How to not loose temporary settings when GX 80 goes into sleep mode ?

[Joris]

Confined at home, I try my hand at doing some still lifes. Set up my camera on my tripod, pinpoint focus, choose aperture for DOF, EV correction etc. and then wait for the light to strike my scene nicely. The GX80 will go into Sleep Mode (I set it to 1 minute), which helps my battery life. However when the good light is there, and I reactivate the camera, all my settings are lost. I cannot find how to conserve them. Any of you know how to do that ?

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I think I should have added I work from a C-mode

 

[Mike Wingate]

I run my GX80 indoors on a dummy battery, connected to a powerpack. Make sure you get the correct voltage. Cheap on eBay, less than £10 when I bought it.

 

[Joris]

https://www.mu-43.com/threads/gx8-menu-question.104584/#post-1299385

So I see that this can't be done. And sadly, Set Up/Economy/Sleep Mode/Off cannot be saved to just one particular custom mode.
And is that obvious shortcoming being overlooked in one Panasonic new camera model after another ?
Did anything get changed for the G9 in that latest major firmware update ? And is anyone aware if Panasonic thought of fixing that in the G90/95 ? If not, Would it be fixed in the GX10 ? I am pondering on upgrading from the GX80. That would certainly determine which of the options to choose.

 

[Bagrphotography]

M-Mode.

 

[Joris]

M-Mode.

Yes I figured that. Will need to ween myself of aperture priority, I suppose.

 

[Bagrphotography]

I had it happen too many times in A-mode while doing motorsport and then BANG.. over or under exposed.. darn

 

[archaeopteryx]

I think I should have added I work from a C-mode

I do much the same from aperture priority on a G7, just without using C mode. Don't know about later G series models but, if it helps, the G7 remembers aperture, exposure compensation, AF point position, and so on through both 1 minute sleep and power on/off in A mode.

It's not the exact concern here, but power cycling on the G7 does reset focus distance to infinity (and return the 45-175 to 45 mm). Later G series and the GX9 have a setting to remember the focus distance, which Panasonic calls lens position resume. This isn't mentioned in the GX80 manual or firmware updates so I would suspect the GX80 behaves like the G7 in this regard.

 

[Joris]

Later G series and the GX9 have a setting to remember the focus distance, which Panasonic calls lens position resume.

Thank you archaeopteryx. Once, in firmware update Ver. 1.2 for the Lumix 35-100mm f/4.0-5.6 on the GX80, i found the discription : "Improved focusing stability when using the Lens Position Resume" . So I suppose the GX80 has that feature, unless it came from someone's sloppy text copying at Panasonic's. Never found anything in the manual or anywhere in the camera's menus about that though.

Actually I should better keep in mind that the problem is specific to the Custom menu that I have set to Aperture priority, but not to the basic Aperture priority mode. I will test tomorrow if my setting on the GX80 are preserved after coming out of Sleep Mode when I work from the basic M or A settings.

I could accept that the adjustments to a "C" mode remained sticky until I actually turned the camera off using the switch.

That would certainly be the most logic compromise, it would seem.

 

[Toddster]

I'm not at my camera or manual but I seem to remember the camera having a menu selection concerning EV correction. If I remember correctly you can choose to have the camera remember your EV correction or to reset it on restart. I use C mode and I believe that it works in that mode.

 

[Joris]

I'm not at my camera or manual but I seem to remember the camera having a menu selection concerning EV correction. If I remember correctly you can choose to have the camera remember your EV correction or to reset it on restart. I use C mode and I believe that it works in that mode.

The camera will register about each and every setting you had (archaeopteryx listed a few) in the custom settings mode. But when you work from there (taking your time on a tripod for instance) and make some subsequent changes (EV, focus point and aperture for instance to get the required DOF) and your Lumix happens to go to sleep mode, then, when you wake it up, those subsequent changes will be lost and you have to start over again.

 

[Bif]

If you haven't found it already, a menu setting called CONSTANT PREVIEW set to ON will (in Manual Exposure Modes ONLY) show you in the EVF and on the LCD exactly what your exposure is going to look like.

This feature alone, would make me use only Manual Exposure exclusively. Well, as a matter of fact, I've used nothing but Manual Exposure on Lumix cameras for several years now. Although the Auto modes still exist on my cameras (GH4, GH5, G85, GX8, and 2 GX85's) I don't miss them at all.

 

[sgt08]

It makes sense to me that temporary changes you make in C mode are not preserved when turning the power off - if you want them to be permanent just resave the current settings to that C slot. But I do agree it would be nice if those temporary changes were preserved through sleep, meaning you're likely in the same "session."

Anyway this isn't a direct answer since I rarely let my GX85 get all the way to sleep mode, but depending on how long you typically wait for the light to change instead of sleeping at 1 minute maybe you could try setting the display to go off at 1 minute but letting sleep be at 5 minutes or longer? That's how I have my sleep/power set. You get some power savings from the display shutting off quickly, but still keep any temporary changes you make while in C mode. If I'm going 5 minutes between shots it probably means things have changed enough that I want to update my exposure settings anyway.

The other option, as mentioned above, is to work in A or M mode since those modes preserve settings even when powering the camera off (or at least that's how my camera works, maybe there is a setting I have turned on that makes it happen).

 

[DaveJP]

This is something Olympus have taken on board with their most recent camera, the EM1 Mkiii. You can set any of the four Custom (C) modes to HOLD and any changes you make are immediately saved. If Olympus can do it there's a good chance Panasonic will follow suit with future cameras.

 

[ScottinPollock]

Panasonic, as well as at least several of their luminaries, have been aware of this feature (for years). Apparently they feel there is no need to change the behavior.

When I mentioned this here years ago with my G85, most respondents argued it should act the way it does. Go figure.

 

[archaeopteryx]

maybe you could try setting the display to go off at 1 minute but letting sleep be at 5 minutes or longer?

Good point. I've my G7 set for one minute display off and two minute sleep, which makes the LCD going off sort of a reminder that sleep is coming. I don't understand why Panasonic uses fixed 1/2/5/10 minute settings for this instead of the usual timer controls where you can specify however many minutes and seconds you want. It really shouldn't be hard to link their adjustments and display the two times together so the relationship between the two settings is obvious.

I suppose the GX80 has that feature, unless it came from someone's sloppy text copying at Panasonic's.

Panasonic's text is accurate but I think there's some confusion over lens versus body firmware. The best way to confirm would be a look through the GX80 menus.

 

[Joris]

Panasonic's text is accurate but I think there's some confusion over lens versus body firmware. The best way to confirm would be a look through the GX80 menus.

I did so, before and again, but nowhere in the GX 80 menus I can find anything relating to "Lens Position Resume". Logically it should have been found under Economy in the setup menu, but alas...
Your suggestion working from the A mode directly instead of via my C menu with 1 minute EVF, 2 minute sleepmode seems the most workable compromise.