One year with the GX7

Thanks Eric. Great post and some really lovely photos. I too love the 20mm 1.7 - it's almost always on the G3. Recently bought an Olympus 45mm 1.8 and that's very good, too.

I'm still hankering after a GX-7. When handling one it was only the EVF that didn't grab me. Everything else was spot on. And, on reflection, the EVF's that I really liked (Fuji XT-1 is the most impressive I've tried so far) were on the very latest cameras so one would assume some great leaps forward.

Wasn't really familiar with the benefits of Wi-Fi until reading your article and following it up on the Tube. I don't have a smart phone - but wow, how cool is it to be able to control the camera remotely from a phone. Come the day I might have to come into the modern world just to try that out!

The GX-7 prices here in the UK have fallen to some very tempting levels recently. New official ones available for under £470 now - which feels like a great deal. I shall (probably...) wait until after Christmas... but then who knows?

Sigh...GAS! And for a smartphone as well as a camera now  

Cheers
Derek

 

I have one too and spent the last several days doing street photography and then loads of mushrooms popped out of the ground due to the rain and to top it off my wife's night blooming cerus bloomed last night. All pictures taken with the Oly 60mm macro 2.8 and the Oly 75mm. Thanks for the review with which mostly concur and also picked up several good points.

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"The GX-7 prices here in the UK have fallen to some very tempting levels recently. New official ones available for under £470 now"
And £429 for a Panasonic Refurb body on their somewhat hidden Ebay store.

 

Yep, very tempting. Not sure what the original going price was, but that must be in the region of a 50% drop by now.

That said, Scott over on the GX-7 image thread said his refurbished GX-7 came with a poorly aligned / wonky flash fitting. Which just raised a tiny concern about quality control on the refurbished ones. I shall keep watching all these prices with a keen eye.

 

I also have been using the GX7 for a little more than a year. It has become my favorite camera of all. The EVF is the only one that I am able to see the whole display in when wearing my glasses. Adding the eye cup greatly improves the light shielding of the EVF when wearing glasses.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/998484-REG/panasonic_dmw_ec1_eyecup.html/pageID/accessory

 

Yes, I went with a good price for a new one since Panasonic are offering a 2 year warranty currently - I know that is really the EU legal period but it avoids any hassle if things go wrong, not that they do with Panasonic in my experience.

 

Agree on all points after a year with my GX-7, though video is not of interest to me. I would add that the grip is not as big as I would like. A better grip would allow room for a larger battery, so it's a two-fer. Also, the lack of a fully articulated LCD is a BIG negative for me. Low-angle portrait orientation shots require lying in the ground. I really miss the LCDs (and the grips) on my G1s.

Buy the Panny add-on eyecup. It's what the camera should have shipped with. You'll love it.

 

Hi Eric,
thanks for the review, very interesting reading. I'd like to know your opinion do you see any difference in color reproduction of GX7 vs EM5, if you using RAW files.
I had time ago G5 and it's loss of color depth vs EM5 was very noticeable during development in LR (I use RAWs only).
Now GX7 catching my attention because of (as you wrote  1/8000 speed , silent electronical shutter that I missed from my G5 and brick form factor that I prefer to anything else.
Thanks.

 

I picked up one for a super price, £500 with 20mm and 14-42mm X electronic plus a tripod, liked it so much I bought a second for £350 both with less than 1k clicks it seems. I was intending to get one and an EM10 but the GX7 just feels like the perfect camera in my hands, not taken either out for a good run though but from the test shots it seems highly satisfactory and a form factor I prefer.

 

Eric, thanks for the one year review. Thinking about updating the gear. Bit of a late adopter when it comes to photo gear.

Still shooting with the GF-1 and LVF-1, probably the poorest quality of all the mu4/3 evf. Also, use a G2. Wondering relative quality of the GX-7 evf vs. the G2 evf? Anyone with opinions?

 

No G2 here either, but I did have the GF-1/LVF-1 and I had G1s. The GF-1/LVF-1's tenure here was very brief due to the execrable quality of the LVF.

Mostly I shot a pair of G1s prior to now shooting a pair of GX7s. During the changeover, one G1 and one GX7, I do not remember feeling that there was much difference between the EVFs. But I am not fussy about EVFs, using them only for composition, so YMMV definitely.

For me when I was shooting one of each the only photographic difference I considered to be significant was the much better low light performance of the GX7. In good light I grabbed whichever had the lens I wanted.

 

Great post -- thanks for sharing. I'll have had mine a year in December and am very much enjoying it.

 

Can you elaborate on what's the Huelight Color Profile? Thanks.