Today’s Post by Joe & Mary Farace
“In this world second thoughts, it seems, are best.”—Euripides
To tell you the truth, I had almost forgotten that I even owned a Panasonic Lumix GX8 until I was cleaning up my gear closet and saw it setting on the shelf.* And then when preparing today’s post, I found this older post about the GX8 and, after reading it, I realized why I never use this camera. Maybe you have similar feeling about one of your cameras. If you do, I have three suggestions for you:
- Sell it.
- Give it to a kid starting in photography or charity.
- Finally the best suggestion: Convert it to infrared and have fun with it again.
A Second (and Final) Look
If you’ve read my First Look at the Lumix GX8 on mine and Mark Toal’s old mirrorless camera blog—that I hope to restart some day— you’ll know I wasn’t a fan of its size, weight or ergonomics but that feeling is not universally shared in the Farace household. Mary drove her VW Beetle convertible to Cars & Coffee at the Vehicle Vault and made some photographs with the Lumix GX8.
Let’s be clear about one thing: Mary has smaller, more delicate hands than I do; My paws are US medium. Yet she fell in love with the GX8’s size, shape and ergonomics. She also loved the flip-out OLED screen never having a moment’s problem with it (unlike myself.) She used the flip-out screen a lot during our walk around the Vehicle Vault’s parking lot. I didn’t like the camera’s grip; she loved it but occasionally had trouble accidentally pressing the Function button (Fn7) on the camera’s front, next to the grip. (It didn’t bother me.)
We both liked the beautiful OLED viewfinder and three-inch touchscreen. Focusing with the GX8’s DFD (Depth-From-Defocus) quickly calculates the distance to subjects and adjust focus in as little as 0.07 seconds, which can be a big help at crowded car shows when people moving in and out of the frame. Mary also like shooting cars with the Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH lens that’s part of my basic kit. She used it with my JJC LH-37EPII Metal Lens Hood Shade that is “better than nothing,” because there is no factory option available from Panasonic.
In short, while Mary and I may disagree on what we liked about the Lumix GX8—she loves all of it, me, not as much—we both agreed on the impressive image quality and the simple fact that the GX8 is a great companion when attending car shows.
We’re both looking forward to seeing you at the next Cars & Coffee in March, 2024 and hope to have some prizes to distribute.
*P.S. I sold the Lumix GX8 to KEH during their last camera buying trip to Colorado,
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Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography with new copies are available from Amazon for $21.50 and used copies starting around five bucks.