Panasonic G80 review: The best sub-£1,000 CSC is currently available with a free prime lens

Panasonic G80 review: Image quality

Panasonic CSC cameras use Micro Four Thirds sensors that measure 17.3 x 13mm. That’s about 40% smaller (by surface area) than the APS-C sensors found in CSCs from Sony, Fujifilm and Canon. As such, they’re always likely to be a little behind rivals for image quality. The G80 bears this out with a 16-megapixel resolution that’s lower than rival cameras’ 24 megapixels and a little more noise at fast ISO speeds.

^ The G80 falls slightly behind rival CSCs for details and noise levels

This might be enough to put some people off, but for me it’s not a deal breaker. The 16-megapixel resolution equates to 278dpi for an A3 print, which is close enough to the ideal level of 300dpi. Noise levels are more of an issue, and I’d be tempted to limit the G80 to ISO 3200 where I’d be happy to push other cameras to ISO 6400. However, with a wide-aperture prime lens it’s rare to need ISO speeds beyond 1600.

Taken on their own terms, the G80’s photos are excellent. The new kit lens performed superbly and its generous 5x zoom range is much more versatile than the 3x zooms offered by rivals. Metering and automatic exposures were hard to fault, with the camera responding intelligently to moving subjects by raising the shutter and ISO speed. Colours were lifelike, with excellent handling of subtle textures. I spotted some subtle errors on dense foliage where the demosaicing filter couldn’t work out what colour a particular pixel should be and so rendered it grey, but it didn’t happen often and was hard to spot.

^ There’s masses of detail in this shot, and the tricky lighting hasn’t fooled the metering system. There’s not much contrast in the distant trees but the subtle gradients have been handled well (1/500s, f/8, ISO 200, 36mm equivalent)

^ Edge-to-edge focus from the new kit lens is outstanding, and the bigger zoom is very welcome. There’s some false colour in the dense foliage, though, with some pixels on the sand-coloured willow branches appearing grey (1/250s, f/5.6, ISO 200, 120mm equivalent)

^ Another example of sharp focus throughout the frame. The white balance has become a little confused by the amount of green and pushed the tree trunks towards purple. There’s little sign of noise or noise reduction artefacts at ISO 1000 (1/80s, f/5.1, ISO 1000, 66mm equivalent)

^ Sharp focus, lifelike skin and hair textures, and colour reproduction is spot on (1/200s, f/6.3, ISO 200, 46mm equivalent)

^ There’s a slight sheen to skin textures at ISO 640 due to noise reduction but it’s a solid result (1/80s, f/5.1, ISO 640, 66mm equivalent)

^ Noise is more visible at ISO 3200 but it’s fine for modest-sized prints and sharing online (1/30s, f/3.8, ISO 3200, 34mm equivalent)

^ Noise reduction takes a heavy toll on skin textures at ISO 6400 (1/13s, f/5.4, ISO 6400, 76mm equivalent)

Panasonic G80 review: Verdict

The Panasonic G80 is pricier than the G7 was at launch, but this feels like a big step up with its weather sealing, bigger viewfinder, sensor-shift stabilisation and posher kit lens. Its price puts it somewhere between entry-level CSCs such as the Canon EOS M3 and high-end models such as the Fujifilm X-T2, but in most respects – ergonomics, controls, performance, features – it’s much closer to the latter, and it outperforms almost everything for video. Only the Panasonic GH4 and GH5 offer significantly more with their support for Cinema 4K resolution, slow motion capture and various professional features such as V-Log colour and SMPTE.

The G80’s closest competitor is probably the Panasonic GX80, which costs around £550. It’s a little smaller and lighter but lacks weather sealing, has a smaller viewfinder, fewer physical controls and comes with a relatively basic 12-32mm lens, and for video it lacks subtleties such as Cinelike colour presets, a manual focus switch and microphone input. The G80 is well worth spending extra on.

The Fujifilm X-T20 may be the camera to steal the show – we’ll be reviewing it as soon as we can. For now, though, the Panasonic G80 is the best sub-£1,000 CSC kit on the market.