Panasonic G85 Review

Overview

Back in April 2016, we said hello to the GX85, Panasonic's mid-tier rangefinder-style mirrorless camera -- and smaller sibling to the GX8. Sharing many of the technical upgrades found in the GX85, we now have the new Panasonic G85, its mid-range DSLR-shaped Lumix camera and successor to the G7. Also known as the Panasonic G80 for folks over in Europe, this compact and rugged "field camera," as Panasonic puts it, offers a variety of technical improvements, such as better image stabilization, better construction, better image quality, longer battery life and faster burst shooting. While the exterior design is more or less the same as the older G7, features and performance upgrades, as well as a new exterior accessory, put this camera much closer in line with the flagship GH4 model.

The Panasonic G85 gets a similar 16MP sensor, but no OLPF

At the heart of the camera is a 16-megapixel Live MOS Four-Thirds sensor and updated Venus Engine image processor -- the same pair from the GX85, though Panasonic does state there are some upgrades and improvements to the G85's sensor and processor. And while some might be disappointed with yet another 16MP Lumix camera -- as opposed to the 20MP Panasonic GX8 -- the new G85 does have a trick up its sleeve, just like the GX85: No optical low-pass filter. Like its rangefinder-shaped sibling, the Panasonic G85's AA-filterless sensor combined with its new Venus Engine image processor offers improved per-pixel sharpness over the older G7 model.

The removal of the optical low-pass filter, as we've seen on some other recent cameras, can result in noticeable improvements to fine detail. There is, however, an increased risk of moiré and other aliasing artifacts appearing in your images that one should be aware of. Objects such as thin repeating lines and meshes, certain fabrics and other man-made structures, for example, are all notorious moiré-inducing objects. Moiré patterns are often difficult to remove in post-processing, so it's important to keep that in mind when you're out photographing with one of these "AA-filter-less" cameras.

According to Panasonic, the 16MP sensor from the GX85 and G85 displays the highest resolution out of all 16MP Four-Thirds sensors, thanks to the lack of an optical low-pass filter as well as improved processing. These tests were however conducted using respective kit lenses, so results could vary depending on the lens used.

And speaking of better image quality, it's not only the G85's new sensor and image processor that help it capture sharper, more detailed images but also the camera's improved shutter mechanism and brand new Dual I.S. 2 stabilization technology. Sharing the same electromagnetically actuated shutter mechanism as in the GX85, capturing an image with the G85 causes less internal vibrations, also known as shutter shock, which should result in sharper photos -- especially at certain slower shutter speeds. The G85 also adds a new electronic first curtain shutter (EFCS) mode, which is usually very effective at eliminating blur due to shutter shock (since any vibration from the mechanical shutter only happens at the end of the exposure).

Furthermore, due to the G85's more durable construction (more on that later), the shutter is also quieter than not only the G7 but also the GX85 by about four decibels. Not only is it sturdy, lightweight and compact, but it's also very quiet, making it an excellent choice for events, ceremonies, and other sound-sensitive environments. And there is also an all-electronic shutter mode for complete silence, if you're willing to live with increased rolling shutter, slightly reduced image quality and other possible artifacts.

Panasonic G85 introduces Dual I.S. 2 with up to 5-stops of stabilization

The Panasonic G85 features a new version of their hybrid lens + sensor-shift image stabilization technology, dubbed Dual I.S. 2. Using a new, high-precision gyroscopic sensor and all new algorithms, Panasonic is claiming up to 5-stops of image stabilization correction, besting the 4-stop, first-generation Dual I.S. system of the GX85. According to Panasonic, the new system, by way of the Venus Engine processor, controls both the lens' optical I.S. system and the sensor-shifting mechanism simultaneously for better angle compensation. This new stabilization system is said to provide up to 5-stops of correction all the way out to an equivalent focal length of about 280mm.

Going to longer focal lengths, you run into issues with the amount of compensation for which the sensor shift mechanism can account. For example, at 14mm a 0.5 degree of angular blur only accounts for 0.94% of the frame (or about a 1.3mm shift). However, when you increase the focal length into supertelephoto territory, say 300mm (600mm eq.), the same 1.5-degree angular blur accounts for a whopping 20% of the frame. In other words, the amount of shake and the effect of angular tilting of the camera and lens become magnified the longer the focal length grows. The longer the focal length, the more correction the sensor and lens stabilization systems need to correct for, and the sensor can only move so much (approximate 1mm). Plus, the image circle for the lenses would need to be larger to compensate more if the sensor was designed to shift around to a higher degree. For optical stabilization, the compensation angle is almost the same from wide angle to telephoto, at about 0.5 degrees. Body-based stabilization shifts the sensor very little at wide angle to about a maximum of 1mm at 100mm. In the end, the Dual I.S. 2 system coordinates the amount of shifting and correction between the optical I.S. system and sensor-shift system to produce the optimal amount of stabilization correction.

Given this brand new image stabilization technology, it's currently only compatible with a relatively small selection of lenses including the LUMIX G VARIO 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 POWER OIS kit lens, but support for more lenses via firmware updates is planned. (The recently announced LEICA DG VARIO-ELMARIT 12-60mm F2.8-4.0 POWER OIS and the 4 refreshed mark II lenses mentioned here support Dual I.S. 2 out of the gate. The older LUMIX G VARIO 12-60mm F3.5-5.6 POWER OIS, the LUMIX G VARIO 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 POWER OIS and the LEICA DG VARIO-ELMAR 100-400mm F4.0-6.3 POWER OIS need firmware updates. Four more lenses will get updates to provide Dual I.S. 2 support sometime during 2017: LUMIX G VARIO 12-32mm F3.5-5.6 MEGA OIS, LUMIX G VARIO 35-100mm F4.0-5.6 MEGA OIS, LUMIX G MACRO 30mm F2.8 MEGA OIS, and LEICA DG NOCTICRON 42.5mm F1.2 POWER OIS.) Aside from those lenses, ten other lenses will offer compatibility with the first-generation 4-stop Dual I.S. system when used with the G85.

Panasonic G85 offers slightly faster burst rate, deeper buffer

Compared to the G7, the new Lumix G85 is said to offer some helpful performance increases, especially concerning RAW buffer depth. For starters, the G85 is spec'd for up to nine frames per second continuous burst shooting with the mechanical shutter, which is one fps faster than its predecessor. In the lab, the G85 tested a bit faster than that when shooting JPEGs, but it slowed down a bit when shooting RAW files. (See our Performance page for details.) As before, the G85 slows its continuous shooting rate to around 6 fps when using continuous AF mode, which isn't fantastic compared to higher-end cameras, but still rather nice given the camera's price point.

Similar to many recent Panasonic cameras, the G85 supports very fast autofocus with DFD technology. Like the G7, which also included DFD-capable AF, the G85 offers a claimed AF speed of just 0.07 seconds, despite lacking any on-sensor phase-detect. Furthermore, the camera's autofocus system works in both good lighting and dim -- and we mean really dim. Like the earlier G7 and GX85, low-light autofocus sensitivity is rated down to -4 EV, which are remarkably dark conditions. (We measured -6 EV in the lab!) The G85 also includes Panasonic's Starlight AF mode, which can detect the precise, small contrast differences in stars compared to the night sky for easy focusing.

As mentioned, one of the big improvements is with RAW buffer depth, with a claimed 45-shot RAW buffer capacity (we measured up to 62 frames in the lab). On the G7, we were only able to manage 16 RAW frames before the buffer filled. For JPEGs, the Panasonic G85 claims a 300+ shot JPEG buffer capacity, which shows a slight increase compared to the 240-frame lab-tested capacity of the G7.

As mentioned and also true of other recent Panasonic cameras, the G85 offers both mechanical shutter and electronic shutter options, which together offer a combined shutter speed range of 60s all the way up to 1/16,000s (1/4000s maximum for the mechanical shutter). When using the new electronic first curtain shutter mode, the exposure times are capped at 1/2000s. Flash x-sync remains at 1/160s.

One very exciting performance improvement on the Panasonic G85 is a very handy power saving feature. While smaller and lighter than most DSLRs, mirrorless cameras tend to have smaller batteries as well, which leads to limited battery capacity compared to DSLRs. Now, add in either an EVF or rear LCD that is needed for framing as well as other power-draining features like contrast-detect autofocus, and you get 300, maybe 400 shots per charge on a battery pack.

The Panasonic G85 is CIPA-rated for around 330 shots/charge with the LCD or 320 with the EVF in default power mode. Buried in the "Economy" sub-menu of the "Wrench" settings, the G85's "Power Save LVF Shooting" options will auto-sleep the camera after either 3, 5, or 10 seconds. Setting it to a 3-second auto-sleep offers the most power-saving benefits. To get everything working correctly, though, you'll need to make sure the EVF's eye sensor is enabled, as well as toggle through the LCD's various screens to the settings display option (as opposed to any number of live-view screens). Once set, the eye sensor will automatically detect that the camera is away from your eye after the specified number of seconds you selected and puts the camera into a sleep mode. The camera is not completely powered-off, however, and the camera quickly jumps back to life by half-press the shutter button. According to Panasonic, this power saving mode (tested at the 3-second auto-sleep duration) extends the battery life out to a whopping 800 shots per charge! Nice.

Unlike the GX85, in-camera charging via USB is not supported by the G85 and a dedicated battery charger is included in the bundle.

Of course, given Panasonic's expertise in the video arena, the new G85 sports an array of 4K PHOTO image-capturing amenities. Going beyond the usual burst-shooting capabilities, the Panasonic G85 offers the same range of 4K burst shooting modes at 30 frames per second as the GX85 with the fast DFD continuous focusing. The 4K Photo modes let you easily capture fast action by simply recording a 4K-resolution video, in a sense, and then offer an intuitive user interface to select the optimal frame post-capture.

One brand new 4K Photo feature that's making its way into the Panasonic G85 for the first time is a new Bulk Saving feature. In addition to shooting a standard 4K Photo Burst and then selecting the desired frame(s) right away, or later, all in-camera, you can now bulk-save up to 5-second chunks of a 4K Burst "video" or up to 150 individual frames. Even better, you can save multiple 5-second chunks from a longer 4K video sequence, but you can't save all frames of a long 4K Photo burst all at one time. Then you can import those frames onto a computer for later viewing, culling and editing. For those users who are more accustomed to the camera-to-computer image sorting/editing workflow, this is a very handy additional feature that expands the usefulness of 4K Photo even further.

For something like sports, motor sports or any other subject where timing is critical, you usually need to be really precise and exact with your timing when firing off a burst of frames with normal continuous shooting modes. Here, with 4K Photo, since you're capturing at 30 frames per second rather than the typical 9 fps in standard burst mode, you get more freedom and latitude to capture the moment you want. The caveat here, as with other Panasonic 4K Photo-capable cameras, is that you are left with 8-megapixel JPEGs as opposed to full-resolution 16MP images, without the option of RAW capture.

In addition to 4K Photo, the new Panasonic G85 also includes their clever Post Focus and Focus Stacking technology. Also based on 4K video technology, the Post Focus feature captures a photo -- which in actuality is a 4K video clip -- while shifting focus across a predetermined distance range. Then upon playback, you can simply tap on the LCD screen to pick the area or object you want to be in sharp focus and save that still image as a separate file.

Similarly, the Focus Stacking feature works in much the same way. Here, however, you select a predetermined range of focus as before, but then you can just choose the focus range you want to merge. Once selected, the camera will automatically combine each "slice," for lack of a better term, together in a single JPEG image with a deep depth of field. This mode is excellent for macro photos and other still life subjects such as food.

The big caveat here to Post Focus and Focus Stacking, just like it is with 4K Photo, is that you're ending up with 8MP JPEG files. There's no RAW, and no 16-megpixel full-resolution image files. By comparison, Olympus also offers in-camera focus stacking but offers full-resolution images for its burst of focus-shifted frames. The Olympus method, while nice for those who want higher resolution images, is only compatible with a select few Olympus lenses, whereas the Panasonic method (with both Post Focus and Focus Stacking), while lower-res, is compatible with all Panasonic lenses. In the end, with 8MP images provide enough detail we think for general usage, especially for those who like to quickly and easily share images on social media -- and the G85's built-in Wi-Fi makes even easier work of that task!

Panasonic G85 video options cater to more advanced cinematographers

Given its array of 4K Photo features, it almost goes without saying that the Panasonic G85 includes 4K video recording as well. Offering 4K at both 30p and 24p framerates, as well as 25 for PAL regions. According to Panasonic's specs, the NTSC region G85 only has NTSC-specific framerates, whereas European model, dubbed the Panasonic G80 or G81, support in-camera frequency switching between 25p and 30p/24p. For Full HD video recording, the G85/G80/G81 offers up to 60p (PAL models also have a 50p frame rate option). For the US model, there is no continuous video recording time limit, so you can setup the camera and record video continuous until the card fills, the battery dies, or, of course, unless the camera's heat warning kicks in.

Thanks to its 4K video support, the G85 also includes Panasonic's handy "4K Live Cropping" feature, which lets you animate panning and zooming all in-camera while recording video -- simulating the effect of zooming or panning with a motorized slider, all without needing any extra equipment. Using the larger 4K video frame, the resulting video is in Full HD resolution. Before recording, users are shown an intuitive user interface with the smaller 1080p frame inside the full 4K view. Here, you can set the starting and end points for how much zooming or panning you want as well as the duration of the effect. Then, once you start recording, the camera uses that 1080p cropped frame to pan and zoom automatically.

While the G85 shares a lot of features with its bigger GH4 brother, the G85 only includes a choice of MP4 or AVCHD video formats, no MOV. 4K video, which is offered only in MP4 format, is recorded at a 100Mbps bit rate, while AVCHD tops out at 28Mbps for 1080p.

What the G85 does have in common with the GH4's video options includes Cinelike D and Cinelike V picture styles for increased dynamic range in videos and easier color grading capabilities. There's also focus peaking, exposure zebras as well as an adjustable luminance range (except the 16-235 range option is not present, unlike the GH4). The G85 also sports a 3.5mm microphone input plus a hotshoe on top to attach a microphone, but no headphone jack.

Full-time continuous autofocus, with DFD support, is also available for video recording, as expected.

At first glance, you'd be hard-pressed to see any noticeable design differences between the new G85 and the G7 predecessor. With a practically identical size, shape, and control layout, the G85 offers only a few minor tweaks compared to the earlier G7. The big story here is that unlike the G7, the Panasonic G85 is now fully weather-sealed much like its big GH4 brother, which is pretty impressive for a camera in this price category.

In the hand, the Panasonic G85 feels extremely solid and very well built. If feels a bit heftier than the G7, too, which makes sense given the updated weather-sealed construction. Body-only, the G85 weighs in at about 1.1 pounds (505g) with battery and SD card, whereas the G7 with its 14-42mm kit lens and battery only weighs a small amount more (approximately 40 grams or so). The front face of the camera's chassis is solid magnesium alloy, while the top and back panels are both polycarbonate. According to Panasonic, all the joints, dials and buttons on the G85 are sealed, making the camera as weather-sealed as the GH4.

Panasonic G85 Hands-On Tour

As mentioned, while the design is similar to the G7 predecessor, it's helpful to give the new camera a thorough once-over to spot any changes or new features.

Beginning with the top of the camera, you can see that if you compare it to the G7, there are not a lot of changes on this new model. We still have the convenient dual control dials at your thumb and forefinger, as well as a customizable function button and a movie start/stop button. As before, the rear thumb dial has a button in the center that allows for quick access to on-the-fly settings changes. For instance, by default, pressing this center button temporarily assigns white balance adjustment to the front control dial and ISO to the rear dial. Once changes are made, half-press the shutter button to return to normal shooting. These temporary quick-access settings can, of course, be customized to a number of different options to suit your shooting style or needs.

One of the first changes is to the G85's exposure mode dial, where we see the return of two custom C1 and C2 options that we saw in the G6 -- the G7, on the other hand, had minimized the custom modes into a single 'C' mode. To make room, the dedicated Panorama mode has been removed from mode dial and is now tucked within the main Scene mode.

The other noticeable change to the top of the camera is a redesigned pop-up flash. Unlike the G7's simpler flip-up design, the G85 now has a smaller two-part hinged design that's situated further forward on the camera's EVF housing. The pop-up switch itself is located on the left side of the EVF now, rather than on the back panel of the camera.

The left-hand rotating drive mode dial is unchanged from the previous model. Both it and the exposure mode dial are not locking dials, as we've started to see on some higher-end cameras. However, both dials have a rather stiff, sturdy feel to them, with nice knurling along the edge, making it difficult to bump the dials accidentally.

Moving down to the back of the camera, we, again, see very little by way of changes compared to the earlier model. The hinged construction on the articulating LCD screen is different, but the screen itself remains unchanged with a 3-inch touch-sensitive panel with 1,040K dots of resolution.

The rear cluster of controls and the general layout of buttons and dials all remain largely unchanged, with the standard setup of a 4-way control cluster and a smattering of dedicated buttons, including four custom function buttons.

Along the sides of the camera, we do, however, see a number of changes. On the right side, we now have a dedicated memory card door, similar to that on the GH4. Likely due to the enhanced weather-sealing, the memory card is now conveniently located on the side of the grip as opposed to the G7, which had it on the bottom, inside the battery compartment.

On the left-hand side, we now have two flaps that reveal a number of ports, while the G7 didn't sport anything on that side. The G85 features a Micro-HDMI (Type D) port, Micro-USB 2.0, a 2.5mm remote jack and a 3.5mm microphone jack. Unlike the GH4, there is no headphone jack.

Lastly, and perhaps most interestingly, the Panasonic G85 gains its own battery grip accessory -- the first non-GH-series Lumix camera to sport a battery grip. Matching the rugged durability of the G85's construction, the accessory grip is also fully weather sealed. Similar to the GH4, the optional grip supports a spot for an additional battery pack, but unlike the GH4's the new G85 grip ships with an extra battery at no additional cost.

As we mentioned earlier, the new Power Saving feature on the G85 should help extend the camera's battery life by an impressive amount, but if you factor in this extra grip, you should have a camera that lasts you all day long between charges, if not more. At default power settings, the additional grip and battery should get you about 640 shots, but in the power-saving mode, you'll get around 1600-1800 shots, according to Panasonic!

Get a grip: The Panasonic G85 gets its own battery grip accessory. This weather-sealed attachment offers portrait-oriented controls and a second battery (included with purchase) that can extend the battery life to around 1600-1800 shots when used with the G85's new power-saving mode.

The Panasonic G85 began shipping in October 2016, the is sold body-only or in a couple of kit configurations, depending on the region. For U.S. customers, the G85 is sold body-only for an estimated retail price of about US$900. The U.S. kit, which includes the weather-sealed 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, retails for about US$1,000, which is an amazing deal since that lens sell separately for about US$500. The price of the optional battery grip is about US$350. In the European market, the Panasonic G85 (G80) is also offered in an additional kit configuration with the 14-140mm f/3.5-6.6 lens.

In the Box

The Panasonic G85 retail kit w/12-60mm lens package (as reviewed) contains the following items:

• Panasonic Lumix DMC-G85 Camera Body
• Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH Power OIS Lens
• DMW-BLC12 Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery Pack (7.2V, 1200mAh)
• Battery Charger
• Hot Shoe Cover
• Body Cap
• AC Cable
• USB Cable
• Shoulder Strap
• Limited 1-Year Warranty

Recommended Accessories

• Large capacity SDHC/SDXC memory card. Fast UHS-II card recommended (UHS Speed Class 3 required for 4K recording).
• Extra Panasonic DMW-BLC12 Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery Pack (~US$55)
• Medium camera case

Optics

The Panasonic G85 is available bundled with the new Lumix G VARIO 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 Power OIS lens. The test images shown on most other pages of these test results were taken with the very sharp Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/2 prime lens, so we use this page to explore the optical performance of this new kit lens.

Kit Lens Test Results

12-60mm Zoom Lens
A higher-than-average 5x zoom ratio for a kit lens, with decent performance.

The Panasonic G85's 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens has a 35mm-equivalent focal length of about 24-120mm, a result of the G85's 2x "crop factor." That's both wider and longer than most kit lenses.

Performance at full wide angle was pretty good at f/8, with good sharpness and contrast across most of the frame, though there are hints of flare around bright objects. Extreme corners exhibit mild blurring and minor coma distortion, though this scene isn't great for judging corner performance (see below for lab results). Chromatic aberration is well-controlled, because the G85 suppresses it. Performance at medium focal length (50mm eq.) was very good, with excellent sharpness and contrast across the frame. At full telephoto and f/8 performance was quite good, with very good sharpness and contrast across most of the frame.

The G85's 2x digital zoom worked well, but 4x shows a lot of chroma noise and some interpolation artifacts, so digital magnification that high should be avoided except for very small prints.

Macro
A slightly larger than average minimum area, with good detail. Flash throttled down well.

The Panasonic Lumix G85's macro performance will depend entirely on the lens in use. However, with the 12-60mm kit lens, the Panasonic G85 captured a slightly larger than average minimum area measuring 2.40 x 1.80 inches (61 x 46 millimeters). Sharpness is very good across much of the frame at f/8, though corners are a little soft. (Most lenses have some additional softening in the corners at macro distances.) The popup flash throttled down well at this distance, resulting in a very good exposure.

Geometric Distortion
Moderate geometric distortion with the 12-60mm kit lens in JPEGs at wide angle, though strong distortion at wide angle in uncorrected RAW files.

In-Camera JPEG: Barrel distortion at 12mm is 0.6 percent

In-Camera JPEG: Pincushion distortion at 60mm is less than 0.1 percent

In camera JPEGs, the Panasonic G85's 12-60mm kit lens produced about 0.6 percent barrel distortion at wide angle, which is moderate and noticeable in images. Pincushion distortion at full telephoto was less than 0.1 percent, and barely visible. This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel -- usually at wide-angle).

Uncorrected RAW: Barrel distortion at 12mm is 2.2%

Uncorrected RAW: Pincushion distortion at 60mm is 0.4%

To see how much correction is taking place in the camera, we converted matching RAW files from the same test shots with dcraw, which does not correct for distortion. As can be seen above, the actual barrel distortion at wide angle was quite high at about 2.2%, while pincushion at telephoto was about 0.4%. We expect this for modern interchangeable lenses though, so it's nothing to be too concerned about unless you are using a RAW converter which does not understand the embedded lens profile to perform distortion corrections automatically. Most RAW converters these days (including Adobe Camera Raw and the bundled SilkyPix software) are capable of applying distortion correction automatically, as specified by the manufacturer. There is however going to be some loss of resolution in the corners as a result of such correction, because pixels in the corners of the frame are being "stretched" to correct for the distortion. Obviously, a lens that doesn't require such correction, and is also sharp in the corners to begin with would be preferable, but relaxing constraints on distortion brings other benefits in the lens design, such as a more compact design.

Chromatic Aberration and Corner Sharpness
Low levels of chromatic aberration from the kit lens in JPEGs. Uncorrected RAW files show higher amounts. Some soft corners even stopped down to f/8.

Maximum Aperture
12mm @ f/3.5: Lower right C.A.: Moderate Softness: Somewhat soft	12mm @ f/3.5: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp
60mm @ f/5.6: Lower right C.A.: Low Softness: Soft	60mm @ f/5.6: Center C.A.: Low Softness: Sharp

Chromatic Aberration. Chromatic aberration in the corners of in-camera JPEGs taken with the Panasonic G85's 12-60mm kit lens was moderate at maximum wide angle with some noticeable blue fringing, but fairly low at full telephoto with some minor reddish fringing. The camera's processor did a pretty good job of reducing CA in JPEGs (see below for uncorrected RAW).

Corner Softness. The Panasonic G85's 12-60mm kit lens produced somewhat soft corners with reduced contrast in all four corners wide-open at f/3.5, though softness didn't extend very far into the frame. The center was quite sharp. At full telephoto, corners were also a bit soft with lower contrast, while the center showed good sharpness and contrast.

Vignetting. Some moderate corner shading ("vignetting") occurred at wide angle while fairly mild shading was visible at full telephoto, as can be seen from the difference in brightness of the center versus corner crops above.

f/8 Aperture
12mm @ f/8: Lower right C.A.: Moderately low Softness: Slightly soft	12mm @ f/8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp
60mm @ f/8: Lower right C.A.: Low Softness: Soft	60mm @ f/8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp

F/8: Stopped down to f/8, corner sharpness improved significantly at wide angle, though corners were still not as sharp as the center (much of the softness is likely due to the strong distortion correction), and corners still showed some chromatic aberration though it has been reduced. Sharpness in the center was still quite good, though not quite as sharp as wide open due to diffraction. At full telephoto, contrast and sharpness in the corners only improved very slightly, while the center also lost a touch of softness due to diffraction. Vignetting (corner shading) improved quite a bit, but was still somewhat noticeable at wide angle.

Chromatic Aberration Suppression
12mm @ f/3.5: Upper left: Camera JPEG	12mm @ f/3.5: Upper left: Uncorrected RAW
60mm @ f/5.6: Upper left: Camera JPEG	60mm @ f/5.6: Upper left: Uncorrected RAW

Chromatic Aberration Suppression. As mentioned above, the Panasonic G85 applies lateral chromatic aberration correction to its JPEGs, as uncorrected RAW files showed fairly bright blue/green coloration at wide angle but only mild magenta/red fringing at telephoto. RAW files converted with the bundled SilkyPix software or Adobe Camera Raw are automatically corrected for lateral chromatic aberration and geometric distortion, so we used dcraw for the uncorrected conversions above right.

Shading Compensation
The Panasonic G85 features optional Shading Compensation to reduce vignetting in JPEG images.

12mm @ f/3.5		60mm @ f/5.6
Shading Compensation:		Off (default)	On

Mouse over the links above to compare thumbnails, and click on the links to load the full resolution images.

As you can see, the Panasonic G85's Shading Compensation reduced corner shading with the 12-60mm kit lens, so it's a useful feature. Shading Compensation is off by default, and is not available with all lenses. It may also produce more visible noise in the periphery at higher ISOs.

Overall, decent though not great performance for a 5x kit lens, but given Panasonic is only charging about US$100 for it when purchased with the camera, the lens is actually an amazing value.

Viewfinder Test Results

Accuracy
Excellent coverage accuracy from the EVF and LCD monitor.

The Panasonic G85's EVF and LCD monitor proved quite accurate in record mode, showing essentially 100% coverage with our low-distortion Olympus 50mm f/2 reference lens. Excellent results here.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Panasonic Lumix DMC-G85 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Slightly lower than average mean saturation levels, with slightly better than average mean hue accuracy.

ISO Sensitivity
100	200	400
800	1600	3200
6400	12800	25600
In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located toward the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. Mouse over the links to compare results at different ISOs, and click on the links for larger images.

Saturation. The Panasonic G85 produces images with slightly muted colors compared to most cameras at default settings, though saturation levels in general are still pleasing. Mean saturation is 108.2% (8.2% oversaturated) at the base ISO of 200, which gradually falls to a minimum of 101.6% at ISO 25,600. The Lumix G85 pushes dark red and dark blues moderately and some other colors slightly, but undersaturates yellow moderately, and aqua and cyan slightly. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. Here, the Panasonic G85 does fairly well, producing natural-looking Caucasian skin tones with a slight push towards pink when Auto or Manual white balance is used in simulated daylight, giving a healthy appearance. Darker skin tones have a small nudge towards orange, but overall results are pretty good. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. The Panasonic G85 shifts orange toward yellow, yellow toward green, and cyan toward blue moderately, but most other hue shifts are quite minor. The yellow to green shift along with the desaturation can unfortunately produce some dingy-looking yellows as we've seen from some prior Lumix models. The G85's mean "delta-C" color error after correction for saturation is 4.22 for JPEGs at the base ISO of 200 (100 is an extended ISO). That's a bit better than average these days, and color error remains fairly stable throughout the ISO range. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Somewhat warm colors with Auto and Incandescent white balance setting. Good color balance with the Manual setting. Average positive exposure compensation required.

Indoors, under normal incandescent lighting, color balance is a little warm and reddish with the Auto white balance setting, but results here are actually better then most cameras. Results with the Incandescent setting are warmer, with a stronger orange-yellow cast. The Manual setting produced the most accurate results, though slightly cool. The Panasonic G85 required +0.3 EV exposure compensation here, about average for this shot. (Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.)

Outdoors, daylight
Natural colors overall, with a tendency toward high contrast under harsh lighting. About average exposure accuracy.

Outdoors, the Panasonic G85 performed well, with natural-looking though slightly cool color in the Far-field shot. Skin tones are fairly realistic in our "Sunlit" Portrait shot, with a healthy-looking push of pinks and reds when Auto or Manual white balance was used, which is preferable to too flat or yellow. Exposure accuracy is about average, as the camera required +0.7 EV compensation for our "Sunlit" Portrait shot to keep facial tones reasonably bright. That's typical for this shot. Despite the bright appearance, only a few highlights were actually blown in the mannequin's white shirt which is quite good, though there are some very deep shadows that are pretty clean, but discolored and posterized. The default exposure is just slightly dim for the Far-field shot, however as a result there are almost no blown highlights, though again there are some very deep shadows that are discolored and posterized. Default contrast is on the high side, but that's how most consumers prefer their photos.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
~2,350 to ~2,450 lines of strong detail.

An in-camera best quality JPEG of our laboratory resolution chart reveals sharp, distinct line patterns up to about 2,450 lines per picture height horizontally, and about 2,350 lines in the vertical direction. (Some might argue for higher, but aliasing artifacts start to interfere and lines begin to merge at these limits.) Complete extinction of the pattern occurs between 3,200 lines and 3,300 lines. We weren't able to extract significantly more high-contrast resolution by processing the Panasonic G85's RW2 file using Adobe Camera Raw, and the ACR conversion also shows much more color moiré which is practically nonexistent in the camera JPEG.

Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Very good sharpness overall, with minor edge-enhancement artifacts on high-contrast subjects. Mild to moderate noise suppression visible in the shadows even at base ISO.

Sharpness. The Panasonic G85 captures sharp, detailed images, thanks in part to the lack of an optical low-pass filter. Some minor edge enhancement artifacts are visible in high-contrast subjects such as the sharpening "halos" along the lines and text in the crop above left, but default sharpening is not too overdone. Please be aware that because there is no optical low-pass filter, the G85 will be more susceptible to aliasing artifacts such as moiré patterns and false colors, however we didn't notice a significant increase in them in camera JPEGs of our standard lab shots, so the G85 appears to be doing a good job at suppressing them. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

Detail. The crop above right shows the effect of noise suppression in the form of smudging of individual strands together in the darker areas of the model's hair, as well as in areas with low local contrast, although chroma noise is well-controlled. This is good noise versus detail processing performance for a 16-megapixel Micro Four Thirds model, leaving lots of fine detail intact instead of blurring much of it away in an attempt to hide noise. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

RAW vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above, the Panasonic G85 produces sharp in-camera JPEGs with good detail. As is almost always the case, better detail can be obtained from carefully processing RAW files than can be seen in the in-camera JPEGs, with fewer sharpening artifacts to boot. Take a look below, to see what we mean:

Base ISO (200)
Camera JPEG, defaults	RAW via Adobe Camera Raw

In the table above, we compare an in-camera JPEG taken at base ISO using default noise reduction and sharpening (on the left) to a matching RAW file converted with Adobe Camera Raw 9.1 via DNG Converter 9.8 using default noise reduction with some strong but tight unsharp masking applied in Photoshop (300%, radius of 0.3 pixels, and a threshold of 0).

As you can see, the in-camera JPEG contains very good detail, however ACR extracted additional detail, particularly in the red-leaf fabric where it managed to resolve some of the fine thread pattern. The ACR conversion however shows much more luminance noise after sharpening, especially in flatter areas with little detail. You can always turn up the luminance noise reduction (default of zero was used here), or process the files in your favorite noise reduction program or plugin if you find the noise objectionable. Bottom line, though, as is usually the case shooting in RAW mode provides better detail, color, and control than in-camera JPEGs when using a good converter.

ISO & Noise Performance
Very good high ISO performance for a Micro Four Thirds model.

Default Noise Reduction
ISO 100	ISO 200	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 1600	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 12,800	ISO 25,600

The Panasonic G85's images are very detailed and clean at ISOs 100 (extended) and 200, with only minor luminance noise detectable in the shadows. ISO 400 is also quite detailed, though a touch more noise and blurring from noise reduction can be seen. ISO 800 shows stronger noise reduction, blurring some very fine detail in the process, though overall detail remains very good and chroma noise is low. ISO 1600 is of course a little noisier, but fine detail is still pretty good and chroma noise is still well-controlled, but the G85's area-specific noise reduction does start to leave some edges a bit rough and noisy. ISO 3200 shows a larger drop in image quality with softer detail and more noise reduction artifacts, though overall the image is still quite usable. At ISO 6400, noise starts to take on a rectilinear crystalline effect as a result of noise reduction and sharpening, chroma noise in the form of subtle purple and yellow blotches starts to become objectionable, and a lot of fine detail is blurred away. Image quality drops off quickly at ISO 12,800 and above, with stronger noise and noise reduction artifacts leaving little fine detail intact.

We're of course pixel-peeping to an extraordinary extent here, since 1:1 images on an LCD screen have little to do with how those same images will appear when printed. See the Print Quality section below for our evaluation of maximum print sizes at each ISO setting.

Note that we now shoot this series at f/8 instead of f/4, for increased depth of field (at f/4, it was very difficult to focus for maximum sharpness in the crop area while maintaining consistent focus between models).

Extremes: Sunlit, dynamic range and low light tests
Somewhat high default contrast but with decent dynamic range. Excellent low-light performance, able to capture images and autofocus in very low light.

Sunlight. The Panasonic G85 did fairly well with the deliberately harsh lighting of this test. Contrast is a little high at its default setting, but dynamic range is decent in JPEGs. We felt the +0.7 EV exposure is the best compromise here. Although skin tones around the eyes are a bit dark, we prefer it to the +1.0 EV exposure overall, because there are fewer clipped highlights. It's really the photographer's choice here as to which direction to go in. For those Panasonic G85 owners that are going to want to just print an image with little or no tweaking, the +1.0 image would probably produce a better-looking face uncorrected. The bottom line though, is that the Panasonic G85 performed fairly well with the wide dynamic range of this shot, though not as good as most competitors with larger sensors. See below for how the Panasonic G85's sensor performs (RAW mode) in terms of dynamic range.

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

Face Detection
Aperture Priority, 0 EV, f/8 Face Detection Off	Aperture Priority, 0 EV, f/8 Face Detection On	iAuto, 0 EV, f/2.2

Face Detection. Like most cameras these days, the Panasonic G85 has the ability to detect faces (up to 15 in a scene), and adjust exposure and focus accordingly. As you can see from the examples above, face detection improved exposure in both Aperture Priority at f/8, and in iAuto mode where the camera chose portrait mode and used a much wider aperture of f/2.2 to help isolate the subject from the background.

Far-field Highlight/Shadow Examples
Standard	Lower Contrast	Higher Contrast	Boost Shadows

Highlight/Shadow Adjustment
The above shots are examples of Panasonic's Highlight/Shadow adjustment at work on our high-contrast Far Field subject, with no exposure compensation. There are four settings: Standard (default), Higher Contrast, Lower Contrast and Boost Shadows, along with 3 Custom settings which allow you to modify and recall custom tone curves. As you can see, it's a nice feature that offers much more control over highlights, midtones and shadows than the camera's basic contrast settings.

Far-field Intelligent D-Range Examples
Off	Auto	Low	Standard	High

Panasonic's Intelligent Dynamic Range
The above shots are examples of Panasonic's Intelligent Dynamic Range Control (or iD-Range) at work, with no exposure compensation. Note that the camera does not take multiple shots and merge them as HDR mode does (see below). It's a system that adjusts local contrast and exposure more akin to Nikon's Active D-lighting, Canon's Automatic Lighting Optimization or Sony's Dynamic Range Optimization.

There are three levels of iD-Range available on the Panasonic G85: Low, Standard and High, plus Auto and Off. It's automatically invoked in iAuto and some scene modes and manually selectable in PASM modes. Here, you can see darker midtones and shadows were progressively boosted as the strength was increased, without blowing many highlights in the process.

Far-field HDR Examples
Off	Auto	+/-1 EV	+/-2 EV	+/-3 EV

HDR mode
Here, you can see the Panasonic G85's High Dynamic Range mode at work with our Far-field shot. HDR mode takes three images at different exposures and combines them to increase dynamic range. Mouse over the links, and click on them the view the full resolution files.

Auto did a good job, producing results similar to +/-1 EV which was arguably the best for this scene. The +/2 EV setting was similar, while +/-3 dimmed the entire image. Notice the double images and ghosting of some of the leaves or the flag moving between frames. Also notice the angle of view is narrower in the HDR images, likely because the images have been cropped and upsized during the optional auto alignment process.

Dynamic Range Analysis (RAW mode)
While we once performed our own dynamic range measurements based on in-camera JPEGs as well as converted RAW images (when the camera was supported by Adobe Camera Raw), we've switched to using DxO Labs' results from their DxOMark website. As technology advanced, the dynamic range of modern high-end cameras in some cases exceeded the range of the Stouffer T4110 density scale that we used for our own measurements. DxO's approach based on RAW data before demosaicing is also more revealing, because it measures the fundamental dynamic range of the sensor, irrespective of whatever processing is applied to JPEGs, or to RAW data by off-the-shelf conversion software.

In the following, we use DxO's "Print" dynamic range results, which are scaled based on camera resolution. As the name suggests, this scaling corresponds to the situation in which you print at a given size, regardless of how many megapixels the camera might have. (In other words, if you've decided to make a 13x19 inch print, that's the size you're printing, whether the camera's resolution is 16 or 300 megapixels.) For the technically-minded, you can find a discussion of the reasoning behind this here on the DxOMark website. Also note that DxO Labs uses a signal-to-noise (SNR) threshold of 1 when defining the lower boundary of acceptable luminance noise in their dynamic range measurements, which corresponds to the "Low Quality" threshold of the Imatest software we used to use for this measurement.

Here, we compare the Panasonic G85's (known as the G80 in Europe) dynamic range (in orange) to its predecessor, the GX7 (yellow), and also to the Sony A6300 (red), a state-of-the-art APS-C mirrorless camera. While the GX7 is not technically the G85's predecessor, DxOMark did not test the G7 however they share the same sensor, so the GX7's results should be very similar.

As you can see from the above graph, the G85's dynamic range is similar to the GX7's overall, but slightly better at low ISOs, peaking at about 12.5 EV at ISO 100 versus 12.2 EV for the GX7. Interestingly, the predecessor catches up at ISO 3200 setting and actually does a little bit better at higher ISOs, though you'll likely be hard-pressed to see a difference in real-world shots.

Unsurprisngly, the 24-megapixel APS-C Sony A6300 scored better across the board, with a peak dynamic range of 13.7 EV at base ISO, and the lead increases to a peak of about 1.6 EV at ISO 25,600, and the G85 doesn't even offer an ISO 51,200 setting.

Still, dynamic range is very good for a Four Thirds sensor, though obviously not as good as the best APS-C mirrorless rivals.

Click here to visit the DxOMark page for the Panasonic G85 for more of their test results and additional comparisons.

	1 fc 11 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16 fc No NR
ISO 200	1.3s, f2.8	20s, f2.8	20s, f2.8
ISO 3200	1/13s, f2.8	1.3s, f2.8	1.3s, f2.8
ISO 25600	1/80s, f2.8	1/6s, 1 f2.8	1/6s, f2.8

Low Light. The Panasonic Lumix G85 performed well in our low light tests, able to capture bright images down to the lowest light level we test at. The darkest level equates to about 1/16 the brightness of average city street lighting at night, so the Panasonic G85 should be able to take well-exposed photos in almost any environment in which you can see well enough to walk around in.

Using default noise reduction setting, noise is low at ISO 200 and well-controlled at ISO 3200 with a very fine, tight noise "grain", though as you'd expect, noise is high at the maximum ISO of 25,600 which should probably be avoided except in emergencies or for small prints.

We didn't notice any significant issues with hot pixels, though with long exposure noise reduction turned off (rightmost column) there were a lot of slightly brighter pixels in the shadows at ISO 200, as well as a few hot pixels. We didn't detect any issues with heat blooming or fixed pattern noise, but be aware that the maximum exposure supported by the G85 is 120 seconds, which doesn't make it a good camera for long exposures.

Automatic color balance was fairly neutral at 1 foot-candle, just slightly cool, but it warmed up a bit a the lower 1/16 foot-candle level, becoming a little reddish.

Low-light AF: The camera's autofocus system was able to focus on both our high- and low-contrast AF targets down to well below the 1/16 foot-candle light level unassisted with an f/2.8 lens (0.04 lux or -6.0 EV), which is excellent, especially for a camera with contrast-detect autofocus. The Panasonic G85 also has a focus-assist light which allows it to autofocus in total darkness, as long as the subject is within range and has sufficient contrast.

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Thanks to their phase-detect AF systems, digital SLRs tend to do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects. The G85 uses contrast-detect autofocus, as is found in most point & shoot cameras, so its low-light focusing ability may be less than that of some SLRs with phase-detect systems. That said, though, the larger, more sensitive pixels of the G85's sensor do better under dim lighting than do the tiny pixels of most point & shoots.

Output Quality

Print Quality

Terrific 24 x 36 inch prints at ISO 100/200; A good 13 x 19 inch print at ISO 1600 and a good 4 x 6 at ISO 12,800.

ISO 100 and 200 prints are terrific at 24 x 36 inches, with excellent color reproduction and crisp fine detail throughout. Larger prints are certainly possible for wall display purposes, depending on your intended viewing distance.

ISO 400 prints are also very good at 24 x 36 inches. These display virtually no trace of noise from ISO gain, and only the slightest drop in overall sharpness from base ISO prints. For critically sharp prints here, the 20 x 30 inch images are excellent.

ISO 800 yields a 16 x 20 inch print that's really pretty good for this sensitivity, and fairly large at that. There's a mild softening in the red channel and a trace of noise in flatter areas, quite typical for this sensor size at this ISO, but still a very good print overall.

ISO 1600 delivers a 13 x 19 inch print that most definitely passes our good seal of approval, with very good color reproduction and a respectable amount of fine detail remaining. Anything larger shows signs of noise reduction strain, but the 16 x 20 inch prints will likely pass for less critical applications.

ISO 3200 makes a decent attempt to produce a "good" 11 x 14 inch print, but there's just a bit too much noise and a bit too little in the way of contrast and fine detail remaining. The 8 x 10 inch prints here do pass our good seal of approval, with good color reproduction as well.

ISO 6400 prints are good at 5 x 7 inches, with noise well-controlled at that size, but the 8 x 10 inch prints are just a bit too soft and noisy to warrant our good seal.

ISO 12,800 images at 4 x 6 inches just barely pass our good grade. They are a tad on the muted side and there is a bit less contrast detail, but we can still give them a good seal at this small print size.

ISO 25,600 images are not usable for prints and this setting is not recommended.

The Panasonic G85 delivers a solid performance for print quality, and can be counted on to produce quality prints up to ISO 3200. After this the sensor size begins to show its limitations, so we recommend setting the limit at ISO 3200 and below for any printing needs of 8 x 10 or larger. Given its reasonable price point this is an impressive performance in print quality.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Panasonic Lumix DMC-G85 Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G85 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Performance

Image Quality

Below are crops from our laboratory Still Life target comparing Panasonic G85's image quality to that of its predecessor's, the G7, as well as against several more recent mirrorless models at similar price points or in similar categories: the Panasonic GX85, Canon EOS M5, Olympus E-M5 II and Sony A6300.

NOTE: These images are from best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction and using the camera's actual base ISO (not extended ISO settings). All interchangeable lens cameras in this comparison were shot with our very sharp reference lenses. Clicking any crop will take you to a carrier page where you can click once again to access the full resolution image as delivered straight from the camera. For those interested in working with the RAW files involved, click these links to visit each camera's respective sample image thumbnail page: Panasonic G85, Panasonic G7, Panasonic GX85, Canon M5, Olympus E-M5 II and Sony A6300 -- links to the RAW files appear beneath those for the JPEG images, wherever we have them. And remember, you can always go to our world-renowned Comparometer to compare the Panasonic G85 to any camera we've ever tested!

Panasonic G85 vs Panasonic G7 at Base ISO

Panasonic G85 at ISO 200	Panasonic G7 at ISO 200
Here we compare the Panasonic G85 to its predecessor, the G7, at base ISO. While resolution has not changed, it's immediately apparent the G85 delivers a sharper, crisper image with slightly better detail, thanks to the lack of an optical low-pass filter which the G7 has, though it does appear that the G85 is also applying slightly stronger default sharpening. The G7 however shows fewer aliasing artifacts whereas moiré and jaggies can be more easily seen from the G85. Noise levels are quite similar, while colors are perhaps slightly more pleasing from the G85.

Panasonic G85 vs Panasonic GX85 at Base ISO

Panasonic G85 at ISO 200	Panasonic GX85 at ISO 200
Very similar image quality from these two siblings, which is no surprise since they probably use the same or very similar sensors and processors, though we do see some slight differences in color favoring the G85.

Panasonic G85 vs Canon EOS M5 at Base ISO

Panasonic G85 at ISO 200	Canon EOS M5 at ISO 100
The 24-megapixel APS-C Canon M5 captures more detail than the 16-megapixel Panasonic G85, but not by as much as you'd expect from the pixel counts. This is because the Canon has an optical low-pass filter (though a fairly weak one) which slightly blurs the image to reduce aliasing artifacts, as well as the difference in aspect ratios between the two formats (3:2 for the Canon vs 4:3 for the Panasonic.) The Panasonic image appears a little crisper but the Canon image has lower noise levels, however keep in mind the Canon has a lower base ISO. Interestingly, the M5 smears our difficult red-leaf swatch a bit more than the G85 thanks to more aggressive chroma noise reduction, however it's the Canon that ironically shows some subtle moiré patterns in said fabric.

Panasonic G85 vs Olympus E-M5 II at Base ISO

Panasonic G85 at ISO 200	Olympus E-M5 II at ISO 200
Like the G85, the 16-megapixel Olympus E-M5 II also does not have an OLPF to maximize sharpness at the risk of higher aliasing artifacts. Here at base ISO we see both cameras offer very similar resolving power, but the E-M5 II's default processing is a bit more aggressive, with stronger sharpening, higher contrast and brighter, more pleasant colors, giving the Olympus image more "pop". The E-M5 II's noise reduction also appears to be slightly stronger, producing slightly lower noise but at the cost of reduced detail in some areas, such as in our tricky red-leaf swatch.

Panasonic G85 vs Sony A6300 at Base ISO

Panasonic G85 at ISO 200	Sony A6300 at ISO 100
The 24-megapixel Sony A6300 with its APS-C sized sensor out-resolves the 16-megapixel Four Thirds sensor of the G85, while producing a crisper image with few sharpening artifacts thanks to a very weak (or no) optical low-pass filter combined with Sony's more advanced JPEG processing. Moiré patterns are however visible in the red-leaf fabric from the Sony, and colors are actually more pleasing from the Panasonic.

Panasonic G85 vs Panasonic G7 at ISO 1600

Panasonic G85 at ISO 1600	Panasonic G7 at ISO 1600
The Panasonic G85's OLPF-less sensor continues to pay dividends here at ISO 1600, producing a slightly sharper image than its predecessor though again some of the improvement is due to revised processing. Minor aliasing artifacts continue to be more evident from the G85, though, and both begin to show some unwanted artifacts from area-specific noise reduction resulting in some slightly rough, noisy edges.

Panasonic G85 vs Panasonic GX85 at ISO 1600

Panasonic G85 at ISO 1600	Panasonic GX85 at ISO 1600
Again, very little difference in image quality between these two siblings at ISO 1600.

Panasonic G85 vs Canon EOS M5 at ISO 1600

Panasonic G85 at ISO 1600	Canon EOS M5 at ISO 1600
At ISO 1600, the G85 continues to produce a sharper image with almost as much detail as the M5. The Canon's default noise reduction leaves behind quite a bit of luma noise making its image more grainy than the G85's in flatter areas, though the "grain" pattern appears more film-like with less chroma noise than that of the G85, however the G85 hangs on to a bit more detail in the mosaic bottle label. Both cameras struggle with subtle detail in our difficult red-leaf fabric.

Panasonic G85 vs Olympus E-M5 II at ISO 1600

Panasonic G85 at ISO 1600	Olympus E-M5 II at ISO 1600
The E-M5 II's more aggressive anti-noise processing produces a slightly cleaner image than the G85 here at ISO 1600, but that takes a toll on fine detail which is already smudged enough in some parts of the image to take on a slight painterly effect. The G85's image is grainier, but holds on to more fine detail with greater fidelity. Color and contrast are still better from the Olympus, though.

Panasonic G85 vs Sony A6300 at ISO 1600

Panasonic G85 at ISO 1600	Sony A6300 at ISO 1600
The Sony A6300 is still able to resolve more detail and produce better contrast at ISO 1600 than the Panasonic G85, however it shows a stronger and coarser noise "grain" in flatter areas. The A6300 also does a better in the red-leaf swatch, but much of the detail is distorted and false instead of just blurred, and the moiré patterns we saw at base ISO are still visible.

Panasonic G85 vs Panasonic G7 at ISO 3200

Panasonic G85 at ISO 3200	Panasonic G7 at ISO 3200
Here at ISO 3200, the G85 still manages to produce a slightly crisper more contrasty image than the G7, with comparable noise levels. Slight differences in aliasing and color rendition remain.

Panasonic G85 vs Panasonic GX85 at ISO 3200

Panasonic G85 at ISO 3200	Panasonic GX85 at ISO 3200
Once again, very similar image quality from these two stable mates here at ISO 3200, with random noise making one look slightly better than the other in some areas, and vice versa. Both have blurred away almost all fine detail in our tricky red-leaf swatch.

Panasonic G85 vs Canon EOS M5 at ISO 3200

Panasonic G85 at ISO 3200	Canon EOS M5 at ISO 3200
The Panasonic G85 does surprisingly well here against the Canon M5 at ISO 3200. It manages similar levels of detail while producing both a crisper and cleaner looking image. The Canon continues to produce more pleasing colors though, and it does a bit better in our troublesome red-leaf fabric, though it's still heavily blurred.

Panasonic G85 vs Olympus E-M5 II at ISO 3200

Panasonic G85 at ISO 3200	Olympus E-M5 II at ISO 3200
Similar to what we saw at ISO 1600, the Panasonic G85 actually holds on to more detail in the mosaic label with less smudging, while leaving behind only slightly higher noise levels in flatter areas. Panasonic's area-specific noise reduction does however leave more noticeable artifacts along some edges, and it noise "grain" looks a bit less natural than the E-M5 II's, with a somewhat rectilinear look to it. Color and contrast continue to be better from the Olympus, however sharpening halos are also more visible from the E-M5 II.

Panasonic G85 vs Sony A6300 at ISO 3200

Panasonic G85 at ISO 3200	Sony A6300 at ISO 3200
The Sony A6300 continues to out-resolve the G85 here at ISO 3200, while producing a crisper, contrastier image with better detail in most areas, however noise is again more visible and coarser in flatter areas. Again, the Sony does a bit better in the red-leaf fabric, but detail is heavily distorted. The Panasonic continues to produce better, more accurate colors overall.

Panasonic G85 vs. Panasonic G7, Panasonic GX85, Canon EOS M5, Olympus E-M5 II, Sony A6300

Panasonic G85 ISO 200 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Panasonic G7 ISO 200 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Panasonic GX85 ISO 200 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Canon EOS M5 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Olympus E-M5 II ISO 200 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Sony A6300 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400
Detail comparison. High-contrast detail is also important, pushing the camera in different ways, so we like to look at it, too. Here, the Panasonic G85 performed slightly better than its predecessor in terms of fine detail and contrast, particularly at higher ISOs. Compared to its less expensive sibling, the GX85, performance here is pretty much identical. The Canon EOS M5 did well at base ISO with better detail and contrast, however its rendering isn't as crisp, becoming softer than all others as ISO rises. The Olympus E-M5 II produced noticeably higher contrast, though detail suffered a bit more than the others at ISO 6400 and sharpening halos were the most visible. The Sony A6300 easily out-performed this group in terms of detail, and contrast was very good as well if not quite as high as the E-M5 II's. The Sony also produced the least visible sharpening halos of the bunch.

Panasonic G85 Print Quality Analysis

Terrific 24 x 36 inch prints at ISO 100/200; A good 13 x 19 inch print at ISO 1600 and a good 4 x 6 at ISO 12,800.

ISO 100 and 200 prints are terrific at 24 x 36 inches, with excellent color reproduction and crisp fine detail throughout. Larger prints are certainly possible for wall display purposes, depending on your intended viewing distance.

ISO 400 prints are also very good at 24 x 36 inches. These display virtually no trace of noise from ISO gain, and only the slightest drop in overall sharpness from base ISO prints. For critically sharp prints here, the 20 x 30 inch images are excellent.

ISO 800 yields a 16 x 20 inch print that's really pretty good for this sensitivity, and fairly large at that. There's a mild softening in the red channel and a trace of noise in flatter areas, quite typical for this sensor size at this ISO, but still a very good print overall.

ISO 1600 delivers a 13 x 19 inch print that most definitely passes our good seal of approval, with very good color reproduction and a respectable amount of fine detail remaining. Anything larger shows signs of noise reduction strain, but the 16 x 20 inch prints will likely pass for less critical applications.

ISO 3200 makes a decent attempt to produce a "good" 11 x 14 inch print, but there's just a bit too much noise and a bit too little in the way of contrast and fine detail remaining. The 8 x 10 inch prints here do pass our good seal of approval, with good color reproduction as well.

ISO 6400 prints are good at 5 x 7 inches, with noise well-controlled at that size, but the 8 x 10 inch prints are just a bit too soft and noisy to warrant our good seal.

ISO 12,800 images at 4 x 6 inches just barely pass our good grade. They are a tad on the muted side and there is a bit less contrast detail, but we can still give them a good seal at this small print size.

ISO 25,600 images are not usable for prints and this setting is not recommended.

The Panasonic G85 delivers a solid performance for print quality, and can be counted on to produce quality prints up to ISO 3200. After this the sensor size begins to show its limitations, so we recommend setting the limit at ISO 3200 and below for any printing needs of 8 x 10 or larger. Given its reasonable price point this is an impressive performance in print quality.

Field Test

The Panasonic G85 is a weather-sealed, faster G7 and it's great

By Jeremy Gray · 11/03/2016

Introduction

It wasn't all that long ago that Panasonic introduced the world to the GX85 mirrorless camera. They're back with the G85, which is armed with the same image sensor and processor pairing that the GX85 launched with in April. However, rather than opt for a rangefinder-style camera body, the G85 has a compact DSLR-style body and is considered the successor to the G7. This Micro Four Thirds camera has an impressive list of specs, but does it deliver equally impressive results in the real world? Read on to find out.

Key Features

• Compact, lightweight DSLR-style camera body
• Weather-sealed, improved shutter mechanism
• 16-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor without an optical low pass filter (OLPF)
• Native ISO 200-25,600, expandable to ISO 100
• 1/16000s-60s shutter speed range
• 3-inch tilt/swivel touchscreen display
• 49-point contrast-detect autofocus system with 0.07 second AF speeds
• 4K Photo and 4K video features
• Eco mode to improve battery life to 800 shots
• Dual I.S. 2 image stabilization, providing 5 stops of correction with compatible lenses
• $1,000 price ($900 street)

G85's DSLR-like body is compact & light with a great touchscreen

Externally, there's nothing much of note to differentiate the G85 from its predecessor, the Panasonic G7. However, when you take a peek under the hood, so to speak, you find considerable changes. The G85 has a new version of Panasonic's hybrid sensor-shift image stabilization technology, Dual I.S. 2, which combines lens and sensor-shift technologies to provide up to 5-stops of correction (at least to an equivalent focal length of roughly 280mm). When you shoot at longer focal lengths than that, the amount that the sensor can physically shift becomes a limiting factor. The new image stabilization technology is not compatible with all lenses, however, but with the 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens that I used, it worked very well. The 100-400mm lens that I also got to shoot with will be getting an upgrade to function with Dual I.S. 2 in 2017, but in the meantime the 1st-gen Dual I.S. stabilization with 4-stops of correction will work with the 100-400mm on this camera.

In addition to the new sensor shift image stabilization technology, there's also been a change to the shutter mechanism compared to the G7. The G85's new shutter mechanism is the same electromagnetically actuated mechanism found in the GX85, which causes less internal vibrations than previous shutter systems. In addition, even compared to the GX85, the G85's shutter is quieter thanks to the body's weather-sealed design. If you need ultimate silence in operations, you can use an all-electronic mode, which has some downsides such as increased rolling shutter.

As mentioned, the Panasonic G85 is also fully weather-sealed, a very impressive feat for a camera at this price point and a move that brings the G85 more in line with the Panasonic GH4. The G85, with these new changes, weighs in at around 1.1 pounds (505 grams), which is still quite light and very manageable to carry all day with a light or medium-weight lens.

The G85 has DSLR-like controls to go with its compact DSLR-style body. Despite being a mirrorless camera, DSLR users will feel very comfortable with the G85. It employs a moderately chunky front grip with twin control dials. The dials rotate smoothly but still have a pretty distinct click when making adjustments. In the center of the front command dial is the shutter release, which I didn't like the feel of but I got used to it with time. It has very little travel distance and felt overly sensitive. Looking at the rest of the top panel, the mode dial and drive mode dials rotate with considerable force, meaning that they won't be accidentally rotated but that also means that one finger rotation is slightly more difficult.

The back of the G85 has a fairly standard control layout. The buttons sit close to the body and can be difficult to press when wearing gloves, which is unfortunate when shooting in a cold climate, but the layout is good and I don't have any major complaints about the buttons. It's worth mentioning that I really like the rubber grip that covers the rear of the camera and the front grip. It's soft but has a nice textured finish that felt good to use and provided me with a bit of security when holding the camera.

The Panasonic G85 has a 3-inch rear touchscreen display with 1,040,000 dots of resolution. The display is plenty sharp, but what is most impressive is its tilt swivel motion. The display rotates well and is very versatile in real-world situations. During my time with the G85, its tilting and swiveling screen proved useful on a number of occasions. The G85's touchscreen functionality works well too, particularly with regard to its handling of autofocus point movement. Even when looking through the viewfinder, you can use the touchscreen display as an autofocus touch pad. This feature is highly useful when shooting with the viewfinder, as I often like to do, particularly when shooting with a long lens such as the Panasonic 100-400mm telephoto zoom.

On the topic of the viewfinder, the Panasonic G85 has a 2.36 million-dot OLED electronic viewfinder that offers 100% frame coverage and a 35mm-equivalent magnification of 0.74x. The viewfinder works well in bright light, although it can get very choppy when shooting in low light. It is big and bright and works well in most cases, as does its eye sensor (although the tilting screen can trick it with reflections and shadows at times).

Overall, while the camera isn't necessarily inexpensive with a street price around US$900, it has a very solid feel that surpasses its price point. The tilting display and electronic viewfinder are both excellent and despite buttons that are a bit too close to the body and a trigger-happy shutter release, the Panasonic G85 body feels well designed.

The G85 can be purchased with a versatile kit lens, the 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH POWER OIS

In addition to being sold as a body only configuration, the G85 can also be purchased in a kit with a weather-sealed lens. The kit comes with a 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH Power OIS lens which offers an equivalent focal length of 24-120mm. The lens has 11 elements in nine groups, including one ED element and three aspherical elements. It's a moderately compact and lightweight lens that balances nicely with the G85 camera body. I enjoyed using the kit lens. It adds only $100 to the cost of the G85, so if you are buying your first MFT camera, I highly recommend taking a long look at the kit because it is a versatile, solid optic.

The Panasonic G85 captures sharp photos with updated sensor

Unlike the G7 before it, the Panasonic G85 forgoes an optical low pass filter on its 16-megapixel Live MOS Four Thirds sensor, but otherwise maintains the same resolution as the earlier model. Panasonic states that the G85 includes their sharpest 16-megapixel sensor ever, and while we need to wait for full testing results to verify their claim, it is definitely a sharp sensor. It's self-cleaning too, so that's nice.

Image quality: Very sharp, fine-detailed images

Straight from the camera, images can be a bit bland, which was an issue we had with the G7 as well. Nonetheless, the removal of the optical low pass filter leads to very sharp, detailed images, particularly at low ISOs. RAW images need quite a bit of sharpening to bring out the sensor's detail, but it's a worthwhile task as the sensor is capable of capturing sharp images. Colors are mostly handled well by the G85, although dark purples are pushed a bit and lose some fine detail.

Panasonic 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 at 12mm (24mm eq.), f/9.0, 6s, ISO 200 I performed extensive editing to this image, including bringing up exposure and shadows a considerable amount while reducing highlights. I was impressed with the flexibility of the G85's RAW files. This image has been modified. Click for full-size image.

Artifacts and moiré can be problematic from the Panasonic G85

While removing the OLPF means sharper images, it also means that G85 is more susceptible to moiré when shooting subjects with small, repeating patterns, such as feathers. Moiré is typically very difficult to remove in post-processing, so it is worth keeping in mind when shooting certain subjects. There are a few things you can do to avoid moiré, although it is not always feasible to do so. You can change the focal length or your distance from the subject, you can slightly adjust focus, shoot from a different angle or stop down your lens far enough that you get diffraction, which can soften the image enough to eliminate the artifact. If you're photographing a subject that you think will cause problems, be sure to view your subject at 100%.

Image quality at high ISOs: G85 delivers decent high ISO results

Despite its somewhat small sensor size, the G85 does quite well at high ISOs. When considering JPEG images, I found that it produces usable files through ISO 3200. At ISO 6400, noise reduction starts to become excessive and fine details are lost and edges become riddled with artifacts. At ISO 12800, JPEG images are bad even when viewed at small sizes and ISO 25600 is basically useless, in my opinion. When viewing images at 100% or making large prints, I think that ISO 400 is probably where I would stop for larger, critical prints as there's a noticeable increase in shadow noise by ISO 800, although both ISO settings look very good.

Panasonic G85 Noise Comparison 100% Center Crops from JPEG images with Vivid Picture Style and otherwise default settings (Click for full-size images)
ISO 200 Full Scene
ISO 200	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 1600
ISO 3200	ISO 6400
ISO 12800	ISO 25600

Looking at RAW images, ISO 1600 is where image quality really takes a turn for the worse. Nonetheless, with a bit of noise reduction, ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 images are both what I would consider usable. Beyond that, balancing the sharpening that RAW files need with the noise reduction that has to be applied to the files becomes very difficult.

Overall: Sharp images, decent high ISO performance from the Panasonic G85

The Panasonic G85 captures sharp images overall. Its high ISO performance is pretty good, although not outstanding, and images can be a bit dull straight from the camera at default capture settings. RAW images need a bit more work than other cameras, in my experience, to bring out their best, but nonetheless, the G85 includes an impressive Micro Four Thirds sensor.

Panasonic G85 user experience: feature-rich, fast AF, deep buffer

The Panasonic G85's somewhat compact form factor and excellent display help it be a very user-friendly camera. However, there's more to a camera's user experience than ergonomics. Fortunately, the G85 excels in other areas as well, including its variety of shooting modes, autofocus performance and video features. I would like to also point out that the camera's menu system is pretty good, but there's also a very neat playback feature. When you are playing back images on the G85, if you zoom all the way out (using the rear command dial) to view more images. If you keep scrolling, you can zoom out to get a calendar view, allowing you to view all of your images and videos from a particular day. Neat! You can also zoom-in to a single photo, by scrolling the rear dial in the other direction.

Wide assortment of shooting modes

The Panasonic G85 has a lot of photo modes, including the standard program (P), aperture priority (A), shutter speed priority (S) and manual (M) modes. On the mode dial, there are also intelligent automatic, creative expression, scene and user-customizable C1 and C2 modes. For movie shooting, there's a manual movie shooting mode on the dial as well.

Regarding the creative expression mode, there are a variety of filters that can be applied to your images, including, retro, high key, low key, sepia, monochrome, and much, much more. Scene mode, rather than applying a filter, selects settings appropriate to a chosen "scene." There are numerous different Scene options to pick through, which includes typical subjects options like clear portrait, handheld night shot, and panorama. There are also some oddly specific Scene modes, too, such as 'sweet child's face,' 'romantic sunset glow,' ' soft image of a flower' and 'cute dessert.'

Metering performance is reliable

I found the Panasonic G85's 1728-zone metering system works well in most situations. There are three metering modes: multiple, center-weighted and spot. The latter of which is tied to the AF point, which is nice. The function button on the top of the camera (Fn1) works as an exposure compensation button during regular shooting, in case you need to quickly change exposure metering behavior. However, I didn't need to utilize exposure compensation very often as the camera did a good job in real-world use. More importantly, it was consistent. White balance metering was similarly good, although white balance can be quickly adjusted by pressing the 'WB' button on the back of the camera.

Autofocus performance is snappy, capable in low-light and impressive overall

The Panasonic G85 utilizes a 49-point contrast-detect autofocus system that performs particularly well in low light situations. In fact, the camera can autofocus down to -4 EV, which is very impressive and rivals many of the more advanced DSLR cameras' autofocus systems.

When shooting in AF-S mode, the autofocus system is quick to acquire accurate focus. 49 points proves to be plenty on the Four Thirds sensor. By far my favorite autofocus feature of the G85 in real-world use is the ability to use the touchscreen display as an AF touchpad. When looking through the viewfinder, it's possible to move the AF point around the screen with your thumb. It may not sound like a big deal, but it is very intuitive and works well. However, you have to be careful to not accidentally hit the screen with your face or thumb when trying to access buttons on the back of the camera, as this can disrupt your focusing and move your AF point to an undesired location.

Despite the lack of on-sensor phase-detect AF, I found continuous autofocus performance is generally quite good on the G85. There is a slight tendency, however, for the camera to hunt in lower light or fail to realize that it has acquired focus on your subject and start searching again. Overall, though, I was impressed with the camera's continuous autofocus capabilities.

It's worth noting that the G85 utilizes Panasonic's Depth from Defocus (DFD) technology, which you can read more about here. Focusing is very fast, acquiring focus in just 0.07 seconds. In my experience, while the continuous autofocus was certainly quick, the single-shot focus is where the G85 shines.

Performance remains strong with some improvements, plus a handy battery-saving mode

The Panasonic G85 is a pretty speedy compact ILC. Compared to its predecessor, the G85 offers an additional frame per second of continuous shooting speed with a total of 9fps in continuous high mode. With that said, if you want to shoot with continuous autofocus, shooting speeds are capped at 6fps, which is still pretty quick but not groundbreaking.

The biggest improvement in performance comes in to RAW image buffer depth. The G85 is rated to capture 45 RAW shots before slowing down whereas the G7 maxed out at just 16 frames in our lab testing. JPEG buffer depth has been improved, as well, to a rated 300 frames, although we found it to shoot 240 JPEG frames during lab testing, so it wasn't exactly an area of weakness before. Like the G7 before it, the G85 is UHS-II compatible, which helps clear the buffer rapidly. In my experience, buffer clearing was a bit slower than the G7, compared to the numbers we tested in our lab. However, with the G85, you can start shooting again at full burst speeds while the camera continues clearing out the buffer.

What about battery life? During normal shooting, battery life is 330 shots when using the monitor and 320 shots when using the electronic viewfinder, which isn't particularly good but fairly standard for a mirrorless ILC. However, when using the new battery saving eco mode, battery life increases to a very good 800 shots. This is accomplished by using the camera's built-in eye sensor and quickly putting the camera to sleep when it isn't in use. You'll need to toggle the display settings to turn off Live View on the rear LCD and shoot with only the EVF, but it's a great way to drastically extend the battery life.

No NFC, but the wireless capabilities of the G85 are quite impressive nonetheless

Using the Panasonic Image App, you can connect the G85 via Wi-Fi to your smartphone to transfer images and remotely control the camera. The connection process is straightforward, requiring turning on Wi-Fi on the camera, connecting to the G85 in your device's settings and then opening up Image App. Although straightforward, the process would be much faster if there was a dedicated "wireless" button on the camera body rather than require users to go through the menu system.

Once connected, you can select images to transfer to your device. This works fine, but the real draw of the app for me is the ability to remotely control the G85. The connection is reliable and the live view feed is sharp and stable. You can make changes on the camera body itself without disconnecting the camera from the phone as well, which is nice. There are a plethora of options you can remotely adjust, including photo style, filter settings, picture size and quality, metering, flash, bracketing, aperture, exposure compensation, ISO and white balance. It's really a very impressive wireless application and one of the best ones I've used.

Panasonic G85 4K Video and Photo features are excellent

As has become standard for Panasonic cameras, the G85 is very well-equipped in the video department, including 4K video recording up to 30p. Although it doesn't have the same level of pro-video features as the GH4, it does come close. The G85 has a 3.5mm mic input, but no headphone jack, and includes Cinelike D and Cinelike V picture styles for increased dynamic range when recording video that will be post-processed. You can record with a 100Mbps bit rate in the MP4 format as well as AVCHD files at a lower bit rate. Unlike the GH4, there's no MOV format on the G85.

Additional features include fully manual video recording, 4K Live Cropping (which lets you record a 1080p video within a frame that you move around on the display), focus peaking and exposure zebras.

How does the video quality look? Very nice. 4K video is sharp, and the camera handles exposure and focus well. Continuous focus can sometimes hunt a bit, but its transitions are generally smooth and quiet with the lenses I tested. You can record video within P, A, S and M shooting modes by hitting the dedicated movie record button on the top of the camera, but there's also a dedicated movie shooting mode on the mode dial itself that lets you cycle through different movie modes, such as manual and aperture priority, my two go-to choices.

Even at high ISO, 4K video quality remains quite good, particularly through ISO 1600. You cannot record video beyond ISO 6400, which given the high noise levels when recording at ISO 6400 makes sense.

Overall, the G85 includes a lot of video features considering its price point, and its performance is very impressive. It can't quite match the GH4, but it comes quite close.

4K Photo: Fast-paced 8-megapixel JPEG shooting

4K Photo is a hugely important shooting mode for Panasonic cameras, and it, of course, is offered on the G85. You can capture 8-megapixel JPEG images at up to 30 frames per second with this mode, making it well-suited for action. There are various 4K Photo modes that let you change focus after shooting, stack multiple images for more depth of field, or save 5-second chunks of 4K burst video (or up to 150 individual frames) for later sorting and editing. You can even set the camera to start recording 4K photos when you half-press the shutter so you can ensure that you capture action as soon as it starts. As has been the case with other Panasonic cameras I've tested, 4K Photo modes work very well. It's disappointing that you can't shoot RAW images in this mode, but that isn't surprising given the technical demands of the feature.

Panasonic G85 Field Test Summary

The Panasonic G85 is a very rugged, fun-to-use and capable mirrorless camera

What I like:

• Compact, lightweight and weather-sealed camera body
• Fantastic tilt/swivel touchscreen display and interface
• Good image quality and sharpness across a wide range of ISO speeds
• Fast autofocus performance
• Excellent use of the touchscreen when shooting
• Impressive continuous shooting performance for its class
• 4K photo and video modes work well

What I dislike:

• Moiré and aliasing can be problematic if you're not careful
• Shutter release is sensitive and has little travel distance
• Electronic viewfinder can struggle slightly in low light, displaying a decreased frame rate
• Wi-Fi should have a dedicated button

Following up on the Panasonic G7, the G85 brings a wide array of improvements and continues to deliver on the best aspects of the G7, including a compact, lightweight DSLR-style camera body and fast autofocus performance. The tilt/swivel touchscreen display is particularly impressive as both a tool for composing images and for interacting with the camera. Additionally, image quality from the 16-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor is very good, and the G85's performance has received a substantial upgrade in the RAW buffer depth department. Overall, thanks to impressive imaging performance, autofocus and a very good variety of 4K photo and video modes, the Panasonic G85 is not only an excellent camera, but also a great value.

Flash

Panasonic G85 Flash

Built-in Flash Test Results

Coverage and Range
A fairly weak flash with narrow coverage. Good exposure with Auto ISO.

Coverage. Flash coverage is rather uneven at wide angle, leaving the corners of our flash target image quite dark at 12mm, thought that's not unusual, especially for a wider than average kit lens. Some of the corner shading can also attributable to the lens itself. We no longer test flash coverage at telephoto, as it is invariably better.

Exposure. Indoors under incandescent background lighting, the Panasonic G85's flash underexposed our indoor portrait scene at our standard aperture of f/4 at ISO 200, even with +1.0 EV flash exposure compensation. However, with Auto ISO, the G85 produced a good exposure but it boosted ISO to 800 to achieve that. Shutter speed was 1/60s, which is good and should help avoid motion blur with most portrait shots, though results were quite warm from the somewhat high ISO and ambient lighting.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
5.2 feet , ISO 200, f/5.6

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range Test. The Panasonic G85's built-in flash has a Guide Number of approximately 6.4m at ISO 100 or 9.0m at ISO 200. That works out to a range of about 5.2 feet at f/5.6 and ISO 200. As you can see above, the Panasonic G85 produced a somewhat dim exposure at the rated distance, which means Panasonic's flash rating is optimistic.

High ISO Noise Reduction

Panasonic G85 Noise Reduction

The Panasonic G85 offers no fewer than 11(!)  noise reduction levels, offering very fine granularity on noise reduction strength, however there doesn't appear to be a way to assign different NR levels to specific ISO ranges as we've seen on some cameras. The Panasonic G85 user manual doesn't say when noise reduction kicks in, so we've included crops from the entire range of ISOs in the tables below.

See for yourself how the Panasonic G85's default and -5 (lowest) noise reduction settings compare to RAW without noise reduction under daylight-balanced lighting. (Note that these RAW images also have no sharpening applied, so they're softer than camera JPEGs.) Click on any of the crops below to see the corresponding full-sized image.

High ISO Noise Reduction Comparison Daylight-balanced illumination
	Default	-5	RAW (no NR)
I S O 1 0 0
	Default	-5	RAW (no NR)
I S O 2 0 0
	Default	-5	RAW (no NR)
I S O 4 0 0
	Default	-5	RAW (no NR)
I S O 8 0 0
	Default	-5	RAW (no NR)
I S O 1 6 0 0
	Default	-5	RAW (no NR)
I S O 3 2 0 0
	Default	-5	RAW (no NR)
I S O 6 4 0 0
	Default	-5	RAW (no NR)
I S O 1 2 8 0 0
	Default	-5	RAW (no NR)
I S O 2 5 6 0 0

The Panasonic G85's default noise reduction setting provides a good tradeoff between noise and detail at lower ISOs to our eye, but it has quite an impact on our difficult red-leaf swatch atlready at low ISOs, and turning noise reduction down to the lowest strength doesn't help that much. Still, we'd probably shoot with the lowest setting at higher ISOs and reduce noise ourselves in post-processing (or just shoot RAW). As you can see, the G85 already applies noise reduction at its lowest (extended) ISO of 100. At the other end of the ISO range, you can see that the G85 is quite effective at reducing chroma noise, even at the lowest NR setting.

Conclusion

On the inside, the Panasonic G85 is similar to the rangefinder-styled GX85, which was released seven months prior in April 2016. The DSLR-shaped G85 is also quite similar to the GH4 features-wise, offering several improvements over its G7 predecessor.

Despite having a similar 16-megapixel resolution as the G7, the Panasonic G85 (known in some markets as the G80) drops the optical low-pass filter and employs improved Venus Engine image processing. There are other improvements as well, including: better image stabilization, more durable construction, longer battery life and improved burst performance. We have put the Panasonic G85 through its paces, let's see how it stacks up.

Removing the G85's optical low-pass filter pays big dividends for image quality

The Panasonic G85 has a 16-megapixel Four Thirds Live MOS sensor, which is the same megapixel count as the sensor found in its predecessor, the G7. However, unlike the G7, the G85 does not have an optical low pass filter (OLPF). This change, in addition to different processing, results in the G85 producing sharper images than the G7 at base ISO (200). The G85 delivers images with pleasing colors and sharper, crisper detail, albeit with more artifacts and moiré due to the lack of OLPF and more aggressive default sharpening.

When considering print quality, the Panasonic G85 did very well at ISO 100 and 200, producing excellent 24 x 36 inch prints. Even at ISO 1600, we were still able to make a good 13 x 19 inch print. At ISO 12800, you could print a fine 4 x 6 image, but that is certainly pushing the boundaries of the sensor. If you need to print 8 x 10 or larger, we recommend keeping ISO at or below 3200. Given its price point and sensor size, we consider the G85 to produce very good print quality.

We no longer perform our own dynamic range analysis, but the fine folks at DxO Mark have tested the G85 and concluded that it offers similar dynamic range performance as its predecessor, which is unsurprising. Dynamic range peaks at 12.5 EV at ISO 100 versus 12.2 EV for the G7, which is quite good for a Four Thirds sensor. You can see more about the dynamic range performance of the G85 and its overall sensor performance here.

Looking at competition from other companies, the G85 stands up nicely to the Olympus E-M5 II, although the Olympus camera produces slightly cleaner images at high ISO, albeit with less detail. Compared to the APS-C Sony A6300, the G85 unsurprisingly produces images with less detail than the larger-sensored, higher-megapixel Sony camera.

Overall, the Panasonic G85 produces good to very good image quality, particularly for its sensor size and price point. The removal of an OLPF pays big dividends regarding sharpness and resolution throughout the ISO range, as does the improvement to the in-camera processing.

Panasonic G85 offers very fast, accurate contrast-detect autofocus

The Panasonic G85 uses a DFD-powered 49-point contrast-detect autofocus system which works very well in many situations but was particularly impressive in low light. The camera is rated to autofocus down to -4 EV, which is impressive and on par with high-end DSLR cameras. The camera focused quickly and accurately in almost every situation in which we tested it.

Despite relying on a contrast detect autofocus system, the G85's continuous autofocus performance is generally quite good. There is a slight tendency, however, for the camera to hunt in lower light or fail to realize that it has acquired focus on your subject and start searching again.

One of our favorite aspects of using the camera is its AF Touchpad feature. You can utilize the rear touchscreen to move the focus point around the frame even when using the viewfinder, which can be particularly helpful when doing wildlife photography.

G85 shows improved speeds & buffer depths, adds UHS-II support

With an updated Venus Engine processor, the Panasonic G85 offers excellent performance for a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. The strong performance begins right at startup, with the camera offering faster than average startup times. Autofocus speeds proved to be very good as well, especially for a camera which relies solely on contrast-detect autofocus. Full-autofocus shutter lag was 0.197 second, which is good for a mirrorless camera and competitive with prosumer DSLR cameras.

Continuous shooting performance is improved compared to its predecessor. The Panasonic G85 records highest-quality JPEG images at up to 9.35 frames per second with seemingly unlimited buffer depth (note: we are not 100% sure it is unlimited, but it recorded over 200 frames with no signs of slowing). This is an improvement of over a frame per second compared to the G7. RAW capture speeds are improved as well. The G85 can shoot RAW images at up to 7.33fps for 62 frames with the buffer clearing in 13 seconds. This is a big increase in buffer size from 16 to 62 frames, and speeds are over half a frame per second faster. Buffer clearing has increased by five seconds, but this is unsurprising given the much larger buffer. It is worth noting that the G85 also has electronic shutter recording options, which top out at 9.63fps when shooting RAW images. If you want to shoot with continuous autofocus, Panasonic reports that speeds top out at 6fps, but this is not something we test in the lab.

Overall, the performance of the Panasonic G85 is excellent for its class. The camera supports UHS-II SD cards, as well, which certainly helps, as does the new processor. The camera is consistently quick. You will want to purchase an extra battery, however, as the battery life is a below average 330 shots when using the monitor (320 shots with the electronic viewfinder).

While the G85 is quick, if you need even more speed for shooting, its 4K Photo modes offer a lot of flexibility and speed. You can record 8-megapixel JPEG images at up to 30fps using 4K Photo Burst modes. You can also utilize focus stacking if you have a steady surface to shoot from.

Panasonic G85 is very well-equipped for recording video

The Panasonic G85 offers 4K video up to 30p and includes a number of videographer-friendly features, such as a 3.5mm mic input, Cinelike picture styles and 100Mbps bit rate recording. The camera offers fully manual exposure recording, 4K Live Cropping, focus peaking and exposure zebras as well.

4K video quality itself is very nice, offering a lot of fine detail and sharpness. The camera handles automatic exposure and continuous autofocus quite nicely. For videographers looking for good low-light 4K video quality, we found that the G85 offers good 4K video up through ISO 1600, although it can shoot at up to ISO 6400.

The Panasonic G85 closes the gap from mid- to high-range in Panasonic's ILC lineup, sharing many features with the former flagship camera, the GH4, making it a great, well-rounded multimedia camera.

Build Quality: Weather-sealed G85 handles very well

While the G85 looks a lot like its predecessor, there are multiple changes worth mentioning in terms of its construction and physical features. The G85 utilizes Panasonic's latest image stabilization technology, Dual I.S. 2. Dual I.S. 2 combines lens and sensor-shift stabilization to provide up to 5-stops of correction, which worked very well during our testing.

The camera body is weather-sealed, a welcomed upgrade over the G7. It also includes a new quieter shutter mechanism, thanks in part to the sealed-up camera body. The G85 is reasonably compact for its sensor size and body style and proved comfortable to carry even during extended shooting sessions. The grip is moderately chunky and allowed us to get a good hold on the camera.

The 2.36 million-dot OLED electronic viewfinder offers 0.74x (35mm eq.) magnification, and the 3-inch rear touchscreen display tilts and swivels, so you have two great options for shooting with the G85. Overall, it offers comfort, durability and features beyond its price point.

The Panasonic G85 is an excellent addition to Panasonic's camera lineup and a boasts a healthy array of upgrades over the G7. It includes numerous high-end features, particularly with regard to the camera body itself and its 4K video features without leaving the mid-range price point of its predecessor. We were very impressed by its performance across the board and combined with the versatility of the MFT lens mount, the G85 is easy to recommend as it is a great all-around DSLR-style mirrorless camera -- a definite addition to our list of Dave's Picks.