John Matthews

EH FILMS gave an interesting take on the GH7:

For what it's worth, so far, I have to say that my experience has been very positive. I've bought lenses and cameras without hiccups. I've sold about 5000 euros of gear to them and most of the time they upped my initial quote. A key part of that process is they don't report the amounts they pay me to the French government either as it must be some loophole, unlike when you sell on leboncoin.fr. The process is a little slow, but I don't have the same headaches about wondering if I'm going to get paid or scammed. If they don't accept my condition for an item, they just send it back to me. I'm happy.

The human eye isn't going to get any major upgrades last time I heard. It's the one constant from the early days of image creation to now. The crazy thing about the upgrades is that many cameras being sold have less than 5000 actuation.

I have so much great footage I've taken with the gx80- the one that was used in that gx85 thread started way back when (and briefly became the most popular thread on EOSHD ever). Every camera I've used since (there have been many of all shapes and sizes) was either bigger, lacking features, or didn't have add significant improvements over it. In retrospect, I probably should have stuck with it and I would have saved a bundle and paid off my house that much quicker. Just last night, I was live streaming via HDMI with my S9 (not recording) and the camera over-heated mid-session (about a hour in), something my M43 cameras NEVER did. Granted, I don't think the S9 is made for what I was doing with it in a VERY hot attic (~35C), but still I wasn't even recording and I had a dummy battery. I guess the S5ii will now need to be doing that job and I'll set up my GH2 as a backup (just in case it happens again).

Good point!

That is VERY clear! Even in terms of photography, it's not that bad even for studio work if you use continuous lighting (which I now do). For outside stuff, you'll need a good reflector. On another note, the S9 can also be fitted with the new Sigma 17-40 f/1.8, which would perform like a M43 camera with a 25-60 f/1.2.

I've had the E-M5ii and E-M5iii. I've also had the E-M1ii, E-P7 and E-PL9. All of them had decent images in 4k. The E-M5iii and E-M1ii were definitely a step up when you turned on its picture mode (I forget the exact term). Shooting in 4k in the other normal modes wasn't bad, but a little "soft" for extreme detail. The major problem I had with the E-M5ii was absolutely horrendous moiré issues. For AF, both the E-P7 and E-PL9 did way better continuous AF in video than Panasonic contrast detect. The OM5 series could be so good if they could just put a little better processing in it and 10-bit. The beige looks like puke. Maybe it would be stealthy for a safari or desert situation. Also, OM System is thinking they can way more for this camera, but they will soon realise the contrary. It costs 1299 euros and 200 cheaper in dollars. I get the feeling OM System is asking the europeans to pay those effing tariffs for the Americans rather than asking the Americans to pay. The price gap is too much, especially since the dollar has been in a rather large decline since January 2025.

Sadly the new OM5ii isn't offering any real video upgrades. The E-M5iii remains the smallest M43 camera with PDAF at a decent used price until Panasonic pulls their head out of their rear-end.

Out of curiosity, how much is that combo going for where you live? I'm always looking for it, but it often seems a bit pricy for me. In France, it can be found for about 350 euros.

This is correct. Use a variable neutral density filter to adjust the exposure. If you REALLY want auto ISO, you need to also accept shooting in 30fps because this is only achievable in 4K photo mode.

None of those lenses have apertures to control via the lens. They have focus rings, unlike the 12-32. With the 12-32, put the camera into manual focus mode and there will be a [AF] button in the bottom right corner. Tap it and the lens will focus on that spot- this is your friend. You can also just tap where you want to focus and it will also focus on the object. All of this can happen in MF mode and without any physical focus ring on the lens... if that makes sense.

I had that camera for about 1 month and then sent it back to Amazon because the GX80 came out at the same time. Still, I recorded some great moments on it. One of the videos is so precious that I have it on my desktop at all times.

Just a note for @Andrew Reid: that's Richard Wong, not Robin Wong... I know, both review M43 cameras.

Good comparison.

"The Straight Story" was one of my favorite films. I'm sure there are people with very big money bidding on this stuff.