Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80 Review
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80 produced images of excellent quality during the review period. It produces noise-free images at ISO 100 to 1600, with limited noise starting to appear at ISO 3200. ISO 6400 exhibits quite visible noise and loss of fine detail, and the faster setting of ISO 12,800 is even noisier but still usable for small prints and web use. We'd avoid using the headline-grabbing ISO 25,600 setting though.
The various Creative Controls and Photo Styles allow you to quickly and easily customise the look of the camera's JPEG images. The pop-up flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 60 seconds allowing you to capture plenty of light. We struggled to see any differences between the Intelligent Resolution settings, but Intelligent D-range and the HDR mode are effective features for capturing more detail in the shadows and highlights.
Noise
There are 9 ISO settings available on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
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JPEG |
RAW |
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ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 6400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 6400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 12800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 12800 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 25600 (100% Crop) |
ISO 25600 (100% Crop) |
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File Quality
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80 has 2 different JPEG image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
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Fine (6.57Mb) (100% Crop) |
Standard (3.03Mb) (100% Crop) |
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RAW (18.9Mb) (100% Crop) |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80 are Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash On, Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction and Forced Flash Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Flash Off (24mm) |
Flash On (24mm) |
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Flash Off (120mm) |
Flash On (120mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On setting or the Red-Eye Reduction option caused any amount of red-eye.
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Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Red-eye Reduction |
Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80 maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds and there's also a Bulb option for exposures up to 127 seconds long, which is good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds at ISO 160. The camera takes the same amount of time again to apply noise reduction, so for example at the 15 second setting the actual exposure takes 30 seconds.
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Night |
Night (100% Crop) |
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Image Stabilisation
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80 has an antishake mechanism which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, we took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with the stabilizer turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results. As you can see, with image stabilisation turned on, the images are sharper than when it's turned off.
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Shutter Speed / Focal Length |
Image Stabilisation Off (100% Crop) |
Image Stabilisation On (100% Crop) |
| 1/8th / 24mm |  |
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| 1/8th / 120mm |  |
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Intelligent Resolution
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80's Intelligent Resolution feature identifies outlines, texture areas and soft gradation areas of the image and then automatically optimizes the edges and detailed texture areas while using noise reduction to make the soft gradation areas smoother. There are four available strengths - low, standard, high and extended.
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Off |
Low |
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Standard |
High |
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| Extended | |
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HDR
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80's HDR mode combines three pictures taken at different exposures to create one image with greater dynamic range than a single shot.
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Off |
+1EV |
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+2EV |
+3EV |
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Intelligent Dynamic Range
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80's Intelligent D-range setting adjusts the exposure setting to record more detail in the highlights and shadows, with three strengths available - low, standard and high.
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Off |
Low |
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Standard |
High |
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Multiple Exposure
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100's Multiple Exposure mode combines two or three different pictures to create one composite image.
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Multiple Exposure |
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Photo Styles
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80 has 6 preset Photo Styles, with Standard as the default setting. The contrast, sharpness, saturation and noise reduction can be individually set for each picture style, and there is also a Custom style so that you can create your own look.
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Standard |
Vivid |
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Natural |
Monochrome |
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Scenery |
Portrait |
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Filters
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80 has an extensive range of creative Filters with 22 different options on offer.
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Expressive |
Retro |
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Old Days |
High Key |
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Low Key |
Sepia |
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Monochrome |
Dynamic Monochrome |
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Rough Monochrome |
Silky Monochrome |
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Impressive Art |
High Dynamic |
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Cross Process |
Toy Effect |
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Toy Pop |
Bleach Bypass |
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Miniature Effect |
Soft Focus |
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Fantasy |
Star Filter |
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One Point Color |
Sunshine |
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Panoramas
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G80 allows you to take panoramic images very easily, by 'sweeping' with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera does all the processing and stitching and even successfully compensates for moving subjects.
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