with the GX7’s IS was that I couldn’t trust it to get the shot at a certain speed. It would do fine sometimes 3 stops slower…but not all the time, which made it much less useful for me. You may be different, but I need to have faith in my gear that it will perform how I expect, when I need it. On the GX7, that meant trusting the IS to no slower than 1 stop below normal handholding speeds. It can do better…just not all the time.

      If you read a bunch of reviews, you’ll see the results from the IS are all over the place. CameraLabs had a similar experience to mine, while there was a different recent review that had better results with the GX7 than with the E-M1. I think a lot of it may come down to how each individual photographer manifests their hand shake. If one photographer moves almost entirely along the 2 axes that the GX7 corrects, they may have superior results. I likely have a more 3 dimensional shake pattern, which the OM-D corrects beautifully, but the GX7 doesn’t (though I don’t have issues with OIS lenses – the 35-100/2.8 and the Fuji 55-200 are both very solid with their OIS in my hands – but I did have similar results to the GX7 with the 2-axis Olympus Pens).

      I tested the IS with the Olympus 9-18, the 25/1.4, the 75/1.8 and the Canon FD 85mm f/1.8. The 35-100, of course, used its OIS when mounted.

  7. CS Avatar
    CS

    Did you notice any shutter shock with the GX7?

    1. Jordan Steele Avatar

      Not that I could pinpoint directly as shutter shock.

  8. Anna Avatar
    Anna

    Hi,
    Can anybody advise me if GX7 is better for young lady than Canon Rebel SL1?

    1. Naveed Akhtar Avatar

      Hi Anna!
      GX7 is deffinately better for any lady and any gentleman, IMHO!
      If you have any specific requirement though, we may discuss here, otherwise, I can’t see a reason to chose any Canon cropped sensor camera over GX7!

  9. Anatoly Avatar
    Anatoly

    It’s so fine and stylish review… Let me ask a couple of questions.
    I enrolled into a preliminary record to buy this camera in few closest weeks as soon as it would be available in my country.
    Actually I have to pay in advance in absence the camera that I have never seen alive,
    but I don’t expect to discover something wrong because I do trust in Panasonic, I was the owner of Panny GF1, G2 and G5 and generally I can imagine what I should get .
    The only thing disturbs me – the visual quality of GX7 EVF. My eyes is rather sensitive for any unplesant things related with viewfinder,
    I hate to see a jerky, flickering or moire patterns in EVF, it’s rather critical for me.
    Could you kindly comment if you noticed something similar looking via GX7 EVF?
    And else, whether it’s a real handicap that the 4:3 viewfinder mode is small because it’s actually a crop of the native 16:9 picture?
    Did you feel any visual discomfort due to this not so conventional EVF design?

    Thank you in advance!
    Anatoly

  10. milesT Avatar
    milesT

    Bummer you didn’t include ISO info in your sample shots so we could draw our own conclusions. Hopefully you’ll add that.

  11. Matt Avatar
    Matt

    Thanks for the review and beautiful sample photos.

    Quick question: I notice my GX1 (and GF1 before that) underexpose heavily at higher ISOs. Usually, I have to use up to +2 ev compensation to get properly exposed photos at 3200 – 6400.

    Does the GX7 do this as well?

  12. […] for for years, a high-end rangefinder style body with a corner EVF and in-body IS.  The resulting GX7 received high marks and praise for doing so.  Panasonic also leveraged what is Micro 4/3 greatest […]

  13. sanremo Avatar
    sanremo

    Can anyone offer any thoughts on the GX7’s EVF? I am very tempted to buy one, I already have a GF1. However the 16/9 viewfinder format surprise me somewhat as most snapper would be using 4×3 or 3×2. Is using 4/3 or 3/2 practical in a 16/9 finder? Or is the image too small?
    TNX

  14. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    Excellent review, thanks! Just one query, at the top of page two you state the movie button can be “commandeered for additional functions as well”. I would love to be able to set this to quickly shift ISO while keeping my eye to the viewfinder, but i can’t see where to set this! Any ideas?

  15. Ian Avatar
    Ian

    Your information about the Flash auto exposure compensation has made my flash usable! Many grateful thanks.

    1. Jordan Steele Avatar

      So glad I could help.

      1. Kjell Avatar
        Kjell

        Helped me too – today Aug 22, 2016!

  16. Tim in Singapore Avatar
    Tim in Singapore

    You say that the facility to enter the focal length of lenses with no electrical contacts is the first of its kind. Every Pentax DSLR has had that option from the beginning, the ability to use legacy K-mount lenses being one of the attractions of their line. That said, your review of the GX7 is very fair. I’ve had one for over a year and it reflects my experience. Including the relative ineffectiveness of the in-body stabilisation.

    GX8 review?

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