Olympus PEN-F vs Panasonic Lumix GX85 (GX80) — Which Is Better?

The Olympus PEN-F and the Panasonic Lumix GX85 (GX80) are both 2016 mirrorless cameras built around the Micro Four Thirds system. Their weights are nearly identical, 427 g against 426 g. The Olympus is the slimmer body front to back, 37 mm deep against 44 mm for the Panasonic.

The PEN-F is the stronger choice for stills photographers who crop heavily or print large, with 20.3 megapixels against 16 on the GX85. That extra pixel count gives you more room to tighten a landscape composition or crop a distant subject while keeping detail for bigger prints.

For action, the PEN-F leads with a 10 fps burst and 81 autofocus points, against 8 fps and 49 points on the GX85. The GX85 answers with a more detailed electronic viewfinder, 2764800 dots against 2360000, a 17.2 percent higher count. Both use the Micro 4/3 mount, offer in-body stabilisation and share the same 1/16000 second top shutter speed.

The GX85 is the clear choice if video matters to you, recording up to 4K while the PEN-F tops out at Full HD. That 4K headroom delivers sharper footage on modern screens and, in editing, lets you crop into a frame or punch in on a subject without the image falling apart.

Frame rate is a similarity at the top end: both cameras reach 60 fps, which covers smooth motion in everyday clips. Both also offer built-in timelapse recording for sequences like drifting clouds or a sunset. Files differ in format, with the GX85 writing MP4 and AVCHD and the PEN-F writing MOV and AVI, which mainly affects your editing workflow.

The GX85 has a built-in flash for quick fill light on an indoor portrait or evening snapshot. The PEN-F has no built-in flash, though both cameras support external flash units.

The rear screens are a close match, each a 3-inch tilting touch LCD with about 1.04 million dots. Both offer Wi-Fi for wireless transfer to a phone. Neither has GPS for location tagging, and neither is weather sealed, so both need care in rain or dust.

Both cameras write to SD, SDHC and SDXC cards in a single slot, so one card carries the day's shooting with no second slot for backup.

The PEN-F's BLN-1 battery is rated at 330 shots against 290 shots for the GX85's DMW-BLG10 under their respective test conditions. The GX85 adds USB charging, so you can top it up from a laptop or power bank.