It's very good of you to say so and I appreciate it - thank you.

++ for the comment ^

Kim Cruz i found focusing more accurate on olympus em1 mark ii vs Panasonic g9

:-)

It's nice of you to say so - glad you enjoy them.

Thank you, Ronnie!

Thansk you - glad it was useful.

@@DavidThorpeMFT purchase made, camera in hand, very happy customer!! thanks again Dave! looking forward to hopfully a 2x TC review 👌

Thanks Adelino - and thanks for telling me.

Thanks, Leo.

I did the same move. I really enjoy m43 system.

Thanks, Cosmin!

Thanks, Philip!

Yeah. The menus have kept me in Pana camp. Lens side is a different thing. Although Olympus selling hoods seperately for most of their lenses is infuriating. ~40€ for a hood for my 60mm macro lens? That's a high price for plastic (although it's not that simple).

I guess it is largely personal preference. I seem to be one of the only people who prefers olympus's menu system (although that's probably most likely due to the fact that 95% of my shooting has been on olympus - and I would probably loose that preference with more experience on other systems) That being said, I am legitimately considering panasonic for my next camera for video capabilities

I've used both (started with Pana) and never had much of an issue with the Oly menus. I now have an Oly camera and all Pana lenses lol! I like how Pana better appreciate the smaller lenses.

Thanks, Kerry - you are welcome!

Thanks, Hank! There are some great reviewers out there but there some awful ones too and I sometimes feel that the vast majority of their viewers will know more than they do. Beware man in baseball cap yelling "Hi Guys!" :-)

Thank you, John. I'll see what i can do.

Lovely of you to say so - thanks!

Haha! And thanks!

Thanks! Yes, very similar. Takes longer to learn and find your way around but of course once you know where everything you need on one camera it translates to the next. They have changed the E-M1 Mkll menu but it's nothing radical and you'd find your way around it very quickly.

Thanks Ricardo! I await the G9 with interest myself. And yes, it does somehow come through when you enjoy doing something. One of the things I like about photographing families is that any decent camera will do it, so the picture really does depend on the photographer and his or her manner.

David Thorpe Agreed. As with many other professions, doing good work is more than just being technically good.

I am convinced Panasonic are trying to ruin me :-) The G85 is an easy camera to be content with but like you I am pleased to see Panasonic demonstrating their commitment to stills photographers.

I look at it another way - if it wasn't for me you'd still have the money but you wouldn't have the lenses and would therefore be unhappy. So you ought to thank me for making you spend the money :-) Olympus have always had a logical and coherent policy with lenses. I think the 40-150 f/2.8 is the greatest example of that, a lens that is really takes advantage of the smaller sensor to deliver a spec that wouldn't be practical otherwise. As you say, the Olympus menu system can be coped with but they really do need to get into a more user friendly form. It would be the single most useful upgrade they could do. Nice lens line-up!

:-)

Thanks Andy! I think the G9 should be ideal for what you do. I found the 100-400's autofocus superb with the GX8. The G9 may be even better but only incrementally, I expect.

Thanks - I'm waiting too!

Hi Rob - I'm just waiting for the sound files to come back to me so should post my review tomorrow (Feb 24th). Just to address your question, you will not find anything much in my review to lessen your temptation :-)

In my reviews and books, I stress the usefulness of this feature, especially given the dense Olympus menu system. Absolutely the best way of controlling the camera. Unbelievably, Olympus used to have the SCP set off by default!

@@davidthorpe7732 I just subscribed so I look forward to viewing more of your videos.

@@jonbarnard7186 Thanks, Jon!

I like both but it'd be the Olympus, mainly for the stabiization.

Yes, he's fine. He still calls round and allows us to adore him for a short while before going on to the neighbours. I fear he is getting a little spoilt. But will pass on your greeting to him even so :-)

That would be fun, William but I have to buy all the stuff I review so i stick to Micro Four Thirds equipment.

The G9 does sound exciting though in general work and viewing there'll be no huge difference in IQ to your Olympus - which has the advantage of being truly compact, of course. When I use 4K it's for my product shots on my videos because it gives me the ability to crop them if I want to. For all other video, I use FHD which the E-M5II does as well as any other camera for my purposes. 4K produces fairly unwieldy file sizes and very few TVs and computers have 4K screen so far.

I think they will bring in an update to the GX8 at some point. Their range would be totally complete if they made the GH5 the top line hybrid with the best of both stills and video incorporated as a standalone. Then a G9 and GX9, as top line stills cameras in DSLR and rangefinder style and G80 and GX80 next down and more compact. But what do I know?

I've yet to do nitty gritty tests but that does appear the general impression. I think the E-M1 MkII may still be a bit better in really poor light fast moving sports but I've always found the Panasonics to be better in more usual circumstances, including with Olympus Pro lenses. Contrast AF is so fast now but the phase detection is still more certain in extremes. It's so hard to pin the differences because it is next to impossible to duplicate tests properly. And with any camera, setting the most apt focus area and keeping the subject within it, ie the photographer's skill can still make more difference than any technical improvements.

Thanks for the suppprt offer, much appreciated. I don't know if there is any way to do that on KZfaq. It's a real toss-up between the Olympus and Panasonic. My personal preference is for the Panasonic because I like the LCD and the much better menu system. The Panasonic also has the customizable My Menu so I put all the menu items I use in there in alphabetical order and can always find them. The Olympus menu system badly needs rethinking, in my opinion. The Olympus is that bit better for moving sequence shots but G9 has a _much_ better EVF and better video facilities. I'm not providing much guidance here, these are two top line cameras and in the end they are not better or worse but different. As a camera to use, I thought the GH3/4/5 were about the best I'd ever used. The G9 follows their lead in that respect so for me the balance is with the G9. But if I would be more than happy to use the Olympus instead and would find its smaller size handy. Neither camera would disappoint On balance, overall, because you already know Panasonic's ways, I'd say go with that. I forgot in camera charging and power on the G9. Very useful.

David Thorpe thank you! It seems that the G9 is really the best option for me. It also uses the same battery as GH4 and GH5, which I have several. In addition to the same charger. Better yet with usb cable charging. Thanks again David. Really balanced set make me stay with Panasonic. But I confess that I always had the desire to have an Olympus. But this is a wish for the future. Maybe em5 mIII in a year or two.

Thanks, Andrei. It's a hard question you ask Basically, if a given exposure yields a different brightness image on two cameras, it is simply the makers having different criteria for what a properly exposed image is. Proper exposure is a preference or choice, an artistic consideration rather than an objective one. It doesn't mean one camera is faster than the other, simply that one considers a darker image correctly exposed, one a lighter image. In film days, I used to use Kodachrome 64 for colour transparencies. Kodak's speed rating of 64 gace too dark an image for my taste and I used ASA40 instead of ASA64. A colleague of mine used to shoot Kodachrome at ASA80 - he simply preferred a darker result. Ditto the little one and the big one.

David Thorpe Thanks for the clarification.

Thanks, Jon. Panasonic do seem to have taken a list of attributes that stills photographers want and stuffed them all into one camera. I really like the E-M1 II and I suspect its Phase Detection focusing will still have the edge over DfD at high shooting speeds but the user friendly nature of the G9, its flexible power supply system, always on low current consumption top LCD and the rest will give the Olympus tough competition. I wonder what the E-M1 Mark 3 will be like :-)

If you really want the highest speed RAW and full size JPG recording and the best dim light C-AF (not S-AF), the Olympus it has to be. In terms of usability, with its focus joystick, LCD Info panel, superb EVF etc, the Panasonic is way ahead and makes the Olympus feel like a previous generation camera. Which many will like and want, of course. I find the ability to charge the camera in the car and to power it externally alone make it the better buy for me. It's goodbye to battery worries. I'm assuming you mean the GH5 rather than G5 - I can't actually tell any difference in focus speed over the GH5, simply because there doesn't appear to be anything I do that would test it to the limit. It's a bit like a car that does 150mph rather than 120 - why not but I'll never notice it!

I want the best for shooting birds in flight..I know, I hear you, the Nikon D500 but I want to stay mirrorless. My OMD 5 mk11 does all I want except Birds in flight The G9 last weekend nailed more or less every picture sharp. Have you had experience on the omd em1 mk11 with a subject like this...

My overall experience with both cameras now is that the PDAF of the Olympus is more reliable under conditions where the subject has radical changes in direction and is in very dim light, indoor school sports, for example. My own view is that the PDAF advantage is offset by the Panasonic's facility to tailor the focus area in shape and size to the subject in hand. I've used both cameras photographing gulls wheeling around and found performance of both cameras similar. You'd be looking at better than 90% sharp with both cameras and with either maker's lenses. Olympus lenses work just great on the G9 (in spite of no DfD) and vice versa. My experiences with the E-M5 mark II were a hit rate of maybe 80% under similar conditions. Actually, Micro Four Thirds is getting pretty close to the DSLRs now in this area. Where the E-M1 mkII definitely outdoes the G9 is its ability to shoot at high speed with full size files - the G9 will give you AF-C and live view at 20fps but it is limited to 50 frames - or 2.5 seconds shooting. You then can't shoot for a few seconds while the buffer is emptied. Not good. Personally, I find 7 fps about right and use that rather than the 9fps I could. That will just keep on for ages on JPG with some slowing down on RAW files.

Thanks for all that Dave.

I never bought in to the system because I thought it would be cheap - and I was right there! - but because it hit the sweet spot between size and quality. None of the new cameras or drops in price change that. The bigger sensors will always require bigger lenses and though lens size can be lessened bigger sensor will always mean bigger lens. Having said all that, if someone comes up with a FF camera with the same size body and lenses as Micro Four Thirds, I'd be a ready buyer.

@@DavidThorpeMFT There is a hype around ff and former mft fanboys have ditched mft but i am wondering will an 1.8 lens in ff outperform an 1.2 lens in mft.

Micro Four Thirds lenses are more than sharp enough for anything that I do so whether some FF lens outperforms one of them holds no interest for me whatever. Who cares? I don't understand all this'fanboy' business either. It sounds more like 13 year olds discussing some teen pop star than people interested in making pictures.

@@DavidThorpeMFT I like your thinking. A guy named robin wong discussed these discussions and said people have become too obsessed with gear they carry 10k cameras but have not taken a single picture. He said I am more interested in the art rather than specifications.

Well, continuing your joke, for being so unselfish and not picking the little one, Ma'ruf, I'm going to give you the big one :-)

Yes, I guess it does. It is unmistakably Olympus in design and function and a very neat size, too.

Yes, Olympus need to bite the bullet soon and do a rewrite of the menu on more modern lines. Going from, say, a Fuji to Panasonic is easier than from Olympus to Fuji because Fuji menus are more generically modern, as are Sony. They are all different but Olympus really is out on a limb with theirs.

Any contact with panasonic to get the G9 early ? They should send you one for free before release.

I don't even try these days - they don't reply!

David Thorpe It's crazy from them. You are one of the few ready to make proper reviews and not just thinking panasonic is only good for video.

Yes. These great big organisations don't think that subtly, though. But thanks for the sentiment, Sylvain.

Since I have been told by others that I always prefer Panasonic, your remark illustrates that I must be doing something right. Actually, I use a mix of Panasonic and Olympus equipment without regard to what I use with which. And if Nikon came out with a camera that better suited my purposes, I'd use that. I have no brand loyalty in my bones and since I buy pretty much all of the cameras I review, I say exactly what I think. Both makers offer superb cameras and lenses and for a given amount of money you could buy either and be sure of getting a good product. As for a slip of the tongue, well, I'm sorry. Everything in my videos is done by me personally. It is the result of many weeks of photography, product shooting, scripting and recording and assembling. What surprises me is that I don't make more mistakes than I do. Sometimes you don't see the wood for the trees. Cue Brenda Lee, I'm sorry, so sorry :-) As for, 12800 instead of 12600

One of each then Tomas :-)

I can't have an opinion on rumours. I don't get cameras on loan from manufacturers for a couple of weeks, I buy them and use them for actually taking photographs for quite a long time before forming an opinion. I can't take pictures with a rumour :-)

David Thorpe well the specific qoute is in photographyblog, they claim it is a better value as an allarounder than gh5. The gh9 competes directly with omd em1 mark ii. The question I have is what do you mean by an imaging tool?

I haven't seen or tried a G9 yet so my opinion has no value whatsoever. Photographyblog presumable have one on loan from Panasonic? What I mean by an imaging too is a camera that will handle any photographic task you may have with aplomb. The GH5 qualifies there because it will shoot both video and stills to the highest standard for its format and has a very controllable and intuitive user interface. So for someone like me who uses a camera in all kinds of different settings, it will be both easy to set up and capable for any task. It can be used on mains power with a cheap adapter, no need for a battery grip, is another example. The E-M1 MkII is much more of a traditional camera and doesn't configure and reconfigure so easily and the menu system makes setting up for many and various tasks rather difficult. It cannot handle top quality video. In other words, the Olympus is a great enthusiast camera where the Panasonic is more of an all round workhorse.

David Thorpe now I see, for casual shooting you recommend omd but for someone who demands top quality for stills and video gh5 is the answer, gh5 is more like g80 while omd is more like gx80

Sort of. The cameras have similar IQ but the GH5 is a more function oriented design, the Olympus feels more like a traditional camera. Both will do most jobs well, of course.

The g85 and gx85 are fantastic and the menu system is miles ahead of Olympus.

Get a cheap Panasonic g85 and it will solve what you didn't appreciate with Olympus.

Sylvain Paquette, If the G85 has in-body stabilisation I may look into it. I’ll look up some reviews on the G85. Many thanks for the suggestion. 🙂

Seamus Warren it sure have it and got dual is too if lens has it. The gx85 too.