08 October 2018

Why so many GX?

Yeah, "funny" story.
So we have two GX1 bodies as my wife fell hard for a cute pink GF2 instead of the matched-set GX1 I bought for her. The GX1 market is rather flat right now :~| so here they sit.

In the meantime I fell for a cheap-bid GX7 mark ii (aka gx85) at Auctions R Us..but the seller silence stretched out a few days. I sent a data request, fearing some incident had forced a w/d from the deal. At that moment a GX7 Classic was 2h from ending its auction so I added a low bid. Of course that won also - and soon I heard from the mk.ii owner, who was heading to the post office.

And so they all gathered before me.

First impressions were not as I hoped from either new acquisition until I reset both and fine-tuned a few settings to my taste. At that point images turned out very well, and I could make an informed choice.

Both vintages of the GX7 are excellent cameras. The original is the best overall body and most reviewers agree on that; the larger grip and extra buttons/AF switch/Custom settings make that body superior for making speedy adjustments.

The mark.ii added 4k video and still-image extractions at 8Mpixel resolution, in-camera charging and much improved stabilization inside, changed the grip and buttons, removed a couple of Custom setting slots and chose to use the same GX7 viewfinder but in a fixed position, and those choices disappointed many GX7 fans (especially since the GX8 had appeared with weather seals and a superior 'finder). Those improvements they did put in are pretty convincing though, so the mark.I is now for sale. I may not use 4k as a video option but I've already tried 4k post focus; my test wasn't great but it shows very nice possibilities!

Four GX bodies: fun while it lasted, I suppose.
And oh yes, the K-50 is still here too - and the wet season is upon me!