Along with some other reviewers, during our testing of the Panasonic G80 I noticed that the Optical Image Stabiliser (OIS) performs oddly when panning in video mode. When you stop panning the camera there’s a bounce or recoil movement in the opposite direction to the pan, like the camera has bounced back a little. You can see the effect in this short video.

The narrow angle of view means it’s particularly noticeable with the Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm f/4-6.3 lens mounted, but it can also been seen with the 12-60mm kit lens.

Both of these optics have Panasonic’s Power OIS built-in, but it can be turned off via a switch on the 100-400mm lens. Doing so makes the footage less stable, but corrects the recoil issue.

I contacted Panasonic UK’s PR team about the matter and was advised that a firmware update will be issued at on the company’s global website (www.panasonic.com) at 6am GMT tomorrow.

Once the firmware update is issued I will update our review sample and test it again.

Update: Panasonic G80 firmware update issued

The Panasonic G80 (aka Panasonic G85) firmware update has now been issued and can be downloaded via Panasonic.

Update 2: We’ve tested Panasonic’s firmware update

We’ve downloaded and tested the firmware update Panasonic released and found that it only partially solves the issue. Click here to see a short clip.

Read more

Read our on-going Panasonic G80 review

Panasonic pro users’ thoughts on the Lumix G80