After a few years of building image stabilisation into its G Vario lenses, Panasonic has pulled a quick about-face and joined Olympus in incorporating said stabilisation directly into the sensors in its Micro Four Thirds cameras. The Lumix DMC-GX85 is the first Panasonic camera with integrated 5-axis image stabilisation, and it’ll work with lens stabilisation too. Get ready for crazy smooth video footage and blur-free photos.
The $1099 Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX85, available in either black or silver body colours, is the first G Series camera with in-body stabilisation, which works during both photo and video recording, including during 4K shooting. The camera has a new shutter, too, which reduces vibrations upon the sensor itself.
Any one of Panasonic’s 13 image-stabilised lenses will also work in concert with the 5-axis stabilisation, and Panasonic says it’ll allow handheld use of even incredibly long supertelephoto lenses like the Leica DG 100-400mm (800mm equivalent on the Micro Four Thirds 2x crop).
All of this means you’ll be capturing clean and clear 16-megapixel photos through the 2764k-dot electronic viewfinder or the 3-inch 1040K-dot rear display. The camera itself is otherwise quite similar to the excellent GX8.
The GX85 will be out in Australia from late May, in a single lens kit with the collapsible power zoom 12-32mm lens for $1199, a twin lens kit with 12-32mm and 45-150mm for $1449, and a zoom lens kit with the 14-140mm superzoom for $1699.
[clear]