Setting up the Panasonic GX8 Part 3 Rec and Setup Menus

GX8 + 12-35mm

When you get a new camera the Setup Menu is actually the place to start. However I changed the order for this little series because the big user interface issues arise around AF control, Fn button functions and Q menu assignments.

Setup Menu

Clock Set / World Time / Travel date    There is nothing much for me to say here. These are self explanatory.

Wi-Fi  The Instructions have an extensive discourse on Wi-Fi starting on Page 285. I have nothing to add.

Beep  This is all fairly self explanatory. Some users may be unaware that the E-Shutter being electronic is completely silent, any sounds being artificial and controlled through this menu item.

Live View Mode  This adjustment applies only to the monitor. (‘Live view screen’)  Page 76 of the Instructions. Panasonic says that the 60 fps setting ‘displays movements smoother’  but uses more power. I use the 30 fps setting because I am usually viewing through the LVF for moving subjects.

Monitor Display   NOTE !!  When you look through the viewfinder this item changes to [Viewfinder].  Some reviewers and users are unaware of this, not helped by Panasonic’s obscurantist approach to finding the LVF adjustment.

Both the monitor and LVF can be configured to individual preference with adjustments for Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Red Tint and Blue Tint.

I find the monitor looks good with all settings at default but the LVF requires Brightness +6, Contrast -6, Saturation -1, Red Tint 0, Blue Tint +1. These settings suit my eyes and  high subject brightness range subject conditions, typical of Australia. Others will have slightly different color sensitivity.

Monitor Luminance  You can have Auto, Level 1 or Level 2. I leave it at Auto which seems to work well enough.

Economy  Sub menus are [Sleep Mode] and [Auto LVF/Monitor Off]. Default is 5 minutes to auto sleep mode for each. Obviously for reduced power consumption you would set shorter times although I find 1 minute inconveniently quick.  

USB Mode  See Page 79 of the Instructions.

TV Connection  See Pages 80-81 of the Instructions.

Menu Resume  Set this ON so the Menus open at the last used, and therefore probably most frequently used item.

Menu Background  Take your pick from 4 options.

Menu Information  You might want to have this on while learning the camera, then declutter the screens by turning it off.

Version Disp. This is where you see which Firmware version your body and lens are running currently.

Self Timer Auto Off     Definitely set this one to ON. The self timer will self cancel when you switch the camera off.

Reset settings  Pages 82-83 of the Instructions.

Pixel Refresh  Page 83.

Sensor Cleaning  The Instructions say this is to ‘blow off’ the dust and debris on the front cover of the sensor. Presumably this is an oddity of translation from Japanese as dust removal is by the usual method of vibration of the front sensor cover element. This is done automatically when the camera is powered on and any other time via this menu item.

Demo Mode  This is a bit of a mystery, with no description in my copy of the Instructions. It appears to be a promo of the new ‘Post Focus’ function.

Format  Always format a new card in the camera or a card which has been in another camera.

Rec Menu

Photo Style  This is where you set the characteristics  of out of camera JPGs. There are plenty of presets such as standard, vivid, natural  etc. You can also make a Custom Photo Style from any of the presets by pressing the down cursor button and entering your own settings for the parameters.

For the record my Custom Settings are Contrast -2, Sharpness +2, Noise Reduction -5, Saturation +1.

I live in Australia where clear skies and high subject brightness range are common hence the slightly reduced contrast.

Panasonic has a habit of setting over enthusiastic Noise Reduction by default so all my Panasonic cameras end up with the lowest possible NR setting.

Filter Setttings  This item takes you to the same place as the Creative Control setting on the  Mode Dial. I don’t know why you can get there in two different ways. However you can allocate ‘Filter Select’ to a Fn button so maybe that is why it appears in the Rec Menu.

Aspect Ratio   The GX8 does not have a multi aspect ratio sensor so you only get one ‘real’ aspect ratio which is 4:3. Anything else is a simple crop.

Picture Size  You just spent a lot of money to get the latest 20Mp M43 sensor so why you would record at any lower level is beyond me. But you can.  Ex Tele. Conv requires a reduced image size.

Quality  You can have 2 levels of JPG, RAW or both. I cannot see any reason you would opt for the lower of the two levels of JPG. I notice some people on user forums do so then wonder why their pictures are not as expected. Note that many camera functions are only available for JPG output.

This is a good item to allocate to a Fn button. I have it on the ‘Delete/Return’ button, bottom left on the control panel.

AFS/AFF     Page 142-143 of the Instructions. This is where you decide whether the camera will do AFS = AF Single or AFF= AF Flexible when the Focus Mode Lever is at the AFS/AFF setting.

AFS is easy enough to understand. The camera finds and locks focus with a half press of the shutter button. If you want to refocus lift the finger and go again.

AFF is a type of hybrid inbetween AFS and AFC (AF Continuous). When AFF is set, focus is acquired and locks just like AFS on a still subject. But if the subject moves the camera detects this and will refocus then stop again.

I use AFS but some people report good results with AFF.

Metering Mode   There are three options, Multiple, Center Weighted and Spot. In my experience the most reliable is Multiple so I set this. Some users prefer Center Weighted for some reason (previous experience, nostalgia ?).

If you want to frustrate yourself try [Spot] which is just about the quickest way I know to get incorrect exposures most of the time. But hey, it’s there if you want to experiment.

Burst Rate   You have, I hope,  allocated Drive Mode to a Fn button. I have it on the LVF button just to the right of the EVF. One of the Drive Mode options is [Burst]. The Burst Rate which the camera will use is set here in the Rec Menu.

The options are H(igh), M(edium) and L(ow).

You can read all about it on Pages 174-177 of the Instructions.

As usual with Panasonic cameras there are many options.

I use Burst Mode M. This is the fastest rate (about 6 fps, depending on the lens) which allows live view, AF and AE on every frame and works with RAW or JPG capture or both together. This is the best setting for moving subjects, sport/action and the like.

If you want to photograph a subject which is static as to focus distance but otherwise moving, such as a golf swing, tennis stroke or similar, then you can lock AF and AE and use a much faster frame rate, up to about 100fps with JPG capture and E-Shutter.

4K Photo   This is presented in great detail in the Instructions, Pages 178-192. I have nothing to add.

Auto Bracket   Use the Fn button assigned to Drive Mode to set the camera to make an Auto Exposure Bracket series. Here in the Rec Menu is the place to set up your preferred sequence.

The options are

* Single/Burst Settings.    Burst is the one you want. The camera will fire off  the whole sequence as long as you hold down the shutter button or the button on a wired remote controller. I think you can also use a smart phone to trigger the shutter but I have not tried it.

* Step. You get plenty of choice from 3 exposures spaced 1/3 stop apart up to 7 exposures with 1 stop (= 1 EV step)  between each.  I set 5 exposures at 1 EV step intervals.

* Sequence. You can have 0/-/+ or -/0/+. The latter makes most sense to me.

The one thing which unfortunately you cannot have with Panasonic Auto Bracket is linking timer delay with auto bracket. If this was possible it would not be necessary to press the shutter to make the exposure set.

Self Timer   This is where you tell the camera what timer settings to use when  Drive Mode is set to Timer.

The options are 10 seconds, 10 seconds with three shots, for selfies with group, and 2 seconds.

Highlight/Shadow    Instructions Page 128.   This is a feature which I first saw on Olympus M43 cameras.  It allows you to manipulate the highlight/shadow curve before capture.  On a camera already overloaded with features I really cannot see the rationale for this one. No doubt someone will say they really like it.

I guess Panasonic thought they had to keep up with Olympus.

i.Dynamic  This is a JPG only feature which I have found to be quite useful. The idea is that when subject brightness range (SBR) is high the camera will detect this and underexpose the shot then apply a tone curve correction in camera to bring up the dark and mid  tones to normal viewing levels. 

The purpose it to prevent blown out highlights.

The options are Auto, High, Standard, Low and Off. I have found that Auto can be set permanently. 

When SBR is low the camera exposes and processes the file normally but when SBR is high the camera automatically applies the correction.

i.Resolution  (JPG only) I am not so sure about this one. I have tried it several times on several Panasonic cameras and not yet been convinced of a benefit. I believe the idea is that the camera will detect and sharpen only those parts of the scene which can benefit from sharpening.

Post Focus  This feature is so new it has not yet appeared in my copy of the Operating Instructions.

Post Focus can be assigned to a Fn button which appears to be the most efficient way to activate the feature.

I have to say this is not a feature which I ever thought I wanted.

Unfortunately Panasonic does not offer one feature which I do want and which was always easily available in the ‘good old days’ with manual focus lenses. That is the ability to preset a focus distance by scale, for instance 3 or 10 meters for street work or infinity for landscapes.  I would much rather see Panasonic put its R&D effort into making this feature available with current model bodies and lenses.

iHandheld Night Shot  is a fully automatic function which only works with JPG output and when the Mode Dial is set to [iA]. To switch the feature on first turn the Mode Dial to [iA] then the item becomes active in the Rec Menu and can be accessed.

The idea is that the camera automatically detects that it is hand held in dark conditions and makes a series of short exposures which are combined in camera.

I was unable to get this to work during testing so I don’t know how useful it might be. 

iHDR  is another fully automatic JPG only [iA] only feature which detects high subject brightness range and automatically takes a series of exposures which are combined in camera. This one did work for me but the benefit over a straight shot carefully exposed to avoid blowing out highlights is slight if any.

I think the idea is to leave both these i-Functions set On permanently so they activate when required.

HDR is different from iHDR.  Although a JPG only function it is not fully automatic and has to be initiated by the user.  It works in P, A, S, M  Modes.The camera makes three exposures which are combined in camera to a single output.

Sub tabs allow you to set the separation between the exposures to 1, 2 or 3 EV or Auto as detected by the camera.

Auto Align is used if the camera is handheld.

I have tested this and it works and it could be useful for users who shoot only JPG. However I usually get better results from a single well exposed RAW capture with post processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Multi Exp    All right it’s true confessions time. I have never figured out how to use the Multi Exposure capability. Mea culpa I suppose but I really can’t be bothered with a feature the operation of which is so obscure that I cannot understand it.

Time Lapse Shot    Here we go, another mea culpa, but also another function the operation of which I find  confusing so I don’t use it.  Page 197 of the Instructions.  The same comments apply to Stop Motion Animation.  Maybe I am just getting old.

Panorama Settings  have been covered in an earlier post.

Electronic Shutter  The phenomenon of shutter shock can be observed with many M43 lenses on the GX8 as with other M43 cameras. 

The fix for this with general hand held photography is to use the E-Shutter.  But there are limitations on E-Shutter so it cannot be used all the time.

Allocate the selection E-Shutter/M-Shutter to a Fn button. I have it on Fn 13.

There is also now with the latest firmware an Auto option on this tab which will automatically set the Mechanical shutter for speeds 1/50 second or slower and 1/400 second or faster. The E-Shutter is set for speeds 1/60 -1/320 which is the shutter speed range in which most problems with shutter shock have been reported.

This appears to be a reasonable way to deal with the shutter shock issue on the GX8.

Shutter Delay   Page 173.   E-Shutter will not work for shutter speeds longer than 1 second at low ISO sensitivity settings or 1/8 second at high ISO. I do not know why this is so.

When you have the camera on a tripod in low light with slow shutter speeds there needs to be an alternative way to avoid shutter shock. This is [Shutter Delay].  Panasonic calls this ‘Minimising vibration of the shutter’. This is the only acknowledgement I can find in the Instructions that a problem with ‘Vibration of the shutter’ exists.

This is a good function to assign to a Custom Mode along with other settings appropriate to tripod mounted low light work.

The sequence is press shutter button > shutter closes > Delay occurs > shutter opens > exposure takes place > Shutter closes > Shutter opens ready for the next sequence.

The delay apparently allows vibration from the initial shutter closing to settle down. The subsequent shutter open action appears not to cause significant vibration.

You can set the delay period to 1, 2, 4, or 8 seconds. I find 2 seconds is enough to prevent vibration from shutter shock and also allows camera movement caused by pressing the shutter to settle down.

Flash   Page 229.     The GX8 has no built in flash. However like all Panasonic M43 cameras and some FZLCs the GX8 has extensive provision for sophisticated flash photography with on and off camera units.

ISO Limit Set   This refers to the upper limit which the camera will set with auto ISO. I use 6400. Users who are grain averse might want to set a lower limit.

ISO Increments  You can set 1/3 EV step increments but I don’t see the point as Aperture and Shutter Speed operate in 1/3 step increments.

Extended ISO   Base ISO sensitivity for the GX8 is 200. Setting Extended ISO allows you to set 100. This provides marginally less digital noise than ISO 200 and thus might be useful for situations when high levels of image detail are required.

But there may be downsides to ISO 100. I haven’t actually tested this with the GX8 yet but the ISO 100 setting on other Panasonic M43 cameras gives reduced dynamic range compared to ISO 200.

In addition there may be false color with highlight recovery in Adobe Camera Raw and presumably other RAW converters. I have tested this and found that recovered highlights at ISO 100 appear to be unaffected by color shift, on my tests to date.

My practice is to leave extended ISO Off.  ISO 200 gives excellent results anyway.

Update: 29 January 2016:  

Bill Claff at   http://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR.htm   has analysed many cameras including the GX8  and concluded that the GX8 has slightly better dynamic range at ISO 100 than 200. 
As there appears to be no detriment to the use of ISO 100 with the GX8 I will try using it more often for a while, with the Extended ISO setting ON.

Further update: 29 January 2016:  I have seen reports from other users that sometimes there is a magenta cast when highlights are recovered in a RAW converter from ISO 100 files.

So I went back to setting the Extended ISO setting OFF. It seems the jury is not entirely in agreement on this issue.

Long Shutter Noise Reduction  This only applies to long exposures with the mechanical shutter. The camera has algorithms which factor in the exposure time and ISO setting which is why the NR feature kicks in at different exposure times depending on the ISO setting. The camera locks up after the exposure for the same length of time as the exposure. During that time long exposure noise is removed.

I generally set this ON but users doing very long exposures may find it inconvenient.

Shading Comp.  Page 138.  This is active even with RAW recording which is interesting. Most lenses especially at their maximum aperture deliver loss of brightness toward the corners of the image. This feature is to compensate. I leave it off but I guess there is no great harm in having it on. 

The extra processing required might slow burst performance. There will be a bit more grain in the corrected corners which might be visible if  high ISO sensitivity is used.

Diffraction Compensation  Page 139. This one is also active with RAW recording so presumably applies to RAW files.  16-20 Mpx M43 cameras start to show loss of acuity as the lens aperture is stopped down from about f9. By f16 images are obviously soft due to diffraction of light at the aperture diaphragm.

Presumably the Diffraction Compensation feature applies extra sharpening as the aperture closes down in an attempt to regain some of that lost sharpness.

Ex. Tele Conv and Digital Zoom  (Page 221-223)  These are JPG only features which seek to increase the zoom range by digital means. Both incur a penalty on image quality and in my experience neither is better than a simple crop of a RAW file.

Ex. Tele Conv becomes active if the feature is  ON and an image size of M (10 Mpx) or L (5 Mpx) is selected.

Digital Zoom claims to be a full 20 Mpx image but the 20Mpx are just obtained by interpolation in camera.

Color Space    Set this to Adobe RGB. The color space will default to sRGB for JPGs anyway but you want Adobe RGB for the RAWs.

Stabiliser   Page 216-217 of the Instructions

The GX8 has some very sophisticated image stabiliser functions which can simultaneously utilise both lens based OIS (if fitted) and the In Body Image Stabiliser (IBIS).

The description on Pages 216-217 of the Instructions indicates a rather complex set of options.

To see what type of stabiliser function is active at any time press the Disp button repeatedly until the full info screen comes up. The Stabiliser icon is just below the top right corner. This indicates whether the stabiliser is set and if so what type is currently active.

If the lens has an OIS lever, pushing the lever up sets Dual IS,  pushing it down turns both IS types off.

If a lens without OIS is mounted the little icon indicates ‘Body’.

For lenses without an OIS lever you need to make Stabiliser settings at this menu item or better, assign Stabiliser settings to the Q Menu.

If Stabiliser is accessed from the Rec Menu there are three submenus

* Operation Mode, Normal, Panning or Off.  All camera makers recommend that you switch the stabiliser off for tripod work.  In my experience this is good advice. Sometimes I have found that leaving OIS On with the camera tripod mounted produces no problems but at other times I have seen loss of sharpness. So best advice is to do as they recommend and turn the Stabiliser off with tripod work.

* E Stabilisation for video. This uses an electronic form of stabiliser during video recording.

* Focal Length Set. This is for 3^rd party lenses which the camera does not recognise and allows correct operation of the IBIS.

Face Recog.   This is another one of those Panasonic menu items which I suppose are there because they can. This can be set to recognise a specific person’s face and focus on that.

Profile Setup   Page 212  This is for ‘Recording profiles of babies and pets on images’. Really. No kidding.

That’s all for the GX8 setup series.