Setting up the Panasonic Lumix G80/85

G85  Good highlight and shadow detail

The G80/85 is Panasonic’s best ever enthusiast Micro Four Thirds interchangeable lens camera with a very high level of specifications, image quality, performance and ergonomics.

But the camera has so many features and options for user specified function of the controls that a newcomer to this type of camera might feel quite daunted by the number and complexity of choices which must be made.

This post is designed to help with that process.

Users familiar with previous Panasonic M43 cameras will feel right at home with the G80 as the menus and controls are very similar across the models.

The first step is to download the PDF  Operating Instructions For Advanced Features document available through any national Panasonic website. Follow the prompts for Support from the data page for the G80/85 camera.

At first sight the 337 page Operating Instructions look rather daunting. However the document is well laid out and written. Navigation is easy with a well designed jump feature to move from one part of the text to another.

I strongly advise a new G80 owner to take several hours time out from an otherwise busy life to go through the Instructions with the camera in hand. There is a lot of information in there.

The Instructions tell you in great detail about all kinds of settings you can make on the camera but almost nothing about why you might choose one setting in preference to another.

I hope this post will help with that.

Beginners to photography and erstwhile snapshooters can set the Mode Dial to the [iA] setting, charge up the battery, adjust the eyepiece dioptre, pop in a memory card and be up and running very quickly.  This is “point-and-shoot” mode on a Panasonic camera. It works fine but gives the user only limited control over exposure and focus parameters.

The G80 is really designed for expert/enthusiast photographers who want to take control of the camera.

It is also a very suitable device for a beginner who wants to become more proficient in camera work. 

The camera can be set up to allow a user’s increasing competence to be reflected in greater imaging capability.

There are very few things by way of still or motion picture photography which the G80 cannot do.

This post is about setting up for still photography. The camera also has a very high capability for 4K video with many options not covered in this post.

The G80 is highly configurable.

There are five hard Function buttons which allow user selected function.  There are also soft Fn buttons which appear as little icons on the right side of the screen. For each button there are 56 options.

One of those options is a Q Menu. If you opt for a Custom Q Menu up to 15 of 40 options can be allocated.

At first the process of deciding what function to allocate to which button seems almost impossible. 

There are so many choices.

I use and recommend a conceptual framework which helps to guide the process.

There are four Phases of camera use, Setup, Prepare, Capture and Review.

Setup Phase is the process where you spend quiet time with the camera, going through the Menu items with the Operating Instructions up on screen. This needs to be done at leisure.

Items which do not need to be adjusted while out and about with the camera can stay in the main menus, accessed by the [Menu/Set] button.

Prepare Phase is the period of a minute or few just before making photos when you want to configure the camera of the current subject. It might be a landscape, sporting event, indoor party, night shot on tripod and so forth. Each subject requires adjustments to a set of camera parameters. Adjustments for this phase are ideally located on the main Mode Dial, Drive Mode Dial, Focus Mode lever, Fn buttons and Q Mode button.

Capture Phase refers to the process of taking pictures. At this time you want to quickly adjust primary and secondary exposure and focus parameters while looking through the viewfinder and without disrupting grip with either hand.

These parameters are Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, Exposure Compensation, AF on, Change position and size of AF Area. Of course nobody needs to change all these parameters with every exposure but the camera should be (and the G80 is) configured to enable any of them to be adjusted quickly while looking through the viewfinder.

The best control modules for this are the shutter button, front and rear dials and the 4-Way controller. Some users say they also like to use touch screen functions in Capture Phase but I am not convinced about this.  Actually I am convinced but in the negative (see below).

Touch screen operation

Panasonic cameras including the G80 offer many options for touch screen control, Custom Menu screen 9/9 and Instructions Page 217.

Many reviewers and contributors to user forums mark a camera down if it does not have touch screen functions. I find touch operation useful for setting up the Q Menu. It could also be useful for video operation with the camera on a tripod and the monitor swung out to the side.

Otherwise I find the touch screen a nuisance as it keeps getting bumped by my nose or brushed by a finger which causes a change to some setting not desired by me.

There are four submenus under the [Touch Settings] tab,

1. ON/OFF. None of the touch functions will work if this is set to OFF.

2. Touch Tab. When ON the little soft Fn buttons on the right side of the screen become active. My suggestion is, turn this feature ON for a while then when you get irritated because you accidentally touched one of the tabs for the 10^th time switch it OFF.

3. Touch AF. You can set this to activate AF, AE or both by touching the screen anywhere. This is the function which I think might be useful with the camera on a tripod.

4. Touch Pad AF. This allows you to move the AF Area position using touch while looking through the viewfinder. It incorporates a nudge function so you don’t have to put your thumb on the exact spot. There is also an [Offset] function which allows you to push the AF Area anywhere in the frame while using only one side of the screen.

This works and some users say they really like it.

Give it a try.

I prefer using the Cursor Buttons with [Direct Focus Area].

Direct Focus Area

Find this on screen 3/9 in the Custom Menu. With this ON, the active AF Area will move directly when any of the cursor buttons is pressed.

You do not have to allocate [Focus Area Set] to a Function button.

You bypass the  default setting which uses the left Cursor button to access Focus Area Set via a double press. First press on the left cursor button enters AF Mode. Second press on the down cursor button enters the Focus Area Set screen in which you can change the position and size of the active AF area.

There is nothing wrong with this default process it just requires two preliminary key presses every time you want to enter the Focus Area Set screen.

The advantage is you get to keep the default functions of the cursor keys.

However if [Direct Focus Area] is set these functions are easily assigned to other entry points namely Fn buttons and Q Menu.

Custom Functions

Notice that there are marks for C1 and C2 on the Mode Dial. If you set C2 and press the Menu/Set button then options for C2-1, C2-2 and C2-3 appear making four Custom Menu settings in total.

[Cust. Set Mem.] is located at the top of the custom Menu, screen 1/9 and described in the Instructions on Page 87.

You can set up the camera for, say, night photography on tripod and have the settings memorised to one of the Custom Mode positions. Note that adjustments on the Drive Mode dial and the Focus 

Mode lever cannot be saved to a Custom Mode. This is one of the disadvantages of the designer’s decision to allocate some functions to hard modules with engraved markings. If the Focus Mode Lever is set to AFC it can’t be anywhere else.

Setup menu items and some others also cannot be allocated to a Custom Mode.

However the main Mode Dial position can be memorised on a Custom Mode setting.

Dial Operation

Find [Dial Set] on screen 8/9 of the Custom Menu and Page 43 of the Instructions.

The G80 has a well implemented twin control dial layout. This is optimal for expert/enthusiast users who can drive the camera like a sports car. The dials are nicely located and shaped so they can be operated easily without releasing grip on the camera with the right hand.

The submenus under the [Dial Set] tab are:

1. Assign Dial (F/SS) This decides what each dial does in Manual Exposure Mode. You can set the front dial to change Aperture (F=fstop) and the rear dial to Shutter Speed (SS) or the reverse.

If unsure, leave it at the default position. The important thing is to practice so your fingers become accustomed to going where they need to without having to think about it.

2. Rotation (F/SS). With the default setting, each dial produces “value up” (fstop number higher or shutter speed faster) when the finger on the dial moves to the right. My brain is wired to expect this and most electronic devices work this way, that is,  move/swipe èright for value up.

I would find it really confusing to reverse dial rotation but you can do it. Again the important thing is to practice so your fingers move the right way without having to think about it.

3. Exposure Comp. You can assign direct exposure compensation to the rear dial. I use and recommend this setting. It makes setting exposure compensation really easy especially when guided by the zebras in the viewfinder.

4. Dial Operation Switch Setup. This is a way of extracting an extra function from each dial. I can see that in the abstract, this idea might seem appealing.

However the opportunity cost is loss of the required fn button to any other function.

In addition I find that if I train my fingers to operate certain functions using particular controls then I get out of harmony with the capture flow process when the control ( in this case a dial) suddenly does something different from usual.  Some people’s neuromuscular co-ordination system might be able to accommodate this but mine can’t.

Give it a try, maybe.

Function Buttons

See Fn.Button Set on screen 7/9 in the Custom Menu and Page 55 of the Instructions.

The most useful items to allocate to Fn buttons are those which you might wish to adjust in Prepare Phase of use. Go through the long list of options which the camera presents and think about this. The initial temptation is to stick all manner of things on the Fn buttons but their supply is strictly limited. 

For items not requiring such direct accessibility the Q Menu is more appropriate.

For the record I have:

ISO on Fn 1

AF Mode on Fn 2

Fn3, the down cursor button is disabled by [Direct Focus Area]

Q Menu on Fn 4

Stabiliser on Fn 5

Q Menu

This is the place for items you want to access without having to delve into the main menus but do not require a dedicated portal such as a Fn button.

Of the 40 items available 15 can be allocated to a Custom Q Menu, (see Custom Menu screen 8/9 and Instructions Page 54) but only 5 can be displayed at a time.

I have Bracketing, Quality and AFS/AFF on the Q Menu.

AF/AE Lock button

This is the button in the middle of the Focus Mode lever on the back of the camera.

See Custom Menu screen 1/9 and Instructions Page 105.

This is well placed for back button focus.

For single shot photos AF the [AF Lock] setting is useful. If multiple shots of the same subject at the same focussed distance are required it can also be useful to set the next tab down [AF/AE Lock Hold] to ON.

For follow focus on a moving subject using AFC and Burst M the AF/AE Lock button can be set to AF-ON. The camera will run continuous autofocus as long as the button is held down. Thus AF can be separated from exposure metering and shutter firing. This can be useful when photographing sports where you might want the camera to follow focus continuously but only start making exposures when the right moment appears in the viewfinder.

Shutter Type

The G7 has a problem with shutter shock when the spring loaded mechanical shutter is used with some lenses including the popular 14-140mm zoom.

The G80 has an entirely different electro magnetic shutter which has not (as far as I am aware) been reported to have any issues with shutter shock.

I think you can therefore safely use the mechanical shutter all the time.

Even better the G80 also has electronic first curtain (EFC) so under the [Shutter Type] tab in the Rec menu screen 5/8 you can set [EFC] and leave it there unless a shutter speed faster than 1/2000 is required in which case a switch to the E-Shutter is required.