I have wanted a more lightweight camera for quite a while. There are so many different cameras out there, it makes it hard to choose. As a life-long Canon shooter, I have no real bias. I started with Canon, so grew with it. If my first real camera had been a Nikon, I am sure I would feel the same way about them. Both brands have great cameras.
The problem I was having was deciding on which one. It is an investment, and you don’t want to spend $1,000’s to find you don’t like it. Recently I was able to make a $500 investment into a LUMIX GX85 kit that I felt comfortable with. But here is the kicker – when you have shot with one system for 30+ years, it is really hard to change. So, let’s walk through a few things.
Right out of the box – there is no charger. The battery charges in the camera. This has its pros and cons. Handy to be able to plug into your car when you are traveling. Not so handy when you need to get multiple batteries charged before shooting. Solution – you can buy a charger for it separately.
When you pick up a camera brand you have shot with for many years, you will instinctively know what to do. Even as models change, certain aspects of the camera stay the same. So as you upgrade through that brand, you ease into the changes and upgrades. But when you change brands, something that before you would find fairly easy, becomes a new challenge.
After charging the battery I picked up the camera ready to shoot. Ok, maybe not so ready . . . Firstly I am dealing with a touch screen. One thing I heard was that people were having issues with hitting the screen with their nose when attempting to use the viewfinder. I don’t get that. As soon as you go anywhere near the viewfinder it has a sensor and turns off the screen. I have more of an issue with the screen turning off if you come at it with you left hand and activate the sensor.
I set the camera on P (program mode) and took some pictures. To be totally honest, they were bad. The focus was so off I was puzzled. I went online to try and find some solutions. From all I read this is what I got. Canon’s P mode accounts for stabilization as in won’t go lower than handheld quality. The LUMIX expects you to adjust for that yourself. But the reason I didn’t key off on that was because if the ISO is set on Auto you don’t see the number on the screen.
Now this isn’t to say that either camera doesn’t have a true auto mode. Cannon has the A+, but until today I had never used it. The LUMIX has iA and iA+, so I will experiment more . . .
The bottom line here is that I did take some great pictures, so I know the camera can. It is me that needs the training. So check back as we work through this learning curve together.