This Lumix has been on my camera bucket
list for a couple of years now, and
finally it's reached the top.
And I found this particular model on
MPB.com not sponsored, with a zoom lens
for £204, which is
$253, so way below $300.
MPB listed this one as well used because
of some slight wearing on
the bottom of the camera,
but nothing that affects the
functionality in any way, shape or form.
You'll notice this camera shares a lot of
similarities with another micro four
thirds mount camera I
reviewed earlier this year,
so we're going to be making some direct
comparisons as well as comparing it with
modern cameras within a street
photography context.
Considering the age of this camera
originally released in November of 2013,
it actually has some surprisingly good
features that compare with some other
cameras I've talked about on the channel,
that would make it a good camera for
beginners or street
photographers looking for an upgrade.
The first trick that this camera has is
its in body image stabilisation,
and while this makes it a much more
capable option than the
Lumix GX1 which we talked about,
it's not quite up there with some other
micro four thirds mount
bodies of a similar age.
It's important to remember that the IBIS
found in this camera actually is only a
two axis image stabilisation,
whereas most cameras today offer five
axes of image stabilisation.
The lens I have paired on this particular
camera does also
offer image stabilisation,
so this lens and this camera
together are paired quite well.
The second trick I want to highlight on
the GX7 is its fancy
little tilting up EVF,
just in case you want to invent a new
cool style of shooting.
I don't know why they would invent that.
That's not even the trick
that I want to mention here.
What I want to mention here is that this
EVF is actually higher resolution than my
brand new Sony A6700.
Not by much, but marginally
a slightly higher resolution,
which for a camera that is 10 years older
than it is impressive.
Another underrated feature that I think
makes or breaks your relationship with
any camera is the shutter sound
and how much you like or
dislike the shutter sound.
Sadly, I can't say that the GX7 ranks
very highly in my list of
favourite shutter sounds
behind my old rangefinder and the A7S and
a Fuji XT4 for having some of the best.
And because of this, for the most part,
I've been shooting in
silent mode when using the GX7.
When it comes to the autofocus system
that we have here on this camera,
we have a modest 23 autofocus points.
The touchscreen interface of this tilting
LCD screen to be able to tap around to
actually choose your autofocus area
makes it feel like you've got full screen
coverage and the autofocus is fast,
responsive and accurate.
The camera does also have facial
recognition, which I believe you should
be able to see at the moment.
And this can be useful if you are
shooting someone specifically.
But other than that, I would typically be
on the 23 autofocus point wide mode.
I want to take some time to show you some
images straight out
of camera from the GX7.
Straight out the raw images converted to
JPEG for you to see what you think.
And then I'm going to show you pretty
much all those images again,
but with a brand new
preset applied to those images.
Reviewing the images straight out of
camera, one of the biggest problems
you'll notice is I was
poorly exposing some shots and this is
definitely my fault. I hadn't
shot with a variable aperture
zoom lens in a while. It's a weird flex
but okay so I actually didn't really
account for the fact
that the exposure was going to drop when
I zoomed in on a few of
these shots. And of course the
second thing you'll notice here if you've
got a keen eye is that the images
straight out of camera
are in a 4 by 3 aspect ratio and the
reason for this is we can shoot in
multiple aspect ratios
in camera however we do reduce the
resolution of the images out of camera.
If we go to 3 by 2 it
becomes a 14 megapixel sensor so if you
want to maximize the
resolution from the sensor and get
our full 16 megapixels we have to shoot
in 4 by 3 and this actually
still gives us the freedom to
crop more freely in post. Now trying my
new King Street preset on these images
these are the images
with a small amount of editing which look
the part for street photography
especially with the kind
of light that I had when
capturing these particular images.
(light music)
Just retaining the highlights a little,
balancing the exposure and enriching the
colours without over saturating.
Considering I'd only had a short amount
of time using the camera at this point
before shooting some of these images,
I'm actually very happy with the results
I got straight out of camera.
This shot in particular, I saw the shot
as something interesting, but I messed up
the exposure in quite a big way.
But luckily the files from this camera
are very flexible and I just used a
little bit of editing.
So I applied my King Street preset and
then I just increased the
exposure by a full two stops.
I know don't shoot me, but then I just
use Lightroom's AI noise reduction and
this is the final result compared to the
out of camera image.
I've mentioned previously about the
similarities and differences between the
GX7 and the EM10 Mark I that I owned
earlier this year and
made several videos on.
Both of these cameras share the same
4-thirds size sensor, thus sharing the
same micro 4-thirds lens mount.
As I previously mentioned, both of these
cameras offer in-body
image stabilisation.
And while the GX7 only offers two axes of
image stabilisation, the EM10 offers an
extra having three axes
of image stabilisation.
Compared to modern cameras which tend to
have five axis image
stabilisation pretty much as standard.
This is a little bit lackluster, but
totally good enough for when
you're using manual lenses.
Back to the funky EVF that we have on the
GX7, while it's respectively okay for
resolution, it's nothing special.
And typically I've been using the tilting
EVF as I always did on
the EM10 Mark I as well.
One key benefit of the EM10 over the GX7
if this is something you are interested
in, is the EM10 has an 8
FPS continuous burst mode,
while the GX7 only has 5
FPS continuous burst mode.
Really besides these small differences,
there's not a lot
between these two cameras.
They both share the same
sensor, the same lens mount.
It's ultimately going to come down to how
much you like the menus from each and the
ergonomics from each
when actually using them.
You might ask at this point, why will I
buy one camera over the other?
The main difference I think you're going
to find between these two cameras is how
they feel in your hand and
how you just like using them.
I sadly don't have the EM10 with me
directly to compare hand in hand, but I
have used both of
them to a decent extent.
The EM10 I had for several months.
I shot with several different lenses,
different settings, different approaches,
and I had a fantastic
time using that camera.
The EM10 did have a touchscreen, but I
did not use it anywhere near as much as
I've already used the GX7.
I think for me personally, the GX7 feels
better in my hand straight away.
There's no room at the bottom of the
camera for my bottom two fingers, but
actually the grip that it has feels more
comfortable for me to hold.
If you look into Lumix cameras today,
you'll see their full frame offerings.
But realistically, how
much more bang for your buck?
How much more actual value are you going
to get when shooting street photography
between getting an old four thirds amount
camera with an array of lenses because of
how cheap they are second hand
or a new full frame from Lumix.
Realistically, unless you are shooting
video and unless you're shooting
challenging high speed situations like
sports, wildlife,
some weddings and events,
unless you're doing any of those high
demanding things, something like this is
more than what you need.
The times I've been out shooting with
this camera recently, I've taken one
particular shot that I'm super happy with
just as a nice shot from a good camera.
I could have taken that on a much more
expensive camera and I would have felt
the same way about it.
So what you can really get out of a 16
megapixel four thirds sensor like this
one is more than what you
need for street photography.