Panasonic GX8 or 80 or....

Hey guys, just trying to get my head around a potential new setup, any thoughts or pointers would be great...I want to get oceanic white tips, dolphins, ship wrecks (Red Sea coming up soon) with occasional macro nudibranch, and general close ups around Komodo next year. Looking around 4000euro all up in the budget, hard decisions....

Panasonic GX8 (or maybe GX80)

Nauticam housing NA-GX8

Olympus 12-50mm lens

Nauticam Macro Port and Zoom gear set Olympus 12-50 [36162]

Nauticam M16 Vacuum Valve II (Pushbutton Release) [25625]

Bigblue AL2600XWP Black Molly III extra wide video light

Perhaps in the future looking at the CMC wet lens to improve the macro shots. I prefer wide angle to be honest but enjoy everything really.

For lenses I know the Panasonic 7-14 and the Olympus 60mm macro would perform better but then I think I need to spend a lot more and buy 2 dome ports and no flexibility in the choice once underwater.

Any advice for me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Carlos

Hi Carlos, I would go with the GX80 as it also has stabilization for 4K video and lacks an optical low pass filter for sharper results. The 12-50 can be used with out a zoom gear as you can assign electronic zoom to buttons on the camera (I know it works with the previous G7). Look at the Nauticam WWL for reefscapes and macro with a diopter on the same dive. It's compatible with the Panasonic 14-42 II and 12-32 and also the 12-50 on the Macro Port 65 which fits the Oly 60mm also.

If you want to use the camera above water too go for the 7-14 and any of the macro lenses. I have the Pany 7-14 and Oly 60mm.

Nauticam have a housing coming out soon for the GX80 but you can also look at the Ikelite housing and ports for the GX80 which is considerably cheaper which leaves money left over for lenses and strobes etc.

Hope this helps.

yes that helps a lot. thank you, I did not realise I could use the 12-50mm without a zoom kit, and that the gx80 would have better photo quality.

thanks again.

The image quality of the GX8 and GX80 are about the same as the GX8 has 20mp sensor. It has a better viewfinder, battery ( both important underwater) and weather sealing. My EM1 was in its Nauticam with a vacuum seal in a rinse bucket ( my own I might add ) on a boat and it leaked when some idiot dropped thier camera on mine. It had been fine during both dives but I noticed the vacuum light flashing on the boat and when I took other people's cameras off mine and opened the housing there was a was a small amount of water in it. As both the EM1 and 60mm are weather sealed they are both fine. If photos are priority then the GX8 is best but if you want 4K video too then the GX80 is slightly better.

yes I see it is a hard decision between those 2 cameras. I am also wondering, if I get the port without the Zoom gear for the 12-50mm, do I loose any of the functions? Will it make any difference to me underwater?

You can use full zoom but can't use the macro mode which only gives you 1:0.5 (half life size). With a good 10+ diopter or 15+ you can get 1:0.8.

Both these pics were taken in the same divesite on different days with an EM1 in Nauticam housing with a 12-50 zoom in a macro port 65, the Nudi at 50mm With Nauticam CMC-1 and the giant manta at 12mm behind the flat port. I always think real world pictures work better than rulers in sinks!!!

Both uncropped and both really low resolution so don't try to pixel peep and pick them apart.

thanks these are great examples. I think the gx8 will be the camera for me, now just to select the lens to start off with. I think the 14-42 with OIS might also be interesting, but still unsure . Either way it seems to be down to 12-50mm, but with this lens I have no OIS, which I don't even know if I need to have... or 14-42, the 12-35 is also very interesting, daunting decisions here

I have the new version of the 14-42 mega OIS, which will be Dual IS on the GX8. It is a good kit lens and works with the macro port 35 with a zoom gear and by all accounts very well with the Nauticam WWL and CMC diopters.

I have the new version of the 14-42 mega OIS, which will be Dual IS on the GX8. It is a good kit lens and works with the macro port 35 with a zoom gear and by all accounts very well with the Nauticam WWL and CMC diopters.

What did u end up doing? Looking at the gx80 myself.

I went with the GX8, nauticam case, and 14-42mm lens with CMC. I also got the black molly video light until I can get the strobes. The whole kit worked way better than I had hoped for. check out some images from the first tests in Marsa Alam last month...very happy with it.

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