fuzzynormal

GX85 reference source files.  4K 30p:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ind5m3i55ref68n/AADuWTubn7qDQpSeTaRi7r_Ia?dl=0 

Natural Color Profile: 0,-5,-5,-2.
Indoor shots with a 55mm FD lens, Chinese Speedbooster, no filters.
Stabilizer set to 40mm
Highlights set to -2
White Balance Adjust A:3 G:3 
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sqfycip8z52s3z9/AADEWeIG1R1i1hUObtrLGlrea?dl=0

Experimenting with the GX85.  Shooting under sub-optimal conditions.  Bright mid-day light, hard shadows, etc.  Cheap Chinese speedbooster with a 55mm f1.2 FD lens, B&W 64x ND, and a Tiffen circular polarizer.  No lens hood.  Neutral color profile -5 -5 -5 -5.  Most shots @f2.
Here's source footage straight from the cam:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/694tsb6iwy5y6um/AABOcE_3WUiCMY18xyOuTLEaa/GX85?dl=0

Having a decent script is awesome. It's always a challenge to make a great movie, regardless of a strong written foundation.  Hope you can pull it off!
Regarding Vimeo: my wife and I made a very very modest documentary that we put on Vimeo, and we see a trickle of income from it.  We've never bothered to promote it, but it's a topic that has a niche so orders keep floating in.  If you hook into a supporting community, they will prop you up a little bit, which is certainly nice.
If you think your film is good enough for the upper echelon film festivals, then yeah, give it a shot.  
As an active member of a small SoCal film fest I can tell you, we're desperate for films with a creative POV, from filmmakers that have an actual voice.  There's plenty of decently crafted films that we see, (because of the democratization of production gear) but not a heck of a lot that are truly accomplished with compelling and creative cinematic storytelling.  
I'll be completely honest here (so don't tell anyone I wrote this)  --it's personally a bit frustrating to screen some of the films we screen.  But ultimately that's cool.  That's all part of it.  My tastes in film doesn't exactly jibe with the rest of our selection committee's POV.  To put it diplomatically: We're "diverse."  To state it realistically: We put average films in the festival.
1. because we need the programming. 
2. particular topics, rather than cinematic creativity, will appeal to our selection committee.  (This is not necessarily a bad thing, I'm just acknowledging a typical situation of film fests)
As it happens, almost all good films that get submitted to our festival will get into our festival. (there's some ideological politics involved as well that go into the submission decisions --that's the nature of a committee)  But, be that as it may, we're a film festival that's incredibly embraced by our community.  Every single screening during our 5 day festival sees attendance of 150-200 people...and this is in a proper theatre venue that officially seats 185.
So, if you ever get accepted to film festival be wise and do your research regarding what sort of event they present. 
It's a bit much to travel across the nation to attend, go to your screening, and then it's you the filmmaker and only 4 other people in a sunlit conference room with a LCD projector... Experience that firsthand and you'll get a rude awakening of the sad state of some so-called film "festivals" these days.  This doesn't even take into account the festivals that exist solely to generate submission income and then dole out laurels and empty awards, while never even holding physical screenings.  
Our festival may be small, but at least it's legit.
At any rate, PM if you're interested.  I'd like to hear what you got going.  Also:  Good luck in general!

Any camera, really.

Having a decent script is awesome. It's always a challenge to make a great movie, regardless of a strong written foundation.  Hope you can pull it off!
Regarding Vimeo: my wife and I made a very very modest documentary that we put on Vimeo, and we see a trickle of income from it.  We've never bothered to promote it, but it's a topic that has a niche so orders keep floating in.  If you hook into a supporting community, they will prop you up a little bit, which is certainly nice.
If you think your film is good enough for the upper echelon film festivals, then yeah, give it a shot.  
As an active member of a small SoCal film fest I can tell you, we're desperate for films with a creative POV, from filmmakers that have an actual voice.  There's plenty of decently crafted films that we see, (because of the democratization of production gear) but not a heck of a lot that are truly accomplished with compelling and creative cinematic storytelling.  
I'll be completely honest here (so don't tell anyone I wrote this)  --it's personally a bit frustrating to screen some of the films we screen.  But ultimately that's cool.  That's all part of it.  My tastes in film doesn't exactly jibe with the rest of our selection committee's POV.  To put it diplomatically: We're "diverse."  To state it realistically: We put average films in the festival.
1. because we need the programming. 
2. particular topics, rather than cinematic creativity, will appeal to our selection committee.  (This is not necessarily a bad thing, I'm just acknowledging a typical situation of film fests)
As it happens, almost all good films that get submitted to our festival will get into our festival. (there's some ideological politics involved as well that go into the submission decisions --that's the nature of a committee)  But, be that as it may, we're a film festival that's incredibly embraced by our community.  Every single screening during our 5 day festival sees attendance of 150-200 people...and this is in a proper theatre venue that officially seats 185.
So, if you ever get accepted to film festival be wise and do your research regarding what sort of event they present. 
It's a bit much to travel across the nation to attend, go to your screening, and then it's you the filmmaker and only 4 other people in a sunlit conference room with a LCD projector... Experience that firsthand and you'll get a rude awakening of the sad state of some so-called film "festivals" these days.  This doesn't even take into account the festivals that exist solely to generate submission income and then dole out laurels and empty awards, while never even holding physical screenings.  
Our festival may be small, but at least it's legit.
At any rate, PM if you're interested.  I'd like to hear what you got going.  Also:  Good luck in general!

Yes. And typical with doc footage. 

Not really. It allows me to find focus of the actual shot, but because the evf image is so soft (and slightly distorted as well), my eye is always straining to comfortably focus on the image. 
This is is not an issue with my Olympus EM5II  
Hard to empathize, I know, unless you've got old person eyesight.  Which, btw, seems to happen within a few months.  Beginning of the year you have good vision, by the end of the year you need bi-focals.  

I'm using these little cams for a modest project, and after a few weeks run n' gunning with the gx85, thought I'd give a quick critique.
First of all.  Great cam.  Wonderful IQ for such a small price.  So, there's that and it's a really big deal.
Now for the big "but." 
Outboard audio:  I knew it was going to be a pain buying into the gx85 insomuch as the post side of outboard audio sync'ing was going to be a hassle.  Now that's it's on the NLE in front of me and being unwieldy, there's a level of regret that's certainly frustrating.  Until one is actually dealing with hours of unsync'ed  audio, (again) it might be hard to empathize, but believe me, it's not fun.  Sync'ing interviews?  Not a problem.  Trying to sync each and every b-roll clip when your 2 cameras are wandering to various distances from the subject?  Not an enjoyable experience to clean up in post while the clock is ticking on the deadline.
Big compromise there when deciding to use the gx85.
The EVF.  Just not good enough for me.  And this is important.  I'm an older guy.  My eyes suck.  Trying to focus on that crappy EVF for a few hours can literally make me queasy and leave me with eyesight issues after using the cam for awhile.  Compared to the ease of using the EVF on our Fuji/Oly cams, it's like Panasonic is foisting some cruel joke on it's consumers.  It's really quite bad.  You can just never tell if your image is in focus on the damn thing, and the eye strain that mushy image generates is very much a big issue.  I'm attempting a work around with various loupe set-ups, but those things are awkward to use AND make the camera look like some sort of filming device; both things I'm trying to avoid.
Otherwise, the camera delivers as advertised.  On gear like this, it's all a compromise, and I think we know that.  Shooting a semi-pro doc with consumer gear is do-able, it's just not as elegant as it could be...maybe at this point in consumer camera development it's fair to even say it's not as elegant as it SHOULD be.
Now...if the EM5II video was just a tiny bit better I probably would have stuck with my Olympus for this assignment.  But, IQ tends to trump all else.
Anyway, if you're a hobbyist, you're probably going to love the value of this camera.  Having that stabilizer for most people who are awful at doing handheld will be worth it alone. -- But for doing actual work?  It's can be a slog in the documentary style of production.  All that said, my wife and I completed a doc last year (https://vimeo.com/140524680) using the GM1 and GX7, so we knew what we were getting into going into the production, it's just that our newer Fuji/Oly cams have kind of spoiled us in the interim, as the Oly allows on board audio recording --and the EFV's are actually an asset rather than a liability.
 

Not really. It allows me to find focus of the actual shot, but because the evf image is so soft (and slightly distorted as well), my eye is always straining to comfortably focus on the image. 
This is is not an issue with my Olympus EM5II  
Hard to empathize, I know, unless you've got old person eyesight.  Which, btw, seems to happen within a few months.  Beginning of the year you have good vision, by the end of the year you need bi-focals.  

I'm using these little cams for a modest project, and after a few weeks run n' gunning with the gx85, thought I'd give a quick critique.
First of all.  Great cam.  Wonderful IQ for such a small price.  So, there's that and it's a really big deal.
Now for the big "but." 
Outboard audio:  I knew it was going to be a pain buying into the gx85 insomuch as the post side of outboard audio sync'ing was going to be a hassle.  Now that's it's on the NLE in front of me and being unwieldy, there's a level of regret that's certainly frustrating.  Until one is actually dealing with hours of unsync'ed  audio, (again) it might be hard to empathize, but believe me, it's not fun.  Sync'ing interviews?  Not a problem.  Trying to sync each and every b-roll clip when your 2 cameras are wandering to various distances from the subject?  Not an enjoyable experience to clean up in post while the clock is ticking on the deadline.
Big compromise there when deciding to use the gx85.
The EVF.  Just not good enough for me.  And this is important.  I'm an older guy.  My eyes suck.  Trying to focus on that crappy EVF for a few hours can literally make me queasy and leave me with eyesight issues after using the cam for awhile.  Compared to the ease of using the EVF on our Fuji/Oly cams, it's like Panasonic is foisting some cruel joke on it's consumers.  It's really quite bad.  You can just never tell if your image is in focus on the damn thing, and the eye strain that mushy image generates is very much a big issue.  I'm attempting a work around with various loupe set-ups, but those things are awkward to use AND make the camera look like some sort of filming device; both things I'm trying to avoid.
Otherwise, the camera delivers as advertised.  On gear like this, it's all a compromise, and I think we know that.  Shooting a semi-pro doc with consumer gear is do-able, it's just not as elegant as it could be...maybe at this point in consumer camera development it's fair to even say it's not as elegant as it SHOULD be.
Now...if the EM5II video was just a tiny bit better I probably would have stuck with my Olympus for this assignment.  But, IQ tends to trump all else.
Anyway, if you're a hobbyist, you're probably going to love the value of this camera.  Having that stabilizer for most people who are awful at doing handheld will be worth it alone. -- But for doing actual work?  It's can be a slog in the documentary style of production.  All that said, my wife and I completed a doc last year (https://vimeo.com/140524680) using the GM1 and GX7, so we knew what we were getting into going into the production, it's just that our newer Fuji/Oly cams have kind of spoiled us in the interim, as the Oly allows on board audio recording --and the EFV's are actually an asset rather than a liability.
 

Focal length is focal length.  So, your answer is 20mm and 50mm. 

Focal length is focal length.  So, your answer is 20mm and 50mm. 

Man, I'm just grateful I can get my hands on cool equipment.  Whether it be cheap mirrorless "toys" to do stuff with --or high end rentals.  I love that it's all rather easily accessed these days.  

Man, I'm just grateful I can get my hands on cool equipment.  Whether it be cheap mirrorless "toys" to do stuff with --or high end rentals.  I love that it's all rather easily accessed these days.  

If you want manual motion picture shooting when you move the dial to "C", then you'll have to build the camera state that you want.
For instance, under menu 2 of the motion picture settings, I'd put "Exposure Mode" to "M" for manual, set all the other camera settings of my preference, then save the state of the camera in the menu: Custom (the wrench icon with a C next to it) --> Custom Set Mem.--> C1.
After that, whenever I go to "C" on the dial, I'd have that camera state ready to go under the C1 option. 

If you want manual motion picture shooting when you move the dial to "C", then you'll have to build the camera state that you want.
For instance, under menu 2 of the motion picture settings, I'd put "Exposure Mode" to "M" for manual, set all the other camera settings of my preference, then save the state of the camera in the menu: Custom (the wrench icon with a C next to it) --> Custom Set Mem.--> C1.
After that, whenever I go to "C" on the dial, I'd have that camera state ready to go under the C1 option. 

If you want manual motion picture shooting when you move the dial to "C", then you'll have to build the camera state that you want.
For instance, under menu 2 of the motion picture settings, I'd put "Exposure Mode" to "M" for manual, set all the other camera settings of my preference, then save the state of the camera in the menu: Custom (the wrench icon with a C next to it) --> Custom Set Mem.--> C1.
After that, whenever I go to "C" on the dial, I'd have that camera state ready to go under the C1 option. 

I got 2 GX85's for a specific project, so I can attest to the brand loyalty thing.  I've used Panasonic cameras for a long time and brand comfort makes the choice to buy-in to a new camera for this gig a bit easier.  Plus, the dang things are ridiculously cheap.
That said, I still think the 5-axis in the Oly EM5II is just a touch better than what Panasonic is offering; industry leading.  However, there's a caveat:  that's only when using non-OIS lenses.  If you have a Pany OIS lens paired with the Panasonic sensor stabilizer, it's really good. 
I'm also really loathe to turn away from the ergos of my EM5II.  I'm surprised that I connected so much to the EM5II, to be honest, but I do love how it just works.  If only Oly had better motion picture IQ...

I got 2 GX85's for a specific project, so I can attest to the brand loyalty thing.  I've used Panasonic cameras for a long time and brand comfort makes the choice to buy-in to a new camera for this gig a bit easier.  Plus, the dang things are ridiculously cheap.
That said, I still think the 5-axis in the Oly EM5II is just a touch better than what Panasonic is offering; industry leading.  However, there's a caveat:  that's only when using non-OIS lenses.  If you have a Pany OIS lens paired with the Panasonic sensor stabilizer, it's really good. 
I'm also really loathe to turn away from the ergos of my EM5II.  I'm surprised that I connected so much to the EM5II, to be honest, but I do love how it just works.  If only Oly had better motion picture IQ...

I got 2 GX85's for a specific project, so I can attest to the brand loyalty thing.  I've used Panasonic cameras for a long time and brand comfort makes the choice to buy-in to a new camera for this gig a bit easier.  Plus, the dang things are ridiculously cheap.
That said, I still think the 5-axis in the Oly EM5II is just a touch better than what Panasonic is offering; industry leading.  However, there's a caveat:  that's only when using non-OIS lenses.  If you have a Pany OIS lens paired with the Panasonic sensor stabilizer, it's really good. 
I'm also really loathe to turn away from the ergos of my EM5II.  I'm surprised that I connected so much to the EM5II, to be honest, but I do love how it just works.  If only Oly had better motion picture IQ...

You have to pixel peep, but, yeah, it's a bit better at smoothing out edges.  I wouldn't bother using it for 4K footage that's delivered 1080.

Don't disagree, but I'll add that re-scaling is certainly useful when shooting a documentary.  Run'nGun shooting is all about circumstances and compromise.  I can be happy with 95% of my shots, but if I can make a shot better with a bit of judicious cropping I'll do it.  I ain't proud.  Give me a technique I can exploit, I'll exploit it.
I'm not shooting with a 4K camera because I want to re-frame all my documentary shots, I'm shooting 4K because it offers options if need be.  --And then there's this whole thing, as if this thread needs to go more sideways:  http://www.eoshd.com/2014/02/discovery-4k-8bit-420-panasonic-gh4-converts-1080p-10bit-444/

That's "pan-and-scan" not a dolly move.  No parallax effect=no dolly shot.